Moto G73 5G review: Can stock Android compensate for the lack of AMOLED. Stock Android phones
The Moto G73 5G features a solid design and an excellent stock Android experience. But can that make up for the lack of an AMOLED panel? Find out in our review.
The 6.5″ Moto G73 fits my hand like a glove (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
A decent compact phone is hard to come by these days, unless you’re willing to pay over Rs 50k for an iPhone or Samsung. That’s why when I tore open the Moto G73’s box and held the phone for the first time, I was delighted.
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Motorola Moto G73 vs Vivo iQOO Z6 Lite Comparison #shorts #short #motog73 #vivoiqooz6lite #mobile
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The Moto G73 is a budget phone, but it’s only 6.5 inches. That may not seem very compact, but trust me, every digit counts when it comes to phones – even the ones after the decimal. Most phones today are 6.7 inches or more, and the Moto G73 felt like a breath of fresh air. But that’s not all there is to love about this phone…keep reading to find out more in our review.
Design
Motorolas have always had their own design language that set them apart from the sea of phones out there (remember the instantly recognisable Moto Gs of the last decade?). With phones turning virtually indistinguishable these days thanks to the maturing of the smartphone industry, maintaining a unique design language is understandably difficult. But as Motorola proves it in its own subtle ways, it’s not impossible.
It’s blue that turns nearly black under slightly dimmer conditions (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
Let’s start with the Midnight Blue colour. It looks almost black but reveals subtle dark blue hues when you tilt the phone (or your head). This distinctive shade is virtually exclusive to Motorola – it’s rare and adds character to these phones. Another eye-catching element is the transparent camera island, which is also a Motorola signature.
Intricacies aside, the Moto G73 is easy in the hands – it’s light at 181g and reasonably slim at 8.3mm. The slightly rounded edges help with the grip and the ‘acrylic glass’ matte rear isn’t very slippery. The phone also feels surprisingly solid and I almost mistook the plastic frame for metal.
The only bit offputting about the design is the thick bottom bezel which has no place in 2023.
Display
Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin? (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
The Moto G73’s display is as good as LCD panels can get with bright and punchy colours. However, it’s still no match for AMOLED panels with their deep blacks and better viewing angles. Sunlight legibility is just passable.
Performance
The MediaTek Dimensity 930 provides an alternate choice in the sub-Rs 20k segment, which has grown saturated with Snapdragon 695 devices of late. The 6nm 5G chip is slightly newer and supposedly performs just a hair faster than the SD695. It navigates the UI and apps fluidly.
Stress test is smooth sailing and benchmark scores are what you expect from a phone of this price (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
Gaming performance is decent. Surprisingly, PUBG New State lets you turn the framerate all the way up to 90FPS. But get into a match and you’ll realise that it’s better to simply set it to 60FPS since 90FPS is unachievable. Call of Duty: Mobile plays at High graphics and Max framerate. There’s barely any heating and no frame drops after half an hour of gaming and I expect the phone to hold up just fine on even longer sessions.
Cameras
Like other things on Motorola My UX, the camera interface has been thoughtfully designed, with everything you’d need living on the viewfinder itself. As I strolled along the streets of Noida, the Moto G73 was my faithful companion, ready to snap anything that intrigued me. The phone produced some great images that I wasn’t shy to Instagram.
Crisp but slightly oversharpened (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
The Moto G73 has two rear cameras, a 50MP primary and an 8MP ultrawide, which also serves as a macro and a depth camera. Daylight shots with the 50MP primary come out with decent detail (though nothing impressive) and with HDR set on auto mode, the phone handles tricky scenarios surprisingly well. Saturation can be a tad higher than what your eye sees, although most would probably dig that.
A tricky shot with the sun in the background handled well (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express) The ultrawide camera is actually useful even in indoor lighting (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
However, I did not like the Moto’s tendency to oversharpen shots, and sadly, oversharpening was apparent in almost every photo – whether it was the rear cameras or the front, during the day or the night.
Not the best nighttime experience at this price (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express) Instagram-worthy as long as you don’t crop in (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express) Selfies come out okay for the price (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
over, details at nighttime take a major hit. The phone also gets hot when using the camera, eventually leading to a stuttery camera interface.
