The Motorola Moto G56 is an improvement over the older Moto G55, but it’s still an average performer, which just isn’t enough to make it exciting.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Decent battery life | Mediocre app performance |
| IP69 rating is great for this price | Ordinary cameras |
| Moto actions remain a fun inclusion | 4GB model is notably limited for updates and expansion options |
Score: 3/5
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In this review
Specifications
Design
Camera
Performance
Battery
Conclusion
Ethical disclaimer: The Motorola Moto G56 5G used in this review was loaned to me by Motorola Australia. That gets it reviewed, and it’s heading back their way. Motorola Australia has no input into this review, which is based on my own tests, observations and multiple decades of mobile phone testing.
Yes, disclosure isn’t exciting, but amidst a rising tide of AI slop and terribly put together “reviews”, I feel it’s more important than ever. For more on ART’s ethical position, see here.
Design
Motorola’s Moto G line has always been about value balances, providing some of my favourite low-cost phones in recent years.
Last year’s Motorola Moto G55 was not one of them.
It isn’t a terrible phone, but it didn’t tip the scales of value and power quite the right way, leaving me to conclude that it was awkwardly average.
A newer phone in the same lineage should correct the mistakes of its predecessor, right?
At first glance, that’s certainly what the Motorola Moto G56 5G seems to do.
On the design side, the screen display is larger at 6.7 inches compared to the 6.5 inch display of the G55, though with both phones sharing the same 2400×1080 resolution, the newer G56 is technically slightly less sharp in presentation.
Controls are located on the right hand side, with the typical volume rocker sitting above a combination power/assistant/fingerprint reader, while at the base you’ll find USB-C power and a 3.5mm headphone jack for those who like to rock it old school style.
In Australia, the Motorola Moto G56 5G sells in just two colours; Pantone Black Oyster and Pantone Gray Mist; it’s the latter that Motorola sent my way, though it’s got a lot of blue/green within its gray, if I want to quibble.
I probably don’t want to pick fights with Pantone or anything, but if you were keen on a purely gray phone for some curious reason, this isn’t quite that. Checking around internationally it appears that “Dazzling Blue” and “Dill” colours are also available, but not down under.
Like its predecessor, there’s a low level camera bump, though it houses a wider set of camera lenses. More on that below.
Motorola does provide a simple clear case with the Motorola Moto G56 5G, and while I’m always a fan of phone cases, that’s especially true here as the rear casing, while not specified as “vegan leather”, it’s got the same soft-ish touch that makes my skin crawl. Your own tastes may vary, but I rapidly installed the case for the duration of my test time with the phone.
For the longest time, Motorola’s Moto G phones all advertised that they were “water repellent”, which is one of those terms that doesn’t mean that much, not that you can typically expect much in the budget space.
As such, it’s extremely pleasing to see that the Motorola Moto G56 5G is rated at IP69, which means it should be able to survive an accidental dunking or two. As always, don’t push it too far, or you’ll likely regret it.
Camera
In straight line camera terms, the Motorola Moto G56 5G does improve on its predecessor, if only just.
At the rear you’ll find a 50MP primary wide and 8MP ultrawide sensor, and while these have been mildly tweaked from the G55, the bigger change is in the selfie camera, bumping up to a 32MP sensor from the older phone’s 16MP sensor.
We are still in purely budget territory here, however, so you do have temper your expectations. If you’re shooting in regular daylight the Motorola Moto G56 5G does a fair but not particularly fast job, especially if you’re switching between the wide and ultra-wide lenses.
There’s no onboard zoom, and digital cropping zoom is capped at 8x, which is a smart enough step given the predictable loss in quality you get even there.
Standard wide park shot… but what if we wanted to zoom in for a closer look?
At 8x zoom the G56 is starting to seriously struggle.
The biggest challenge to the Motorola Moto G56 5G in camera terms is its variable pricing. For the $299 model, camera performance is fair, but if you opt for the $399 variant – and as I’ll explain below, if you’re going to opt for the G56 5G, you really should – you’re in striking distance of a number of phones (something like the CMF Phone 2 Pro for example) that offer superior camera quality.
Motorola Moto G56 5G Sample Photos
Closeup shots in fair light are handled well enough.
Selfies are fine for skin tone, though portrait mode does struggle with realistic placement of a bald head.
Hedorah wants me to take a photo of his “good side” with the G56 5G. I’m not sure which side that is.
“Why are you taking photos when I’M HUNGRY?”
Regular daylight shots are fine, though you do sometimes need some patience switching lenses.
Performance
The Motorola Moto G56 5G is built around a Mediatek Dimensity 7060 processor and Android 15 with Motorola’s launcher app built on top of it.
