Motorola’s £89 Moto G04 is the new champion of ultra-cheap phones

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

Want a really cheap phone that’s still decent to use and can even take some good photos? Then the Moto G04 is a bargain that’s hard to resist with style as well as some substance in certain areas.

Motorola has been one of the best operators in the budget phone market for years now, but its latest release is sure to put that reputation to the test. Why? Because the Moto G04 only costs £89!

Surely not even a company like Moto can turn out something decent when working with these incredible budgetary constrictions? I take the G04 for a test run to see if bargains really do exist.

Design & Build

It wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to expect a phone at this price to be held together with gaffer tape and rubber bands, so it’s all the more surprising to find that the Moto G04 feels like a well-made, sturdy device. The aesthetic is simple but smart, with clean lines and no evident signs that this is a low-budget model.

Martyn Casserly

Yes, the rear panel is a thin plastic, but that’s fine as the frosted matt finish gives it a pleasing look, plus as most phones end up in cases anyway, so who really cares what material is used on the rear?

A raised camera module is the only interruption to the panel, housing the main lens and a large flash, which I’ll cover later in the review.

Martyn Casserly

On the flanks there are the requisite power and volume controls all of which have soft but definite clicks when pressed. No mush here. The power button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor, which turned out to be fast and reliable throughout my time with the device. You can also use facial recognition to unlock the G04, via the front facing camera found at the top of the 6.6-inch display.

Thin bezels around the panel allows for a screen to body ratio of 89.5%, which keeps the size down, with the screen ratio at 20:9 for a tall but not overbalanced feel.

Along the top edge, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the bottom is home to a USB-C charging port, microphone, and the solitary speaker. All of this adds up to dimensions of 163.49 x 74.53 x 7.99mm, and a weight of 179g, which sits comfortably in the hand.

Martyn Casserly

Obviously at this price, there are a few omissions, which take the form of no waterproofing (Moto says the phone is water resistant, in that it can probably survive water being spilled on it, but no immersions), no NFC (so no Google Pay capabilities), and it only supports up to 4G network connections (although there are dual nano-SIM slots).

To be honest, these are all understandable limitations, commensurate with the price that’s on the box. The Moto G04 is available in three colours – Concord Black, Sea Green, and Satin Blue.

Screen & Speakers

A 6.6-inch IPS LCD panel is the center point of the Moto G04, and it’s a decent one too. Running at a resolution of 1612 x 720 (269 ppi), it’s not the full 1080p experience that you’ll find on higher priced rivals, but it doesn’t need to be.

The demands of those displays need a higher-spec processor to handle all of the rendering, so Moto has made the correct choice here. Performance over prettiness. Let’s face it, it’s worked on the iPhone SE for years, with even the 2022 model sporting a 750p panel, and that costs nearly five times as much as the Moto G04.

Martyn Casserly

Details are sharp and the colours are ok, if a little washed out when it comes to reds, but not so much as to leave you disappointed. It still looks good and certainly not like a cheap-as-chips phone. Motorola says that the panel maxes out at 537 nits of peak brightness, it the normal brightness mode I measured it at around 320 nits, which is fine for indoors use and less sunny days, but you might find it difficult to read the panel if summer is in full glow.

A 90Hz refresh rate is a surprise at this price and should mean that scrolling is smooth and free of any juddering. However, the low RAM allocation is probably responsible for the less than buttery appearance at times on image-heavy pages, such as the Google News feed that lives to the left of the Home Screen.

Sound is handled by a single speaker on the bottom edge of the Moto G04. It delivers pretty thin audio, with frequencies getting a bit crowded at higher volumes. It’s certainly good enough for YouTube videos, although music doesn’t sound balanced. Motorola says that the speaker supports Dolby Atmos, but I think that’s somewhat ambitious with only the solitary output on a device that is a cheap as this.

If you prefer to make use of speakers or headphones, then you can either plug them into the 3.5mm headphone jack or connect wirelessly through the Bluetooth 5.0 capabilities of the handset.

Specs & Performance

You might expect things to fall apart when it comes to the perfomance side of things, so it’s a nice surprise that the Moto G04 equips itself well, so long as you’re realistic. The device is fitted with a UniSoc T606 octa-core processor, comprised of 2x A75 1.6GHz and 6x A55 1.6GHz cores, aided by an ARM Mali-G57 MP1 GPU.

When I first turned on the device, apps took a little while to load up and switch between, which had me a bit worried. But, after those initial boot-up stutters, the performance improved to the point where things moved along smoothly. It’s not the fastest device around, of course, but the slightly ponderous elements are definitely in the acceptable range rather than annoying.

It can take longer than normal to render photos after you’ve taken them, which could be down to the minimal RAM allocation in this model. 4GB is restrictive these days, although Motorola does offer an 8GB version in some regions, so check listings if you’re thinking of buying one.

