Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Last week, Motorola launched the new budget phone Moto G35 5G series phone for Rs 9,999 in India.
It comes in vibrant colour options and features a Unisoc processor with a big 5,000mAh battery and dual-camera hardware. I tested the device for almost a week and here are my thoughts on Motorola's last phone of 2024.
Design, build quality and display
Our Motorola Moto G35 5G review unit is the Guava Red variant. It is one of the prettiest budget phones I have reviewed in 2024. It has leather-like textures and the bright crimson-red colour gets the instant attention of the onlookers.
Besides the Guava Red, the company offers the device in two other colours-- midnight black and leaf green. They too are really good.
Also, the texture back panel does an excellent job of repelling the sweaty smudges and dust. And, most importantly offers great grip for the fingers to firmly hold on to the device.
Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It should be noted that the material used for the cover panel is plastic, but is really sturdy and is really good quality considering its price range.
Further, the device comes with an IP52 rating, meaning it can survive accidental water splashes. And, the screen has Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 shield for protection against scratches when kept in tight spaces such as pant pockets with keys and coins.
Add to that, the company is offering a free silicone case with the retail box. It is soft and sturdy to save the device from cracking if it falls from a waist height. Motorola has done everything for the Moto G35 to serve the customer for several years.
On the front, it has a pretty 6.72-inch full HD+ (2400 x 1080p) LCD screen, supports 120Hz refresh rate and up to 1,000 nits peak brightness. The display is good for watching video blogs and movies/TV series on OTT apps.
Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The device features really good stereo speakers tuned with the Dolby Atmos system to make watching movies more enjoyable.
Also, it has a Display Colour Boost feature to further enhance the brightness to have a better viewing experience when outdoors with bright sunlight.
For night too, it has features to control blue light emission to lessen the impact on eyes while reading long-form news articles or e-books.
Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
On the side, the device has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. It works amazingly well, way better than that on-screen sensor, which requires fingers to be dry and clean at all times.
With this physical sensor, the phone unlocks faster even if the finger has sweat.
It also comes with a type-c port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack, which is a rare feature among the current crop of phones.
Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It has hybrid dual-SIM slots. Here, the user has to decide on a second SIM or microSD card slot for extra storage space.
Performance
The Motorola device houses a 6nm class UNISOC T760 octa-core processor with Mali-G57 MC4 GPU 4GB LPDDR4x RAM, 128GB UFS 2.2 internal storage (expandable up to 1TB) and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging capability.
In terms of performance, the Moto G35 is a decent budget phone. It does regular tasks such as loading apps, switching between multiple apps, operate the camera smoothly without any pressing issues as such.
However, the device, like any budget phone (under Rs 10,000) is not made for extreme gaming. It is better suited to play board games, and candy crush kind of titles.
The device runs Android 14 OS. It is pretty clean but comes with a handful of third-party apps. That's not a problem, as it has big storage. The base model comes with 128GB storage and can be expanded via a MicroSD card.
Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
And, the device will soon get the latest Android 15 and is guaranteed to receive two years of security updates.
As far as battery life is concerned, the Moto G35 5G consistently lasted more than a day under normal usage. At the end of the day, it had at least 20-25 per cent juice left.
The company offers a 20W charger, but the charging speed on the device is limited to 18W. It takes around 105 minutes to fully charge the device from zero to 100 per cent market.
The Moto G35 supports 12 5G bands and is compatible with cellular data services offered by Reliance Jio and Airtel in India. Soon, Vodafone will also be offering 5G services in India.
Motorola Moto G35 5G's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Photography
It also comes with a dual camera module--main 50MP (with f/1.8 aperture) and 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera with LED flash on the back.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The device takes good photos in the sunlight. The colours of the subject, be it a human face or flowers, come off a bit warmer and more vibrant than what they look through our eyes.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It supports ultra-wide angle mode. As you can see in the sample photos below, the Moto G35 manages to get a wide area of landscape.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample with wide-angle mode.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
As far as portrait mode is concerned, it manages to do a decent job of capturing sharp photos of the subject and creating the bokeh effect with a blurred background.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample with bokeh effect.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
At night, I was pretty surprised by the quality of the photos. Though the auto-focus of the camera loses speed, the device manages to get decent sharp photos in low light conditions.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample with night mode on.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It supports 2X optical zoom. It gets good photos with less loss of quality. However, it doesn't support digital zoom.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample with night mode on.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
On the front, it features a 16MP (f/2.45) front camera for selfies and video calling. The photo quality is decent at best.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample with night mode on.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It supports 1080p full HD video and again the video quality is good, on par with other rival budget phones.
Motorola Moto G35 5G sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Final thoughts
As noted earlier, Motorola's Moto G35 5G is one of the best-looking phones and also well-built to survive scratches and accidental drops.
Motorola Moto G35 5G.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Performance, battery life and photography wise, it is decent; the device fares well compared to others under the Rs 10,000 price range.
Motorola Moto G35 5G comes in three colours-- Guava red, midnight black and leaf green-- for Rs 9,999.
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