Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction
The first couple of Moto G iterations were competitive, well-rounded and adequately priced. Things have changed since then, and the market is moving fast, that Motorola is forced to play catch-up. The Moto G30 and G10 are this year's low-end smartphones in the company's portfolio and are dangerously close to each other, price-wise.
The subject of this review is the Moto G10, the one that starts at around €150. It offers a budget Snapdragon 460 chipset, 4GB/64GB base memory configuration and a low-res 720p+ screen but big enough 6.5-inch diagonal by today's standards. All the essentials are in place, too, such as a versatile camera setup with 48MP main and 8MP ultrawide cameras and a big 5,000 mAh battery.
Motorola Moto G10 specs at a glance:
- Body: 165.2x75.7x9.2mm, 200g; Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame; Water-repellent design.
- Display: 6.50" IPS LCD, 720x1600px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 269ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM4250 Snapdragon 460 (11 nm): Octa-core (4x1.8 GHz Kryo 240 & 4x1.6 GHz Kryo 240); Adreno 610.
- Memory: 64GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 11.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 118˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30/60fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 5000mAh; Charging 10W.
- Misc: NFC; FM radio; 3.5mm jack.
You may think that this is what most of the other manufacturers will be offering too for such a low price, but you will be surprised by the set of features competitors have to offer in the sub-€200 category these days.
The Moto G10 advantages include the main 48MP camera with a fairly bright f/1.7 aperture, NFC for all markets, the water-repellent coating and the clean Android 11 experience with a few nifty extra features. But are they enough to convince the mass consumer? We investigate on the following pages.
Unboxing the Motorola Moto G10
The Moto G10 comes in a standard retail box containing the usual user manuals along with a USB-A to USB-C charging cable and a travel charger rated at 10W. There's also a transparent silicone protective case that snuggly fits around the phone.
The charger is not very fast, but 10W is the most the Moto G10 will take anyway. In contrast, the higher-tier Moto G30 comes with faster charging support and a corresponding 30W charger.
Design and ergonomics
Yes, the Moto G10 is all-plastic, and we don't expect it to be made of glass or metal anyway. But Motorola is trying to break the mold with this one and introduces a rather different design than what we are used to. What's more, the phone inherits that water-repellent coating that most Motorola phones have, which is a really nice bonus to be had in a sub-€200 category.
Let's start with the back. It's made of matte, satin-like plastic, and the whole panel is patterned in the shape of waves. That doesn't really help with the grip but makes the phone feel nicer and less cheap too. Fingerprints and smudges are also less visible. We got the Iridescent Pearl color with a subtle color shift towards the edges of the phone.
The camera module in the upper-left corner sticks out just a little, and it follows the current design trend with an oval, rectangular piece housing all the lenses.
The fingerprint reader is close by. It sits almost flush with the back of the phone, and sometimes it's hard to feel it with your finger. The texture on the back isn't helping either. Additionally, the scanner is placed slightly higher than you expect it to be, so even users with average-sized hands will struggle to reach it from a natural hand position. The handset is rather tall, and it would have been nice if the fingerprint reader was adapted to accommodate that.
Flipping the Moto G10 reveals a set of rather thick bezels, especially the bottom one. Not that we were expecting a razor-sharp frame, but it makes an impression, nonetheless. On the other hand, the notch is unobtrusive and doesn't really get in the way of the content as it doesn't cut deep into the display.
The side frame, although plastic, feels somehow grippier than the back. Interestingly, all the buttons are on the right side of the frame, which makes it feel "overcrowded" to some extent. The power button is textured, adequately placed, and the volume rocker sits right above it. Then comes the dedicated Google Assistant button, which used to be on the left side of the frame. Needless to say that it's hard to reach with your right thumb. The 3.5mm audio jack is placed on the top of the phone - yet another unconventional placement.
The Moto G10 from the side
On the left, you will find the hybrid SIM and microSD card slot, the latter takes the place of the second SIM, so you have to choose to go with double SIM or SIM + microSD combo.
We found the design overall fresh, and the side frame makes the phone a tad less slippery. However, some small annoyances like the button and fingerprint reader positioning, along with the rather thick display bezels, keep us from giving this phone a great usability score.
Standard IPS display
Unlike the Moto G30, the G10 doesn't have a fancy 90Hz display and settles for a standard 60Hz one. It's limited by resolution as well and offers a typical for its class 720 x 1600px resolution, making up for a fairly tall 20:9 aspect ratio. It all fits in a 6.5-inch diagonal, just like the G30.
