Motorola Moto G55 5G review: it may not be flashy but this super-cheap phone still impressed me

Motorola Moto G55 5G: Two-minute review

If you’re on the hunt for an exceptionally cheap phone that carries all the crucial features for modern day use – the Motorola Moto G55 5G could be for you. With a list price of £199 / AU$299 (around $250), you’re not going to find too many modern phones that will cost less than this. As you’d expect from a model at this price-point, the Motorola Moto G55 5G isn’t without its flaws – but do these flaws stop it from being a worthwhile investment? Not at all.

In terms of general performance, the Motorola Moto G55 5G surpassed my expectations. OK, it wasn’t always perfectly responsive when running more demanding applications, but I experienced fairly limited frame drops or lag when navigating menus. This phone uses Android 14, which is a clean, easy-to-use operating system. It’s worth noting, however, that only two years worth of OS updates and four years of security updates have been promised – which does cut down the longevity of this device a fair bit. But if you’re looking for a cheap, short-term option, this won’t be a problem.

And there are some crucial additions here that help you get the best out of the Motorola Moto G55 5G. For instance, Motorola GameTime helps you optimize the device for gaming activity, with a battery saving, balanced and ‘Turbo’ mode, which is ideal for larger games. This phone also has 8GB of RAM, which is useful for those that want to run multiple applications at once without too much of a performance dip. This level of RAM is pretty good for the price you pay and very much in-line with what I’d expect from some of the best cheap phones.

And perhaps the best thing about this model is its impressive battery life. It has a 5,000mAh capacity battery, which was enough for me to get a full day’s use out of the device without needing to charge it up. And as far as charging is concerned, things aren’t too bad whatsoever. It can charge up at a decent pace, with 30W maximum charging. This is wired only, however, so there’s no wireless charging or reverse wireless charging on offer.

So, you’re probably wondering right now… what’s the catch? Well there are a few. First of all let’s talk about design. This is not exactly the prettiest mobile on the market. I wasn’t a fan of any of the three colour options available here, all of which lacked a touch of class. And the phone itself has a bit of an unattractive finish, which picks up fingerprints relatively easily – especially with the PMMA model I tested (there’s also a vegan leather option). It’s not the sleekest either, although I was personally pleased to find a 3.5mm headphone jack included, which was handy for some wired listening.

Another area which failed to impress was camera quality. I found that the model’s 16MP selfie camera was pretty underwhelming, with blurriness and flawed colour fidelity featuring in my photos. The rear cameras are better, in my view, but you’ll notice a clear step down in clarity and sharpness compared to mid-range options, especially when zooming in. There are some neat editing tools though and you get HDR support for taking photos, which is a sweet touch.

Having said all of that, this phone does actually have a solid display. It’s fairly bright and offers both Natural or Vivid picture modes, depending on your personal taste. You’re getting a fairly standard LCD screen with Full HD+ and a 120Hz refresh rate too, so you can stream video content and play games to a pretty high standard for a sub-£200 phone. It won’t have the most eye-popping colours or mind-blowing black levels, but for the price, the display certainly looks up-to-scratch.

And that just about sums up the Motorola Moto G55 5G. Does it do anything other Android phones can’t? No. Does it possess an enthralling feature-set and jaw-dropping display? Certainly not. But can it do all the basics without too much trouble? Absolutely. As a result, it’s well worth considering for those on the hunt for a bargain mobile device, but if you want a bit more power and stylistic finesse from your phone, you’ll likely be better-served by an alternative in our list of the best Motorola phones.

Motorola Moto G55 5G review: Price and availability

• List price of £199 / AU$299 (around $250)
• Often available for a little less in the UK
• Launched in August 2024

The Motorola Moto G55 5G sits firmly in the budget category and will only set you back about £199 / AU$299 (around $250). I have already seen it available for less, however, with both Amazon UK and Motorola itself selling this model for £179 at the time of writing.

That’s a pretty good price for a phone that was only released in August 2024. Competitors in this range include phones like the Samsung Galaxy A15, the Google Pixel 7a (when on sale) and some of Motorola’s own budget options.

Motorola Moto G55 5G review: Specs

Motorola Moto G55 5G review: Design

• Slightly unattractive finish and shape
• Poor colour options
• Handy 3.5mm port

I’ll be honest, the Motorola Moto G55 5G isn’t the most attractive-looking phone. There are two different finishes you can get here – vegan leather or PMMA (plastic) and I tested the latter. On this variant, the finish has a sparkly look and easily picks up fingerprints and marks, which I didn’t love.

In addition, the three colour options: Forest Grey, Smoky Green and Twilight Purple aren’t exactly the most appealing. Smoky Green is the best, in my view, with Forest Grey stuck in an awkward green-ish black midpoint and Twilight Purple looking a bit tacky – but that’s just my opinion, of course.

