Motorola's newest big mid-ranger comes with a killer price, killer screen, but no 5G

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After investing a pretty unusual amount of time and resources into expanding the Edge family with a whole bunch of different mid and high-end models over the last few months, Motorola is getting back to doing what it arguably does best.

The Moto G72 is roughly the one hundredth (probably) member of the G series unveiled just in the past couple of years alone, and much like the vast majority of its budget-friendly forerunners, this 6.55-inch bad boy aims to stand out from the mid-range crowd by delivering great value at a reasonable price.

Two big selling points, one even bigger country

The price will be 18,999 rupees at launch in the distant but extremely competitive Indian market, which converts to only a little over $230. Of course, such conversions are not particularly practical exercises given the G72's odds of being officially released in the US, which are very close to zero (at least if history is any indication).

With all that in mind, our American (and at least for the time being, European) readers can't do much else right now but browse Flipkart's website with envy as the Indian e-commerce giant gears up to start selling the Moto G72 on October 12 in Meteorite Black and Polar Blue color options and a single 128GB storage configuration also accommodating 6 gigs of RAM.

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If those memory and storage counts fail to impress you, perhaps the silky smooth 120Hz pOLED display and 108MP primary rear-facing shooter will get the job done. The undoubtedly gorgeous screen is billed as India's "first in segment" with billion colour 10-bit technology, while that very impressive-sounding 108MP imaging sensor promises to produce "incredibly sharp and bright" snapshots with Ultra Pixel technology combining nine pixels into one, well, "ultra large" pixel.

Both specifications are obviously fairly unusual for the G72's pricing "segment", which naturally means that Motorola had to cut a few key corners to achieve the Rs. 21,999 MSRP (discounted to 18,999 for the phone's upcoming release).

Other strengths and weaknesses

Probably the biggest compromise this handset's buyers will need to live with is no 5G support, which is a very unusual omission for a mid-end Motorola. The Moto G72, mind you, packs a MediaTek Helio G99 processor specifically designed for 4G LTE-only devices.

Even more specifically, "next-generation" 4G "gaming" smartphones, which explains the 120Hz display refresh rate capabilities. In combination with a hefty 5,000mAh battery, this unquestionably frugal 6nm-based chipset should also deliver extremely satisfying endurance times between (blazing fast 33W) charges, although curiously enough, Motorola isn't making any big multi-day battery life marketing promises.

The company's software support commitment is not exactly... great either, covering just one "assured" OS upgrade and three years of frequent security patches for a device unsurprisingly debuting with Android 12 out the box.

On the decidedly bright side of things, said retail box will include the aforementioned 33-watt TurboPower charger in addition to a USB Type-C cable and protective cover, and the Moto G72 also features a good old fashioned 3.5mm headphone jack and a good old fashioned microSD card slot for extra convenience (compared to many of the latest high-end smartphones out there) on two different levels.

The rest of the specs and features are far from groundbreaking, including a single 16MP selfie camera and a secondary 8 and tertiary 2MP sensor on the back, as well as an in-display fingerprint sensor, IP52 water resistance, and dual stereo speakers. The same goes for the somewhat generic design, especially from the front, but all things considered, the bang for buck looks virtually irresistible on paper... as long as you don't need or want 5G connectivity.