Motorola Moto G96 review: Reliable mid-range phone with slim design

For the past couple of years, Motorola has shown remarkable vigour in reclaiming the lost market share since 2014 in India. It has launched a wide range of phones from Rs 10,000 to Rs 90,000.

As per the latest report, Motorola registered a big double digit (39.4 per cent) jump in growth in the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year. It now has an 8 per cent market share in India and is placed in sixth position on leader board.

With the Moto G series, Motorola offers budget-friendly phones with modern design elements and reliable performance. The latest Moto G96 series also promises the same, but does it deliver? Let's check it out.

Design, build quality and display

Motorola Moto G96 comes in a slim design language with eye-catching colours. Our review unit is the PANTONE Dresden Blue variant.

It looks lovely in the sunlight. The cover panel on the back has a nice, tactile texture, which offers a firm grip for the fingers to hold on to the sleek phone.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

It measures just 7.93mm in thickness and weighs 178g, very easy to carry around in the hand, and when put in a pocket, I barely noticed its weight.

The company also offers the device in three PANTONE-certified colours-- Greener Pastures, Cattleya Orchid, and Ashleigh Blue. They, too, are pretty looking variants.

The device is not just a pretty good-looking phone, but also comes with sturdy build quality. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 shield. It is enough to safeguard the screen from daily wear-and-tear, such as scratches when kept with keys or pens or coins in the close confines of a pant pocket or pouch in the backpack.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

Also, it comes with an IP68 water-and-dust-resistant rating, meaning the device can survive an accidental drop inside any fresh water body such as a river, pond or a swimming pool for close to 1.5 metres (around five feet) up to 30 minutes.

Thanks to Smart Water Touch tech, the Moto G96's display is responsive even with wet hands.

On the right side, it houses volume rockers and the power button placed one over the other at the top for easy accessibility to wake up the phone or adjust volume.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

At the base, it houses a Type-C port with loud loudspeaker tuned with a Dolby Atmos system, a microphone and a dual SIM slot tray. It can house two nano SIMs. It should be noted that there is no provision for a microSD card.

At the top, it features a microphone and a speaker.

At the back, it comes with a dual-camera module with an LED flash. The cover panel is said to be made of faux leather and has an iconic inverted batwing 'M'otorola logo at the centre.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

On the front, it flaunts a beautiful 6.67-inch full HD+ (2400×1080p) 10-bit curved OLED Display, HDR10+, 144Hz refresh rate, up to 1600 nits peak brightness,

The screen panel cascades up to the mid-frame, which enhances the visual appeal of the phone. The bezels are quite thick, but uniform around the edges to deliver a good viewing experience. Be it watching TV series/movies on OTT platforms or doom scrolling on social media apps, the display is great for multimedia consumption.

It also features an optical fingerprint sensor. As advertised, the biometric sensor works smoothly without any issues.

Performance

The Moto G96 is powered by a 4nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 octa-core with Adreno 710 GPU. It can clock peak CPU speed up to 2.4GHz.

The device comes with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB / 256GB (UFS 2.2) storage options.

It supports all popular gaming titles, including battle royale genre ones available on the Google Play Store. It remains stable and doesn't show any signs of sluggishness. Even while running the Gen AI Gemini app and other photography tools too, it manages to deliver stable performance.

It does get a bit warm while playing games or video recording for extended sessions, but not overwhelmingly enough to complain about.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

Motorola phone runs Android 15-based Hello UI. Unlike other phones, it comes with a good number of third-party apps such as Facebook, Perplexity AI app, a few gaming titles such as Sudoku, Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Shooter and more.

But they don't take up too much space. Our review unit, which comes with 256GB storage, had user-usable space of 231GB. It is more than enough to install hundreds of apps and even store thousands of photos and videos captured on the phone.

As far as the software updates are concerned, the company promises to offer just one Android OS 16 update and security software coverage up to 2028.

The device supports Smart Connect 2.0, which promises stable wireless connectivity with compatible consumer electronics gadgets at home, such as TVs, PCs for gaming, video calls, and more.

It supports value-added features such as Cross Device Search, Swipe to Share, and Swipe to Stream, which come in handy while playing movies on the smart TV.

The device also comes with Moto Secure 3.0, powered by Lenovo's ThinkShield, which promises security for sensitive information such as online IDs and passwords stored in the device.

Also, it supports Family Spaces 3.0. It is similar to Google's Family Link app. It allows parents to control screen time management and remote assistance to teenagers with Android phones.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

The device houses a 5,500mAh battery. It manages to deliver a full day's battery life under normal usage with mixed use of Wi-Fi and cellular-based internet connectivity.

The device supports 33W fast charging. It can power up from zero to 100 per cent in little over one and a half hours.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

Photography

The Moto G96 houses a dual-camera module-- main 50MP (with Sony LYT-700C sensor with f/1.88 aperture, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) and 8MP ultra-wide camera (with macro option, f/2.2) with LED flash on the back.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

It takes pretty good photos in all light conditions. The human faces appear photogenic with clearer skin than what they appear to our eyes. I am not complaining, as this makes people take more photos to share them on social media platforms.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

Even the colourful flowers look pretty and vibrant in the sunlight. The device manages to get clear details of the subject pretty well.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

It supports ultrawide-angle photos and manages to accommodate the wide space of the landscape into the frame with clear details.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

At night, it takes pretty nice photos with less noise.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

It also supports 2X optical zoom and can digitally zoom up to 10X. The picture quality is good up to 5X, but beyond that, it begins to accumulate noise.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

The device supports the Google Photos, as a native gallery app, and with this, users get access to top-class generative Artificial Intelligence tools such as Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Magic Editor, and more. However, it needs internet connectivity to use the tools.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

With portrait mode, the device manages to get sharp photos of the subject and good bokeh effect in the background.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

Even under close-up shot, the Moto G96, as you can see this sample photo below, gets nice crisp photos with clear details of the bee on the flower.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

On the front, it features a 32MP(f/2.45). It takes good quality selfies in natural light settings.

Motorola Moto G96 5G's camera sample.

Both the front and the back cameras can record 4K videos at 30 frames per second. It is pretty decent, on par with devices under the price range of Rs 20,000.

Final thoughts

Motorola Moto G96 may appear slim in design, but it comes with a reliable processor to deliver smooth performance. Also, under normal usage, it can easily last a full day. And, the camera is good in a natural sun-lit environment.

Motorola Moto G96 5G.

As noted earlier, the device is available in four PANTONE-certified colours-- Greener Pastures, Cattleya Orchid, Ashleigh Blue and Dresden Blue.

It comes in two configurations-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 17,999 and Rs 19,999, respectively.

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