As the specs suggested, our tests also confirmed that the LCD panel is average or even mediocre at best, even for this price bracket. The maximum recorded brightness is 370 nits, and if you are looking for better color accuracy, switching to Natural mode will limit it to just 320 nits. Unfortunately, there's no additional brightness boost in Auto mode either, so watching videos or even reading will be a challenge outdoors on a bright sunny day. The good news is that the contrast is considerably above average 1878:1, which means the blacks are quite deep for an LCD.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.197 | 370 | 1878:1 | |
| 0.204 | 403 | 1975:1 | |
| 0.241 | 468 | 1942:1 | |
| 0.239 | 381 | 1594:1 | |
| 0.32 | 437 | 1366:1 | |
| 0.23 | 406 | 1765:1 | |
| 0.317 | 408 | 1287:1 | |
| 0.384 | 491 | 1279:1 | |
| 0.298 | 370 | 1242:1 | |
| 0 | 466 | ∞ | |
The minimum brightness is also low enough for comfortable reading in a dark room. On a white sample and the brightness slider left at minimum, we got 2.2 nits.
Battery life
The Moto G10 comes with a 5,000mAh battery. The phone did great in our endurance tests and even got close to devices with bigger batteries. An overall Endurance rating of 152h is more than admirable. We were particularly impressed by the standby runtime and the screen-on scores.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Motorola Moto G10 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Charging speed
By today's standard, even the midrangers have some sort of fast charging while low-end phones have adopted at least 15-18W charging. The Moto G10, however, settles for a less than ideal 10W charging, which, when coupled with a 5,000 mAh battery, results in rather slow charging speeds. Even the Redmi 9T, which has a 6,000 mAh unit on board, charges considerably faster.
It's nice to see Motorola offering an optimized charging feature. It charges the handset to 80% and then delays the last 20% until it's closer to the time you are expected to unplug your phone so the battery is not forced to sit idling at 100% for a prolonged time.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Motorola Moto G30
32% - Samsung Galaxy A02s
30% - Samsung Galaxy A21s
26% - Xiaomi Redmi 9T
25% - Motorola Moto G10
22%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Motorola Moto G30
2:28h - Xiaomi Redmi 9T
2:30h - Samsung Galaxy A02s
2:36h - Motorola Moto G10
3:00h
Speakers
The Moto G10 uses a single, bottom-firing speaker that doesn't impress with either quality or loudness. It scored just about average in this test, while upon subjective listening, the quality is average as well. Don't expect fullness or any bass, and be careful with the volume as things get distorted when you bump up the slider too much.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
An easy going Android 11 experience
If you are looking at Motorola phones to buy, you are probably here because of the clean Android experience. And this time around, the Motorolas entry-level devices launch with Android 11. However, the software onboard isn't entirely stock as the OEM has introduced a few features that enhance the overall user experience. Quite the opposite, actually. Most of them are pretty nifty, and we can definitely see them being useful in your day-to-day usage.
Motorola has compiled pretty much all of the Moto-specific features in a single app that walks you through what's available. The first category is Personalization allowing you to choose the icon shapes, the quick toggles appearance, the accent colors and the font. There are also a wide selection of wallpapers, some of which are interactive too.
Styles and wallpapers
Then comes the Gestures section. The iconic karate chop motion that turns on and off the flashlight is at hand, along with the twisting motion that launches the camera app. Both work even when the device is locked. The Lift to unlock gesture works well with the face unlock as it turns on the device as soon as you pick it up. A new addition is the Swipe to split function, acting as a quick way to split your screen in half and multitask.
Gestures and display features
The display-related features are Peek Display and Attentive Display. The former works as a second-best alternative to the Always-on display but with a couple of added functionalities. The screen lights up when it detects motion that's close to the phone (most likely uses the proximity sensor) or when you pick it up. Once you've received some kind of notification, you can tap on it and see the message itself and even interact with it straight from the lock screen. As for the Attentive Display, it's pretty self-explanatory - it disables the screen timeout as long as there's a face looking at the screen. Pretty useful when reading long articles.
Since Android 11 brings some new features of its own, Motorola has introduced them in the said Moto app. The one-time permissions allow you to grant access to certain apps to your storage, location, contacts, etc., only temporarily. You will be asked again when the app needs the said permission once more when you use it. Notification grouping is an effort to keep your notification shade tidy and focus on your conversations. Notification cards from ongoing conversations from your messaging apps will appear on top as high-priority.
