Motorola Moto G72 review

The usual Moto additions, Android 12 underneath

The Moto G62 runs Android 12, so it's not particularly up to date when it comes to the OS core. We did get a couple of small updates on our review unit over the past few weeks, so while Motorola may be a bit behind schedule with the OS releases, ongoing support isn't lacking. As is the norm with Motorola handsets, you'd be getting a largely stock UI, with minimal in-house tweaks, including some long-standing proprietary features.

The UI and overall appearance are close to stock Android. That includes the large pill-shaped quick toggles in the notification shade and it also means no auto brightness toggle - Google keeps that in the display settings and Motorola follows suit.

The recent apps menu that displays apps in a carousel formation and the app drawer are unchanged as well.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher • Notifications • Quick toggles

As is usually the case, Motorola has added a handful of useful extras. They are all placed in a Moto settings app that lists them in categories.

The first one is Personalization which allows you to tinker with fonts, app icons layout, accent colors, icon shape and themes.

One thing that's hard to quantify is the Moto G72's scaling which by default is smaller than usual - in a good way, if that makes sense. You can of course change that to your liking in either direction, but the default strikes this particular reviewer as just right.

Moto app • Moto app • Moto app • Personalization

The more useful additions, however, involve gestures. The iconic ones - karate chop for turning on the flashlight or twisting your wrist to open up the camera app are here. There's also the Power touch (double tap on the power button) that brings out an additional app panel from the right edge of the display. It works exactly how the smart sidebar does in other Android skins.

The Attentive display keeps the screen on when the front camera detects a face looking at it so the display won't go dark when you are halfway through an article. Peek display lights up the lockscreen once the device senses you are close and you pick up the phone. It uses the proximity sensor and the accelerometer to detect motion. And in case there's a notification, you can just tap and hold on to the notification icon to see a quick preview of the text. The Peek display feature is almost as good as an Always-on functionality, but we would have preferred to have the ability to choose.

Moto gestures • Quick launch • Quick capture • Display features

A relatively new feature is the Overcharge protection toggle in the Battery menu. It will cut off charging once it detects that the phone hasn't been unplugged for three days straight and keep the battery charged at a much healthier 80%.

Battery features

Predictably, the Moto G72 is missing the "Ready For" feature Motorola is offering on some of its Edge models.

Performance and benchmarks

The Moto G72 runs on the Helio G99 chipset, a no-frills Mediatek chipset with no 5G connectivity. Manufactured on a 6nm process, it's geared towards efficiency, though its octa-core CPU is still decently capable thanks to a couple of Cortex-A76 cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz (the other 6 Cortex-A55 cores max out at 2.0GHz). The GPU is a Mali-G57 MC2.

A single storage option appears to be in existence, the 128GB easily expandable via microSD (though you'd have to sacrifice the second SIM for that). RAM is either 6GB or 8GB (our review unit).

The Moto G72 is on par with the G62 (SD480) in single-core CPU performance, but a bit behind the G82 (SD695). Other SD695 handsets also have an advantage over the Moto, while the Exynos 1280 Galaxy A53 5G and A33 5G are even further ahead. The gaps are narrower in multi-core testing, though the G72 does maintain its spot in the lower half of the charts.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A53 5G
  743
• Galaxy A33 5G
  742
• Realme 10 Pro
  698
• Galaxy A23 5G
  676
• Moto G82
  671
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  670
• Nokia G60
  668
• Nokia X30
  663
• Realme 10
  567
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  550
• Motorola Moto G72
  546
• Moto G62
  543
• Redmi Note 11S
  526
• Realme 9
  380
• Redmi Note 11
  376

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme 10 Pro
  2021
• Moto G82
  1977
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  1964
• Galaxy A23 5G
  1940
• Nokia X30
  1920
• Nokia G60
  1908
• Galaxy A33 5G
  1900
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  1896
• Galaxy A53 5G
  1891
• Redmi Note 11S
  1873
• Motorola Moto G72
  1842
• Realme 10
  1762
• Moto G62
  1697
• Redmi Note 11
  1662
• Realme 9
  1601