Software
The Moto G73 boots into Android 13 out of the box, layered atop with Motorola’s own skin which it calls My UX. You might expect that Android 13 is the standard for new phones, but it somehow still isn’t, so the G73 wins extra points for this one.
My UX can be summed up in a single sentence – stock Android but with a few meaningful tweaks. Motorola has brought every customisable aspect of the software under one umbrella – the ‘Personalise’ menu – and that includes wallpapers, themes, fonts, colours, icon shapes, icon layouts, and fonts. I really dig it.
My UX is an absolute joy to use (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
Moto Display is also a refreshing take on AODs with several unique features, although it’s downgraded to function more like Ambient Display on the Moto G73 since it has an LCD panel.
The whiteness you see on the display is actually an animation that mimics a swirling mist (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/Indian Express)
All in all, My UX is a joy to use with fluid animations. If you’re a stock Android fan like me, you’ll love the extras Motorola has sprinkled on top. Motorola also seems to be improving its update situation. I have already received two system updates with new security patches since I got the device.
Stock Android vs Custom UI – Here’s Everything That You Need To Know
Stock Android vs Custom UI, believe it or not, this is a lifelong argument that will keep reoccurring, for as long as we have phones running on any one of these two operating systems, just the same way we have arguments such as;
So here’s the thing, today I’ll try to be as neutral as possible in discussing both, we’ll talk about what each of them stand for, the advantages and disadvantages that they both have over and against each other, and why you’d pick Mr. A over Mr. B, and vice versa.
And without further ado, let’s get started. #Enjoy…
Stock Android – What is it?
For those who don’t know, stock Android or pure Android, or even vanilla Android as some techies like to call it, is a 100% non-customized version of Android operating system itself.
This is Android operating system being served to you in the original form which Google has planned it, wants it to be, and has made it to be.
It doesn’t contain bloatwares or any extra apps, just the core Android apps that are created and distributed by Google, such as; the Google app itself, the Google assistant app, Gmail, YouTube, Google’s Play store, Google Calendar, the Google Chrome browser, Google Maps, etc.
And speaking of smartphones where you can readily see stock Android, well we have thousands of them from various manufacturers out there, with a few of them being;
Best Stock Android phones for 2020
List of smartphones where you can readily get stock Android in 2020.
- Google Pixel phones: Google Pixel 1, 2, 3, 4 5.
- All Nokia Android phones.
- Xiaomi Mi A1, A2 Mi A3
- All Motorola One models, etc.
Those are just to mention but a few, and there are even some smartphone manufacturers that in as much as we are made to believe that they ship their phones with a custom UI, it is still nothing far from the original stock Android look and experience.
Smartphone manufacturers such as OnePlus, Sony, Motorola as a whole, HTC, etc. And these are just the basic things that you need to know about stock Android, now let’s talk about custom UI.
Custom UI – What you need to know.
Custom UI just as the name is pronounced, is a direct opposite of what Stock Android stands for. Which means that it is (on most cases), a heavily customised version of the basic Android operating system, done by various phone manufacturers, to suit their taste, and that of their users.
And speaking of custom UI, we have a lot of them out there with different names and varying features and functions. And just to mention but a few, we have the likes of;
- Samsung (One UI)
- Xiaomi (MIUI)
- Huawei Honor (EMUI)
- OnePlus (OxygenOS)
- Oppo (ColorOS)
- Realme (Realme UI)
- Infinix (XOS)
- Asus (ZenUI)
- Lenovo (ZUI)
- Vivo (Funtouch), etc.
Reasons why most smartphone companies prefer to use a Custom UI in place of stock Android.
There might be a dozen of reasons why most smartphone manufacturers prefer to make use of a custom UI in place of the original stock Android which has been provided for them by Google.
But some of the few reasons which I’m very sure that makes most phone manufacturers to choose custom UI over stock Android includes;
- To look different and unique from the millions of smartphones out there.
- To add more features and functions to their smartphones, which are not readily available on stock Android.
- To have more control over the software of their smartphones.
- Because their fans prefer a custom UI, over stock Android.
Now having known what stock Android and custom UI are all about, let us see some of the benefits and losses that you stand to gain, if you choose one over the other.