Android 11 and bubbles feature
Bubbles is one of the long-awaited features for messaging apps that only Facebook's Messenger has had for years now. The apps that support the feature will prompt you with a notification in the form of a floating, interactive bubble. Tapping on it will open up the chat for a quick reply, just like Messenger.
Home screen, grouped notifications and general settings menu
Nearby share with other Android devices running Android 11 is also possible, so transferring files has never been easier. And lastly, we have the updated power menu that now displays shortcuts to connected devices such as home automation or Chromecast through the Google Home app.
New power menu and optimized charging
The optimized charging feature is a new find that's not necessarily inherited from the Android 11 OS, but it does what all similar charging options from competing brands do. It learns your usage and charging patterns, so it doesn't "overcharge", although this term isn't exactly correct. It charges the handset to 80% and then delays the last 20% until it's closer to the time you are expected to unplug your phone, so the battery is not forced to sit idling at 100% for a prolonged time. You need to enable this charging enhancement as it's disabled by default.
Now, as far as general operation goes, we found the OS to be a bit slow at times. After tapping on certain system menus, there are noticeable delays, and we've noticed this with the fingerprint reader too. It proved to be pretty snappy and accurate, but it takes some time before the screen lights up. You get the vibration feedback when the fingerprint's scan is successful, and then you wait for about a second before the actual unlocking occurs. However, we might be a bit too picky given the price point of the device and the chipset it employs.
Performance
The Moto G10 comes with a low-end Snapdragon 460 chipset, which was introduced just a little over a year ago and is based on the 11nm manufacturing process. However, this is the first time we get to test the SoC. On paper, it should provide good enough performance for general daily tasks.
The chip's architecture itself employs an octa-core CPU, consisting of two clusters. One cluster has 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 240 cores, while the other one has four Kryo 240 cores but clocked at 1.6GHz for energy efficiency during less demanding tasks.
Interestingly, the chipset runs the same GPU as the considerably more powerful Snapdragon 662 chipset - the Adreno 610. So we can expect that in graphically-intensive tasks, the device would perform just as well as the Moto G30, which has the Snapdragon 662 on board.
And before we get on with the tests, we have to mention that the handset is configured with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable internal storage as base, while the upgraded variant has 128GB of storage. It's pretty much standard for the price range.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi 9T
1400 - Realme 7i
1318 - Motorola Moto G30
1265 - Motorola Moto G10
1139 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
1100 - Samsung Galaxy A12
1034 - Samsung Galaxy A02s
495
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Realme 7i
312 - Xiaomi Redmi 9T
307 - Motorola Moto G30
306 - Motorola Moto G10
247 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
184 - Samsung Galaxy A12
169 - Samsung Galaxy A02s
131
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi 9T
177917 - Realme 7i
172933 - Motorola Moto G30
170968 - Motorola Moto G10
140230 - Samsung Galaxy A12
107189 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
107157 - Samsung Galaxy A02s
90811
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G30
14 - Xiaomi Redmi 9T
13 - Realme 7i
13 - Motorola Moto G10
9.4 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
9.4 - Samsung Galaxy A12
7.7 - Samsung Galaxy A02s
6.1
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G30
26 - Realme 7i
25 - Motorola Moto G10
19 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
19 - Samsung Galaxy A12
13 - Samsung Galaxy A02s
12 - Xiaomi Redmi 9T
10
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G30
9.1 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
7.1 - Motorola Moto G10
6.5 - Samsung Galaxy A12
4.6 - Samsung Galaxy A02s
3.5 - Xiaomi Redmi 9T
2.7
Four cameras on the back, one on the front
The camera island on the back houses four units. The main one is 48MP with a fairly wide aperture of f/1.7, while the sensor itself measures 1/2.0" and offers 0.8µm pixels. It shoots natively in 12MP by binning four adjacent pixels into one.
The ultrawide camera, on the other hand, settles for just 8MP resolution, f/2.2 aperture and the sensor is rather tiny - 1/4.0" with 1.12µm pixels. The advertised field of view is 118˚.
The other two shooters are the dedicated 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture and another used just for depth sensing, allowing for a more convincing bokeh effect in portrait mode.
The front-facing camera looks about the same as the ultrawide but, of course, swaps the ultrawide lens for a standard wide one. It's an 8MP sensor with 1.12µm pixels, 1/4.0" in size and is coupled with an f/2.2 aperture.
