Motorola G52 Full Review - Moto is FINALLY back!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlaunched almost a decade ago the very first moto g almost single-handedly disrupted the budget smartphone segment but as motorola went through the takeover from google to lenovo and because of the growing competition from different chinese brands it kind of lost its sharp but if you look at all the launches from the company in 2022 i feel like motorola has finally made a great comeback and one of the best examples of this is the moto g52 which my team has been testing for a little over two weeks now it retails at a starting price of 14 500 rupees in india which puts it in the same league as the quite successful xiaomi redmi note 11. besides the price these phones bring a very similar set of specs as well but something that stands out right away about the g52 is its design especially this porcelain white variant that i have with me which gives it a unique finish plus with the metallic polish on the camera module and the frames it looks nothing but stunning now don't get confused it is still a plastic bag but motorola has used what it calls a pmma finish to achieve this premium visual aesthetics pmma is a lighter shatter resistant alternative to glass and i can certainly see how it impacts the phone here the g52 is nearly 40 grams lighter than its predecessor and um the good thing is that it still packs a big 5 000 milliamp hour battery inside and despite being a lightweight phone it's got the right amount of heft and the slightly curved panel at the back ensures a comfortable grip on the hands as well on top of this motorola has made sure that the front of the device looks equally premium with a very narrow chin which has left quite an impression on me from the very first day that we started testing this phone but what's even more interesting here is that motorola has offered a p oled panel on the g52 just like on the more expensive moto h30 pro and in case you're unaware pure led or plastic oled is a flexible thinner and more shock proof alternative to regular oled panels it also allows the device to retain a slimmer form factor all the while retaining every perk of a typical amoled screen as a result this display produces punchy colors with incredible contrast so i am sure that you will enjoy watching movies and cds on the screen speaking of which the moto g52 has also secured whiteboard l1 certification and its brightness level is sufficient for both indoor and outdoors too for audio there's a set of dual speakers that supports dolby atmos audio i wouldn't say that its sound quality is something cut above but the vocals sound pretty clear here and it has a decent bit of bass as well likewise i have faced no issues regarding call quality on this phone and its proximity sensor works fairly well too but the one area where most manufacturers don't put much effort into these budget and midway smartphones is haptics and the moto g52 is no exception it's our vibration feedback feels a very loose because of which you might even miss a couple of calls despite having the phone in your pockets so this is the aspect where motorola could have certainly done a better job by offering a slightly better vibration motor anyways uh talking about the chipset inside the moto g52 it's uh the qualcomm snapdragon 680 soc here built on a6 nm architecture this processor has earned quite a price in terms of energy efficiency and that's evident on this phone too on our test it was easily providing eight to nine hours of screen on time and like the moto g71 that i reviewed a while back we are very very impressed with its standby time as well similarly charging the phone from zero to 100 takes about one hour with the included 33 watt charger aside from being power efficient the snapdragon 680 fares well for your day-to-day tasks as well it can easily handle your light multitasking needs and scrolling through the interface feels fairly smooth too thanks to the 90 hertz refresh rate on board however this is not that powerful of a chipset especially in the gaming arena for instance pubg mobile caps out at just balance graphics and medium frame rates here and even in this setting you will notice some micro starters and frame drops every once in a while so for the best possible experience i would recommend dialing it down to smooth graphics and high frame rates diablo immortal which is a recent drop on the google play store yields fairly good results at medium graphics although the maximum you can go here is just 30 fps we also tried the new apex legends on this phone and it renders stable gameplay at smooth graphics and normal frame rates but jumping to other higher settings results in noticeable lags and starters so if gaming is your top priority you'd be better off by extending your budget a little bit for the real me 9 speed edition instead which offers the best gaming experience in the mid-range price packet the software is another area where the moto g52 scores a big win against its competition especially against other chinese oems first off it boots on the latest android 12 with motorola's my ux on top which is already something given how most brands are still shipping their budget and mid-range handsets with android 11. and motorola has also promised a euro software and three years of security patches for the g52 now as you'd expect this version of the my ux interface offers a pixel phone like experience the default android skin has gotten quite refreshing and so feature rich with android 12 that its customization options are on par if not better than most custom rooms out there aside from stock ui motorola phones are also known for their no-nonsense bloatware experience but here there are a few third-party apps like josh and daily hunt pre-loaded on the device yes you can uninstall them