Best Motorola phones 2024
You might be surprised at how good Motorola phones still are.
1. At a glance
2. Best overall
3. Best stylus phone
4. Best value
5. Best foldable
6. Best for productivity
7. Best value foldable
8. Best battery life
Motorola phones aim to give you the best bang for your buck with solid hardware on the low end, and some of the best values in foldable phones. These Moto phones are more than bargain bin budget devices with large batteries, nice displays, and 5G support on some model. Although Moto hasn't exactly shocked us with innovation (the Razr Plus would like a word, however), the iconic phone brand has proven that it has the potential to lead the pack when it comes to solid performance at a lower cost.
If you're interested in the best Motorola phones out there, you've come to the right place. We've gathered all of our favorite devices and dropped them below with a brief description of each pick. Some of these phones may rival the best Android phones on the market, while others offer decent specs at a shockingly low price. No matter what type of phone you're looking for, it's quite likely that Motorola will have you covered.
At a glance
Best overall
Best overall
The Edge Plus (2023) is one of the best phones that Motorola has produced in years, complete with a stunning 165Hz pOLED display, some improved cameras, and the power of the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. You also get Android 13 with three OS updates and four years of security upgrades guaranteed.
Best stylus phone
Best stylus phone
The Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) proves that you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to get your hands on a quality stylus phone with 5G support. You get a large 120Hz display, plus a long-lasting 5,000mAh battery, decent cameras, and a built-in stylus.
Best value
Best value
If you're looking to keep costs low, the Moto G Play 2024 is a solid choice. This phone lacks 5G, but has a solid Snapdragon 680 SoC under the hood with 4GB of RAM. With great carrier compatibility and a 5,000mAh battery, this is a long-lasting phone for those on a budget.
Best foldable
Best foldable
Step aside Z Flip 4, there’s a new flip phone on the block. The Motorola Razr Plus is a compact foldable that boasts two pOLED displays, a tough yet sophisticated construction, and loads of software support. It’s also powered by the battle-tested Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip, a 2022 processor that will handle nearly all tasks with ease.
Best for productivity
Best for productivity
The ThinkPhone is clearly aimed at business users, and the carbon fiber design combined with the red accents ensures it ties along with your ThinkPad like no other device, and you get decent hardware, vibrant screen, large battery, and 68W charging. What you'll like the best is the value on offer.
Best value foldable
Best value foldable
Also sold as the Razr 40 globally, this is one of the most affordable foldables available today. And while Motorola went with mid-range hardware and a smaller cover screen that isn't as usable as the Razr+, the fact that you get a full-fledged foldable for significantly makes it an easy recommendation.
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Best battery life
Best battery life
Starting at just $249.99, the Moto G 5G (2023) offers a ton of bang for the buck, thanks to a reliable Snapdragon 480+ chip, Android 13, and a massive 5,000mAh battery. The built-in stereo speakers are also shockingly good, plus you get to enjoy all of the fun Motorola gesture controls that the brand is known for.
Best overall
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Motorola Edge+ is an impressive phone with a very nice look and feel, plenty of power under the hood, and plenty of battery life. Front and center, you can't miss the gorgeous 6.7-inch OLED display with a blazing-fast 165Hz refresh rate. It's powered by a last gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 paired with 8GB RAM that still offers impressive performance. It's powered by a large 5,100mAh battery with support for 68W charging with a charger included in the box.
Our Motorola Edge+ review found the camera system to be impressive with nice images coming from the main 50MP camera, 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP 2x telephoto camera. Water and dust resistance with an IP68 rating is also nice to have and the modern chipset enables strong Wi-Fi 7 and 5G support. Launching with Android 3 with three OS updates promised, this is a nice high-end return to form for Motorola.
Best stylus phone
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Moto G Stylus 5G is a nice step up from the Moto G Play with a larger and sharper 6.6-inch 2400x1080 LCD running at 120Hz. This phone has a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC which with 6GB of RAM to keep apps running smoothly. That SoC also means you get 5G support on most Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile-based carriers. It comes with a solid 256GB of storage with microSD expansion to go even bigger if you need it.
Naturally, the biggest feature of this phone is the included stylus. While it’s a fairly basic stylus, it can still help you make fine inputs, or even take quick notes on this large display. If you’re trying to click on links on a web page that isn’t optimized for mobile, for example, a stylus can make hitting the right link much easier. The main 50MP camera, like most budget phones, isn’t all that impressive but offers solid clarity and color in the right lighting. If you’re looking for a cheap 5G phone with a stylus for less than a flagship, the Moto G Stylus 5G is worth a look.
Best value
3. Moto G Play (2024)
Our expert review:
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
If you’re looking for a simple phone that gets the job done, the Moto G Play is worth a look with a large 6.5-inch display that’s large enough to easily see. The display sits beneath a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3 giving it protection from minor drops. It even has a fingerprint reader on the side making it quick to unlock your phone without sacrificing security. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 680 SoC with 4GB of RAM, which isn’t great for 3D gaming, but is reasonably fast for basic messaging apps, social media, video calling, and taking photos.
Charging is relatively slow at just 15W, but with a large 5,000mAh battery, if you top it up overnight, it should easily last all day and then some. The rear camera has a 50MP sensor that can take decent enough photos in enough light, but won’t blow you away. At this price, however, you’re still getting solid results that are more than sufficient for sharing with your friends. Keep in mind that this phone doesn’t support 5G, so you’ll be stuck with the LTE coverage on your carrier, but generally, LTE offers plenty of speed for most people.
Best foldable
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
There’s a lot to love about the Moto Razr Plus from its thin gap-free profile when folded, to the large 3.6-inch outer display. As we saw in our Moto Razr Plus review, this large outer display makes the phone much more useful than the previous generation when closed and looks great with unnecessary, but attractive, hold-punch camera lenses protruding from the corner. The phone is powerful with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 giving it plenty of power for any app you can think to throw at it, including games.
The battery isn’t huge at just 3,800mAh, but that’s not bad for a compact clamshell folding phone like this. When you unfold the phone, you’re presented with a vibrant 6.9-inch AMOLED display with 1400 nits of peak brightness. It also runs at up to 165Hz so using it to navigate Android 13 feels nice and smooth. Speaking of Android, Motorola has promised three OS upgrades with four years of security updates. If Motorola sticks to the update plan, you should have a few years to use the phone before the software starts to feel too dated. With 5G support on most U.S. carriers, you should also get strong network speeds for years to come.
Best for productivity
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The ThinkPhone from Motorola borrows its branding from Lenovo and has worked with the PC maker to make the phone integrate with PCs. This is a phone targeted at business users, and its PC integration allows you to use it as a webcam, instantly enable hotspot data, and even stream apps to your PC. Even if you’re not interested in those computer tie-ins, you still get a sleek phone with plenty of grip on the housing. Battery life is strong from the 5,000mAh battery and 68W charging with an included charge.
The phone is powered by the still fast Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC with either 8GB or 12GB of storage. The display is a 6.6-inch OLED panel with a 144Hz refresh rate under a sheet of Gorilla Glass Victus. Naturally, 5G is supported with fast 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E also included. Our ThinkPhone review also notes that this phone will receive Android updates through Android 16 with security updates through 2027. If you’re looking for a phone to help streamline your workflow with years of support, the ThinkPhone could be what you’ve been waiting for.
Best value foldable
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Folding phones have typically been prohibitively expensive with overkill hardware and over-the-top designs. The Motorola Razr (2023) takes a step back offering a sleek clamshell folding phone with a large 6.9-inch internal display. Compared to the above Razr Plus, this phone has a slower SoC with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and a smaller outer display but still has plenty of performance for most people. The outer display is a 1.5-inch unit which is really only good for notification from a few apps.
Even with some hardware cutbacks, Motorola has made sure not to cut corners on the most important elements, like using tough Gorilla Glass Victus and packing in a large 4200mAh battery. While it’s far from the best camera we’ve used, the Razr’s 64MP main camera takes decent images, especially considering the price. There’s also a 13MP ultrawide camera to help capture more in a tight space. Like its other folding phone, Motorola has promised three OS updates and four years of security updates on this model.
Best battery life
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
If you’re looking for a cheap phone with 5G support, the Moto G 5G is a decent budget option that doesn’t do much wrong but also fails to impress in most areas. Luckily, the core experience is solid with decent performance from the Snapdragon 480+ SoC and 4GB of RAM. The 6.5-inch display is solid with a 120Hz refresh rate and looks fine for the price. Gaming is possible on this phone with our review noting playable frame rates in games like Honkai Star Rail as long as you stick to medium or low settings.
The phone ships with 128GB of storage which is plenty for downloading apps, but if you want to save some music or you take a lot of videos, you can also expand it with a microSD card. Speaking of photos, the main camera is decent with realistic colors and better-than-expected photos at night. Finally, the 5,000mAh battery easily gets you to the end of the day and well into the next one. When it comes time to charge you get 15W, which isn’t that fast, but about what you’d expect.
Why the Motorola Edge Plus (2023) is our top pick
Why you can trust Android Central
Motorola is great at striking a balance between performance and price, and this shows with the Motorola Edge Plus (2023). The device is powered by the critically-acclaimed Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, the same processor found in some of the most powerful flagships on the market.
Not only can you manage multiple days on a single charge, but the phone offers a slick 165Hz OLED display and a speedy fingerprint sensor. The best part is that Motorola is committing to three major OS upgrades and four years of updates, something the company doesn't always offer with its devices.
The runner-up includes a stylus
Out of all the Motorola phones currently available, the Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) offers the best bang for the buck of any product that the company has to offer. The balance of modern specs, features, and price are darn-near perfect given how affordable the phone is, making it a clear winner in our eyes, particularly among other budget Android phones.
The sleek, elegant design paired with a built-in stylus and useful gestures proves you don't need to spend a lot to get the premium Motorola experience. You also get Android 13 straight out of the box, alongside a big 5,000mAh battery and the capable Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset. Did we mention that it also has a headphone jack?
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After almost a decade of working in the e-commerce space, Patrick Farmer (he/him) began his career at Android Central as a Deals and Commerce Writer before moving into a new role as AC's eCommerce Editor in 2023. When he's not hunting down the best deals and offering shopping advice for our readers, you'll often find him listening to music, camping out at a brewery, or treating his cat like a human child.
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