Motorola Moto G06 Power review: Bigger (battery) is better

Best Prices Today: Motorola Moto G06 Power

What’s the only thing better than an Android phone with a big screen and a big battery? The answer is: an even bigger battery.

That’s the distinction between Motorola’s Moto G06 and the Moto G06 Power – a near-identical twin with one key difference. Spend a few more quid and you’ll get a substantially larger battery that pushes this budget device into endurance territory usually reserved for rugged phones or power banks.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s practical – and for the right buyer, it’s a surprisingly good deal.

Design & Build

• Comfortable feel
• 3.5mm jack
• Protective case

The G06 Power doesn’t look like a modern smartphone but at this price, appearance is negotiable.

The 6.88in HD+ (1640×720) display dominates the front, framed by a chunky chin and a dated teardrop notch that feels straight out of the early 2010s.

Still, it’s functional – and at least Motorola has kept the 3.5mm headphone jack at the top, a small but welcome nod to practicality. The USB-C port sits on the bottom edge, alongside a single downward-firing speaker.

At 220g, the G06 Power isn’t the lightest, but the weight gives it a reassuring solidity. The plastic back, finished in a soft-touch vegan leather texture, resists fingerprints and adds grip. Motorola also includes a simple transparent case in the box, which is more than you can say for some far pricier phones.

Motorola’s penchant for this design does mean that the device looks less than premium, even when compared to other low-cost smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G – although that’ll set you back twice as much as the G06 Power.

The right-mounted fingerprint scanner doubles as the power button. It works fine, although left-handed users may find it awkward, and a rear or under-display sensor would have been more convenient.

The device looks less than premium, even when compared to other low-cost smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G

Screen & Speakers

• 120Hz refresh rate
• Passable colours
• Decent sound

Despite the G06 Power’s big screen and, at 120Hz, an impressive refresh rate for a budget phone, the display is relatively mundane.

Even scrolling through apps doesn’t seem to make the most of the high refresh rate, which remains a little blurry until movement stops.

Audio performance is fine, but nothing to brag about. The built-in speakers work decently for casual listening, but every budget smartphone should be paired with headphones to get the most out of any content.

Specs & Performance

• 4GB RAM
• 64GB of storage
• ‘RAM Boost’ mode

The Moto G06 Power has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which is enough to keep the device working operationally. It is a notably small amount of baseline storage, but that shouldn’t concern as the phone comes with a slot for a 1TB microSD card to easily store more movies and music.

The actual running of the device is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, apps such as Gmail, YouTube, Netflix, and Google Maps all run adequately using its Helio G81 processor – but only once everything has loaded.

This isn’t a device for someone who will be using it heavily all day

Open social media and it takes the G06 Power a little time to bring up the keyboard and settle in, although once it has done that, typing is relatively smooth.

This isn’t a device for someone who will be using it heavily all day, but rather for occasional use. Ultimately, you get what you pay for when it comes to processing power.

Gaming is possible but limited. Lightweight titles such as Candy Crush or Block Blast run smoothly, but graphically-intensive games such as Pokémon Unite push the hardware. It’s far from an ideal experience.

Motorola phones can use part of the phone’s storage to boost processing power through Moto’s ‘RAM boost’ mode, which creates ‘virtual RAM’ from your phone’s internal storage – moving less critical background processes into this virtual space, freeing up actual RAM for the apps you’re actively using. 

In theory, this improves multitasking capabilities but, in practice, I didn’t notice a difference and it can drain the battery faster and put wear-and-tear on the storage chip.

Moto G06 Power benchmarks

Cameras

• 50Mp, f/1.8 rear camera
• 8Mp, f/2.1 selfie lens
• Video at up to 1080p 30fps

The G06 Power’s single 50Mp f/1.8 rear lens is a modest affair. In good light, it captures natural-looking shots with accurate colour balance – less saturated than many rivals, which makes photos look more realistic, if less social-media friendly.

Taking a few quick snaps of flowers in a late autumnal garden, it struggles to convey the delicacy of the petals or the crisp outline of a drop of water on a leaf.

Its zoom capabilities are also best left unmentioned. While this phone can reach six times the magnification, a lack of dedicated hardware leaves results too blurry to be of much use. And although more expensive Motorola phones come with a Macro Vision mode that automatically turns on when close up to objects, that feature is absent here.

The colour balance of the G06 Power is much more natural than other smartphones

The G06 is also less than ideal for shooting in dim spots. While black areas in images are certainly inky, there isn’t much variation within the tones themselves. This phone camera is meant to be used in bright, well-lit areas – and really, only when it has to be.

