Motorola Moto G82 review

Design and handling

The Moto G82 adopts the same design language as the rest of the phones in the Moto G series. Even dimension-wise, the G82 is a lot like the G62. Interestingly enough, the G82 has a tad bigger display while being sensibly lighter at 173g. In fact, that's pretty good for a 6.6-inch smartphone.

Of course, the device is made entirely of plastic, which helps lower the weight too. The back panel is acrylic glass with a silky smooth finish. It feels pretty nice in hand, although slippery and prone to smudges. We got the White Lily option, which isn't exactly white as there's a slight shimmer at certain angles.

The camera island is nothing out of the ordinary, and it looks exactly like the rest of the Moto G phones. The three cameras are in a vertical alignment and are placed on an oval bump that doesn't protrude as much.

The curved sides of the back frame don't transition seamlessly to the side frame, though, and there's a small ridge you can easily feel. That's par for the course with budget handsets.

Despite having an OLED panel on the front, the fingerprint reader is placed on the right and serves as a power button as well. It's quite flat and almost lies flush with the frame, so it's sometimes hard to feel it. It falls naturally under the right thumb, though, while the volume rocker requires a little stretch.

Moto G82

The bottom remains home to the USB-C connector, 3.5mm audio jack and one of the speaker grilles. The other one doubles as an earpiece and sits on top of the top bezel. Lastly, the SIM card tray is on the left side of the frame housing a hybrid SIM/microSD slot, so you can either have two SIMs or a SIM + microSD card combo.

Speaking of bezels, the Moto G82 has considerably thinner bezels than its siblings and a relatively small chin too. It looks pretty nice on the front, and the selfie cutout isn't obtrusive, either. Perhaps the OLED panel allowed Motorola to trim the bezels.

All in all, the design doesn't stand out, but it's not inherently bad either. It's just like most smartphones in the price range. As usual, Motorola was able to incorporate the water-repellent design and bring down the weight considerably, making it relatively easy to handle and pretty lightweight too. Maybe a Gorilla Glass protection wouldn't have hurt, as most competitors feature one.