On the storage and RAM front, in Australia Motorola offers the Motorola Moto G56 5G in two distinct variants. The cheaper $299 model (via Optus and Vodafone) has 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the pricier $399 model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
Internationally it appears that there are even more storage/RAM variants out there with 128GB/8GB models, 256GB/12GB models and 512GB/12GB models in some markets. Not here, however, and the model that Motorola loaned me for review was the upper-tier-in-Australia variant with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
I’ve been rather impressed with what Mediatek’s made of its Dimensity processors of late, whether that’s been in higher-end models or, as is the case here with more budget-centric fare, so I was keen to see how the Motorola Moto G56 5G compared, especially against the mediocre performance of its predecessor.
First stop, Geekbench 6’s CPU test, to see how that Dimensity 7060 churns the ones and zeroes.
Oh. While the Motorola Moto G56 5G’s performance is well within expectations at this price point, there’s really not much between it and the older Moto G55, a phone that I found to be particularly prone to lag across a number of applications.
To be fair to the Motorola Moto G56 5G, it’s packing in 8GB of RAM for the model tested where last year’s G55 came in a 4GB only variant here, though if you buy the cheaper Optus/Vodafone model you could be in the exact same situation.
It’s an even less flattering picture in GPU terms, with the Motorola Moto G56 5G unable to run the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark, which means I’ve got to step back to the older Slingshot Extreme test to give a comparative picture:
This is not a powerful phone, and while that’s to an extent to be expected given the asking price, the reality is that no matter how much you’re spending on a phone, you should try to get the best deal you can. It’s hard to frame the Motorola Moto G56 5G that way.
The Motorola Moto G56 5G ships with Android 15, but here Motorola does something I can’t recall seeing any other phone manufacturer do before.
If you buy the open market 8GB RAM/256GB storage model, you’ll get two Android updates and 4 years of security updates. That’s not quite up there with what, say, Samsung does even on its cheaper A series handsets, but it’s acceptable, just.
Buy the 4GB/128GB model and that drops to just one Android update and 3 years of security updates.
That’s a pretty strong argument right there, I’d say to opt for the 8GB model, were it not for phones available at a similar price offering better performance right now.
Being a Motorola phone, you do get access to Motorola’s fun Moto Actions, so chopping the phone twice rapidly will turn on the flashlight, while twisting it around like it’s Chubby Checker will activate the camera.
Motorola plays it relatively light with preinstalled with the usual suspects of Booking.com, Temu, TikTok and a small array of simple Android games taking up space if you don’t opt out during setup.
Battery
The dead average for Android phones right now (excluding fancy folding numbers) is to pack in a 5,000mAh battery. The Motorola Moto G56 5G goes just that little bit higher with a 5,200mAh battery instead.
Of course, your usage of a phone will largely dictate how a battery runs, and if you’re keen enough there’s no phone on the market that won’t die within a day if you’re using it to a significant degree. You can find out more about how I test phone batteries here, or by watching the video below:
First stop, my YouTube 3 hour battery test, to see how the Motorola Moto G56 5G compares against similarly priced handsets. Here’s how it stacked up:
94% is fine for that first hour, because it suggests a phone that should last under moderate use for a full day, maybe a little more, but what’s particularly pleasing here is the stark difference between the Motorola Moto G56 5G and the older Motorola Moto G55; while both phones managed around the same first hour performance, the G55’s battery life tails off a lot faster after that, which does point to the G56 being a more efficient handset.
Motorola’s Moto G series phones used to ship with chargers, but those days are behind us; within the box you’ll find a USB-C to USB-C cable but nothing else. It will charge at up to 30W with a compliant charger though, which is nice to see at this price point.
Motorola Moto G56 5G: Alex’s Verdict
Does the Motorola Moto G56 5G improve on its predecessor, as you’d expect from a newer handset?
Yes, it absolutely does, with better battery performance as a particular highlight. It’s not a huge step up in straight line benchmark terms, but the fact that the 8GB model is at least available here does make a difference in real world app usage.
However… it’s still a rather hard sell, especially for that cheaper and more limited 4GB model, especially because Motorola’s also cutting back its support in terms of future upgrades.
At full RRP, you can do better than the Motorola Moto G56 5G right now, which means that it’s best suited for picking up if you can score one at a discount.
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Motorola Moto G56 5G: Pricing and availability
The Motorola Moto G56 5G retails at $299 through Optus and Vodafone (available shortly from the time of writing this review) at $299, though that’s for a model with 128GB of storage and just 4GB of RAM.
The model as tested retails in Australia for $399 with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
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