Motorola has unveiled the G100 and G50, two midrange phones headed first for European and Latin American markets. Both offer displays with fast 90Hz refresh rates for smooth scrolling and animations, 5G connectivity, and they embrace Motorola’s ethos of “more battery, more better” with huge 5,000mAh cells.
The higher-end G100 is poised to compete with the likes of the Google Pixel 4A 5G with a Snapdragon 870 5G processor, 8GB of RAM, and a dual wide / ultrawide selfie camera for €499.99 (~$587). The G50, on the other hand, looks like a respectable, budget-friendlier device — its faster refresh rate, 6.5-inch screen is still a bit rare at its €229.99 (~$269) price.
The Motorola G100 offers a large 6.7-inch 1080p LCD. Its 8GB of RAM is accompanied by 128GB of storage, which is expandable thanks to a MicroSD card slot. Support for sub-6GHz 5G frequencies is included, as is Wi-Fi 6. The G100 features a main 64-megapixel camera (lacking optical stabilization, sadly) complemented by a 16-megapixel ultrawide that doubles as a macro camera, complete with a built-in ring flash.
Two selfie cameras are offered — an approach Google took with the Pixel 3 and subsequently abandoned — with a 16-megapixel wide and 8-megapixel ultrawide. Up to 6K / 30p video recording is possible with the main rear camera, and the rear ultrawide can capture 4K / 30p clips — something found on many flagships but isn’t too common in this upper midrange class.
The Motorola G50 uses a slightly smaller (but still, you know, large) 6.5-inch 720p screen. It includes a slower Snapdragon 480 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64 or 128GB of storage (thankfully, there’s a microSD slot here, too). The rear triple-camera array is mostly just a 48-megapixel standard wide camera; the accompanying 5-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel depth sensor don’t offer a whole lot of practical use. If none of that sounds too compelling, consider that the European pricing equates to well under $300. If the device were to make it to the US, it would be well-equipped to compete at that price.
There’s no confirmation just now if and when these phones will be sold in the US, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for them. In the meantime, the G100 goes on sale in European and Latin American markets today, while the G50 will arrive in “selected European markets” in the coming weeks.