In terms of more objective aspects, the cameras are on a raised area on the back of the phone, meaning that the device will rock when on a flat surface. But there’s a solution here – just insert the phone into the included clear case and you can stabilise the G55 5G significantly. The case itself isn’t super-durable and is made of a flexible plastic material – but to get this included in the first place is certainly a win.

And there’s more good to report. All three buttons (power, volume up and volume down) are decently spaced-out and they’re all on one side. This is ideal if you’re using the phone in landscape mode, especially when playing a game. If you’re in a high-octane action sequence, for example, you’ll be less likely to accidentally tap a button and adjust volume or power. And no matter if you’re gaming, watching movies or just scrolling through your feed, you’ll likely find the G55 5G pleasing to hold. It’s fairly lightweight at 179g and it isn’t too large either.

Something that will excite some is the inclusion of a 3.5mm port – a bit of a rarity among modern smartphones. For me personally, this was a neat inclusion – especially as I’ve been testing out some of the best wired earbuds as of late. Positioned next to this is the phone’s charging port which is, of course, type USB-C, so you’ll likely already have a charging cable for the G55 5G. Something that’s a bit less practical, though, is the total lack of waterproofing. This is a bit of a miss considering most budget options from competitors like Google or Samsung offer solid protection against the elements.

• Design score: 3 / 5

Motorola Moto G55 5G review: Display

• Unremarkable yet totally adequate display
• Brightness is decent
• Natural or vivid color options

The Motorola Moto G55 5G has a fairly detailed and colourful display. OK, you’re certainly not going to be wow-ed by an astonishingly vivid picture and life-like colour fidelity, but for a phone that costs less than £200, the display is decent.

This model uses a fairly standard 6.49-inch LCD screen with a 2400 x 1080 resolution. Overall, this is a generally good-looking display that gives you access to full HD+ viewing. And when tuning into 2160p HDR videos on YouTube, there was solid quality, with nicely saturated colours and commendable levels of detail. I didn’t feel that the G55 5G produced a particularly great, colour-popping picture, but really, it didn’t have to. For what you pay, the phone is totally up to the task of replicating video content, even if it's more technically demanding.

Motorola doesn’t list a peak brightness for the G55 5G on its website, but judging by eye, this thing can get decently bright. When I put it side-by-side with more of a mid-range option – the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE – the Motorola couldn’t get quite as bright and smaller visual details on a Google Meet call weren’t as well defined. On top of that, the phone's auto-brightness feature could be a touch irritating, with the display often too dark for my liking – I soon turned this off in Settings.

But still, when watching The Boy and the Heron on Netflix during a scene with the protagonist cycling through a forest-like area, the grand green trees maintained their rich, dark shade. As did the Heron’s mustard-coloured eyes and the protagonist's blue tunic – making for an enjoyable viewing experience overall. Elements such as flames in an enclosed area weren’t quite as dazzling or vivid as I’d get on a higher-end model, but not to a grating degree whatsoever.

If you’d like to alter the way colours are translated on the G55 5G, you can switch between Natural and Vivid mode in Settings. I tended to stick with Vivid to get a bit of extra brightness and saturation, but both work well. And so overall, if you’re someone looking for a budget phone, the display here is up to the task – just don’t expect top-tier brightness or next-level sharpness.

• Display score: 3.5 / 5

Motorola Moto G55 5G review: Software

• Easy-to-use Android 14
• Some pre-installed apps feel unnecessary
• Two years of OS upgrades

The Motorola Moto G55 5G uses the Android 14 operating system. Many will be familiar with this – it’s easy-to-use and navigate, with plenty of options and customizability in settings. It won’t be laid out in quite as simple a way as say, the newest version of iOS, but for Android fans like myself, this will be of no concern whatsoever.

In terms of the future, however, things look a little limited. Motorola has promised just two years of OS upgrades for this model, which perhaps limits its longevity. And Motorola has been a bit patchy on this issue more generally. For instance, the more premium Motorola Edge 50 Pro will still only receive three years of software support and four years of security updates.

The G55 5G, however, does match that four years of security updates pledge. Overall though, the limited scope for OS upgrades is a shame, especially when Samsung, for instance, often has four years of OS updates and five years of security updates guaranteed for its cheaper phones.

Anyway, Android 14 still works great and in its current state. Something I wasn’t such a fan of though, was the state of pre-installed software on the G55 5G. Specifically, I realised that there were a lot of games pre-installed on this device, like Monopoly, Raid and even Merge Dragons (which was a new one for me). Personally, I don’t love this. If there’s a game I want to play, I’ll download it myself from the Google Play store – I don’t need a convoluted set of pre-installed games unnecessarily taking up storage space.

Beyond this, there’s not too much to say about the Motorola Moto G55 5G. It’s a pretty basic phone software-wise. There’s nothing ultra-fresh like Samsung’s Galaxy AI tools or Apple Intelligence, but if you’re just looking for a basic user experience, you likely won’t mind this. But that really sums it up. This is a pretty basic smartphone that never needed to do anything out of the ordinary, so you really do get what you pay for with the G55 5G software-wise.