The Moto G72 climbs higher in Antutu, actually, marginally beating the Galaxy A53 and ranking inbetween SD695 competition.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Nokia X30
  403732
• Nokia G60
  402664
• Realme 10 Pro
  401860
• Galaxy A33 5G
  394918
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  386311
• Realme 10
  385829
• Motorola Moto G72
  383317
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  380818
• Moto G82
  380812
• Galaxy A53 5G
  379313
• Galaxy A23 5G
  318821
• Redmi Note 11S
  308741
• Moto G62
  303072
• Realme 9
  290097
• Redmi Note 11
  244526

GPU performance is once again in the 'satisfactory' category - you won't be getting any fps records out of the Moto G72, and competing offerings based on the Snapdragon 695 will deliver a better gaming experience.

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A33 5G
  15
• Galaxy A53 5G
  15
• Moto G82
  12
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  12
• Galaxy A23 5G
  12
• Nokia X30
  12
• Nokia G60
  12
• Realme 10 Pro
  11
• Realme 10
  10
• Moto G62
  9.7
• Motorola Moto G72
  9.3
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  8.9
• Redmi Note 11S
  8.3
• Realme 9
  5
• Redmi Note 11
  4.6

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A33 5G
  10
• Galaxy A53 5G
  10
• Moto G82
  7.9
• Nokia X30
  7.9
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  7.8
• Realme 10 Pro
  7.8
• Nokia G60
  7.8
• Galaxy A23 5G
  7.6
• Moto G62
  6.5
• Realme 10
  6.5
• Motorola Moto G72
  6
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  5.9
• Redmi Note 11S
  5.5
• Realme 9
  3.2
• Redmi Note 11
  3.1

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A33 5G
  15
• Galaxy A53 5G
  15
• Moto G82
  13
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  12
• Galaxy A23 5G
  12
• Realme 10 Pro
  12
• Nokia X30
  12
• Nokia G60
  12
• Moto G62
  10
• Realme 10
  9.3
• Motorola Moto G72
  8.7
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  8.2
• Redmi Note 11S
  7.7
• Realme 9
  4.9
• Redmi Note 11
  4.8

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A33 5G
  10
• Galaxy A53 5G
  10
• Realme 10 Pro
  8.3
• Moto G82
  8.2
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  8.2
• Nokia X30
  8.2
• Nokia G60
  8.2
• Galaxy A23 5G
  8
• Moto G62
  6.7
• Realme 10
  6.1
• Motorola Moto G72
  5.5
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  5.3
• Redmi Note 11S
  5.1
• Realme 9
  3.2
• Redmi Note 11
  3.1

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A33 5G
  20
• Galaxy A53 5G
  19
• Realme 10
  17
• Nokia X30
  17
• Nokia G60
  17
• Moto G82
  16
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  16
• Galaxy A23 5G
  16
• Realme 10 Pro
  16
• Moto G62
  14
• Motorola Moto G72
  13
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  12
• Redmi Note 11S
  12
• Realme 9
  7.3
• Redmi Note 11
  6.8

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A33 5G
  23
• Galaxy A53 5G
  23
• Moto G82
  21
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  20
• Nokia X30
  20
• Nokia G60
  20
• Galaxy A23 5G
  19
• Realme 10 Pro
  19
• Moto G62
  16
• Motorola Moto G72
  15
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  15
• Realme 10
  14
• Redmi Note 11S
  14
• Realme 9
  8.2
• Redmi Note 11
  8

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A53 5G
  2292
• Galaxy A33 5G
  2260
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  1321
• Realme 10
  1320
• Motorola Moto G72
  1255
• Realme 10 Pro
  1218
• Nokia X30
  1214
• Moto G82
  1211
• Motorola Edge 30 Neo
  1201
• Galaxy A23 5G
  1200
• Redmi Note 11S
  1101
• Moto G62
  971
• Redmi Note 11
  439

3DMark Wild Life Extreme (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco M5
  369
• Realme 10
  366
• Nokia X30
  363
• Nokia G60
  362
• Motorola Moto G72
  347

One of the benefits of lower-end chipsets is that they tend not to throttle - they may not be putting out huge numbers, but they can maintain them essentially indefinitely. That's what we observed on the Moto G72 in both the CPU Throttling test and the stress tests in 3DMark.

CPU Throttling test • 3D Mark Wild life stress test