Camera menus
With Android 11, Motorola has introduced a couple of changes to its default camera app as well. This may sound like nitpicking, but the camera modes have been moved below the shutter key, so your thumb naturally falls on the camera modes instead of the shutter button. Almost all, if not all, camera apps from other brands have the shutter key below the camera mode carousel.
Camera app
Additional camera settings can be adjusted by pulling upwards from the shutter key, opening up a menu that lets you tinker with some of the options. The general settings menu is in its usual place - the gear icon in the viewfinder's upper-right corner.
Camera app
Sadly, Motorola still hasn't fixed the resolution management in the Camera app. The ultrawide and the main cameras shoot in different resolutions but are managed by a single resolution toggle. So setting up the output resolution will force it on both cameras simultaneously.
If you choose 12MP for your photos - the ultrawide shots will come out upscaled to 12MP, even though it's natively 8MP. Switching over to 8MP will force 8MP photos on the main camera too.
On the other hand, as you will see in our daylight samples comparison, the difference between upscaled 12MP ultrawide shots and native 8MP images isn't that big, so leaving the setting to 12MP all the time is perhaps the best course of action.
Daylight samples
Main camera
Right off the bat, we see that the main camera produces photos with colors that aren't as lively, but they do seem rather close to the actual ones in real-life. It's a personal preference whether you like saturated colors or more flat color reproduction. We will leave for you to decide on this one. Anyway, the stills are generally sharp, and there's a good amount of fine detail. The HDR algorithm seems to be doing a nice job by balancing shadows and highlights. The noise is what keeps us from giving the main camera a better score and it becomes more apparent indoors. The indoor images are considerably softer, too, even with sufficient artificial light in the room.
12MP main camera samples
Switching over to the 48MP mode won't bear any improvements because the shots are upscaled from 12MP anyway. The 48MP samples are softer, noisier and provide less detail. The overall rendition seems identical to the 12MP shots, though.
48MP main camera samples
There's also a dedicated 2x zoom toggle even though there's no telephoto camera. As expected, cropping from the center of the 12MP images and scaling back up to 12MP isn't ideal, so the drawbacks of the main camera become easily seen. There are thick oversharpening halos from the processing, which tries to compensate for the lack of detail with no success. The straight lines and the edges of the buildings are jagged, the contrast is off, color saturation is even lower, and noise is aplenty.
2x zoom samples
Compared to the Moto G30, there are several key differences. The most evident one is color reproduction. While the G10 is being a bit conservative with the color saturation, the G30 offers more lively colors. Some extra detail can be seen on the G30's photos, and noise is kept to a minimum. The HDR algorithm seems to be competent enough on both handsets.
Daylight comparison, main cam, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
Ultrawide camera
Given the mess with resolution settings, we shot 12MP and 8MP ultrawide images from each scene to see if there's a big difference. The good news is that the difference is minimal, and only zooming in closely will reveal the issues produced by the upscaling from the native 8MP to 12MP.
Ultrawide samples: 12MP • 8MP • 12MP • 8MP • 12MP • 8MP • 12MP
The bad news is that the difference is minimal due to the unsatisfactory quality of the ultrawide shots in general. Pictures are soft, lack detail, which is to be expected. Noise is what bothers us the most. However, the dynamic range is wide enough, the lens correction algorithm is doing a good job too, and colors are close to real-life. Still, it's about the average at this price range of phones would give you when it comes to ultrawide photography.
The bad resolution management of the camera app is present on the G30, too, making our ultrawide camera's comparison a bit difficult. While the G10 ultrawide camera can shoot in its native 8MP after some tinkering in the settings menu, the G30's ultrawide is stuck at either 11MP or 16MP, so we went for the 12MP vs. 16MP comparison having in mind that users will most probably stick to those default options in the camera menu.
And despite the upscaling, there's little to no difference between the two phone's ultrawide cams' performance. Roughly the same amount of noise can be observed, and both seem to resolve just about the same amount of detail. Perhaps the only noticeable difference is again in the color reproduction, with the G10's one being a bit dull.
Daylight comparison, ultrawide cam, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
Low-light samples
Main camera
Surely, all low-end phones produce noisy photos at night, but the G10's processing makes the photos quite foggy even for the phone in the sub-€200 range. The dynamic range is narrow, almost all of the images are underexposed, and colors are washed out. Only some well-lit scenes of buildings may look okay (if you don't zoom).
