Motorola Moto G75 5G Review
A tough affordable phone with some genuinely stand-out features
Verdict
The Moto G75 5G does things a little differently to other sub-£300 phones, and that helps it to stand out. Military-grade toughness and wireless charging support stand alongside an exemplary software update promise to make this a surprisingly special phone.
Pros
- Unusually robust build
- Wireless charging support
- Excellent software promise
Cons
- Screen is LCD not OLED
- Relatively slow wired charging and no charger
- A little too much bloatware
Key Features
- Extreme durabilityWith MIL-STD 810H and IP68 certification, the Moto G75 5G is tougher than most phones of its price.
- Wireless chargingMotorola grants support for 15W wireless charging, which is a rare inclusion in phone this cheap.
- Extended software update promiseMotorola promises 5 major OS upgrades and 6 years of security updates.
Introduction
It might be positioned snugly in between the Moto G85 5G and the Moto G55 5G, but the £269.99 Moto G75 5G offers some surprising points of differentiation. It might just be the most interesting phone in the entire Moto G range.
The Moto G75 5G’s familiar design hides a number of pleasant surprises, including an atypically robust build, wireless charging, and a strong software update promise.
If the Moto Edge 50 Fusion has the sub-£400 category all sewn up, the Moto G75 5G might just be on to do the same in the sub-£300 department.
Design
- Vegan leather or matte plastic rear
- Atypical MIL-STD 810H durability
- IP68 certified
You certainly can’t accuse Motorola of being flighty. The manufacturer has picked a design language for its non-foldable 2024 phones, and by golly it’s sticking to it.
The Moto G75 5G strongly echoes other Moto phones we’ve seen this year, from the humble Moto G04 right up to the flagship Moto Edge 50 Ultra. It’s right there in the pleasing moulded sweep of the camera module, which appears to have grown out of the body.
Another distinctly modern Motorola touch is the use of vegan leather on the Aqua Blue model that I was sent for review, which is invitingly warm to the touch, not to mention grippy and fingerprint-resistant.
The Succulent Green colour also comes in this vegan leather finish, but the Charcoal Gray model is there if you want something traditionally smooth.
Choosing the latter will also shave 0.1mm off the thickness and 3g off the weight of the phone. Some people might want to consider that, as dimensions of 166.09 x 77.24 x 8.44mm and 209g mean that the Moto G75 5G isn’t the most compact phone in its class.
With all that said, the Moto G75 earns its bulk more than almost any other phone on the market. In an unexpected turn for a sub-£300 phone, Motorola has built this thing to last. Not only does it have an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, which is the kind of thing you expect to see in phones costing £500 and above, but it also packs Military-grade MIL-STD 810H durability certification.
This is the certification that Apple’s ruggedised smartwatch, the Apple Watch Ultra, has attained. It means that the device has been put through a robust series of U.S. Department of Defense tests involving extremes of temperature, exposure to the elements, vibrations, impacts, and altitude.
In short, the Moto G75 5G is theoretically much tougher than the vast majority of phones on the market – though obviously I was unwilling to put such claims to the test myself.
It certainly feels solid, though it still packs a plastic frame, with Gorilla Glass 5 covering the front.
Screen
- 6.78-inch LCD
- FHD+ and 120Hz
- No in-display fingerprint sensor
Making your affordable phone tougher than usual exacts a cost, and if I could name one area where Motorola appears to have compromised in order to pay that cost, it’s the Moto G75 5G’s display.
Rather than the vibrant OLED panel that you can often expect at this price (see the Moto G85 5G, which only costs £30 more), Motorola has utilised a 6.78-inch LCD. This means that it lacks the pop of colour and the deep blacks of other phones on the market, while you shouldn’t expect the subtle heads-up info provided by an always-on display either.
