Looking to offer an Android smartphone that does all the basics for less, Motorola just announced the Moto G Pure as the latest addition to its U.S. portfolio. While high-end flagships are a lot of fun to talk about, it's important to remember these aren't the phones many people actually buy. Instead, they buy budget-minded devices that don't cost an arm and a leg.
This particular niche is where Motorola's spent the majority of its focus over the last few years. Ever since the original Moto G launched in 2013, the company's continued expanding its Moto G family in some pretty interesting ways. It's added more capable specs with each new release, used larger batteries, implemented 5G connectivity, and even added built-in styluses to certain models. For anyone who lives in the United States and wants an Android handset that's $300 or less, your best bet is likely some variant of the Moto G.
After already launching five Moto G models for the U.S. in 2021 alone, Motorola's expanding the series once more with the new Moto G Pure. The main draw to the Moto G Pure is the dirt-cheap $160 asking price. That makes it the most affordable Moto G available — ever-so-slightly undercutting the $170 Moto G Play. Design-wise, the G Pure follows Motorola's expected aesthetic for the G-series. It's made out of plastic, has a small waterdrop notch at the top of its 6.5-inch display, charges with USB-C, and has a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio. There's even an IP52 dust and water resistance rating to protect it against the elements. It all looks fairly good considering just how affordable the Moto G Pure is. That said, it doesn't take long for the limitations of that low price to become noticeable. While having a 6.5-inch display is great for watching movies and playing games, it's limited to an HD resolution of 1600 x 720. Furthermore, the dual-camera system on the back is a very modest 13MP primary camera + 2MP depth sensor setup.
Moto G Pure Specs & Availability Info
Under the hood, the rest of the Moto G Pure follows this same pattern. Key specs include 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (expandable up to 512GB), and a MediaTek Helio G25 chipset — making the G Pure the first Motorola phone in the United States with a MediaTek processor. It's also equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery, which Motorola says is enough for up to two days of use on a single charge. Being limited to 10W charge speeds isn't ideal, but for a phone of this caliber, it gets the job done. Users are also treated to Bluetooth 5.0, LTE data, dual-band Wi-Fi, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Like most other budget Motorola smartphones, the Moto G Pure doesn't have an NFC chip for contactless payments.
All of this is pretty typical for a Moto G in 2021. The specs aren't the most impressive, but for the price, they're perfectly adequate. What is disappointing, however, is Motorola's continued lack of proper software support for its lower-end devices. Despite Android 12 being right around the corner, the Moto G Pure still ships with Android 11 out of the box — effectively making its operating system outdated from day one. In usual Motorola fashion, the company promises just a single OS update for the Moto G Pure's entire life cycle. In other words, once it's eventually updated to Android 12 to get on the current latest version of Android, that's the only major update it'll receive. Even for a $160 smartphone, a policy like this is so poor that it's impossible to defend. Motorola's gotten away with this practice for years and shows no signs of improving. At some point, it has to do better.
Here's the thing, though. For people who don't care that much about Android updates (which is admittedly most folks), the Moto G Pure should be a fine device for them. It looks fairly good, has decent specs for day-to-day use, and has a price that's conducive to almost any budget. Pre-orders for the Moto G Pure begin on October 14 at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H, Walmart, and Motorola's own website for the universally unlocked model. Verizon will also start carrying the phone on that date, followed by T-Mobile, AT&T, Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, and others in the coming months.
Source: Motorola