Main camera samples in standard Photo mode
Unfortunately, the dedicated Night mode can only do so much. It brightens up the photos, removes quite a bit of noise from the scene at the expense of fine detail and introduces much-needed sharpness into the scene, although it's still not enough. The image stacking helps with the dynamic issues as it balances out the highlights and reveals some detail in the shadows. We can definitely recommend the Night mode over the standard photo mode after dusk in every situation. Nonetheless, the said Night mode is still lacking when compared to the Moto G30's or the Redmi 9T's and other competitors.
Night mode samples
To our surprise, the low-light images coming out of the G10 are somewhat more consistent, thanks to the HDR kicking in. That's at least true for the high-contrast scenes, but that doesn't mean the dynamic range of the G10 is good. It's just that some form of HDR is better than none. That aside, both phones weren't able to hit the right white balance, nor were they able to deliver the right color saturation.
Low-light comparison, main cam, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
Another big surprise is the fact that the G10's Night mode seems more consistent too. Again, the G10's nighttime performance is nothing to write home about, but it does seem a little better than the more expensive G30.
Low-light comparison, main cam, Night mode, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
Ultrawide camera
There's not much to be said about the ultrawide's performance at night. The images are not suitable even for casual social media posting, and to be fair, no low-end phone has ever given us a reason to praise it for its ultrawide camera capabilities at night. The samples themselves are extremely soft, underexposed, washed out, and noisy. Sadly, there's no Night mode for the ultrawide camera to at least attempt to fix some of the issues.
Low-light ultrawide camera samples
Just like the G10's ultrawide, the G30's one doesn't like the dark either.
Low-light comparison, ultrawide cam, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
If you are done with the pixel-peeping, get ready for some more in our photo compare tool. You can see how the Moto G10 stacks against some of the competition.
Motorola Moto G10 vs Xiaomi Redmi 9T and the Samsung Galaxy A21s in our Photo compare tool
Macro samples
The macro camera is a hit or miss. If you happen to find the right focusing distance, since the unit doesn't have autofocus, the shots come out rather sharp and detailed considering the 2MP resolution. Colors are still kind of dull, though. Ideal lighting conditions and standing-still subjects will dramatically increase your chance of capturing a sharp photo. Make sure to take several shots at various distances from the subject, so at least one of your stills comes out clear.
Macro camera samples
Portraits
In ideal lighting conditions, you can produce some sharp-looking portraits with natural skin tone and convincing faux bokeh effect even with a more complex background. The slightest drop in lighting results in some grain and drop in detail, but the subject remains well-exposed at all times.
Portraits
The edge separation of both devices looks identical, but there's once again a big difference in how the two phones handle colors. This time around, the G10 goes for the more lively or even flattering colors producing a more natural skin tone, whereas the G30 makes the subject look anemic.
Portrait comparison, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
Selfies
You can get some decent-looking selfies with the right lighting conditions with sharp, well-exposed subjects and no visible noise. But just like in portraits, the slightest decrease of the ambient light results in a considerable drop in sharpness, noise starts to creep in, and the selfies get the so-called watercolor effect. We were particularly impressed by the HDR algorithm, though, as it helped keep the subject's face always well-exposed without burning everything in the background.
Selfies
The same cannot be said about the portrait selfies as the HDR seems to be disabled in this mode. Expect a similar rendition with narrower dynamic range and not so precise edge detection.
Portrait selfies
The comparison between the two handsets continues to bring some surprises to the table. In stark contrast to the portrait samples, the G30 is now going for a more reddish, natural-looking skin color, while the G10's face rendition of the subject is somewhat muted. The HDR, on the other hand, is clearly superior on the G10 as it's able to keep the subject's face well-exposed at all times.
Selfie comparison, Moto G30 vs. Moto G10: Moto G30 • Moto G10
Video recording
Unlike other phones running the Snapdragon 460 chipset, this one offers up to 1080p@60fps recording as well as electronic image stabilization. Of course, EIS isn't available in 60fps mode, and we recommend the 30fps mode anyway for the best possible quality.
Now, when it comes to the actual 1080p@30fps video recording, things aren't perfect. We found the sample video to be evident of dynamic range issues with the white buildings being clipped in the distance and the thick shadows under the trees. On the other hand, contrast is okay, and there's virtually no noise with colors still being a bit washed out. Oversharpening halos can be seen from afar, although this might not be necessarily a bad thing. Competition seems to produce considerably softer videos as no additional sharpening occurs. The end result with a bit of oversharpening seems to be the better choice as it gives the video a better, clearer overall look.
