When you come off a flagship device like the razr 40 ultra to a mid-range device, things are going to hurt. Let’s face it, the razr 40 ultra is a $1,499 unit and my latest test vehicle, the motorola g14 at $229 is less than a sixth of the price.
Your humble editor has been rocking the motorola g14 as his daily driver for a few weeks. It is a little bit of madness coming off the razr 40 ultra, but I took one for the team and our audience.
First Impressions
The g14 is much more conventional coming from the razr 40 ultra, being a slab phone with a plastic frame.
The back plate I want to describe variously as black, grey, silver, holo. The official name is Steel Grey and the colour changes in the light thanks to the imitation metal finish that gives off a premium look that belies it’s substantially lower price tag. It came out of the packaging with a clear protective case on already, but holding the phone bare, it actually feels pretty nice.
Motorola has opts for a longer device with a 20:9 aspect ratio which allows it to be still skinny for one handed use. It is marginally wider than my trusty and about to be retired Pixel 5.
The main camera module sits in the top left corner, with the 50MP prominently stencilled for the main lens and a 2MP macro shooter. It features quad pixel technology and a LED flash.
Motorola has also retained a 3.5mm audio jack on the top of the phone
I am a southpaw user of phones, and my index finger quite naturally falls on the power button where the fingerprint reader is located. I picked up the phone a few times as I write this paragraph and I keep unlocking the phone because the position is so natural.
The volume rocker sits above the power button and that is the sum of all buttons on this one. Sadly but not surprisingly, there is no red custom button on the g14 a la the ThinkPhone.
The Techs
Let’s call a spade a spade, the Motorola g14 is a mid-range phone so everything is toned down to save on costs.
It has a 1.8 GHz octa-core CPU and it shows at start up as it does take quite a while from cold boot to ready to use state.
The screen is a 6.5″ with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixel at 405 ppi, 60Hz. The panel is IPS LCD which sits below OLED and AMOLED, and again it shows where the phone is pitched at.
To be fair, the screen is respectable for sharpness and colours. The colour calibration is a little off if you are paying attention to the details, but it is not so wildly off that it is a distraction. Motorola has boosted the saturation and vividness to compensate for the IPS LCD panel and it shows.
The 8MP front camera is just a pinhole in the status bar area which is out of the way and doesn’t interfere with much.
In Use
I instinctively put the g14 onto my wireless charger when I sit at my desk, only to see the blinking red light to say no joy. There is no wireless charging capability here, and the USB-C charge port is limited to 10W.
The g14 was launched with Android 13 at May 2023 security patch. At the time of writing this review, an update bringing it to 5 August 2023 security patch has be made available via OTA. This is quite heartening to see that Motorola is taking updates seriously, and it is not just focus on premium offerings.
How did I go using it as my daily driver? Well everything ran a little slower and I had to go slower to compensate.
For starters, the g14 has no 5G support. It only goes as far as 4G LTE.
The WiFi module varies a bit, I find that it seems to have an affinity for a 2.4GHz connection but will switch to 5GHz from time to time. This is very noticeable when I am transferring files.
In day to day usage, I am finding the g14 to be admirable in performance. Yes things are slower to launch, slower to respond. It is par for course when you keep in mind the cost of this device. Is it driving me insane? Sometimes, when I am in a hurry to get something send or scan my daughter into child care and I am waiting for the app to fire up, then the camera to come online so I can scan the QR code.
Otherwise for everything else, I could almost live with it. My games are time killers and not anything that stresses a GPU.
The screen itself is fairly responsive and I really can’t fault it.
Call quality wise, this was an interesting one to test.
On face value, the call on the phone was perfectly clear for most parts. No one complained that they couldn’t hear me.
I found the phone, particularly the speakers, to be a little lower side for volume and I struggled to hear a bit when there is background noise. I am getting older, but without any known auditory issues and this one is making me second guess myself.
The Bluetooth connection was a bit iffy for me though. With the EPOS I am using, they are perfectly fine. But I am having issues with my 2015 Mazda where it is either cutting out, or the other side just does not hear me at all. The g14 has Bluetooth 5.0 which is same as my Pixel 5 but I seem to be getting no joy with the car head unit.
Motorola has included the gestures in the g14. You have the extremely handy double karate chop to turn your torch on, or the double wrist flick to fire up the camera. These were both present in the ThinkPhone and razr 40 Ultra, and it is much welcomed on the g14.
Camera
Manufacturers like to market megapixels, but the numbers don’t always add up particularly at the lower end of the price spectrum.
