Motorola G85

The obvious way to tackle this G85 review is as a three-way comparison. Firstly, with the phone it replaces, the G84 from the year before, but more importantly in my view, the newer Edge 50 Neo - the big question being, is the extra £100 justified for the benefits that the latter brings. 

One caveat to remember here is to also check prices - as always Motorola phones are often on deals and sales, so shop around. At time of writing, for example, the Edge 50 Neo is £329 and the G85, £249 - making the difference a mere £70. But still, to many folk, even £70 is a significant difference when money is tight, so let's look at it.

Firstly the unboxing and the G85 comes in a minimalist box, all buff-coloured and eco-friendly, plastic-free as is their standard now, no charging brick, a USB-C to USB-C cable, some papers, a lovely soft, clear, simple, grippy TPU case (well done Moto) and a pokey-tool for the SIM Card tray. This is a PR unit, kindly loaned by MotorolaUK, which has been in the hands of other reviewers, so I can't tell you if the box is 'perfumed' in the way that others have been recently - I can't detect it! Be aware that depending on your region, contents of retail boxes may differ.

It's beautifully designed. Yeah, I know, I'm one of the few who really still likes the very-slightly curved screens. I'm not talking about waterfall edges, but just slightly - makes it feel classy and premium to me whilst being fairly minimalist, not interfering with screen touches. No surprises on layout of functions, nanoSIM Card tray with reverse for microSD but no second SIM option on this unit (apart from eSIM), USB-C port, speaker at the bottom, volume/power on the right, nothing left and top but microphones and the front panel has a secondary speaker for stereo, doubling up as the earpiece for calls in the usual way - and below that, a punch-hole Selfie cutout. The back is made of what they call eco-leather, well actually it's Silicone Polymer - plastic, but it does have a nice velvety feel to it and affords more grip, for those who don't want to use the case, than shiny plastic or glass.

I never had a G84 in-hand, so can only compare in terms of specs as I start to look at the G85, which arrived just under a year later, in June 2024. They both have the more budget-friendly plastic frame, same back options as mentioned above and the G85 is slightly bigger all-round with a 6.67" screen instead of the G84's 6.5" (which doesn't feel as big because of those curves), so a tad taller and wider, but about the same thickness and not far off the same weight. The older phone seems to have had an IP5/4 rating whereas the G85 is now back to the typical Moto nano-coating arrangements, officially at least. They may have just been saving some cash on the certification costs.

The Gorilla Glass 5 screen is up to Moto's usual standard, being a gorgeous, bright, colourful pOLED, as it was last year I'm told, both of them refreshing at up to 120Hz. The newer phone peaks out for brightness at 1600nits over 1300, for anyone who can tell! Both phones have 1080p screens with a 20:9 ratio, returning about 400ppi. The G85's screen really is nice to use, especially with that slight curve around the left and right - and is a joy to look at, too. I'm still not sure if these panels remain LG-supplied, but they make a big difference to usage and often defy the price-point as Moto are including them lower and lower down the range.

The chipsets used in the two phones are also comparable - the G85's SnapDragon 6s Gen 3 is apparently a slightly beefed up version of the G84's SnapDragon 695. The G85 performs well enough in my tests here taking it through the usual array of car-racing games, heavy loading in terms of copying files, reading/writing to microSD and so on. I detected no heating up even during the most intensive tasks. These chipsets are never going to perform like the latest/greatest industry leaders, but for Joe Public, they are just fine and the slight slowdown that might be detected by the user is so minimal that the vast majority of users' expectations will not be challenged.

This supplied Cobalt Blue unit has got 256GB Storage and 12GB RAM, but it's also available with 8GB RAM in 256GB and 128GB versions. Again, I have thrown many tasks at the system and yes, opening and closing apps, starting up the phone, is not as instant as more well-specified phones, but I certainly don't see any problematic shutting down of apps - they can be recalled from Recents from some way back. Both phones have got a microSD Card slot, so whichever base-model you get, you can expand up - and this one is playing very nicely with my 1TB microSD Card for read/write speeds. Incidentally, apart from this colour, you can also get it in Olive Green, Urban Grey and Magenta.

One of the differences between the two phones is that with the new one, Moto have stepped up their game with promises of longer support. The G84 arrived on Android 13 and it was pretty much unspecified as to how long it would be supported (though I understand that it does have Android 14 now) - but the G85 gets the promise of 2 OS updates (so to Android 16 following Google's release - which at time of writing sounds like it might be in mid-2025 now) and 4 years of Security updates (so to June 2028). Yes, it looks like this is not going to be supported terribly long-term, but at least it's specified and not at the whim of what they fancy doing at the time.

