Motorola Moto G14 smartphone review – Storage giant in vegan leather

With Motorola’s Moto G14, which costs just under 150 Euros, you are spoiled for choice: Do you want a matte-glossy back in blue or gray, or do you opt for a pastel-brown or pastel-purple version with a synthetic leather back? Our test device is the light brown variant, the frame’s color matches the vegan leather on the back exactly, and the material transitions are very clean. The Moto G14 also scores in terms of weight: At only 177 grams, it is considerably lighter and also a bit more compact than many comparison devices in the price range. Nevertheless, it offers quite narrow display edges, so you have a lot of screen space available.

Motorola describes the chassis as water-repellent, but you should not go diving with the phone. We really like the memory configuration: 4 GB RAM is not a matter of course in this price range, but 128 GB UFS 2. 2 flash is almost a small sensation for well under 200 Euros.

You do not have to do without NFC either, so you can easily use the Moto Phone for mobile payment services. Besides two SIM card slots, there is also a slot for a microSD card. This manages class-standard transfer rates, which means that you should not expect too fast data speeds.

Motorola’s Moto G14 is a 4G phone, and our model has the most necessary frequencies for operation in Europe. For further trips abroad, you should find out in advance which LTE bands are necessary for the operation and see whether the Moto G14 supports them since the variety is rather small here. The reception strength is usually a bit below that of high-end phones in random tests during our two-week test, but it never completely breaks down in inner-city areas.

The fastest Wi-Fi standard is Wi-Fi 5. We tested the achieved data rates with our reference router Asus ROG Rapture AXE11000: The Moto G14 achieves good results on a higher class level. It also stands out with stable data rates.

The home Internet connection can be used quite well, as long as you do not have a gigabit line. Android 13 is preinstalled on the Moto G14. As usual from Motorola, you get a quite pure Android, the manufacturer’s own functions are outsourced to a separate app.

The security patches are from August 2023 and thus up-to-date at the time of testing. The phone is supposed to get updates at least every 2 months for three years, and Android 14 is already promised. The screen is only a 60 Hz panel, so the handling does not look quite as smooth.

Nevertheless, the touchscreen responds quickly and reliably. A fingerprint sensor is found in the standby button on the casing’s right. It reliably recognizes once-learned fingers and unlocks the phone after a minimum waiting time.

Face recognition can also be used for unlocking. However, since it only scans 2D images, it is somewhat susceptible to manipulation. A 50-megapixel camera is found on the back.

An additional ultra-wide-angle lens is not available; the second camera is a fairly low-resolution macro camera for extreme close-ups. Most of the time, the main camera will probably be used for photos, which take decent pictures in good ambient light. It lacks a bit of sharpness and the structure of the lens glass is also visible when looking closer, but the pictures can be used for snapshots.

With little ambient light and high contrasts, a recognizable image with little dynamic range in very bright or very dark areas can be seen. In the test lab, the main camera proved to be a bit inaccurate with text borders in front of a colored background. The image content can still be roughly recognized in only 1 lux illumination.

Videos can be recorded in a maximum of 1080p and 30 fps. The autofocus reacts quite quickly, but a slight pumping is possible. The brightness correction also does its job quite well.

The 8-megapixel front-facing camera takes somewhat dark selfies in good light, which hardly offer any dynamics, but can also be enlarged a bit without losing too many details. Our review sample convinces with a slightly higher Full HD display resolution. Thanks to Widevine L1 certification, streaming videos can also be enjoyed in full quality.

The Moto G14 also outperforms its rivals in terms of maximum screen brightness, and thus also does better in bright environments. However, the contrast ratio drops due to the moderate black level, so colors are not displayed as brightly. A slight blue cast is visible in the measurements with the spectrophotometer, but the color deviations are overall within limits.

We did not notice PWM even at very low brightness levels. The Unisoc T616 is a popular SoC for inexpensive devices, which performs quite well. Of course, the higher resolution is evident in the onscreen graphics benchmarks compared with many other devices, which results in somewhat lower scores.

However, the Moto G14 and its SoC are always ahead in directly comparable benchmarks. Of course, you should not expect high-end power, but it is usually sufficient for smooth operation in everyday use with less demanding tasks like messaging. The fast memory contributes to the fact that Motorola’s phone feels a bit faster than many similarly priced phones due to short charging times, for example.

We measured a maximum temperature of 41. 4 °C on the case after a long load. This is noticeable, but by no means problematic.

The processor also copes well with the resulting waste heat and throttles minimally at most even during longer load. As a small bonus, the inexpensive Motorola smartphone also comes with stereo speakers. They manage a passable volume, but the sound is not very defined: voices seem a bit distant, and single instruments are hard to pick out at maximum volume.

External headphones and speakers can be connected via a 3. 5 mm jack and Bluetooth. The basics of Bluetooth codecs for audio transmission are available: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC.

The phone lasted 16:35 hours in our WLAN battery test. That is a respectable rate that should allow Moto G14 to easily last the day. When the phone is empty, it can be recharged with up to 15 watts.

One drawback: Motorola only includes a 10-watt adapter with the inexpensive phone, so you cannot use the full charging speed. Full HD screen, fast storage, NFC, stereo speakers: Motorola has really put a lot of effort into the equipment of the Moto G14, which costs just 150 Euros. A protective case is also included, which further reduces the total cost of the new phone.

With so much praise, it is even stranger that Lenovo saves on the charger and only includes a 10-watt power supply, although the phone can be charged with up to 15 watts. Apart from this minor issue, Motorola’s Moto G14 does really well in our test when you know what to expect in the sub-200 euro price range: A main camera that takes decent snapshots, but is probably not suitable for demanding photo enthusiasts. A processor that is sufficient for simple tasks, but hardly has any reserves in very demanding apps.

A fairly bright screen that has a high resolution and does without PWM flickering, but cannot convince in terms of color accuracy. Motorola’s Moto G14 is a light and inexpensive smartphone that not only convinces with a chic exterior but also with good features. The Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE also offers long software updates and a decent camera; for a few Euros more, there is also the 5G variant .

The Motorola Moto G14 is available in all four colors directly from the manufacturer for 149. 99 Euros (~$162). It is also available at this price on amazon.

de . You can even save a few Euros on the gray color version at Cyberport at the time of testing. .