The US market is quite limited when it comes to choosing Android vendors, but Motorola (now under the wing of Lenovo) is still going strong. The company has decided to clean up some of its inventory and cut prices on older and not-so-old devices. Here are some of the Black Friday deals.
We’ll start with the Motorola Edge (2021), which we mention quite often as it’s a solid and affordable mid-ranger. It offers a 6.8-inch 144Hz IPS LCD and a fairly capable Snapdragon 778G chipset, as well as a 108MP main camera and a 5,000mAh battery (30W fast charging). It’s not a killer flagship, but better specs at $300 are hard to find. Note that this launched with Android 11 and Motorola rarely does more than 2 OS updates.
The company has flagships, but something like the Moto Edge+ 5G (2022) can cost you twice as much. Still, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and 6.7-inch 144Hz AMOLED display for $600 sounds pretty good. The phone also packs a 50+50MP rear camera and a 60MP front camera, as well as a 4,800mAh battery that charges at 68W wired and at 15W wirelessly. This offers a few advantages over the similarly priced OnePlus 10T: The one has the 8+ Gen 1 chip, but costs $50 more for an 8/128GB model. The Edge+ units on offer have 512GB of storage, so keep that in mind.
There’s also the vanilla Motorola Edge (2022) at $500, but to save that $100 over the plus model you lose the flagship chip (it’s powered by a Dimension 1050) and the ultra-wide camera drops to 13MP resolution (the selfie cam is also downgraded). If you’re considering this, take another look at the 2021 model. Note that the 2022 version comes with a free 12-month Google One membership with 100GB of cloud storage, which somewhat offsets the cost (but doesn’t a lot, that’s $20 a year).
Even a pair of Motorolas with styluses are discounted. Looking at the 5G-enabled offerings first, we’d recommend the 2022 model over the 2021 phone. It costs more — $300 versus $200 — but there are benefits. For starters, you get the more capable Snapdragon 695 (vs. SD 480), a 120Hz display (vs. 60Hz), the 50MP camera has OIS, and the phone boots a version of Android (12, v13 expected at short). Additionally, Motorola will insert a free 256GB microSD card, bringing the total storage space to 512GB.
If you want a cheap stylus but don’t care so much about 5G, there are the 2021 and 2022 Moto G Stylus. This time around, the difference is only $30, and we’d probably go with the 2022 option. Its Helio G88 doesn’t it’s as fast as the Snapdragon 678, but has 6GB of RAM to work with instead of 4GB. There’s also the 90Hz refresh rate on the 6.8-inch display (both FHD+) and a bigger 5,000mAh battery (versus 4,000mAh). Also, the 2021 phone started with Android 10, so it’s about to become obsolete.
If you’d rather have cheap 5G instead of a capacitive stylus, the Moto G 5G (2022) is available for just $150. Note that this phone has spent all of its budget on the Dimensity 700 chipset as the rest of the hardware is pretty basic : 6.5-inch 90Hz HD+ display, 50MP camera (not ultra-wide), 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging. There’s a surprising amount of storage on this one, however, 256GB (with 6GB RAM).
We’d choose the Moto G 5G over the Moto G Power (2021) and not just because it has 5G. The cheapest version of the Power is $110, but that’s only for a 3/32GB configuration, the 4/64GB version is $130. retro (500/48 MP), we would rather have more storage space and faster connectivity. Still, that extra $40 represents an upcharge of more than 30%, so if $110 is the most you’re willing to spend, G Power isn’t a terrible choice.
We mentioned that Motorola is looking to clean up inventory, and we really meant it: There’s an original 2019 foldable Motorola Razr. At $1,000 off that may sound like a great deal, but that still means $500 for a Snapdragon phone. 710 three year old. Also, this is a Verizon-only phone with no SIM slot.
The 2020 version (which has at least 5G) is also heavily discounted: At $700 off, it’s $700 (the first two Razrs were quite expensive). That makes it one of the cheaper leaflets, but again it’s hard to recommend. A two-year-old phone with a Snapdragon 765 for $700 is a tough sell.
Unfortunately, the Razr (2022), which is actually a good phone, is not part of the discounts. In fact, the latest Foldable Moto isn’t yet available in the US, so discounts are out of the question.
By the way, Motorola accepts trade-ins, which can further reduce the prices listed above. Plus, you can pay in one lump sum or split it into monthly payments.
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