with a few tabs but this is the first time we've seen bloatware on a motorola handset and we hope that this isn't something the brand is planning to continue with its future releases since a clean user experience is what motorola has always been associated with okay let's talk about the cameras now here the moto g52's cameras array is pretty much the same as you would find on most budget smartphones right now and after shooting lots of photos from this guy we found that its normal images are slightly on the cooler side and unlike how xiaomi and realme phones tend to favor oversaturated photos the colors here look fairly natural but it prefers slightly contrast heavy processing which means the images cannot retain much shadow details this is also true for ultra wide angle shots however the overall detail from the 8 megapixel sensor is expectedly little this time around okay now uh talking about the portrait images well they don't really retain a natural skin tone but i'd say it has a balanced color science overall as you can see it tends to blow the background when shooting outdoors or against the light so hdr processing could have certainly been a lot better selfies on the other hand do come with decent background exposure but sadly the skin tone is not that consistent all the time during low light the night mode shots do a pretty good job of controlling the exposure and retaining details especially in a dark environment in a somewhat well-lit area though there isn't much of a difference between the regular nighttime and night mode photos overall the moto g52 can capture decent photos for the price although there is still a lot of room for improvement and that's especially true in the videos as it can only record up to 1080p 30 fps resolution from both the front and back cameras and yes the stabilization is not that great here and the videos come off a bit contrasty too turning on stabilization does deliver fairly steadier results but there is still some jerkiness every now and again okay wrapping up this review the moto g52 is an excellent phone for the price no doubt um it takes almost all the boxes for a great all-round smartphone experience be it in terms of design um display software or battery granted that the cameras could have been a bit better here but most phones in this price range have strictly average cameras too so that's not a big issue so yeah the moto g52 is an easy recommendation if you want an all-rounder mid-range phone right now also uh one thing that i would like to add is i believe motorola has made great decisions lately to re-establish itself in the budget and mid-range segments in 2022 and i really really hope that this trend continues in the future as well so guys that was all for our full review of the moto g52 if you like this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and while you're there don't forget to subscribe to our channel till then i'm pratimadi kadi and thank you so much for watchinglaunched almost a decade ago the very first moto g almost single-handedly disrupted the budget smartphone segment but as motorola went through the takeover from google to lenovo and because of the growing competition from different chinese brands it kind of lost its sharp but if you look at all the launches from the company in 2022 i feel like motorola has finally made a great comeback and one of the best examples of this is the moto g52 which my team has been testing for a little over two weeks now it retails at a starting price of 14 500 rupees in india which puts it in the same league as the quite successful xiaomi redmi note 11. besides the price these phones bring a very similar set of specs as well but something that stands out right away about the g52 is its design especially this porcelain white variant that i have with me which gives it a unique finish plus with the metallic polish on the camera module and the frames it looks nothing but stunning now don't get confused it is still a plastic bag but motorola has used what it calls a pmma finish to achieve this premium visual aesthetics pmma is a lighter shatter resistant alternative to glass and i can certainly see how it impacts the phone here the g52 is nearly 40 grams lighter than its predecessor and um the good thing is that it still packs a big 5 000 milliamp hour battery inside and despite being a lightweight phone it's got the right amount of heft and the slightly curved panel at the back ensures a comfortable grip on the hands as well on top of this motorola has made sure that the front of the device looks equally premium with a very narrow chin which has left quite an impression on me from the very first day that we started testing this phone but what's even more interesting here is that motorola has offered a p oled panel on the g52 just like on the more expensive moto h30 pro and in case you're unaware pure led or plastic oled is a flexible thinner and more shock proof alternative to regular oled panels it also allows the device to retain a slimmer form factor all the while retaining every perk of a typical amoled screen as a result this display produces punchy colors with incredible contrast so i am sure that you will enjoy watching movies and cds on the screen speaking of which the moto g52 has also secured whiteboard l1 certification and its brightness level is sufficient for both indoor and outdoors too for audio there's a set of dual speakers that supports dolby atmos audio i wouldn't say that its sound quality is something cut above but the vocals sound pretty clear here and it has a decent bit of bass as well likewise i have faced no issues regarding call quality on this phone and its proximity sensor works fairly well too but the one area where most manufacturers don't put much effort into these budget and midway smartphones is haptics and the moto g52 is no