Benefits/advantages of choosing stock Android over custom UI.
Though most people naturally prefer the minimalist and clean look of stock Android without minding what they stand to gain or lose, but here’s what you stand to gain if you choose it over every other custom UI.
Longer and faster software (new Android versions security) updates.
Because Google are the ones in charge of stock Android software, and even at that, stock Android is light, and easy to maintain manage;
So users who choose stock Android over custom UI, are entitled to new Android version updates, for up to 3 years or so, and monthly security updates for up to four years.
For example, phones like the Google Pixel 1 that were launched during late October in 2016 with Android 7.1 Nougat, still got updates for Android 10 this year. That is four solid years from its original launch date.
Though I’m not saying that those using smartphones with custom UI running on them don’t get Android version and security updates at all.
They do get theirs as well, but not as long and as fast as those on the stock Android operating system. And this is simply because, custom UI are heavy and less easier to manage and maintain than stock Android.
So whenever a new Android version is out, it takes these phone manufacturers running on custom UI, more time and resources to integrate it into their various respective UIs.
And because of the much work and time it requires to achieve this, they can’t be doing it for all of their smartphone models out there, and that is the reason why they just choose on most cases, their flagship models, updates them for at least 2 years or so, and calls it a day.
A cleaner and minimalist look and feel of the Android operating system.
With stock Android, you’re getting a very simple, basic and straight forward look and feel of the Android operating system, more like the type of feel that you’d get on an iOS device.
Unlike most custom UI out there, especially Samsung’s One UI where you’d get the freedom to customize almost every single aspect of the user interface, on stock Android, there are very little to no customizations that you can do on it, it is more like a plug n’ play experience.
Faster and Better device (hardware) performance.
Although this point might not really turn out to be true on some cases, but in general, devices running on stock Android software, tends to perform better in terms of speed and battery management, than devices running on custom UIs.
Reason is that since stock Android is lightweight, it doesn’t require much hardware resources in order to give its users optimum performance.
Reason why Google Pixel phones still ship with 4 – 6GB of RAM, when most of its counterparts are shipping with up to 12 – 16GB of RAM.
Alright, so those are some of the benefits that you’d stand to gain if a choose a stock Android phone over a phone running on a custom UI.
Now let’s take a look at some of the benefits that you’d stand to gain too, if you chose a smartphone running with a custom UI, over stock Android.
Benefits/Advantages of Custom UI over Stock Android
- You’re open to more Android customisations, compared to what you’d get on a traditional stock Android software.
- Depending on the manufacturer, you’re open to use additional features that are not available on the stock Android system.
- Each custom UI looks unique from the rest. So with custom UIs, you identify more with a particular phone brand than the way you do on stock Android, where everything looks the same on all smartphones using it.
Now having known all these things between stock Android and custom UI, the question still remains, which is the best to go for, or which one would you choose.
Personally, on situations such as this, I’d say that it all boils down to personal preferences. For me, i like the Samsung’s One Ui, because of its massive room for customisations and its added features.
So it depends on what anyone wants in a smartphone. Stock Android is for people who likes things organised, simple, straight to the point, do what it does, and fast.
While custom UI is for people like me who likes to tweak and tinker with the different options on their smartphone.
Tweak your Samsung Galaxy to give it that stock Android look
I’ve been a diehard user of Google’s pure Android phones—like the Nexus and Pixel lines—for years, preferring the unadulterated stock Android experience to the tweaked version manufacturers provide. But Samsung has some of the best hardware you can get today, plus a few handy features that Pixel phones don’t have. Samsung’s powerful processors and great cameras have constantly tempted me to switch and try one of their smartphones, but there was always the interface problem.
Once upon a time, manufacturer-skinned versions of Android were considered blasphemy. These days, that’s changed: Samsung’s One UI is a huge improvement over their older software, but after years with Google’s version, it’s still hard to get used to some of Samsung’s changes. So when I finally caved and bought a refurbished Galaxy S10e, I just couldn’t go without making some software alterations to make my new phone look and feel more like Google’s simpler offering.
This guide should get you the best of both worlds: Google’s simpler, more usable interface with all the extra features Samsung packs in to the OS itself.
