Moto G (1st gen) review: The 2013 phone that redefined what a cheap phone could be.
The phone that fixed the budget category.
The first Moto G proved a cheap phone need not be a bad one, with HD display and clean software for $179. A genuinely important budget device — now history.
01Display
48/10048/100 is one of the weaker display results among budget phones of 2013 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
26/10026/100 is one of the weaker camera results among budget phones of 2013 — 28 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
16/10016/100 is one of the weaker performance results among budget phones of 2013 — 34 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
40/10040/100 is one of the weaker battery results among budget phones of 2013 — 25 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
48/10048/100 trails the 52-point cohort average for budget phones of 2013.
06Value
70/100At 70/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among budget phones of 2013 — 9 points above the cohort average.
- Redefined the budget phone — a usable HD device for $179.
- Near-stock Android with timely updates (reached Android 6).
- Sharp 720p display for the price.
- Swappable back shells.
- Weak 5 MP camera; no LTE on the original.
- 8 GB base storage; no microSD on first model.
- Plastic build.
- Discontinued — a vintage budget device.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 29-phone cohort of budget devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .