Whoa, the Moto G 5G Plus Looks Awesome

It has been a few years since I’ve tested a Moto G phone, the line that is likely Motorola’s best selling across the globe. I’ve avoided them mostly because they didn’t check enough boxes, even for the price they were being delivered at. With the new Moto G 5G Plus, Motorola just nailed the budget phone, but there’s still one big problem.

Before we dive into the sad news, let’s talk about what the Moto G 5G Plus is and why you should take a serious look at it.

The Motorola 5G Plus sports a specs sheet of a phone that should cost $500 or $600, yet won’t come close to that number. We have a large 6.7″ FHD+ display (2520×1080) with 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10 support, Snapdragon 765 processor and 5G modem, 64GB or 128GB storage (and SD support up to 1TB), 4GB or 6GB RAM, 5000mAh battery with 20W fast charging, side fingerprint reader, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, dual selfie cameras, and a rear quad camera setup.

The camera experience here features a main 48MP sensor (f/1.7), 5MP macro shooter (f/2.2), 8MP ultra-wide (f/2.2), and 2MP depth camera. It can record UHD video at 30fps, has manual and portrait modes, and shoots in Night Vision. On the front side, you have 16MP wide-angle and 8MP standard shooters.

As far as software goes (Android 10 out of the box), Motorola is baking in its My UX, which is a clean Android experience with new customization options. I’m going to assume Moto Display and all those fun Actions are here too.

How much does this Moto G 5G Plus cost? Well, it runs the same processor as the recently released Samsung Galaxy A71 5G, a phone that starts at $600. The LG Velvet also runs that processor and is expected around that price (or higher) should it make its way to the US. The Moto G 5G Plus will start at just €349 for the 4GB-64GB option and jump to €399 for the 6GB-128GB model. That’s nuts!

Unfortunately, Motorola says it has no plans to bring this phone to the US. The Moto G 5G Plus will launch all over the world, just not here. They figure the Moto Z4 with 5G Moto Mod (big lol) and soon-to-launch Motorola Edge are enough for now. At some point in the fall, they will launch a sub-$500 5G phone. Ugh.

You’d buy this in the US, wouldn’t you?

// Motorola