Taking its display right to the edge, the Motorola Moto G85 5G builds on its budget lineage to put a high-quality screen front and centre.
Long a budget staple of the Motorola lineup, Moto G-series has proven popular in recent years. The Moto G54 is one of the best-value phones in recent years, while 2023’s Moto G84 took things up a notch with more RAM and a vibrant pOLED display. In terms of day-to-day performance, the new G85 offers a familiar experience, juxtaposed by its striking display.
Previously exclusive to Motorola’s aptly labelled “Edge” range, the edge-to-edge design now makes its way to the Moto G85, the brand’s first G-series phone to get the feature. In doing so, the barrier to entry for this type of screen has dropped from $599 for the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion down to $399 for the Moto G85.
Without a doubt, it looks fantastic. The screen is great to look at and use, standing out from similarly priced handsets. It’s a decent point of difference for a phone that otherwise shares a lot in common with its competitors.
Motorola Moto G85 5G review
First impressions
Super comfortable in hand, the Moto G85 is light and easy to hold – boding well for how long you’ll want to look at its stunning screen. Combining a sharp 2400 x 1080 resolution with the smoothness of a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s a nice pOLED display.
Slightly cheaper phones fall into the trap of including high refresh rates but sticking with lower-resolution 720p screens. This makes text look slightly fuzzy, which isn’t as nice for reading or viewing images in full detail.
Not everything from its predecessor carries over, however. The Moto G84 included a 3.5mm headphone jack, whereas the G85 has dropped it entirely. Wireless headphones may be more affordable than ever, but it’s still a disappointing omission. At least the Moto G85 includes eSIM support, something the G84 lacked, which is arguably more important.
I’ve mentioned before that edge-to-edge screens take some getting used to. If you come from a phone with more squared-off edges, it’s easy to accidentally tap or swipe the screen. After a while, you develop a grip that secures the phone without your fingers clawing around the edges and onto the screen. Small-handed users might find this less of an issue than folks with big mitts.
Motorola Moto G85 5G specs and price in Australia
| Display | 6.7-inch pOLED 2400 x 1080 resolution 395 ppi 120Hz refresh rate |
| Dimensions | 161.91 x 73.06 x 7.59mm 171g (PMMA / Acrylic model) 173g (Silicone / Vegan Leather model) |
| Processor | Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 |
| Storage and memory | 128GB storage 8GB RAM |
| Cameras | 50MP rear camera: f/1.79, 0.8 µm, Quad Pixel, OIS 8MP ultra-wide angle rear camera: 118° FOV, f/2.2, 1.12 µm 32MP front camera: f/2.4, 0.7 µm, Quad Pixel |
| Battery and charging | 5,000mAh capacity 30W wired charging |
| Connectivity | USB-C 2.0 Wi-Fi 5 Bluetooth 5.1 NFC Physical SIM + eSIM |
| Network bands | 2G: GSM band 2/3/5/8 3G: WCDMA band 1/2/5/8 4G: LTE band 1/2/3/5/7/8/18/19/20/26/28/32/38/40/41/42 5G: n1/n3/n5/n7/n8/n20/n26/n28/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78 |
| Software | Android 14 |
| Durability | Water-repellant |
| Colours | Olive Green Cobalt Blue Urban Grey |
| Price (RRP) | $399 |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Motorola Australia |
Performance
Powered by the efficiency-minded Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 chipset, the Motorola Moto G85 doesn’t produce any surprises. It runs daily apps without complaint, provided your main phone usage comprises messaging, web browsing, and social media.
When run through the gauntlet of popular benchmarking apps, the Moto G85 returned middle-of-the-pack results. Its Geekbench 6 scores are similar to past Motorola phones, running alongside the cheaper ZTE-made Nubia and Telstra handsets. It does claim the advantage in single-core performance, in addition to its higher 8GB physical RAM count. On the topic of RAM, it’s worth noting that 8GB is less than the 12GB included in the G84, although you can boost with virtual memory by using spare storage.
