Motorola Moto G 5G Plus review

48MP main camera, ultrawide and macro in tow

The Moto G 5G Plus employs the popular 48MP Quad-Bayer sensor mean to shoot in 12MP pixel-binned mode. It is reasonably big 1/2"-type sensor and sits behind a fast f/1.7 lens. The ultrawide camera, on the other hand, does 8MP stills with 118-degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture.

The third camera on the module is 5MP f/2.2 dedicated macro, which is a step up from the more common 2MP macro cameras. Mostly because it has autofocus, which makes snapping macros a lot easier.

Lastly, we have the 2MP sensor, which is supposed to gather depth information for the portrait shots.

And on the front, we have two units - the 16MP main one has f/2.0 aperture, while the 8MP ultrawide unit has f/2.2 lens.

Camera menus

Motorola's default camera app is quite different from most of its rivals. Swiping left and right cycles through only three modes - the default photo mode, video recording, and the last used special mode. Tapping on the squares icon lets you access the full list of camera modes including manual, portrait and night.

Moto Camera

The familiar settings icon in the upper-right corner of the viewfinder lets you adjust video resolution, aspect ratio settings, etc.

Daylight samples

Main camera

The main camera performs well during the day. Outdoor shots have good detail, great dynamic range, punchy colors and have that contrast-y overall feel and look. There's some corner softness and some noise in the shadows, but the overall results are certainly pleasing.

Main camera daylight samples

Ultra-wide camera

The ultrawide cameras has nowhere near the same resolving power as the main one - images are rather soft throughout - but at least it matches its good color rendition in favorable light conditions and has decent dynamic range.

Ultra-wide daylight samples

Low-light samples

Main camera

When light fades the image quality deteriorates quickly. The low-light samples are often underexposed in adition to lacking detail and having a fair amount of noise. We suspect an overly aggressive, but not particularly efficient noise reduction algorithm is at least partially to blame here, giving darker parts of the images the watercolor effect.

Main camera low-light samples

The Night Vision improves the quality significantly - it does a better job with the exposure and pictures come out way more detailed. There's more noise too, further backing the noise suppression algorithm issues theory. The sharpening part is maybe a little bit over the top, causing notable halos.

Main camera Night Vision samples

Despite its less than perfect processing, we'd recommend using the night mode whenever the scene allows it.

Ultra-wide

As was to be expected, the ultrawide camera isn't much use in the dark, producing grainy and soft images with limited dynamic range and washed out colors. It's got no Night mode too, making its use in limited lighting an emergency-only affair.

Ultra-wide low-light samples

And here's a comparison between the Moto G 5G Plus and some of its rivals in our photo compare tool.

Moto G 5G Plus vs Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G and the Realme 6 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Macro samples

The 5MP camera is definitely a step up from the more popular 2MP sensor. The AF helps a lot too since you don't need to move your phone back and forward to get the subject in focus. Image quality is far from what the main camera can deliver, but the close up effect will certainly help you produce some interesting shots.

Macro samples

Portraits

The portrait shots lack sharpness and dynamic range, but have well rendered skin tones and very good edge detection. Noise levels are relatively high in anything but super bright lighting. That's why we recommend doing portraits outside or in a well-lit room if the image quality is important.

Portrait samples

Selfies

The HDR on the selfies seems more than competent as it keeps the subject's face well-exposed even in more challenging lighting conditions without clipping the bright background too. Sharpness and detail are well-preserved in the process while colors seem to be accurate enough. The ultrawide camera is noticeably softer with inferior dynamic range and colors look bleaker. Noise starts to creep in when light begins to drop.

Selfies: Normal • Ultra-wide • Normal • Ultra-wide • Normal • Ultra-wide • Normal

The portrait mode is a bit rough around the edges with the subject separation failing even when the background isn't particularly complex.

Portrait selfies

Video recording

The handset supports up to 4K video recording and it can be stabilized as well. For added dramatic effect, you can choose to record in cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio. The same can be done with the 1080p videos while the standard 16:9 aspect ratio allows you to shoot in 60fps.

We shot one 2160p video without EIS and we really like what we see. Colors are punchy, contrast is good, we can't spot noise, dynamic range is wide and sharpness is great. Nothing to complain about, really, especially given the price tag of the phone.

Strangely enough, flipping the stabilization switch, will considerably decrease the bitrate, which leads to some loss of fine detail, although the overall quality is still pretty good. It might be a bigger issue in more dynamic screens too, so we'd refrain from using EIS unless absolutely neccessary.

On the upside the EIS works very well so at least you are getting something in return for the drop in image quality.

The 1080p mode is all about saving space and it's rather compressed, lacking in detail and generally having unimpressive quality.

Then again the 1080p also lets you use the ultrawide camera, which lacks the resolution to do 4K clips. The ultrawide videos can give you an interesting alternative perspective, but are certainly the least impressive looking of the bunch.

You can take a look at how the Moto G 5G Plus stacks against the competition in our video compare tool.

2160p: Moto G 5G Plus vs Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G and the Realme 6 Pro in our Video compare tool