Motorola G96 5G Review: A balanced phone with a minimal design

Hey everyone, I’ve brought a really good, balanced midrange phone under NPR 40,000. This is Motorola’s Moto G96, which has just launched in Nepal, priced at exactly NPR 40,000 for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. For the price, I genuinely feel this is a very well-balanced midrange phone. Let's learn more in my Motorola G96 5G review.

Motorola G96 5G Specifications:

• Design & Build: 161.86 × 73.26 × 7.93 mm, 178g, IP68 dust and splash resistance
• Display: 6.67″ pOLED, 2400 × 1080 FHD+, 10-bit, HDR10+, 144Hz refresh rate, 300Hz touch sampling, 1200 nits HBM, 1600 nits peak, Corning Gorilla Glass 5
• Chipset: Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 (4nm), Adreno 710 GPU
• RAM & Storage: 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 256GB UFS 2.2 storage, no expansion
• Rear Cameras: 50MP Sony LYT-700C main, f/1.88, OIS, 8MP ultra-wide, f/2.2, macro support
• Front Camera: 32MP, f/2.45
• Software & OS: Android 15, 3 OS updates, 4 years of security updates
• Connectivity: Dual SIM (nano + nano), 5G SA/NSA, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, USB-C
• Sensors: In-display fingerprint sensor
• Battery: 5,500mAh, 68W fast charging

Motorola G96 5G Review

Design

Let me start with the design. Motorola phones always stand out visually, and I can instantly tell it’s a Motorola device just by looking at it. The leather back, curved frame, and slim form factor are classic Motorola elements, and this phone looks and feels premium in hand as well. It’s comfortable to hold and use, not bulky or heavy at all. 

I have the green color variant here, which looks fine, but personally, I like the blue color more. One really good thing is the IP68 rating, which is rare in this price segment, so I don’t really have to worry about water or dust damage. I usually find Motorola’s design minimal, but it might appease everyone out there.

Display

The display is easily one of the Moto G96's strongest points for me. It has a 6.67-inch curved POLED display with vibrant colors, good contrast, and decent outdoor brightness. Watching movies, YouTube, TikTok, or scrolling through Instagram feels very enjoyable. Because it’s a curved display, I occasionally had to deal with accidental touches, but it wasn’t a major issue. There’s no HDR support on YouTube or Netflix, so HDR content doesn’t have that extra punch. For protection, it comes with Gorilla Glass 5, which is fine for normal pocket use, though I wouldn’t keep it with sharp keys. The main highlight is the 144Hz refresh rate. By default, it runs at 120Hz, but I can switch to 144Hz from the settings, and the UI feels really smooth. 

The speakers are loud with good quality, and the haptics feel decent, too. They’re not extremely precise, but they’re also not annoying, and vibrations during fingerprint unlocks or calls feel just right.

Performance

Talking about performance, I’d say the Moto G96 is decent. It is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, which isn’t the fastest in this price range. While gaming, especially PUBG, I get around 60fps, and lighter games run smoothly, but this phone is not meant for hardcore gaming. In my daily usage, like on social media, YouTube, and while multitasking, I haven’t had any issues, and everything feels smooth as long as I’m not pushing it with very heavy tasks.

Software Experience

On the software side, I get a near-stock Android experience, and out of the box, the phone runs Android 15, which is definitely a plus for me. The disappointing part, however, is Motorola’s update policy, as it only promises one major Android update. In this price range, phones like the Nothing Phone 3a Lite offer three years of updates, so Motorola does fall behind here. 

There is some bloatware, but I can uninstall most of it. Overall, the UI feels smooth, with clean animations, fast app opening, and smooth scrolling. I also get plenty of customization options, including icon shapes, colors, fingerprint animations, and lock screen styles.

Battery and Charging

Battery life is another strong point for me. The phone packs a 5500mAh battery that easily gives me around 7 to 8 hours of screen-on time on normal usage, making it more than enough for a full day. Charging is handled by the 30W charger included in the box, and it takes around one hour to charge the phone fully.

Camera

Selfies

Starting with the cameras, if you love taking selfies, you’ll be very happy. The 32MP front camera captures very pleasing selfies with good skin tones, and the selfie video quality is also quite impressive.

Portraits

Portrait selfies look good as well. There’s no telephoto lens, but cropped shots from the 50MP main camera are decent. Edge detection isn’t perfect due to the lack of a dedicated lens, but overall, the results are not bad.

Main Camera

The main camera produces punchy photos most of the time and generally performs well, though I did notice occasional shadow crushing, darker outputs, and some chromatic aberration. Close-up shots at 1x look good, and low-light performance is acceptable. Color reproduction is good overall, but highlights and shadows are not always perfectly balanced.

Ultrawide

In my experience, the weaker aspects of the Moto G96 camera are the ultra-wide camera and rear video performance. The ultra-wide camera lacks detail, crushes shadows heavily, and produces average colors, making it usable but not impressive. 

Videos

While recording videos with the rear camera, I noticed a pulsing effect during movement, and the colors look overly vibrant, more than necessary. I feel this could be fixed with a future software update.

Motorola G96 5G Review: Conclusion

To conclude, as I said at the beginning, the Motorola Moto G96 is an overall balanced option for NPR 40,000. If I were looking specifically for heavy gaming, this wouldn’t be my first choice, and phones like the CMF Phone 2 Pro or Infinix GT 30 make more sense. 

But if I want a phone with clean software, minimal design, decent cameras, and strong battery life, the Moto G96 is an excellent option. That said, when I compare it to Indian pricing, it feels around NPR 2,000 to 3,000 more expensive than it should be.

Motorola G96 5G Review: Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Minimal Design
• Decent Cameras
• Clean software
• Great battery life

Cons:

• Not the best gaming performance
• A bit overpriced in Nepal