With all that said, this is far from a bad screen. With a 2388 × 1080 (FHD+) resolution, a smooth 120Hz peak refresh rate, and a top brightness of 1000 nits in direct sunlight, it’s actually a pretty solid performer. I found viewing images and scrolling through web content to be quite a pleasant experience.
Another judicious cut made by Motorola involves the lack of an in-display fingerprint sensor. Instead, you must apply your finger or thumb to the power button, which worked pretty quickly and reliably in my experience.
If you want a screen more in line with flagship phone conventions, you’ll be better off with the similarly priced Moto G85 5G. Its curved OLED display is brighter, more vibrant, and features an integrated fingerprint sensor.
The Moto G75 5G’s screen is good enough, though – especially if your priorities lie elsewhere.
Performance
- Snapdragon 6 Gen 3
- 8GB RAM
- Solid performance
- 256GB storage with microSD
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip that powers the Moto G75 5G is at most a mid-range chip, but it’s also a very modern one. Combined with 8GB of RAM, it results in respectable performance.
Indeed, this chip sees the Moto G75 5G outgunning its supposedly superior brother, the Moto G85 5G, which sports an inferior Snapdragon 6S Gen 3.
Sure enough, Geekbench 6 scores of 1020 and 2886 see the Moto G75 5G comfortably topping its sibling. It’s a similar case with our GPU-focused GFX Bench tests.
In both departments, the Moto G75 5G is a close match for the Samsung Galaxy A35 with its home-brewed Exynos 1380 and £339 asking price. Elsewhere, it’s a match for the £319 Poco X6 in CPU terms, and superior in GPU terms.
It’s even broadly a match for the £349.99 Motorola Edge 50 Fusion with its Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. That’s a pretty impressive result.
It’s perfectly capable of running the likes of Wreckfest and Genshin Impact adequately at mid-range graphical settings, and naturally is very comfortable running simpler 2D fare like Slay the Spire.
Storage is nice and generous, with 256GB as standard and the potential for more via microSD expansion. This is a trend in affordable phones that I wholeheartedly approve of given that such devices are likely to be owned by people on limited data contracts.
Camera
- 50MP Sony Lytia 600 main camera with OIS
- 8MP ultra-wide and 16MP selfie cam
- Solid shots in good lighting
While the Moto G75 5G is surprisingly different from the Moto G85 5G in many respects, it shares the same rear camera setup.
That involves a 50MP Sony Lytia 600 main sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and an f/1.79 aperture, as well as an 8MP ultra-wide with an f/2.2 aperture. Once again, there is no dedicated telephoto, but I’m glad to see there’s no pointless macro camera or depth sensor in its stead.
Only the front camera seems to offer anything different from the G85, with an inferior 16MP sensor.
Unsurprisingly, the main camera produces much the same general shooting experience as its brother. You can expect solidly detailed and contrasty shots in good lighting.
Even 2x cropped shots look pretty good, though things start to get a little soft at 4x and beyond.
The 8MP ultra-wide sees an expected drop-off in detail, particularly around the edges, but I was otherwise quite impressed at how it managed to maintain a relatively similar colour tone to the main sensor.
Even Night mode offers passable results. When the light drops really low you’ll know you’re dealing with a cheaper phone, with noise starting to show up that small sensor, but I really couldn’t complain given the Moto G75 5G’s asking price.
The 16MP front camera offers perfectly usable shots. The sensor is small and the lens fixed focus, so there isn’t bags of subject detail or separation, but selfies are suitably rich in colour and skin tones reasonably natural.
Video capture tops out at a respectable 4K/30fps or 1080p/60fps, and it’s kept reasonably steady by that OIS.
All in all, this is a more than solid camera setup for the money. If you want something that performs significantly better, you’ll need to be prepared to pay a good £100 more at least.
Software
- Typically clean version of Android 14
- Subtle Motorola tweaks
- A little too much bloatware
- 5 OS upgrades, 6 Android versions
When you’re forced to bump up against clunky, heavily modified Android UIs for a living (cue ‘world’s smallest violin’ meme), Motorola’s clean and crisp UI comes as a breath of fresh air.