| Device | CPU single-core | CPU multi-score | GPU (OpenCL) |
| Moto G54 5G | 921 | 2,329 | N/A |
| Telstra T-Elite 5G | 749 | 2,345 | 1,720 |
| Nubia Focus 5G | 749 | 2,234 | 1,715 |
| Motorola Moto G85 | 943 | 2,099 | 1,609 |
| Moto G84 5G | 916 | 2,061 | 1,410 |
| Oppo A79 5G | 718 | 1,836 | 1,163 |
| Oppo A18 | 435 | 1,454 | 565 |
| Moto G24 | 411 | 1,405 | 549 |
| Moto G04 | 381 | 1,335 | 446 |
At $399, the Moto G85 teeters on the edge of entry-level and mid-range, which its graphical performance reflects. 3DMark Wild Life, a GPU benchmark for phones that tests gaming performance, found the G85 at the base of the pack. In short: this ain’t a gaming phone. To be fair, neither are any of the phones around it. Even devices a couple of hundred dollars more don’t show tangibly higher GPU scores.
| Device | Score | Average frame rate (fps) |
| Motorola Edge 50 Fusion | 3,029 | 18.14 |
| Samsung Galaxy A35 | 2,798 | 16.76 |
| Oppo Reno 11 F 5G | 2,296 | 13.75 |
| Telstra T-Elite 5G | 1,634 | 9.79 |
| Nubia Focus 5G | 1,624 | 9.73 |
| Moto G85 | 1,557 | 9.45 |
Battery Life
Steady without setting any world records, the Moto G85’s battery should last you more than a day, as long as you don’t hammer it. With a fully charged battery, it dropped to 95% after an hour of YouTube video playback, with screen brightness and volume set to 50%.
That’s a bit lower than other affordable phones but still serviceable. Motorola set the recent benchmark with the Edge Fusion 50, which still had 99% of its battery capacity after the same test. It’s also worth mentioning that the G85’s built-in speakers sound pretty decent. That’s not an invitation to scroll TikTok on the train without headphones, mind you.
30W wired charging is nice at this price, especially considering a 33W charger comes included. It means you can top up the battery faster than some much pricier phones (looking at you, Apple).
Motorola Moto G85 5G camera
Equipped with a standard two-lens rear camera array, the Motorola G85 takes a nice photo, even in sub-optimal conditions. What I liked most about its camera was its ability to take detailed snaps that didn’t look overly processed. Colours look accurate without being oversaturated – a common occurrence even among more premium phones.
Getting up close with my trusty plush Pokémon model, the G85 captured a lot of little details. Aided by the ample natural light in the room, you can easily make out individual fibres and the texture of the couch it’s sitting on. I like the bright yet natural-looking colours, and shallow depth-of-field on display.
Closing all curtains and repeating the photo in near-total darkness, the Moto G85 camera held up nicely. You do lose a bit of detail, but the subject remains in sharp focus, and you could compensate for the lack of brightness in an editing app. Switching to the slower shutter speed of Night Mode, the camera brightness the subject reasonably well, at the expense of sharpness.
Now it’s time for the obligatory cat photo; Billie the ever-willing model. It’s easy to pick out individual tufts of fur, and the subtle colouring of her coat stands out. I can even zoom in quite far without encountering too much noise (which might be a bit tricky to notice here due to web compression).
Looking at these Lego flowers, the colours look vivid but not unrealistic – a tricky balance for phone cameras to strike. There’s also not much in the way of camera grain in the darker parts of the image.
How about the selfie camera? Like any camera, it performs best in well-lit conditions, like in front of a window. Even with the beauty filter set to zero, the Motorola G85 camera still looks a bit smooth for my liking. To some, that could be a selling point due to the flattering results. It is better at depicting natural skin tones than some budget phones, which I appreciate.
Who is the Motorola Moto G85 5G for?
You want a big, near-borderless screen on an affordable phone? The Moto G85 beckons. It houses one of the nicest displays you can find from a budget handset.
Don’t expect a major difference in app performance from the likes of the G84 or G54, because it’s fairly consistent with previous models. It’s a decent upgrade if you haven’t bought a phone in a couple of years, though.
Ultimately, you choose this phone for its screen first, and everything else second. Whether you’re a watcher, a scroller, or a browser, the Moto G85 makes it all look fabulous.
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