Another difference between the two phones is that the older phone had a 3.5mm audio-out socket which has been removed for the G85. Not sure how much that will impact people but to be honest, I'm mostly using Bluetooth these days as it's so good and convenient - so perhaps the legacy crowd will all eventually have to settle on Sony! The G84's audio also had 24-bit, high-res output but again, with Bluetooth, the G85 sounds great to my ears, good quality and volume - as always, depending on the quality of attached gear.

The speakers are up to Motorola's usual decent standards in my tests here, even at this cheaper price-point. Yes, at full volume they can get a little tinny, but playing with the Dolby Atmos equaliser settings and installing Wavelet sorts that out nicely. What you lose in a little volume you can make up for in quality. No, it's no Sony Xperia, but the stereo effect is good and soundstage wide and impactful 18" from the face. The vast majority of users will have no complains about the sound.

The cameras on the two phones are very similar as well. The main shooter being a 50MP one with OIS, a supporting 8MP wide-angle with autofocus, 1080p video at 60fps - although the Selfie has been upped in spec, now being a 32MP unit instead of 16MP. The test shots that I have taken here all seem perfectly good enough for the 98% of users who are going to post photos to social media and share with friends, leaving the 2% pixel-peepers no doubt to zoom in and tut-tut! That autofocus in the wide-angle camera allows for nice and close so-called Macro shots and shooting in Night Vision seems to pull out shareable photos even when the human eye sees pitch blackness! The camera software looks exactly the same to me as it is in various recent Motorola phones, so perhaps I'll point you now to my coverage in those. ThinkPhone, Edge 50 Pro, Edge 50 Neo, Edge 40, Edge 40 Neo, G Stylus (2024) and so on! There's oodles of Moto stuff on my blog here. You'll have gathered that I'm a fan!

Connectivity in my tests here is good. All boxes ticked and appear to be working well, for Wi-Fi, tested on 3 networks, Bluetooth, with good range and holding on well - again depending on attached gear, GPS for mapping applications - locking on quickly and staying so - and also NFC talking to other gear and payment terminals in shops. Again, check your region for what's included/supplied/working with all this stuff.

Security seems good with an under-glass optical fingerprint scanner and face unlock working together well, or indeed in isolation, in all-but the darkest conditions for face. Fingerprint scanning software, though never going to be as good as ultrasonic in my experience, makes registering easy/quick and in use, reliable. All this was, again, available on the G84 so I can assume that it worked as well.

The 5000mAh battery is the same in both units, but anything like the fast charging of Moto's more expensive models is not present. No chance of the 125W charging of the high-end units or even the 68W of the mid-range. No, here, we have 30W wired and no wireless. I guess something has to give and personally, I'm OK with the 30W wired charging but have really come to rely on wireless (overnight) charging, inefficient and bad for the planet as I'm told it is. 30W wired is no slouch however and certainly better than it used to be with these lower-mid-range phones - and this one can be charged up in under an hour and a half. But the 5000mAh battery is sound as a pound! Really well-performing, getting through 2 days of moderate/light use. The 10% Reading Test I do returned excellent result at well over 2 hours. You can always add a 3rd party Qi coil for a fiver from Amazon as long as you're OK wielding a case.

HelloUI is the new-look MyUI from Moto and every phone released by them now comes with it. Even, yes, down here at this price-point. And it's very pretty, been redesigned in terms of front-end, colours, display options, all those great Moto Gestures which I have written about so much - all present and correct. The UI is very Vanilla - like a Pixel in many ways sticking to the tried and tested, but with Moto's sprinkling of genuinely useful additions, including some AI sneaking into some settings like CrystalTalk for reducing background noise on VOIP calls and whatever Google make available, like Gemini Live! It goes deeper than ever now as Moto prioritises security in keeping with what Google are doing as they evolve Android. As I say, I have written loads about HelloUI now, so check out my linked-to reviews above, especially the recent ones where I dig into the nitty-gritty of it all.

Moto's Smart Connect works brilliantly with the G85, wirelessly of course - only the very top phones get wired support, but actually, wireless is so good, I really don't think, armed with a reliable network connection in your space, wired is becoming unnecessary. Never thought I'd hear myself say that, being a big HDMI-Out fan for so long! Now of course sometimes a situation may arise where a network can't be relied on, then a cable becomes like gold dust. But networks are generally getting very good these days and the hospitality sector gearing themselves up generally for customer's needs. Anyway, it works perfectly here. I shall point you to my Smart Connect Review and Features piece on my Blog as all the details are there, so click on through and see what's so great about it! And it's amazing that Moto are including all the hooks to make it work in even their lower-end phones now. Kudos.

