Moto G73 5G first impressions: 5G focus

Motorola’s current G-series lineup can be summed up as confusing. The older Moto G62 had 5G connectivity, but the recently launched Moto G72 (Review) missed it. Now there’s the new Moto G73 which gets 5G connectivity but is officially priced the same as the G72. The latter performed well in our review, except for the missing 5G element which we considered a big drawback. Despite Motorola’s odd reasoning behind the move, the G72 felt a bit out of place, especially at a time when 5G connectivity was already available in major cities.

The new Moto G73 5G is expected to be the long-awaited upgrade to the Moto G62 5G, but it also serves as a 5G alternative to the newer Moto G72. Here are our first impressions of the new smartphone.

The Moto G73 5G has a slim and chiseled appearance, compared to the Moto G62 5G it replaces

It’s easy to spot this generational leap once you’ve seen Motorola’s new design philosophy, which is quite evident in the chiseled and slick appearance of the top-end Motorola Edge 30 Fusion or Edge 30 Ultra. The Moto G73 5G also follows this design by opting for a slim design at just 8.29mm thick, and it doesn’t feel too heavy at 181g. The back panel of the device is made from what Motorola calls, acrylic glass which looks and feels like glass but is actually plastic.

This soft, matte-finish rear panel looks premium in the Midnight Blue finish, but seems like a dust and fingerprint magnet. The frame is made of polycarbonate and also has a soft matte finish, which makes the phone very slippery. Fortunately, Motorola offers a soft TPU case in the box, which makes it much easier to grip.

The Moto G73 5G has a 6.5-inch Full HD+ LCD screen that looks like a downgrade from the Moto G72’s pOLED panel. The G72 5G has a variable refresh rate of 120Hz and also offers a touch sampling rate of 240Hz, which should be good for gaming.

The Moto G73 5G is also the first smartphone in India to feature the recently announced MediaTek Dimensity 930 SoC which supports 13 5G bands. The phone will be available in a single storage option of 8GB RAM and 128GB priced at Rs. 18,999 in India.

Unlike the Moto G62 5G, the Moto G73 5G offers stereo speakers as well as Dolby Atmos support. An IP52 rating is also present for basic water resistance. Motorola retains the 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom along with a Type-C port for charging and data transfers.

Moto Secure consolidates all phone security and privacy settings into one app

The Moto G73 5G runs a new portion of Motorola’s MyUX software which is based on Android 13. It has tons of customization options, but also comes with more Motorola-branded apps than ever before. There’s a new Family Space app that offers the usual child mode, but also allows guardians to gain remote control of another Motorola device, allowing them to provide remote assistance to another user (such as an elderly person). or a child). Of course, this is only allowed once the necessary permissions have been granted. Motorola also claims that it is quite secure as end-to-end security has been provided by its ThinkShield platform.

There’s also a brand new Moto Secure app, which essentially brings some ThinkShield-level security features to the forefront, on top of what Google’s Android already offers. This includes secure folder, network protection, lock screen security, and pin pad scrambling. The app also hosts the usual Android features like privacy dashboard, permission manager, etc. which bundle all the security and privacy features of the phone in one app.

While the phone comes with the usual Motorola apps, I also noticed the Facebook app which is the only third-party app pre-installed. Motorola promises a guaranteed upgrade to Android 14 and up to three years of security updates.

The Moto G73 5G has two rear-facing cameras, which include a main camera and an ultra-wide camera

As for its cameras, this Moto packs only two rear cameras. This includes a 50-megapixel main camera which Motorola says comes from last year’s premium Edge 30 Pro, and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, which also works with a macro camera and is also used to calculate the depth when using the camera’s Portrait mode. Selfies are handled by a 16-megapixel front camera.

Motorola has retained the 5,000mAh battery capacity of the Moto G62 5G but improved the charging speed by offering a 30W Type-C charger in the box.

Does MediaTek’s new Dimensity 930 SoC offer such a big leap in performance to justify the Moto G73 5G price? Stay tuned for our detailed review, coming soon to Gadgets 360.