The Motorola G35 provides a lot for its price, including an FHD+ display, 5000 mAh battery, 18W fast charging (with a 20W charger included), a strong Unisoc T760 CPU, 128 GB UFS 2.2 storage, quality design and finish, stereo speakers, and, of course, 5G compatibility.
All of these features make it an appealing option in this sector, but is it the best choice? Should you buy it, and what’s the catch? Let’s take a look at the Motorola G35 review to find out.
Motorola G35 Price & Availability
The Motorola G35, which comes in three different colors—Leaf Green, Guava Red, and Midnight Black—starts at ₹9,999 for the only 4 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant. You can buy the device from Flipkart and other retailers.
Pros
- Great battery life
- Great display for the price
- Stereo speakers
- 5G works well
- Premium design
- IP52 rating for splash and dust resistance
- Day-to-day usage is decent
- 4K video
Cons
- Pre-installed apps and Glance lock screen
- Cameras need improvement
- Fingerprint scanner is a hit and a miss
- Gaming experience isn’t good
- 4 GB RAM is a bottleneck; apps don’t stay in the RAM
Motorola G35 Review: Specifications
- Display: 6.72-inch LCD, 1080 x 2400 resolution, 391 PPI, 1000 Nits, 120 Hz refresh rate, HDR10, Touch sampling rate 120/180/240 Hz, Gorila Glass 3
- SoC: Unisoc T760, 4x 2.21 GHz + 4x 2.0 GHz, 6 nm, Mali-G57 GPU
- RAM: 4 GB LPDDR4X
- Storage: 128 GB UFS 2.2
- Cameras:
- Main: 50 MP 1/2.76-inch, f/1.8, PDAF, 4K30 & 1080p30
- Ultra-wide: 8 MP 1/4.1-inch, f/2.2, 1080p30
- Front: 16 MP 1/3.1-inch, f/2.45, 1080p30
- Audio: Stereo speakers, headphone jack, dual microphones, Dolby Atmos
- Battery and charging: 5,000 mAh, 18W, USB Type-C 2.0
- IP rating: IP52
- Connectivity: 5G, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0
- Biometrics: Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, 2D face unlock
- Weight and thickness: 185g, 7.79mm
- Build: Vegan leather/PMMA back and plastic frame
Motorola G35 Review: Design
The Motorola G35 has a fairly quality look for its pricing. The Green and Red variations sport a vegan leather finish, whereas the Midnight Black has a plastic finish. The front is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, which weighs 185 grammes and has a thickness of 7.79 mm. It feels sturdy but cosy.
A secondary microphone is located on top, while the primary speaker, USB Type-C 2.0 connector, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and primary microphone are located at the bottom.
The G35 has a sophisticated build for the budget, although the buttons might be more tactile. The in-hand feel is high-end for the price.
Motorola G35 Review: Display
The Motorola G35’s display is impressive, especially considering its ₹10,000 price tag. It has a 6.72-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and HDR10 support. The 392 PPI means sharp text and visuals, making it one of the better displays in this segment, especially compared to competitors with only 720p screens.
As previously said, the display’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection adds to its attractiveness. Watching 1080p HDR material on sites like YouTube or OTT services is delightful, and the brightness holds up nicely outside.
However, there are a few drawbacks. Despite selecting the 120 Hz refresh rate, many programs like Google Chrome, WhatsApp, and YouTube default to 60 Hz, even in the control center. On the so-called “Auto” mode, the refresh rate stays at either 60 Hz or 90 Hz, even while scrolling.
So, to have the best experience, you’ll need to manually increase the refresh rate to 120 Hz in settings, while many apps will still operate at 60 Hz.
Additionally, there is a noticeable chin at the bottom, and the alignment of the status bar feels strange—the battery percentage isn’t exactly aligned on the right, and the clock is pushed too far to the left.
For the price, this display is excellent despite these oddities. The contrast levels aren’t very high because it’s an LCD screen, but at least you won’t have to worry about green lines on your device.