Install Google’s Stock Apps
Before doing anything else, replace some of Samsung’s built-in apps with Google’s equivalents if you don’t have them already. These I feel are better designed or more feature-filled:
If you want, you can go even further and replace some of the smaller apps, like Phone, Calculator, and Wallpapers, but they aren’t strictly necessary unless you want that consistent Google-feel across your device. Google’s Camera app is an exception as well: you can technically install community-tweaked builds that’ll work on the latest Samsung phones, but they can be buggy, and in my experience the Samsung camera app just worked more reliably. If you’re unhappy with the quality of the photos Samsung’s camera app takes, you may want to tweak the “Scene Optimizer” and other features in the Camera’s settings before you try switching to the Google app.
Replace the home screen with Nova Launcher
Samsung’s home screen is pretty customizable if you dig into the settings, but it still can’t match a third-party home screen like Nova Launcher. The sheer amount of options, customizable shortcuts, and compatible icon packs is unmatched, and you can even get the Google Now feed that comes with Google’s standard launcher (instead of the “Samsung Daily” feed that comes with Galaxy phones). Grab Nova Launcher and start playing around with some settings—I recommend paying 5 for the Prime pack as well to get the full suite of features.
Look through everything Nova has to offer to find what you like best, but there are two things I definitely recommend tweaking. First, from Nova’s settings, head to App Drawer and then Hide Apps. From here, you can hide all of Samsung’s preinstalled apps that you aren’t using (like the aforementioned Internet, Calendar, and Contacts, which you can’t uninstall) plus any other bloatware that came with your phone. It’ll free up space and make you forget those apps are even there.
Next, go to Look Feel and tap on Icon Style, where you can pick the more Google-esque round icon shape instead of Samsung’s Rounded Square. On that same menu, I also recommend grabbing a Pixel-focused icon pack, like Pixel Pie Icon Pack, which will generate Google-style round icons for a ton of third-party apps to make your home screen look just like stock Android.
If you don’t want to download Nova and just want to stick with Samsung’s home screen launcher, you could also head to the Galaxy Themes app and grab a “Material” designed theme, which will mimic the look of stock Android on Samsung’s home screen.
Remap the Bixby button to Google Assistant (or something else)
Ah, Bixby—the voice assistant nobody wants, but Samsung shoves in front of your face as often as they can. While I’m no fan of it, I actually like the Bixby button found on the side of Galaxy phones because nowadays it’s extremely customizable—just head to Settings, Advanced Features, and then Bixby Key. There you can change Bixby to a double-press while using a single press to open whatever app you want. For the most Pixel-like experience, remap this to the Google Assistant (almost mimicking the “squeeze” gesture on Pixel phones), though I find the button unnecessary since I can use the “Hey Google” command. I prefer to map it to the camera, or some other app I might need super-quick access to. It’s up to you.
Tweak the lock screen and navigation bar
Finally, I changed a few other minor settings for a more stock-like experience. First and foremost, lock screen notifications. Samsung hides your notifications behind an extra tap, which drives me absolutely bonkers, but you can turn this off by heading to Settings, Lock Screen, and then to Notifications, and changing the View Style to Details. You may also want to go to the Lock Screen settings and change the Clock Style to the more centered, Pixel-like option they offer.
If you’re used to stock Android phones, you’re probably also thrown off by the button order along the bottom—Samsung has always put the back button on the opposite side as Google. I used to hate this, but I have to admit that with today’s larger screens, I actually find Samsung’s right-oriented back button easier to reach with one hand. But, if you want it back the way Google does it, head to Settings, Display, and Navigation Bar, to change the button order from there.
Note that if you want to go above and beyond what both Samsung and Google offer by default, check out Good Lock. It’s a piece of Samsung software from the Galaxy Store that isn’t installed out-of-the-box, but offers a boatload of options for customizing your lock screen, navigation bar, quick settings panel, and more. It may be a bit overkill for some, but if you’re the kind of person that likes to tweak every corner of your phone, it’s a great alternative to the above tips.
Customize the Quick Settings panel
When you drag your finger down from the top of the screen, you’ll see your notifications along with a few “quick settings” along the top. Drag down again, and you’ll get the full Quick Settings panel, which allows you to customize your screen’s brightness, toggle certain settings on and off, and more.