• Software score: 3 / 5

Motorola Moto G55 5G FE review: Cameras

• Front camera unlikely to impress
• Rears aren’t all too bad
• HDR, plenty of customisability

One area in which the Motorola Moto G55 5G kinda shows its price is with its cameras. For less than £200 is quality poor? Not really. But compared to more mid-range options, there are some noticeable compromises.

Firstly, the 16MP front camera isn’t the best. I tried taking some selfies on this as well as the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and found that lighting was captured less faithfully with the Motorola model. On top of that, skin tones looked less true to life with the Motorola and facial details appeared a tad blurrier too. Having said that, the quality was by no means terrible, just don’t expect to be impressed by a detail-rich front camera.

The rear cameras on the other hand weren’t all too bad. Again, photos didn’t stack up amazingly against those taken on the S24 FE, but for the price you pay, you get pretty solid performance. Colours were decently saturated and bright, with HDR helping to provide a more detailed picture. And although you won’t get super crisp quality that some of the best camera phones will offer, elements like discoloured patches on buildings and stitches on clothing are still distinct. I did find, though, that when zooming in, clarity was hampered significantly. I didn’t have to go to a granular level to notice considerable blurring and muddied graphic details either.

Despite this, you get a nice amount of options when taking and editing photos. There are a variety of modes to pick from, including Pro, Night Vision, Dual Capture and more. And when you want to touch up your photos you get AI-enabled suggestions as well as Magic Eraser, filters and markup tools. And sure, you don’t get flashy inclusions like object removal or generative AI integrations, but for less than £200, that’s to be expected.

• Cameras score: 3 / 5

Motorola Moto G55 5G FE review: Performance

• Generally smooth for majority of tasks
• More demanding functions can cause a bit of lag
• Nifty Motorola GameTime mode

Perhaps the area I was most impressed by with this phone was its performance, with the Motorola G55 5G’s MediaTek Dimensity 7025 processor putting a very good shift in. In general, I experienced fairly limited issues, with the majority of web pages, games and messaging apps running as I’d hoped. And arguably, performance is the key category for any mobile device, making this an attractive option for those on a tight-budget.

When playing Raid – a pre-installed game – the experience was fairly smooth, with only some occasional frame drops. Less demanding games kept up perfectly too, so if you’re someone who’s not an avid mobile gamer, but like to dip your toes into a bit of solitaire or sudoku from time to time, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

If you want to optimize gaming performance, however, you’re in luck. Just enter the Motorola GameTime menu (which automatically appears on the side of the screen) and switch between Battery Saving, Balanced, or Turbo (top-performance mode). All of these worked well for me, though I found Turbo to be worth using, especially given this phone’s strong battery life – more on this later. It’s worth noting too, that this phone has a 120Hz refresh rate, meaning you can get access to 120fps for games that support it – just don’t expect truly flawless, consistent top-level framerates from the most demanding applications.

When executing typical tasks like surfing the web, I was satisfied. There was, on occasion, a bit of delay or lag, but this wasn’t enough to cause me great frustration. When I stretched this phone’s very solid 8GB of RAM, stuff like lag when navigating menus was a bit more noticeable, but again, this was pretty minor.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Motorola Moto G55 5G FE review: Battery life

• 5,000mAh battery
• Maximum 30W charging capabilities
• No wireless charging

Like a lot of budget phones, the Motorola Moto G55 5G prides itself on a strong battery life. With a 5,000mAh capacity battery, I found that this phone could get through a full day of use with a bit of juice left in the tank. And that was even when watching Netflix, YouTube, listening to hi-res music on Tidal and playing mobile games.

On top of its high-capacity battery, the G55 5G can charge up pretty fast too thanks to Motorola TurboPower. This is similar to Samsung’s “Super-fast” charging and allows you to bring the device back to life in no time. Specifically, this phone supports maximum 30W charging, meaning you can get it from 0% to 100% in less than two hours.

One slight miss here, though, is the absence of wireless charging. This isn’t surprising for a super-cheap phone like the G55 5G, but it would certainly be nice to have. You also don’t get something akin to wireless power sharing where you use the device to give life to others in need of a boost. That’s not a big deal for a phone like this, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you want the most modern battery-related features.

• Battery life score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Motorola Moto G55 5G?

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Motorola Moto G55 5G: Also consider

Motorola Moto G55 5G review: How I tested

• Tested across multiple weeks
• Used at work and in day-to-day life
• Trialed games, built-in cameras and calls

I tested the Motorola Moto G55 5G over multiple weeks and across a number of environments, including at home, the office and the city streets.

I used this phone for hours during each day of testing. I listened to music, watched YouTube videos, played games and much more. All in all, I just made sure to get the most possible out of the Moto G55 5G, ensuring I messed around with plenty of options in Settings, like Motorola Gametime.

Finally, I tested the Moto G55 5G’s camera outside, at home and at the office. This ensured that I could capture photos in natural light or in artificially / low-lit areas and fairly assess quality across the board.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: December 2024