Motorola G35 Review: Speakers
The stereo speakers that come with the Motorola G35 are decent. Despite their lack of clarity and sophistication, they do the job well enough for the price. They work well whether you’re listening to music or watching videos. Actually, they are superior to those found in this section.
The haptics, on the other hand, fall short. Like the majority of phones in this market, the phone has a low-cost vibration motor. It is preferable to completely disable haptics if at all feasible. The G35’s budget character is evident in this particular location.
Motorola G35 Review: Software
There are a number of issues with the Motorola G35’s software. Firstly, it asks you to activate Glance for the lock screen, which is essentially an advertisement. Fortunately, you can turn this off in the settings. Secondly, there are pre-installed apps, such as card and bubble games, which you can remove if you want a smaller interface.
Once Glance is turned off and bloatware is eliminated, the interface becomes considerably cleaner and more responsive for day-to-day use. It runs Android 14 with Hello UI and feels nice overall. However, I discovered that the program lacked key of Hello UI’s fundamental features, such as the new control centre.
Motorola incorporates distinctive motions such as the quick flashlight, as well as a pseudo-AOD function that activates when the phone is shaken. Google’s AI features, such as the Magic Eraser in Photos, are also available.
The app’s inability to keep up with other programs in the RAM, particularly when you have more than three open in the background, is one issue that irritates me. Games restart and Chrome tabs refresh.
I think the 4 GB of RAM is the problem here. I wish Motorola had included a 6 GB RAM option with the gadget. Furthermore, storage swapping—also known as “extra” virtual RAM—does not assist.
Motorola guarantees two years of security fixes and one OS update (to Android 15). Two years of OS upgrades would have been more comforting, even though this is typical for the price. After cleanup, the program is passable overall.
Motorola G35 Review: Fingerprint
The Motorola G35 has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, although it isn’t the most dependable. While it finally gets the job done, it is inconsistent and slow. The phone also features 2D face unlock, which is presumably not very safe.
Motorola G35 Review: Performance
The Motorola G35 is powered by the Unisoc T760 CPU, a 6 nm chipset with four cores clocked at 2.21 GHz and four at 2.0 GHz, together with a Mali-G57 GPU. It is accompanied by 4GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 storage.
While the storage is the quickest in this sector, the 4 GB RAM feels out of date, particularly as we approach 2024-2025, and 6 GB would have been more suitable.
Based on benchmarks, the phone does fairly well. AnTuTu v10 gave it a score of 464473, while Geekbench 6 gave it single-core and multi-core scores of 741 and 2241, respectively. With a sequential read speed of 992.7 MB/s and write speed of 874.3 MB/s, it achieved a stellar score of 56405 in storage tests—excellent for this price category.
The G35 has trouble with gaming performance, though. The gameplay seemed sluggish, with considerable pauses while opening the scope (about 2-3s), even though BGMI on Smooth + Ultra settings averaged 27.1 FPS. Although it somewhat improved to 34.2 FPS on Balanced + Ultra, the entire experience was still disappointing.
With 56–60 frames per second at Medium + High settings, Call of Duty Mobile did a little better. On the highest settings, Asphalt 9 averaged 27.55 frames per second, which is typical for this budget but far from optimal for gamers.
Furthermore, during gaming BGMI sessions, the phone heated to 40-41°C, despite ambient temperatures of roughly 23°C, which is alarming.
The phone performs well in daily duties without overheating, making it suited for casual usage. Additionally, Motorola should consider providing software upgrades to boost gaming performance and heat management.
Motorola G35 Review : Cameras
The Moto G35’s cameras are a mixed bag, but respectable considering the price. Additionally, there is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the Motorola G35’s camera specifications. One item is listed on the Motorola website, but when I looked at the EXIF information of the pictures I clicked, I saw something else.
So, to keep things simple, I’ll stick with what Motorola says on their site. The G35 features a dual-camera arrangement in the back, with a 50 MP primary camera and an 8 MP ultrawide. On the front, there is a 16 MP selfie camera.
