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This isn't really a phone for multitasking, but it can do it in a bind. Similarly, heavy-duty gaming can take a while to get going, and the phone can get quite hot when doing so, but it works. We should also point out that the Moto G31, like many other Motorola handsets, comes with a basic, clear plastic case. It's pretty standard as cases go, but it's nice to have it included – it offers a decent level of protection for your new handset at no extra cost. There's also a single loudspeaker down at the bottom of the handset, which produces a level and quality of sound that's satisfactory but no more than that. The phone impresses in terms of battery life, meanwhile. We streamed a video for an hour, with the volume set low and the display at maximum brightness, and the battery level dropped from 100 percent to just 94 percent – that suggests you'll get 16-17 hours in total, which is way above average. In general use the handset held its charge well too, and we think the 5,000mAh battery will get you up to two days of use if you're careful with it. The (wired-only) charging is disappointingly slow though, at only 10W. MP Camera (f/2.2 Aperture, 1.12um Pixel Size), Camera Feature: Dual Capture, Spot Color, Night Vision, Cinemagraph, Portrait, Live Filter, Group Selfie, Pro Mode (W/Long Exposure), Artificial Intelligence: Low Light AI Selfie, Shot Optimization, Auto Smile Capture, Gesture Capture, Selfie Animation, Face Beauty, RAW Photo Output, HDR, Timer, Active Photos, Assistive Grid, Leveler, Watermark, Burst shot, Video Feature: Timelapse (W/Hyperlapse), Slow Motion, Video Stabilization, Video Snapshot Despite that, there's a certain sense of reliability to the Moto G31. It certainly won't wow you but if you're looking for a cheap and competent phone, it does the job.
As you can see, graphical performance is a bit hit and miss, too. With a standardised 1080p resolution offscreen, the Moto G31 is marginally better than the Moto G30, but there’s again very little in it, and it’s still leagues behind the Nokia G50, Realme 7 and Poco X3 NFC. The Moto G31 comes with Android 11 as standard and is fairly bloat free. The only additions here are Motorola's Moto Actions - which are often-useful gesture controls, and a few other minor tweaks, but the additions are easy enough to ignore and don't take up much space.
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The phone's 6.4-inch AMOLED display looks bright and vibrant most of the time, even if it misses out on having a refresh rate any higher than 60Hz. The rest of the build is fairly standard, with volume, power, and a fingerprint reader all on the right edge of the phone. Overall, we were very impressed with the display on the Moto G31, especially considering the low price you have to pay to get hold of the phone. It's definitely one of the better screens down at the budget end of the market, and so if video watching and photo viewing are your priorities, then this might have you leaning towards this particular handset. Everything we viewed on the screen looked sharp and vibrant. But this doesn’t tell the full story. There’s a slight but noticeable delay between pressing the shutter and the camera snapping, which can prove frustrating with timings, and this also makes it pretty easy to get blurry images, too. There are two ways of painting the results above. On one hand, while it’s marginally slower on the multicore benchmark, there’s not enough in it that you’d actively notice the difference between the two. Performance is similarly sluggish. The Moto G31 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset with 4GB of RAM, and while it's not the slowest of phones out there it's still woeful if you expect too much of it.
The most demanding games is the only area where the handset starts to struggle, though we were able to run the fairly intense Asphalt 9 racing game without any real problems. Geekbench scores of 346 (single-core), 1283 (multi-core) and 1174 (OpenCL) confirm that the phone is down at the lower end of the performance spectrum, and you'll have to do without 5G as well – perhaps not a disaster, considering that 4G is still rather speedy. The Moto G31 managed nearly a full day of looped video in our standardised test, and while none of the handsets we’re comparing it to is exactly weak on the stamina front, it’s a clear win for the Moto if battery is most important for you. Motorola Moto G31 review: Camera The textured plastic body means no risk of fingerprints either, so it looks good no matter how long you've been using it for. A punch-hole at the top of the screen offers up the selfie camera lens, but it truly takes up the bare minimum of space - it's literally just the lens. Fellow Motorola phone, the Moto G9 Power, comes in about the same at 311 and 1,371, but it's also older.
Inexpensively simple and competent
If you're considering spending a little bit more money and exploring the mid-range smartphone market, the main improvements you'll see over the Moto G31 will be the increased snappiness of moving between multiple apps, and the better quality of the photos and videos that you take (especially in low light). A more expensive phone will have a more premium feel, and you'll also get access to extras that the Moto G31 doesn't offer, such as waterproofing, 5G and wireless charging. But it’s better to do three cameras well than four badly, and the specs of the Moto G31’s setup are still pretty promising. The main 50MP camera features an f/1.8 aperture, and it’s supported by a 8MP wide lens with a f/2.2 sensor. The final 2MP lens is for macro photography, and while the specification sounds limited, in truth it’s not the kind of thing you’re likely to use much. In our Geekbench 5 tests, the Moto G31 achieved a single-core score of 345, which is pretty low but beats the likes of the ageing Xiaomi Redmi Note 7. The multi-core score was slightly better sounding at 1,311, but could still only beat the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7. Although it comes with an optional transparent plastic case for added grip, it’s not really necessary, as Motorola has replaced the smooth plastic finish with one that’s finely textured, with curved thin lines cascading out from around the camera section. It’s not the kind of thing you notice unless you’re looking closely, but it’s a nice touch and extra grip is always welcome. There's also minimal water resistance, with a mere IPX2 rating meaning you don't want it anywhere near water if you can help it. Display
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