Samsung’s Quick Settings panel looks a bit different from Google’s, but it’s actually a bit more customizable—if you want something both customizable and Pixel-styled, check out Power Shade. After installing the app and giving it Accessibility and Notification permissions, your Quick Settings panel will look exactly like the Pixel’s, only with far more options for customizing the layout, colors, icon shape, carrier name, and other features.
What is the best stock Android phone for less than RM1,000 | Ask Us Anything
Welcome back to another episode of Ask Us Anything, where we gather your questions from the internet and answer them. In today’s episode, what’s the best smartphone without bloatware to get under RM1,000? And also is it a good choice to get the iPad Air or the Pro even though the regular iPad is powerful enough? All of these and more in today’s video.
Samsung Galaxy A52s vs Samsung Galaxy A53
Should you get the Samsung Galaxy A52s or should you go for the Samsung Galaxy A53 that was launched recently?
Well let’s compare them. The Samsung Galaxy A52s comes with a 6.5” Full HD Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 778G 5G processor with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. And fun fact, this is also the same processor as the new Samsung Galaxy A73.Besides that, it also has a quad camera setup and a 4,500mAh battery with 25W fast charging.
In comparison to the Galaxy A53, this device gets a similar 6.5” Full HD Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Powering the device is a Exynos 1280 processor with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It also gets a quad camera setup but the battery is now slightly bigger at 5,000mAh.
To be honest the difference between the two phones is very minimal and their are not too far off either. You can find the Galaxy A52s at RM1,699 while the newer A53 is priced at RM1,849. So if you prefer a Snapdragon-powered phone and save some money, yeah, the A52s 5G is probably a more worthwhile choice.
Regular iPad vs iPad Air iPad Pro
I do agree that the regular iPad is really powerful and whenever my friends ask me for a tablet recommendation, I will instantly suggest them to get the regular iPad instead of the iPad Mini or the iPad Air. It’s affordable and it can almost do everything that a more expensive iPad does.
But I get why people would want to get the other iPads instead of the regular one. First thing first, it’s the screen. I have to admit that the screen on the regular iPad is not as good as the ones on the iPad Air or the iPad Pros. The bezels are way thinner, which looks really good, and if you are someone who draws often on your iPad, you will also appreciate the extra screen!
And speaking of drawing, the regular iPad only supports 1Gen Apple Pencil and do you know how stupid it is to charge the pencil? Like hello, you have to stick it into the charging port of your iPad which is ridiculous.
But if you do own the 2nd Apple Pencil, you know how convenient it is to charge the pencil. All you have to do is to place your pencil on top of the iPad and it will stick magnetically. And not forgetting that the iPad Air and Pros also have better stereo experience because they have speakers on both sides in landscape mode.
Acer Swift X
Raymond, our laptop expert here in soyacincau recommended the Acer Swift X. According to him, this laptop is not the most powerful or the most portable laptop. The laptop is also not very stylish and the display is not as good as you want it to be. But what’s good about this laptop is its price to performance ratio.
Acer Swift X, AMD Ryzen 5 5600U, RTX3050 Ti, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD – RM4,299
Acer Swift X, AMD Ryzen 7 5800U, RTX3050 Ti, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – RM4,999
If you want to learn more about this laptop, you can check out Raymond’s review of the Acer Swift X, and the links are down in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев section below. But if you are not in a rush to get it yet, Raymond suggests that you wait till the Swift X to be out because they will be launching the next generation really soon.
Best stock Android smartphone for less than RM1,000
So I’ve asked around the office and Alex suggests that the best phone with stock Android to get under RM1000 is the Motorola G51 5G! Yes it comes with 5G!
This smartphone is priced at RM899 and it comes with a huge 6.81” Full HD display that comes with 120Hz refresh rate. It is also powered by a Snapdragon 480 Pro processor with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It also gets a triple camera setup and a rather decent 5,000mah battery.
But if you really want the best performance for your money, the Poco F3 will be offered for as low as RM999 during the Lazada 10th birthday sale on 27th March. That has a Snapdragon 870 chip with 5G, an AMOLED screen with 120Hz and stereo speakers.