So now back to the original question about the Motorola Edge 50 Neo which is my current darling of the range! What do you get extra over the G85 here by paying the extra £100 (or, as I say, just now £70)? Well, for starters you get wireless charging - admittedly it's only at 15W but that's perfectly good enough for overnighters like me. You also get 68W charging (though still no brick in the box in this region) so significantly faster charging when needed. You get a much smaller phone, which, for one-handed use, is much better than the G85's bigger display for me - though some would argue this the other way as you can see more! There's also no premium-look/feel edges on the Edge 50 Neo, rather a flat screen. Because it's smaller, you get a smaller battery - though in my testing these two really are as good as each other. You do get Moto's first promise of 5 Android OS updates on the Neo and Security patches to 2029, unlike here. You also get IP6/8 dust/water resistance as well as MIL-STD-810H compliancy, which is just amazing. It's becoming a hard act to beat already, don't you think, for the price difference? But I haven't finished yet! One of the big ones for me on the Neo is a proper Always on Display (the same as was introduced for the Razr 50 Ultra), not present on the G85. It's been a long time coming, but hurrah - perhaps we've turned the corner now, grown out of the (in some way excellent) Peek Display and arrived with this much more useful standard, sipping lightly at the battery via the efficient chipset. You also get another camera stuffed in there with OIS and 3x optical zoom and 512GB/12GB RAM as standard on the Neo (though no microSD). It really feels like a tough act to follow, for the price-difference, but do click through above to my full review.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing much wrong with the G85, a mid-range phone at a decent price with an amazing pOLED screen, great build quality with a premium feel, a very (what we used to call) stock Android experience in terms of software, microSD for loads of storage, the whole Moto secure stuff built right in as well as the excellent Smart Connect, very well-performing speakers, long-lasting battery - the list goes on. Trouble is, that in my opinion, if you have the extra £70/£100 to spare, you can get so much more for the bit more cash with the Edge 50 Neo. This G85 is still recommended however, especially if someone likes the styling and wants a screen that's a bit bigger. Spoiled for choice by Moto!

The Arctic Convoy (2023)

This is a WWII drama based on some fact but expanded to a degree, in order to add dramatic extension. It's 1942 and Hitler is successfully invading Russia. In order to help the Russians, the allies are providing arms and supplies across the top of the Atlantic, towards the Arctic sea. Our story follows one such ship, part of a convoy, and the events of their journey from Iceland to Murmansk in Russia with supplies.

It's a Danish film, originally called Konvoi. The ship we're onboard is run by a civilian sailor crew, not military, so they are not really trained for combat and rely on the allied forces to protect them from the air and sea via escorting, within the convoy. Due to some dodgy intelligence on the part of the British it seems, the convoy was dispersed mid-way across, leaving each to their own devices, for fear that the Germans were launching an indefensible attack from their bases in Norway with U-Boats and bombers. Turns out in the end that this was not true.

The captain, Skar, played well by Anders Baasmo, had to deal with a frightened and inexperienced crew, including a first mate, Mork, who had been previously traumatised by losing his own ship when he, too, was a captain. He was played by Tobias Santelmann and the pair of them were clearly the acting talent, along with radio operator/coder Ragnhild, played by Heidi Ruud Ellingsen. The three of them did a convincing job.

Skar was highly motivated to get the supplies through at any cost, or die trying, to give the best chance to the Russians to put an end to the German advance north - thus protecting his Norway and the rest of Europe. Mork's motivation was to keep the crew safe at any cost, for nobody to die - and therein lay the conflict between them, with Ragnhild often playing mediator/referee.

How much of the drama onboard was based on fact, I'm not sure - we'd need to consult an historian to find out - but it plays out well. The building of tension has been done well and scene after scene of perilous, harrowing incident keeps the eyes wide and mouth open! There's a hairy scene where the untrained crew are hanging off the side of the ship with poles, pushing mines away from the vessel and others with the stress of isolation waiting for bombers to see if they land one on them.

It sometimes comes across as a kind of low-budget, made-for-TV film, but that doesn't take anything away from the depth of the thriller - its trump card being that it's generally based on truth. At the end of the film there are summaries of the facts put on the screen which depicts the event in history and acknowledges the 4000 lives lost overall due to these kinds of convoy operations. I'd suggest that people watch it to learn about what was going on up there and how ordinary folk had to deal with the dreadful perils of war. It's doing the rounds on various streaming channels as I write.

