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Motorola unveils its fastest phone to date - the Moto G100

By Mariyan Slavov

Updated: Mar 31, 2021, 12:58 AM

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Motorola

Motorola has been really active in the mid-range smartphone segment in the past few years. The company has made the “affordable, long-lasting phone” its hallmark, with models such as the Moto G Play, G Power 2021, Moto G Stylus 2021, and Moto One 5G Ace, as well as the recently unveiled Moto G10 and G30.

Today, in a bid to up its game and step into flagship territory, Motorola has announced its fastest and most powerful phone to date - the Moto G100. The phone comes equipped with the Snapdragon 870 5G chipset, an overclocked and tweaked version of the 865 Plus, offering higher clock speeds, and Wi-Fi 6 support.

Moto G100: Design and Display

The Moto G100 design somehow reminds us of the Moto One 5G Ace and Moto G9 Power models, mainly because of the camera system on the back. It’s a quad-cam square-shaped bump, placed in the upper left corner.

The design is obviously a bit more refined, with a slightly elongated camera bump, a nicely recessed multifunctional power button/fingerprint sensor, and a big 6.7-inch display with two punch-hole selfie cameras on the front. The back is made of plastic but in all fairness, the phone comes in two different colors - iridescent sky and iridescent ocean - and they look quite good.

Speaking of the display, Motorola has decided to go for the 21:9 cinematic aspect ratio, and that’s the biggest design difference in the Moto G100. The phone is narrow and long, offering a tad more comfort when holding it with one hand, compared to wider devices.

Back to the display panel itself - it’s a 6.7-inch LCD with a FullHD+ (2520 x 1080) resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s an HDR10 panel that covers the DCI-P3 color space. Motorola has opted for an LCD technology instead of a more flagship-grade OLED but we have to test the display before making any judgments.

Moto G100: Hardware specifications

The Moto G100 features the latest addition to the Snapdragon 8-series chipset family - the 870 5G. It’s based around enhanced Kryo 585 CPU prime cores clocked at up to 3.2GHz, coupled with an Adreno 650 GPU.

In practice, the latest benchmarks have shown that the flagship 888 chipset is just around 10% faster than the 870, which isn’t a night and day difference, especially in real-life applications. The Snapdragon 870 features both the Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System and the Qualcomm FastConnect 6800 Subsystem, meaning that the Moto G100 comes with Sub-6GHz 5G and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

The Moto G100 features 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage, and you can expand the latter with up to 1TB via the microSD card slot. Other honorable mentions in the specs department include a 3.5mm headphone jack, water-repellent design (no IP certification, tough), a big 5,000mAh battery, and 20W fast charging.

Moto G100 specs at a glance

Motorola Moto G100
Display	6.7" display FHD+ (2520 x 1080) LCD, 21:9 Cinema Vision, 90Hz refresh rate, DCI-P3 colour space, HDR10
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 Adreno 650 GPU
Memory & Storage	8GB LPDDR5 128GB UFS 3.1 Up to 1TB microSD card expandable
Battery	5,000mAh, 20W TurboPower fast charging
Camera	64MP, 1/2" optical format, f/1.7 aperture, 0.7μm pixel size \| Quad Pixel Technology for 1.4μm 16MP Ultra-wide angle (117-degree FOV), Macro Vision, f/2.2 aperture, 1.0μm pixel size \| Ring flash 2MP Depth camera, f/2.4 aperture, 1.75μm pixel size TOF Advanced Laser Autofocus
Front camera	16MP, f/2.2 aperture, 1.0μm pixel size, Quad Pixel Technology for 2.0μm 8MP, Ultra-wide angle (118-degree FOV), f/2.4 aperture, 1.12μm pixel size
Connectivity	5G: NR sub-6GHz \| 4G: LTE (UL Cat 18 / DL Cat 20) \| 3G: UMTS / HSPA+ \| 2G: GSM / EDGE Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Wi-Fi 6 \| 2.4 GHz \| 5 GHz \| WiFi hotspot 3.5mm headset jack & Type-C port (USB 3.1 compatible) with DisplayPort
Colors	Iridescent Sky, Iridescent Ocean
Operating system	Android 11

Moto G100: Cameras

The quad-camera system on the back of the Moto G100 features a 64MP main sensor with Quad Pixel technology for better low light sensitivity. There’s an ultra-wide 16MP snapper with a cool ring-light flash, part of the Macro Vision package.

Motorola claims that this camera will let you get 5x closer compared to a standard lens for detailed macro shots, and we’re itching to get our hands on the phone and try this feature. There’s a 2MP depth sensor that takes care of those bokeh portraits and also a ToF sensor for more precise auto-focus.

Moto G100: the Ready For platform

Ready For is Motorola’s attempt to make things a bit easier and more pleasant for its users. Basically, it’s a platform that offers a desktop-like experience by connecting your smartphone to a larger external display.

You get different use scenarios for this one - you can turn your phone into a mobile desktop and use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. You can also game on a big screen with a connected Bluetooth controller, and you can use the main camera system for video calls, watching the video stream on the external screen.

The Moto G100 is the second device to support the Ready For platform (after the Edge+). It’s an interesting concept and we have to try it ourselves in order to evaluate its execution and real-life benefits.

Moto G100: Price and availability

The Moto G100 is arriving in selected Latin America and European markets today, with a starting price of €499.99. Stay tuned for more info about availability in the US and pricing.

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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.