Motorola Moto G06 review – a budget Android with a gaming problem

There are plenty of budget mobile phones on the market that can provide a great gaming experience for a fraction of what flagships offer, and while I wish I could say the same about Motorola Moto G06it’s not like that. Given the stunning, huge display for a device in this price range and decent value for money, this is not a budget option that I would personally recommend.

The latest addition from Motorola, which is looking for a place among the best budget gaming phones, is simply not enough to provide a long-term solution to an often steep problem: playing the best mobile games without breaking the bank. It’s good enough for doomscrolling, it’s decent enough for browsing, but after a very basic experience you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Eyepiece

The replacement for last year’s G05, the Motorola Moto G06 is surprisingly familiar to its 2024 predecessor. It has the same chipset and the same Android 15 operating system, but boasts a larger display. This may sound like an improvement, but the same screen resolution means a lower pixel per inch (or PPI) ratio. We’re only talking about single digits, but it’s a compact reduction worth mentioning.

Even before I get to my opinions on performance, the Mediatek Helio G81 Extreme works overtime – well, honestly, the bare minimum. With a measly 4GB of RAM (8GB with the option to upgrade RAM), the specs are generally quite impoverished, save for the massive 5,200mAh battery capacity.

Price and availability

The Motorola The Moto G06 starts at just £69, which is surprisingly low and shows why the internal (and external) hardware is quite minimal. There are a range of models available, with the smallest being 64GB in terms of storage capacity and the highest being 256GB, saving you just £109.99. At this time, it doesn’t appear that any version of this mobile phone is available in the US.

For this low price, you get a whole range of colors to choose from, including PANTONE Laurel Oak, PANTONE Arabesque, PANTONE Tapestry (the device color in this review), and finally PANTONE Tendril. This is a solid choice considering how budget-friendly the phone is.

Performance and gaming

After turning on the phone for the first time, I was surprised at how quickly it started to freeze up. Even after a few hours, once the phone had gone through the necessary initial setup, it still experienced lag, with a noticeable delay every time I swiped to a different page of the home screen or launched an app. A worrying sign, to say the least.

Although it’s an occasional occurrence now, the stuttering is still there, and while the phone’s low price gives it some forbearance, even for a 2025 device, it feels like a elevated order that should be left out of the review. Fortunately, it did a decent job while I was reading various books on Google Play in the evenings, and I was surprised at how well it performed with Pokémon Go.

Speaking of Pokémon Go, it is one of the best Android games to run on the Moto G06, alongside games like Candy Crush and Monopoly Go. Even Marvel Snap seems to work well, allowing me to enjoy my favorite mobile card game without any problems. However, alongside these elementary and sometimes older titles, the Moto G06 lags behind.

Not only does the device run Android 15, which was last year’s major OS update, but it no longer receives any updates and has only received security updates for two years. This is a disappointing factor, although not as depressing as the fact that you won’t run some of the best gacha games on it at all (like Destiny Rising or Zenless Zone Zero). Yes, it crashes you if you try to run Destiny, full tough lock, capital letters NO.

I understand that this is a budget phone, worth less than £100, but the fact that it will pose a security risk in a few years (coupled with generally impoverished performance) leaves a sour taste in my mouth. This is a great, elementary solution if your current device is dying and you want to keep in touch with others, but don’t expect to navigate ZZZ easily.

Camera-wise it doesn’t do much better. Even the image displayed on the screen of what the lens sees is blurry, faded and quite uninteresting. The captured images are vibration-free and lifeless, and processing the recording takes a few moments. I don’t expect photography-level equipment here, but the 50 MP camera clearly overestimates tender sensors.

Design and battery

I’m glad that the Motorola G06 comes with a microSD slot for memory expansion, offering up to 1TB of additional content to store on the phone. A cushioned leather-style finish wraps around the back of the device, giving it a nice look and a unique little feature for a budget phone, while the IP64 rating makes it a more solid smartphone than most competitors in this price range.

Taking the disappointment out of the internal hardware aside, this is a great and surprisingly lightweight phone considering the display size. However, this is the first time I would actually recommend using it without the included case, as the case I received with the Moto G06 had some piercing edges at the bottom that made it uncomfortable to hold and rest your fingers on.

Fortunately, the battery is absolutely great. As much as 5200 mAh is longer thanks to weaker hardware and display, so it is a robust phone that – without intensive employ – can last up to 40 hours. This means it’s a great emergency phone, provided you can still charge it fairly frequently and if (for some reason) you’re not charging your existing phone enough.

Display

The Moto G06’s display is simply brilliant on paper. It’s an IPS LCD screen, but it also offers 6.88 inches of splendor and offers a refresh rate of up to 120Hz – for playing Candy Crush at high refresh rates, of course. While it looks a little blurry, I’m saying this from the point of view of someone who uses an AMOLED display most of the time, so it will look a little worse than my usual viewing habits.

However, there is a rather huge bezel around the display which makes it look even cheaper, and is further made worse by the raindrop-shaped front camera cutout compared to the punch-hole design. With a maximum brightness of 600 nits, it’s a pretty uninteresting display that doesn’t get a chance to shine considering how huge the display is.

Is it worth buying Motorola Moto G06?

From a mobile gaming perspective, the answer is probably no. It’s a handy little Android device that’s good for browsing social media and reading books, but it doesn’t outperform other budget phones in terms of performance, looks, or much else. It’s a pretty solid phone that performs most tasks mediocre to poorly, and without major OS updates, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

If you’re looking for a elementary, budget-friendly phone that will last you a few months, or you just need an extra compact Android device (maybe you have good points on Google Play, but you employ the best iPhones, like me), then no problem. It doesn’t break any records, but it doesn’t break the bank either.

Alternatives

Samsung Galaxy A16

While not as budget-friendly as the Motorola Moto G06, the Samsung Galaxy A16 offers more security updates with six-year patches, as well as 5G connectivity and a triple camera array. The best part is that it supports Destiny Rising – the graphics are impoverished, but at least it works.

Samsung Galaxy S22 (Refurbished)

If you don’t mind paying a little more for a refurbished phone, the flagship Samsung Galaxy S22 is still a great little phone even though it’s a few years aged. The first-gen Snapdragon 8 is still a great chipset that runs Destiny Rising really well and allows you to access a variety of Android games without having to break the bank.