I spent a week with the $179 Moto G Play 2026, and it may not be the phone you want, but it could be the phone you need

The Moto G Play hasn't been in play for a little while, with the last model launching at the top of 2024. Now, as we head into 2026 in just under two months, Motorola has finally unveiled the 2026 Moto G Play, bringing some welcome upgrades while keeping the phone at an extremely affordable price.

The phone features a better chip, display, and battery specifications than its predecessor, all of which sound promising on paper. That said, the cost of that affordability comes in the form of some compromises, which are front and center on this phone. After all, this is still a $179 phone, so you can't expect the very best.

So, what can you expect from a phone that costs less than $200? Well, not much, but that's really the point. You're getting what you pay for, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's still quite functional and can handle the basics (with a couple of extras)... so long as you're patient.

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At a glance

The Moto G Play 2026 launched on November 4, 2025, and goes on sale through retailers and select carriers starting November 13. It's priced at $179, comes in one color, and is available in just one configuration.

Welcome to 2025... sort of

The last time I reviewed a Moto G Play model was in 2023. To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with what Motorola provided, so I approached this review with some apprehension. Fortunately, I can say that my time with the Moto G Play 2026 hasn't been a terrible experience.

Part of this is a result of the upgrades Motorola introduced with the 2026 model. The MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset is the very same one that powers the Moto G Power 2025. It's a chipset that worked quite well on that phone, and here it at least makes the performance more manageable than the last Play I reviewed. It also brings 5G connectivity, which is surprisingly a first for the Play series, and a welcome spec for a $179 phone in the year of our lord 2025.

The display also got a bump to a 120Hz refresh rate. Unfortunately, the resolution is still just HD+, but that has rarely been a concern for me in my use, and I feel like the smoother refresh rate makes up for it. You'll still have to deal with rather large bezels, but the LCD panel is bright enough at 1,000 nits.

One of the standout features of the Moto G Play 2026 is its impressive battery life. Motorola says the 5,200mAh battery should keep this phone going for up to two days, and while I haven't quite reached that, I easily get more than a day of use. In fact, I average about nine hours of screen-on time, which is something I can't claim with too many phones.

On the software front, the phone runs Android 16 out of the box. While there isn't much in the way of software or AI flourishes, it supports Circle to Search, which is one of our favorite Android features and almost makes up for the lack of... well, anything else.

Of course, you still get Motorola's gestures, including the chop to turn on the flashlight and the twist to enable the camera. Motorola also introduced Modes as a replacement for the Do Not Disturb button, similar to the Pixel, and making it easy to enable various preset or custom modes like Bedtime or Driving.

A camera only a mother could love

For under $200, you naturally should not expect much from the Moto G Play's camera. It looks like there are multiple rear cameras, but it only sports a single 3MP primary sensor and a secondary ambient light sensor. It's not exactly clear how, if at all, the secondary sensor is meant to help, but I'm not sure there's much that can help the rather mid camera.

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Images aren't very detailed and can be a bit noisy, especially low-light photos. The 2x digital zoom also isn't much to sneeze at. If you have good enough light, you can probably squeeze out a decent image, but you shouldn't really count on it. Video and portrait mode are also

Living up to its price tag

The Moto G Play 2026 can deliver decent performance with the MediaTek chip, but the 4GB of RAM can cause some slowdowns. Apps don't open as fast, and there can be quite a bit of lag, so you may have to wait half a second or so to get any sort of response. This also applies to gaming, which is not this phone's strong suit.

In fact, this is probably the first time I've recommended keeping the RAM Boost feature on. It's not a magical remedy that turns the Play into a flagship, but it does appear to help even a little bit when it comes to performance.

Unfortunately, even if you want to play games on your phone, you may need to invest in a microSD card. Setting up the phone nearly filled up the 64GB of internal storage, some of which is taken up by the Android software. I couldn't play Honkai: Star Rail due to the enormous storage requirements after downloading the app resources.

Still, Pokémon Go plays relatively well if you can manage the lag.

As far as software goes, the Moto G Play 2026 is in a somewhat favorable position, as it already runs Android 16, before most of Motorola's phones have even received the update. That said, even with the phone's slightly better software promise of two OS upgrades and three years of security updates, it still falls behind other cheap Android phones, particularly those from Samsung.

On the downside, this cheap phone comes preloaded with its fair share of bloatware, some of which is optional. I had to uninstall a few apps after the initial setup and disable a gaming folder (which is really just a way to serve ads for games you can install). The Glance lock screen is here, too, although it wasn't enabled by default, which I appreciated.

Additionally, the phone is also inexplicably missing some of my favorite software gestures. The sidebar is one of the first features I set up on any Android phone that has it, but for some reason, it's not present here.

Charging speed is another area where the Moto G Play 2026 hasn't really evolved much, unfortunately. While the previous model features 15W charging, the 2026 model only supports 18W. That wouldn't be a huge problem, except for the increased battery capacity, meaning that it takes nearly two hours to charge the phone and roughly an hour just to reach 50%.

Should you buy the Moto G Play 2026?

Despite its downsides, the Moto G Play 2026 has some redeeming qualities. The vegan leather back provides a nice finish that you don't have to worry about breaking, the battery life is more than enough for most people, and the inclusion of 5G means this phone is already a step up from its predecessor.

That said, you would have to tolerate occasionally laggy performance, a subpar camera, and charging that's slower than molasses in an igloo. If you can't manage, consider other options for Android phones under $200, particularly older models that may perform just as well or better.

The Moto G Play 2026 doesn't feel like a bad phone; it just feels like a $179 phone. In that sense, you're getting exactly what you pay for, meaning you take the good with the bad. If you're looking for a temporary phone, a first phone for a young child, or a burner phone, this could be a suitable option. Just make sure you purchase a microSD card with it.

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