Forget Samsung: This Motorola phone I tested is the king of battery life for under $300

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Motorola 2026 Moto G Power

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Motorola's 2026 Moto G Power is disposable for $300.
It's a coagulated fund bundle with a agelong artillery beingness and a Full HD+ display.
However, it's lone a humble upgrade implicit the 2025 model.

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Over the past month, I've been investigating the 2026 Moto G Power, the past of Motorola's 2026 bid -- for now. During CES 2026, the institution unveiled the Razr Fold, its archetypal foldable smartphone, truthful determination is much to come. But for the archetypal group, I'd similar to deliberation that Motorola saved the champion for last. It offers the champion idiosyncratic acquisition of its generation, and I urge it implicit the others.

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My biggest disapproval of Motorola's 2026 lineup is that it intimately mirrors the erstwhile generation: galore of these phones consciousness astir identical to their 2025 counterparts. However, adjacent though the 2026 Moto G Power shares a batch of DNA with the 2025 version, it introduces much meaningful upgrades that let it to basal retired connected its own.

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Improved features

The biggest upgrades to the 2026 Moto G Power were made to the artillery and camera system. It packs a 5,200mAh battery, which is somewhat larger than the erstwhile generation's 5,000mAh cell. It doesn't look similar a large change, but the other size does amended longevity. As portion of testing, I played a 720p YouTube livestream nonstop, and the instrumentality lasted a bully 20 hours earlier tapping out. It is imaginable to treble that tally clip by activating Maximum Battery Saver.

What this does is restrict astir of the device's features, but for indispensable functions and apps, specified arsenic Phone, Messages, Settings, and the Google Play Store. A Motorola rep told maine that those 4 apps were "designated arsenic essential", truthful those stay active. It's a instrumentality intended for usage lone successful emergencies. Activating it tin widen the artillery beingness to implicit 40 hours, arsenic was the lawsuit with my reappraisal unit.

The selfie camera has been upgraded to a 32MP lens, delivering sharper photos with amended colour accuracy. Like the remainder of the 2026 series, the rear camera connected the Moto G Power received the aforesaid colour correction tweaks. Photos taken by the mobile instrumentality aren't overly saturated. To exemplify my point, I've included a representation I took of a radical of plush penguins to show the camera's quality.

Another standout camera diagnostic is Night Vision. When the airy sensor detects a low-light environment, the telephone provides the accidental to activate the tool, allowing the lenses to seizure much airy for brighter, higher-quality nighttime photos. You'll request to support your hands dependable to get a wide shot. Fortunately, Optical Image Stabilization keeps the camera steady, minimizing blur from flimsy manus movements.

Motorola besides told maine that Night Vision captures aggregate frames, "selecting moments of minimal motion." Below is simply a photograph I took of a distant location airy utilizing Night Vision, and I deliberation it turned retired rather well. You tin spot each the objects beauteous clearly, contempt the less-than-optimal conditions.

Sleek and durable

Design-wise, the 2026 Moto G Power is mostly unchanged from the 2025 model, isolated from the caller disposable colors. It's a 6.8-inch telephone weighing conscionable implicit 200 grams, and it's built to beryllium tough. The surface is made retired of Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, which is highly resistant to scratches and tin past drops of up to 3 feet onto asphalt. Motorola's smartphone is besides rated IP69, meaning it tin grip little submersion underwater.

Like the different models successful the series, the backmost is covered successful vegan leather. I'm not definite if Motorola made changes to the worldly oregon utilized a antithetic one, due to the fact that the backmost of the Moto G Power felt different, rougher, similar existent leather. I really similar this construction. The different phones had a softer back, astir similar cloth. This telephone had a nicer feel.

Also: I tried Motorola's Razr Fold astatine CES 2026, and it's the company's astir ambitious telephone yet

Returning to the display, it operates astatine Full HD+ solution (2388 x 1080 pixels), and it is, acold and away, the champion surface among the 2026 trio. It consistently outputs high-res visuals with agleam and vibrant colors. On the different Moto G models, the surface prime was truthful debased that it astir ruins the camera. Their displays don't bash the photographs they instrumentality immoderate justice. Thankfully, that is not an contented with the Moto G Power.

Under the hood, the telephone is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset. I'm going to beryllium brutally honorable here: I person thing to accidental astir the 6300 that I haven't already said before. It's a decent portion of hardware.

Nearly each Motorola smartphone from the 2025 and 2026 lines uses this chipset, and it's a coagulated midrange level that's large for casual net browsing and airy photography, but struggles nether dense workloads, similar mobile gaming. In this instance, the Full HD+ show does a batch of dense lifting, elevating the 2026 Moto G Power supra the rest.

ZDNET's buying advice

The Moto G Power is disposable present for $300 connected the company's website. You tin take from 2 colors: Evening Blue and Pure Cashmere, which is simply a shiny, pearl-like white.

I've advised readers successful erstwhile reviews to see the 2025 models if they privation a mobile instrumentality akin to the 2026 mentation but astatine a little price. In this instance, however, I tin confidently accidental that this Moto G Power exemplary is amended than its predecessor acknowledgment to the improvements made to the artillery and camera.

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