The first thing you’ll notice about the new Motorola Moto G51 5G is its size. The 6.8 inch screen, and 20:9 aspect ratio makes it unusually large for an industry that seems to price compact-size above most other features. It’s also quite weighty (208gm), and feels thick and bulky. This may all be a plus to you, depending on what you are after – you certainly won’t break this beast anytime soon – but those with small hands will find it hard to navigate comfortably with one hand without cramping, on having to constantly adjust the way you intuitively pilot a device, which can become annoying.

On the other hand, the large, bright ISP LCD screen with 120Hz display is one of the best you’ll find at the $399 price point, and with a 5000 mAh, 30-hour battery (partially the reason for this phone’s weight) and 5G support, this is one of the very best smartphones available in the budget sector.

Mercifully, Motorola have gone against the grain by providing a 3.5mm headphone jack, often the first feature to be sacrificed in the quest for a slimline design. Another benefit of its size is the pinhole camera, and notch-less design, meaning it won’t rock about everytime you touch the screen while the phone is sitting ‘flat’ on a table.

The power button and volume rocker will also require the small-handed to shimmy up the side of the phone to access them – not very ergonomically sound, but I’ve stressed that point enough.

Unlike many other Android 11 phones, which overlay annoying bespoke features on top of the already very good Android OS, Motorola have mainly avoided customising the OS with pointless branded features.

Specs-wise, the 128GB is enough for most users, with a micro SDXC upgrade to 512GB if needed. The Snapdragon 480+ processor and 6 GB of RAM will handle any tasks you throw at it, while the aforementioned 5000 mAh battery will last over a day – although it doesn’t support fast charging, so overnight plug-ins will be the norm.

The rear triple camera array is quite good: with a 50MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro, plus a 13MP selfie camera on the front.

The photos I took below, in low-lighting conditions, came out crisp and with nice depth. The in-camera menu is the easiest I’ve used, with all the options presented in a clear and obvious way, without relying upon vague emoticons that I’m meant to understand the difference between. Sometimes, it’s better to just spell out what a feature does, rather than try to baffle and impress.

One last bugbear is the single bottom-firing speaker, which doesn’t allow for stereo sound – this is a minor quibble given that most people don’t tend to rely on the in-built phone speakers for anything other than notifications. And those sound fine.

Overall, this is an exceptional phone for the price point, with many features that stretch way beyond what you can usually expect for $399. If you have small hands, however, it might be too much of a stretch.

8.5/10

Pros:

  • Amazing value
  • 5G
  • 120Hz screen
  • Huge battery

Cons:

  • Too large for a lot of users
  • Could have had a stereo speaker

Buy at JB Hi-Fi