- Main: 50 MP 1/2.76-inch, f/1.8, PDAF, 4K30 & 1080p30
- Ultra-wide: 8 MP 1/4.1-inch, f/2.2, 1080p30
- Front: 16 MP 1/3.1-inch, f/2.45, 1080p30
Main Camera
The main camera takes decent shots in daytime, but don’t anticipate much detail, especially if you zoom in—there will be noise and severe sharpening. The 2x zoom appears to rely on cropping, yet it still provides acceptable results. HDR performance is variable, with highlights being blown out.
Ultra-wide
The 8 MP ultrawide is only useful in broad sunshine. Low-light photos from both the primary and ultra-wide cameras are dominated by noise and lack clarity, making them unsuitable for night photography. Typically, you don’t find an ultra-wide camera in this category, so this is a welcome addition.
Front Camera
Selfies are good, but facial details are soft, and portrait mode fails to separate boundaries, frequently mucking up hair strands or even shirt outlines. The similar issue exists in portraits taken with the back camera, where edge detection appears fake.
If you want better portraits, skip the in-camera blur and instead shoot a shot at 2x using the shot mode. Then, utilise the Google Photos app’s portrait blur option, which works much better. The same goes for selfies.
Video
The primary camera can take video at 4K30 or 1080p30 resolutions, however stabilisation is weak, and highlights and exposure are erratic. Shooting still videos may work, but anything more gets choppy. However, this is likely the only phone in this category with 4K video capture.
The ultra-wide videos are slightly more stabilised because to their broader field of vision, but they lack detail and have poor highlight control. Selfie videos are limited to 1080p30 and have significantly better stabilisation than the main camera (although they remain unsteady), but exposure changes and highlight difficulties persist.
Slow-motion videos are accessible, however they are often of middling quality. The EXIF data for photographs and videos also appears to be wrong, adding to the uncertainty over camera specifications. Hopefully, Motorola will address this with a future firmware release.
Camera App
Despite the use of UFS 2.2 storage, the camera app is laggy, with a slow shutter and a sluggish experience. One limitation is that you cannot zoom more than 2x or utilise intermediate zoom levels such as 1.5x.
Also, you can’t change the resolution or frame rate immediately from the video mode—you have to go into the options, which only enable you to go to 4K for the primary.
Decent Cameras for the Price
Overall, the Moto G35’s cameras are good for the budget, but they could have been much better with appropriate optimisations, greater HDR, and more zoom and resolution options.
Motorola G35 Review: Battery
The Motorola G35 has a standard 5,000 mAh battery with 18W fast charging. During regular usage, I typically received approximately 6 hours of screen time, and with lesser usage, I got up to 7 hours, which is pretty good for this device. In addition, I did not detect any substantial power depletion when the screen was off.
The smartphone takes roughly 2 hours to completely charge with the provided 20W adapter (it supports 18W PD charging). While the charging pace is on the slow side, it is adequate for the price range.
Review Conclusion: Is It Worth Buying the Motorola G35?
- Design and Build: 8/10
- Display: 8/10
- Software: 7/10
- Speakers & Haptics: 7/10
- Biometrics: 6.5/10
- Performance: 7/10
- Cameras: 6.5/10
- Battery Life & Charging: 8/10
Compared to rivals like the Redmi A4 5G and Tecno Spark 30C 5G, the Motorola G35 is unique because to its 1080p display and comprehensive 5G compatibility. Notwithstanding oddities like mediocre cameras and sporadic software glitches, it offers exceptional value for less than ₹10,000.
However, because the 4 GB RAM seems like a bottleneck, the absence of a 6 GB RAM option is a disadvantage. For an additional ₹500 to ₹1,000, a 6 GB model would make this phone a more competitive option. I hope Motorola takes this input into account for next releases.
For those willing to stretch their budget slightly, the Motorola G45 with a Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 CPU is a viable alternative, but with a 720p display. The G35 is a good pick for people seeking for a 5G phone around ₹10,000. What are your opinions about the Motorola G35? Please let me know in the comments.