Gaming was even possible, with Asphalt 9: Legends playing without any noticeable stutters or crashes. The device did get marginally warmer during extended sessions, but not so that it was uncomfortable or worrying. I wouldn’t recommend PUBG or games of that ilk, as the phone struggled more, but even doing well with Asphalt is above where I thought the performance levels would be on the Moto G04.

There is the ability to use some of your onboard storage as virtual RAM, up to a maximum of 4GB, which does help. You’ll need to work out how much space you have available though, as the 64GB storage offers you around 58GB of usable disk capacity. This can be increased by up to 1TB via a microSD card, but bear in mind none of this can be used for the RAM Boost feature.

Martyn Casserly

Motorola Moto G04 benchmarks

Cameras

Motorola doesn’t muck about with loads of 2Mp pointless cameras to make things look more impressive than they are, instead there’s a simple 16Mp f/2.2 shooter on the back and a 5Mp f/2.2 on the front. True, the rear module does have the flash designed so that it looks like a second lens, but that is just a good aesthetic choice in my eyes.

Martyn Casserly

Images captured on the main camera are acceptable and at times quite good. They’re not going to fool anyone into thinking you’re using a Google Pixel 8 Pro, but there have no right to. In all honesty, for a phone that costs as little as this, it’s amazing that the images are any good at all.

But, give the Moto G04 some decent light and you’ll be able to capture photos and videos that will be more than serviceable for social media posts. Low light proves a bit more of a problem, but if you have a steady hand then you may still turn out some usable images.

Martyn Casserly

The front camera is the weaker of the optics, again requiring lots of light to be able to take pictures you’ll want to use. I can’t stress this enough though, when paying less than £100 for a smartphone, you shouldn’t be expecting anything decent in the camera department. Motorola has done very well indeed to deliver something as usable for basic shots as the G04.

Here’s a collection of images taken on the two cameras:

Battery Life & Charging

One area where the Moto G04 shines in battery life. Using the phone across most days, with some surfing, messaging, social media and the occasional game or two, left plenty of charge available by bedtime. If you’re not a heavy user, then this is easily a two-day phone.

In our standard PCMark battery benchmark test, the Moto G04 scored a massive 14 hours and 53 mins, which makes it one of the best we’ve tested this year.

Charging times can’t quite match the impressive endurance, as the included 10W charger and USB-C cable don’t offer any kind of fast charging, with the phone going from 0% to 7% in 15 minutes, 19% in 30 mins, and a full charge taking around two and a half hours.

Wireless charging isn’t supported either, but that’s more thanfair enough for a phone at this price.

Martyn Casserly

One thing worth noting is that Motorola does include the charger and cable in the box, which is a nice touch considering how much the G04 costs, especially when this isn’t the case for plenty of much more expensive devices on the market – even if it it 5W short of what the phone can handle.

Software & Apps

Another pleasant surprise is that Motorola bestows the latest Android 14 OS on the Moto G04. It all runs pretty smoothly too, which is a bonus. As with all Motorola phones in recent years, the OS is pretty much stock, with only a few Moto apps and features baked in.

There is a small collection of third-party apps that need to be installed as part of set up, but these can all be deleted straight away. You’re also prompted to install more, but this time you can refuse, which ends the pestering and lets you get on with using the phone.

Martyn Casserly

Motorola hasn’t confirmed that the G04 will receive any Android updates, so if you’re hoping for Android 16 or beyond then you may be disappointed, but it will at least get two years of security updates, meaning you can use it safely for a while.

Longer would obviously prolong the lifespan of the G04, but again, there is a cost to working on patches to software, one that doesn’t seem to make the balance sheet work for Motorola.

Price & Availability

The Moto G04 is available from the Motorola site for £89/€129 as well as Amazon and Currys, but it doesn’t seem to be heading to the USA. At this price, there aren’t too many rivals that can compete.

There’s the Nokia C32, which does have a similar spec sheet, albeit with a larger pixel count on its 50Mp main camera.

Another option, with a name close to that of the Nokia, is the Realme C35, which you can pick up for around £150 and comes with a Full HD display and a decent main camera. Motorola also has its own alternatives, including the Moto G13 that offers additional cameras for around £129, but I think the G04 is the better device overall.

Here are the best contracts deals available at the moment:

You can check out other alternatives in our best budget phones chart.

Should you buy the Motorola Moto G04?

The Moto G04 isn’t for everybody, and it doesn’t pretend as such. The cameras are average, performance is too, but both are far above what you would normally expect of a phone costing as little as this one does.

If you’re looking for a flagship killer, this isn’t it, but if you want a phone for young kids or elderly relatives, then this is a really strong candidate. Or possibly something cheap to take on holiday or to a festival where losing it won’t be the same disaster as your usual handset.

It does the basics well, costs hardly anything, and looks smart enough to make you think the price tag was a bit higher.