Why the Moto G62 is the cheap phone deal to beat this Black Friday
Motorola's Moto G62 is our favourite budget 5G phone and just £170 in what we consider Black Friday's best cheap phone deal
Black Friday may have come and gone, but there are still plenty of great cheap phone deals floating around as we head toward Cyber Monday.
Our pick of those deals is on the Motorola Moto G62 – an affordable 5G phone we said “provides an ideal balance between price and features” when we reviewed it at its launch price of £200.
That price fell to £170 ahead of Black Friday and, while not the cheapest it’s ever been – it was available for £166 for a very brief period in July – still represents exceptional value for money.
So, what makes the Moto G62 such a standout budget buy? For starters, it offers 5G connectivity, which is a massive advantage assuming you have a 5G mobile plan and spend a sizeable proportion of your time in areas where 5G signal is available.
Data transmission is significantly quicker over a 5G connection and this means you can enjoy faster download and upload speeds along with lower latency. Lower latency is particularly useful if you do a lot of mobile gaming, where the finest of margins can mean the difference between success and failure.
In addition to 5G connectivity, the Moto G62’s octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Plus processor delivers impressive performance for a smartphone costing under £200. General tasks are handled very swiftly – you might experience the odd micro pause when opening intensive apps, but switching between apps is extremely fluid, as is scrolling through your various social media feeds.
There’s even enough processing power under the hood to allow the Moto G62 to run mobile games like Shadowrun Legends at 1080p resolution at 60fps without too much bother. The G62’s 6.5in IPS panel has a refresh rate of 120Hz, and this ensures a smooth and stutter-free experience whatever you’re using the phone for.
Coverage of the sRGB colour gamut is perfectly respectable at 94.5%, and while a contrast ratio of 1610:1 isn’t anything to write home about, it’s decent for the money. It’s a similar story with the G62’s peak brightness of 424cd/m², which isn’t searing, but bright enough for use in most conditions.
Snap-happy punters will be pleased with the camera options the G62 offers, too. You wouldn’t expect sensational photography from a sub-£200 smartphone but the triple camera array, which consists of a 50MP main lens, 2MP macro lens, and 8MP ultrawide lens, produces decent images, save in full darkness, where shooting is a non-starter.
Another thing that makes the G62 such a great budget buy is its terrific battery life. It’s not quite as long-lasting as its Moto G50 stablemate, which was our previous pick of Motorola’s cheap phones and managed 25 hours in our battery rundown test, but 21 hours is still a super score for a phone with an FHD+ display.
All things considered, the G62 is the best value option in Motorola’s lineup and our current pick of the best budget smartphones you can buy if you want 5G connectivity. With £30 off its usual price, it’s even more affordable than usual and the best cheap phone deal around in the wake of Black Friday.
Black Friday is done and dusted but the deals keep coming and you can find our pick of the offers still available over on our Black Friday hub. You’ll also find links to our roundups covering the best offers on key product categories such as TVs, laptops and coffee machines.