The ultrawide camera can also record videos, but they are a lot softer, and the dynamic range is even worse. Similar color rendition, though.
If you are done with the real-life videos, head over to our video compare tool to see the Moto G10 up against some of the competition.
1080p: Motorola Moto G10 vs Xiaomi Redmi 9T and the Samsung Galaxy A21s in our Video compare tool
Competition
Unlike in the US market, where Motorola is one of the few makers to offer decent low-end to mid-range phones, the company is facing quite a bit of competition elsewhere. And since the Moto G10 can't be found on US soil, at least for now, we can go on with competition originating from Asia, which is absent from the US, too.
The first phone to consider in the €140 ballpark would be the recently released Xiaomi Redmi 9T. To be honest, though, this is where we should probably end this review because the 9T has so much to offer for the same asking price. It has a brighter, higher resolution display, great-sounding stereo speakers, bigger battery (although it scored just a little better than the G10), faster charging, undoubtedly better camera performance and a set of useful features like an IR blaster, dedicated microSD card slot (not shared) and reverse wired charging to take full advantage of the huge 6,000 mAh unit. The overall design of the phone and ergonomics are also better, but that's strongly subjective.
Another Chinese competitor worth mentioning is the Realme 7i, which matches the Moto G10's screen resolution but offers a more fluid 90Hz panel giving you the impression of smoother operation. NFC is out of the question, and it's a bit pricier, too, asking around €160-170.
Xiaomi Redmi 9T • Realme 7i • OnePlus Nord N100 • Motorola Moto G30
A more popular choice comes straight from South Korea - the Galaxy A21s. This device offers comparable hardware with superior camera performance and more mature One UI software. A considerably brighter screen is also ensured. Sadly, here's where the advantages end because the Moto G10 excels in battery endurance and edges out in memory. The Galaxy A21s would give you just 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage for the same asking price. The Moto will give you double that.
Finally, we have the Moto G30 representing in-house competition. The handset is priced just about €30 more, but we definitely think it's worth it as long as you are dead set on getting a Moto-branded phone. The more expensive sibling offers a snappier chipset, similar battery life, brighter display with a higher refresh rate, faster charging and overall better camera performance. In short, despite being a bit pricier, the Moto G30 offers better value for your money. Lowering the price tag on the G10 will separate the two enough so users may start considering the G10 over the G30, but at this point in time, it makes no sense to prefer the former over the latter.
Want to stick with the burden-less Android feel? Why not give the OnePlus Nord N100 a try. We found this one outside of OnePlus' official store for a lot less than €189. It's priced just around the €140 mark at third-party retailers and offers similar hardware - 6.52-inch, 720p screen, Snapdragon 460, 4GB/64GB memory configuration and 5,000 mAh battery. But the devil is in the details. The display is 90Hz, the storage is of the snapper UFS 2.1 kind, the battery supports faster 18W charging, the front panel is protected by a Gorilla Glass 3, and there's a set of stereo loudspeakers as a bonus. It's hard to tell whether the camera experience would be any better given that we haven't tested it, but we would guess it's going to be about the same or somewhat inferior due to the aged 13MP main sensor with smaller f/2.2 aperture. There's also no ultrawide camera, although that would not be enough to tip the scales seeing how the Moto G10's ultrawide snapper performs.
Verdict
The Moto G10 would have been a great all-rounder some time ago. But even the low-end smartphone market has evolved, and now the hardware at hand doesn't impress. In fact, it seems to be lacking against some of the competition. And we are not talking about the pressure from the Chinese brands only. Sure, the Redmi 9T and the OnePlus Nord N100 are viable options to pursue, but we are mostly puzzled by the decision to space the Moto G30 and the G10 pricing by just €30.
Spending a few more bucks for the Moto G30 will get you a long way as it has a better camera, faster charging and a more capable chipset. That's, of course, if you are dead set on Motorola. Otherwise, the Realme 9T offers a lot more for the same price as the Moto G10. So if Motorola wants this handset to sell well, it needs to introduce a price cut before we can recommend it to buyers over the competition.
Pros
- Nice, unorthodox design
- Amazing battery life
- Dependable main camera in daytime
- Clean Android 11 experience with a few value-adding extra features
- Video recording is above average for the class
Cons
- UI feels rather slow
- Slow charging
- You can get better performing chipsets in the same price segment
- Disappointing main camera performance at night
- Camera resolution management in the camera app is a mess
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