The g14 camera is decent in optimal light, but focus, details and colour reproduction is on the soft side. Taking photos of my cats sleeping on my desk, Tapioca’s colour should be a little darker than what the g14 captures. Similarly Mochi is a pure white cat (hell to take photos with details) and to be able to capture some details, she comes out a little grey.
Where the light is less optimal, such as Mochi lying on a shelf in the shade, there is some heavy handed sharpening on the edges to bring out the details.
The low light capability was surprisingly useable, as can be seen with the Withings ScanWatch which was taking at my work desk, or the foilage at night in the backyard.
Battery Life
Motorola has seen fit to equip the g14 with a 5000 mAh battery. Coupled with a mid-range CPU, no 5G support and IPS LED screen, you get some pretty respectable battery life out of it. Most days I am getting to 11pm with about 35% of battery left.
Whilst I mentioned charging is limited to 10W and no wireless charging, the design decisions made by Motorola made a lot of sense and I am finding the unit going the distance for the day despite some fairly heavy usage. This is definitely a gong for Motorola.
Other Thoughts
The g14 supports dual physical sims as well as up to 1TB of expandable memory via microSD.
Android 14 has been promised for the g14, but no timeline has been set. I have been running Android 14 on my Pixel 5 and it looks promising across the board particularly on system performance and battery life. Not that the g14 has much to worry about with battery life, but it is always nice to know you have even less to worry about.
That said it appears only one OS update is guaranteed with three years of bi-monthly security updates. The single major OS update is probably the only real complaint I have, given most devices get two, if not three in the cycle. As for the bi-monthly security updates, it a solid goal although out of the box the phone was at May 2023 and the latest update brought it up to August 2023 so just how well Motorola keeps to that promise is yet to be seen.
The g14 is water repellent only, not surprising at this price point.
As mentioned at the start, the g14 comes with a clear protective case. Motorola has also bundled a charger and a cable with the package.
Conclusions
Motorola had to make compromises to fit the brief and in my opinion they have made the right calls here. Nothing is spectacular but the g14 steers a steady ship.
The phone is not going to satisfy everybody, but pre-teens and older people who doesn’t need much more than a phone, government apps and a camera for some photos, it is a real sweet spot.
Personally I would not grab it as my daily driver, but I can absolutely see myself using the g14 as my secondary phone. It allows me to free up a yesteryear flagship for the kids.
The moto g14 is available in Australia in Pale Lilac and Steel Gray, starting RRP $229. Available from JB HiFi, Harvey Norman, Australia Post, The Good Guys, Big W, Bing Lee, Amazon, motorola.com.au and at Vodafone.
DRN would like to thank Motorola for providing the review unit.
Specifications
Dimensions : 161.46 x 73.82 x 7.99mm
Body : PMMA or Vegan Leather
Ports : 3.5mm headset jack & Type-C port (USB 2.0)
Weight : 177g
Water Protection : Water-repellent design
Operating System : Android 13
Storage : 128 GB built-in | UFS 2.2 | up to 1 TB microSD card expandable
Sensors : Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light, Sensor Hub, Fingerprint reader, E-compass, SAR sensor
Processor : UNISOC T616 processor with 2xA75 2.0 GHz + 6xA55 1.8 GHz octa-core CPU, 750 MHz Arm Mali-G57 MP1 GPU
Memory (RAM) : 4 GB
Security : Side fingerprint reader, Face unlock
Battery Size : 5000 mAh
Charging : 10W charger included in box, 5V3A
Display Size : 6.5″ display
Resolution : Full HD+ (2400 × 1080), 405 ppi
Display Technology : LCD
Aspect Ratio : 20:9
Rear Camera Hardware : 50 MP sensor (f/1.8, 0.64 µm) 4 in 1 with 1.28 µm, PDAF, Quad Pixel technology
Rear Camera Video Software : Shooting modes: Video Slow Motion Dual Capture Video Timelapse Digital Zoom (up to 4x)
Other features: Snap in Video Recording
Front Camera Hardware : 8 MP (f/2.0, 1.12 µm) | FF
Rear Camera Video Capture : Rear main camera: FHD (30fps) | HD (30fps) Rear macro camera: HD (30fps)
Speakers : Stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos support, Moto Spatial Sound support
Headphone Jack : 3.5mm headset jack
Microphones : 1
Networks + Bands : 4G: LTE 1/2/3/5/7/8/18/19/20/26/28/38/40/41 3G: 1/2/5/8/19 2G: 3/5/8
Bluetooth Technology : Bluetooth 5.0
NFC : Yes
Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac | 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz | Wi-Fi hotspot
Location Services : GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, LTEPP, SUPL
SIM Card : Single Sim (carrier) 1 Nano Sim + 1 MicroSD | Dual Sim (retail) 2 Nano Sims + 1 Micro SD