exception it's our vibration feedback feels a very loose because of which you might even miss a couple of calls despite having the phone in your pockets so this is the aspect where motorola could have certainly done a better job by offering a slightly better vibration motor anyways uh talking about the chipset inside the moto g52 it's uh the qualcomm snapdragon 680 soc here built on a6 nm architecture this processor has earned quite a price in terms of energy efficiency and that's evident on this phone too on our test it was easily providing eight to nine hours of screen on time and like the moto g71 that i reviewed a while back we are very very impressed with its standby time as well similarly charging the phone from zero to 100 takes about one hour with the included 33 watt charger aside from being power efficient the snapdragon 680 fares well for your day-to-day tasks as well it can easily handle your light multitasking needs and scrolling through the interface feels fairly smooth too thanks to the 90 hertz refresh rate on board however this is not that powerful of a chipset especially in the gaming arena for instance pubg mobile caps out at just balance graphics and medium frame rates here and even in this setting you will notice some micro starters and frame drops every once in a while so for the best possible experience i would recommend dialing it down to smooth graphics and high frame rates diablo immortal which is a recent drop on the google play store yields fairly good results at medium graphics although the maximum you can go here is just 30 fps we also tried the new apex legends on this phone and it renders stable gameplay at smooth graphics and normal frame rates but jumping to other higher settings results in noticeable lags and starters so if gaming is your top priority you'd be better off by extending your budget a little bit for the real me 9 speed edition instead which offers the best gaming experience in the mid-range price packet the software is another area where the moto g52 scores a big win against its competition especially against other chinese oems first off it boots on the latest android 12 with motorola's my ux on top which is already something given how most brands are still shipping their budget and mid-range handsets with android 11. and motorola has also promised a euro software and three years of security patches for the g52 now as you'd expect this version of the my ux interface offers a pixel phone like experience the default android skin has gotten quite refreshing and so feature rich with android 12 that its customization options are on par if not better than most custom rooms out there aside from stock ui motorola phones are also known for their no-nonsense bloatware experience but here there are a few third-party apps like josh and daily hunt pre-loaded on the device yes you can uninstall them with a few tabs but this is the first time we've seen bloatware on a motorola handset and we hope that this isn't something the brand is planning to continue with its future releases since a clean user experience is what motorola has always been associated with okay let's talk about the cameras now here the moto g52's cameras array is pretty much the same as you would find on most budget smartphones right now and after shooting lots of photos from this guy we found that its normal images are slightly on the cooler side and unlike how xiaomi and realme phones tend to favor oversaturated photos the colors here look fairly natural but it prefers slightly contrast heavy processing which means the images cannot retain much shadow details this is also true for ultra wide angle shots however the overall detail from the 8 megapixel sensor is expectedly little this time around okay now uh talking about the portrait images well they don't really retain a natural skin tone but i'd say it has a balanced color science overall as you can see it tends to blow the background when shooting outdoors or against the light so hdr processing could have certainly been a lot better selfies on the other hand do come with decent background exposure but sadly the skin tone is not that consistent all the time during low light the night mode shots do a pretty good job of controlling the exposure and retaining details especially in a dark environment in a somewhat well-lit area though there isn't much of a difference between the regular nighttime and night mode photos overall the moto g52 can capture decent photos for the price although there is still a lot of room for improvement and that's especially true in the videos as it can only record up to 1080p 30 fps resolution from both the front and back cameras and yes the stabilization is not that great here and the videos come off a bit contrasty too turning on stabilization does deliver fairly steadier results but there is still some jerkiness every now and again okay wrapping up this review the moto g52 is an excellent phone for the price no doubt um it takes almost all the boxes for a great all-round smartphone experience be it in terms of design um display software or battery granted that the cameras could have been a bit better here but most phones in this price range have strictly average cameras too so that's not a big issue so yeah the moto g52 is an easy recommendation if you want an all-rounder mid-range phone right now also uh one thing that i would like to add is i believe motorola has made great decisions lately to re-establish itself in the budget and mid-range segments in 2022 and i really really hope that this trend continues in the future as well so guys that was all for our full review of the moto g52 if you like this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and while you're there don't forget to subscribe to our channel till then i'm pratimadi kadi and thank you so much for watching\n"