Its success is as much about what it doesn’t do as what it does do. It doesn’t mess with Google’s easy-to-parse notification menu or its supremely legible icons and menus. It doesn’t replace the genuinely useful Google Feed with a widget and ad-filled alternative.
But yes, it also proactively does some good things too. Motorola’s Moto app is a genuinely useful introduction to your device, especially if you’re a relatively smartphone beginner. This is where you come to manage your theme customisation, pick up navigation tips, and customise your lock screen.
This is also where Motorola’s Gestures live. Turn the torch on with a double chop motion, or boot up the camera with a double twist. All work beautifully, and all can be activated or deactivated from this one stylishly presented app.
Motorola’s UI isn’t immune from criticism, however. The company has increasingly embraced bloatware, particularly (it seems) in its cheaper phones. So, you get a bunch of unwanted games preinstalled without your say-so, as well as LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and Booking.com.
The Moto G75 5G gets right back into my good books with Motorola’s impressive software upgrade promise. You get five OS upgrades (one of which will presumably be an imminent switch to Android 15) and six years of security updates guaranteed, carrying you right through to 2029.
That would still be deemed more than acceptable in a flagship phone, let alone one that costs £270.
Battery Life
- 5000mAh battery
- Two-day battery life
- 30W charger support, though not included in box
Motorola hasn’t tried anything fancy with the Moto G75 5G’s battery life, supplying its phone with a good solid 5,000mAh cell.
With relatively frugal components all round, I found that an intensive 15 hour and 30 minutes working day with 5 hours and 20 minutes of screen-on time still left me with 43% power. This is a phone that could quite feasibly get you through two days of light to moderate usage, depending on the network environment.
That’s no longer quite as outstanding a boast as it used to be, but it’s still a tick in the plus side box.
In media playback terms, an hour of Disney Plus streaming sapped 4% of a charge, while 30 minutes of light gaming ate through 6%. That’s also on the stronger side of normal these days.
Slightly less impressive is the Moto G75 5G’s 30W wired ‘TurboPower’ charging support. It’s far from the most rapid around, and Motorola doesn’t include a charger in the box.
Using a sufficiently equipped Samsung charger, I was able to get the Motorola Moto G75 5G from empty to 30% in 15 minutes, and to 59% in 30 minutes. A full charge took about an hour and 15 minutes.
It’s fairly unspectacular, but one spec lifts my whole perception of the Moto G75 5G’s charging provision. The Moto G75 5G supports 15W wireless charging, which is practically unheard of in the sub-£300 space.
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Should you buy it?
You want a surprisingly durable smartphone
Despite sporting the same look as much of Motorola’s 2024 smartphone collection, it offers both IP68 dust and water resistance and MIL-STD 810H durability certification.
You want the best screen for the price
It’s big and bright, but the Moto G75’s IPS LCD display can’t compete with the OLED screens offered by much of the similarly priced competition.
Final Thoughts
Android phone manufacturers often struggle to justify the number of phones that they offer beyond simply catering to multiple budgets, which is why Motorola deserves a great deal of praise for the Moto G75 5G.
It might be only slightly cheaper than the Moto G85 5G, but this fellow sub-£300 smartphone offers several intriguing points of difference. Its display is nowhere near as good as its brother’s, but the Moto G75 5G is considerably more robust, with military-grade certification and an IP68 rating.
You also get the benefits of wireless charging, which is another feature you simply don’t see at this end of the market. Motorola’s extended software guarantee also appeals.
All in all, the Moto G75 5G is another Motorola phone that stands out from the cheap(er) phone crowd, albeit in some new and unexpected ways.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Used as a main phone for over a week
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
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FAQs
No, there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack on the Moto G75 5G.
The Moto G75 5G has IP68 certification, which means it’s about as water resistant as phones get.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
