Forget iPhone SE — Motorola's new phone packs 5G for under $500

(Image credit: Motorola)

Motorola is finally launching an affordable 5G phone of its own. Today, the visitor announced the Motorola One 5G — a device coming to AT&T and Verizon soon, where it'll reportedly be available for under $500.

That's all the data Motorola tin share on pricing thus far; we don't know how far under $500 the Motorola I 5G will fall. But we do know it'll be powered past similar hardware to other relatively-inexpensive 5G phones, utilizing a Snapdragon 765 chipset in conjunction with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The best Android phones for every upkeep
Samsung Milky way Z Fold 2 unveiled — what you go for $2,000
Just in: Forget Pixel 4a 5G — Samsung'due south new phone could offer 5G for less

This vi.7-inch handset also packs a 90Hz, HDR-certified full-Hard disk display, though interestingly it's an LCD panel, rather than an OLED one. As such, it'll lack the vibrant colors and perfect blacks we've come to wait in higher-end smartphone displays, though that could aid bombardment life and will surely assist go on the price of this device down.

The quad-lens rear camera, which takes the shape of a foursquare patch on the upper-left corner of the device, comprises a 48-megapixel primary sensor with an 8MP ultrawide camera, 5MP dedicated macro photographic camera and 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there's not one, but ii shooters equally well, enclosed in double pigsty-dial cutouts within the screen — a main 16MP lens supplemented by an 8MP ultrawide 1.

The macro camera is encircled with its own LED wink that takes the shape of a ring around the lens itself. This was presumably washed to keep light from the flash centered on the field of study, since you'll be shooting at extremely shut distances, and whatever slight shifting of the direction of the wink would likely be more obvious than in a conventional photo from a more distant vantage bespeak. It certainly draws attending to the macro shooter relative to the other lenses, though macro cameras in phones are pretty over-hyped equally they are, so here'south hoping this one is more than just a gimmick.

Otherwise, for the most part, this is your run-of-the-mill Motorola One device that happens to support 5G connectivity. Though, for what information technology's worth, the device'south specs seem somewhat underwhelming compared to rivals at first blush.

The OnePlus Nord, for case, isn't sold in the U.S. but goes for the equivalent of roughly $480 in Europe and the U.K., and that device has twice the RAM, Qualcomm's 765G flake (which packs a slightly more capable GPU than the one in Motorola's phone), a 90Hz AMOLED screen and double the charging speed, at thirty watts. Samsung also now offers a 5G model of the recently-released Galaxy A51.

And if you don't yet demand 5G — which yous probably don't, judging by its underwhelming speeds thus far — the new Google Pixel 4a and iPhone SE are more compelling values at $349 and $399, respectively. The Pixel 4a carries the aforementioned chief lens you'll find in the flagship Pixel 4, whereas the iPhone SE smokes it and every other Android telephone in terms of performance, cheers to Apple'southward blisteringly-quick A13 Bionic silicon.

There's too a 5G version of the Pixel 4a on the horizon, likely to bear the same chip equally the Motorola One 5G and cost about the aforementioned, too.

Perhaps Motorola could pleasantly surprise u.s.a. and come in well beneath $500, which would make the Motorola One 5G unquestionably the cheapest 5G telephone available in the U.S. Still, this device won't be sold unlocked — y'all'll have to exist on AT&T to get information technology upon release later this month. Later downward the throughway, it'll arrive on Verizon's 5G millimeter-moving ridge network. You can look forward to our hands-on impressions and review of the Motorola 1 5G in the coming weeks.

Adam Ismail is a staff author at Jalopnik and previously worked on Tom'south Guide roofing smartphones, car tech and gaming. His love for all things mobile began with the original Motorola Droid; since then he'southward owned a diversity of Android and iOS-powered handsets, refusing to stay loyal to i platform. His work has also appeared on Digital Trends and GTPlanet. When he's not niggling with the latest devices, he's at an indie pop show, recording a podcast or playing Sega Dreamcast.