The silver lining, however, is that the colour balance of the G06 Power is much more natural than other smartphones, which can err on the side of high contrast in order to make images pop on social media.

Since it’s not trying to compete using over-saturation, the results are pictures that, while more muted, are gentler and more pleasing aesthetically.

The front-facing camera performs decently for video calls, but like the main sensor, it benefits from bright lighting.

Battery Life & Charging 

• 7000mAh battery
• 18W wired charging
• No wireless charging

The G06 Power stands out with an enormous, 7000mAh battery that easily lasts all day and well into the next – actually surpassing some of Motorola’s other phones like the G86 Power, which only has a 6720mAh battery.

Web browsing, messaging, watching videos, listening to music and more did little to faze this low-cost, high-power machine.

The phone supports 18W wired charging speeds. Although this smartphone doesn’t come with a charging brick, Motorola has provided a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box, rather than the USB-C to USB-A that still comes with some of its devices.

Using that, and a 9V charger, the G06 Power reached 13% in 15 minutes and 32% in half an hour.

Software & Apps

• Clean, near-stock Android
• Helpful focus features
• Annoying preinstalled apps

The Moto G06 Power ships with Android 15, and Motorola’s take on Android remains one of the better ones around. You’re getting a near-stock experience with a few genuinely useful extras.

Motorola has bundled in some thoughtful touches borrowed from its higher-end phones

There’s Moto Unplugged, for example, which lets you block off-screen distractions entirely for a set period – perfect if you actually want to focus. Unfortunately, it still can’t be scheduled automatically, so you’ll need to remember to turn it on yourself.

Motorola has bundled in some thoughtful touches borrowed from its higher-end phones. “Chip view” notifications neatly group alerts into floating bubbles on the home screen, making them easier to manage without the visual clutter, although they don’t update with each new notification so you’ll need to check your phone after four different notifications to clear the page.

Where things start to grate is with the preinstalled software. The G06 Power comes with a scatter of third-party apps right out of the box – TikTok, Temu, Booking.com, even Monopoly Go – which is not ideal. Even though it likely helps keep the sticker price low, clearing out the bloat is one of the first chores you’ll probably want to tackle.

Price & Availability

You can buy the Motorola Moto G06 Power from Motorola in the UK and Argos for £89.99, and from Currys for £89, as well as all the usual retailers and carriers. It’s not officially available in the US.

This is really a very low price for a phone with this kind of battery capacity but you can see how it stacks up against our top recommendations in our round-up of the best budget phones.

Should you buy the Motorola Moto G06 Power?

The Moto G06 Power isn’t flashy, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a workhorse budget phone with stamina that outpaces most of its rivals, and for just a little more outlay than the regular G06, the 7000mAh battery makes it the smarter buy by far for those weighing up the two devices.

The compromises are predictable – middling performance, basic cameras, and a dated design – but the trade-off is remarkable longevity, decent software, and a display that’s large enough to enjoy streaming and browsing without complaint.

If you want a phone that can last a weekend away without a charger, or something you can give a young person or an older adult without worry, the Moto G06 Power is a genuinely affordable option. Beyond that, however, it will be worth setting your sights a little higher.

Specs

​Operating System: Android 15
Display: 6.88in, 1640 × 720 HD+, 20.5:9 ratio, LCD, 8-bit color, 120Hz refresh, 450 nits typical / 600 nits peak brightness, Gorilla Glass 3
Processor: MediaTek Helio G81 Extreme
RAM/Storage: 4GB / 64GB, microSD expandable up to 1TB
Front Camera: Single lens, supports video, timelapse, slow motion
Rear Camera: 50MP f/1.8
Biometrics: Side fingerprint reader, Face Unlock, ThinkShield for Mobile, Moto Secure
Connectivity: 4G LTE, 3G WCDMA, 2G GSM, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5GHz, Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/QZSS, NFC (market dependent), Dual SIM + microSD
Audio: 3.5mm headphone jack, single microphone
USB: USB Type-C 2.0
Battery: 7000mAh, 18W charging
Durability: IP64 water-resistant, Gorilla Glass 3 front, vegan leather rear, plastic frame
Dimensions: 171.35 × 77.50 × 8.82mm
Weight: 220g
Launch Colours: PANTONE Tapestry, PANTONE Laurel Oak

Best Prices Today: Motorola Moto G06 Power