Thanatomorphose (2012)

Well, if last night's The Substance was bonkers, tonight's film was crazy ape-shit bonkers! Streaming on various channels (including for free on Roku) this is a low-budget body-horror written and directed by Éric Falardeau and, what looks like, a group of his mates! If you watch the credits at the end, most is revealed!

Apparently it's become a bit of a cult movie and has won various awards, coming out of Canadian art-house. It stars Kayden Rose as a girl out for a good time, who has just rented a flat and has a night of sex with her abusive boyfriend.

She wakes up in the morning and her skin is starting to rot. Apparently that's what the French titular word means - decomposition. From thereon in, each day is the same, only a bit worse. It all takes place in her apartment and the viewer is never allowed out, so claustrophobic. As she decays and decays, various parts of her body and bodily fluids escape, fall off, seep and flow out. You get the idea - it's all about gore and (for some, no doubt) stomach-churning special effects. Seems like I'm immune!

Even before any of this starts, she does like to be naked, spends almost the whole film with nothing on and the viewer is able to see pretty much all of her. Inside and out. She likes her sex and even when she's falling apart later on she finds time and energy enough to get herself off fantasising about smashing in the boyfriend's skull with a hammer! (He gets his comeuppance in the end, by the way!)

They seem to have some mate also who's got a violin who pops up on a regular basis, between the silence and sound effects of the body-gore, to squeak a haunting string composition or two. Most of the camerawork is handheld as it sweeps around following our main character, who is called Laura. Apparently! All of the actors seem to be pretty second-rate, wooden, and the script is diabolical - but maybe that's part of the point of the creation too.

I'm not really quite sure if there's any kind of message in there - I think more so a lot of fun that this crowd have had putting it together, playing with special effects and creating a gore-fest. As usual, I tend to find this kind of film quite funny these days, but I'm sure many will be queasy! That's about it really. If you can't watch without feeling sick, then best not to. Great Halloween fun!

The Substance (2024)

This is completely bonkers, shock, gore-horror mixed up with comedy and insanity! And through all that, I really enjoyed it and thought it was great entertainment. Coralie Fargeat has done a great job pulling it together and getting the right actors and effects in the mix to make it worth watching.

It's about a woman who is a TV star, Elisabeth, played by Demi Moore, who is about to get fired because she is 'too old' for the ratings war and they need a 'younger model'. As she flees the studio, she ends up in an RTA, then A&E where a doctor slips her a thumb-drive. When she gets home she fires it up and it's an advert for The Substance, which claims to regenerate the body of the person who enters into the treatment, creating a new-them, younger, better looking, stronger etc. She takes it on!

The opening gore-scene is then a transformation, where 'Sue', played by Margaret Qualley, appears from the spine of the (now naked) Elisabeth and she is, indeed, a younger version. The catch in the treatment, which involves all sorts of injecting of serums and drawing off of bodily fluids throughout, is that the two 'people' have to share the 'consciousness' time, a week each. While the other one rests and gets injected with food, the other can play. So Sue goes after the now vacant job that Elisabeth had - and guess what? She gets it!

This is where it all gets a bit tricky because the two individuals when it's their turn to be out and about, don't want to take a turn not being out and about - so start to not follow the rules that the treatment dictates they must, in order for it to work properly. So this is the point at which it goes pear-shaped and the treatment starts to go wrong, having a negative impact, ultimately on both of their bodies. Keeping up?!

Then the film races into a ludicrous gore-fest, off and on, whilst making some statements about fame, fortune, publicity, the media and hype, focussed on the vanity of a star who can't accept that her time has come and the 'system' dictating that she gracefully moves over for a younger replacement - because 'that is what the public want'. As spelled out by studio boss Harvey, played with great fun and ruthlessness by Dennis Quaid.

Through all this silliness, the film seems to be able to maintain a tragic seriousness about the tale, somehow! The stage is set for a battle between two 'characters' who don't seem able to co-exist, follow the rules and know what's good for them. They just want the fame and limelight for themselves. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley play their parts brilliantly well throughout (and we certainly see plenty of both of them, as most of the transformation/treatment scenes are done in the buff)!

It's also mostly shot in an art-farty way with cinematography interesting and sets supporting that with bright colours, decor and premises layouts being mostly a feast for the eyes. There's so much here to unpick in the 2 hours 20 minutes, which absolutely flew by for me, that you really should try to unpick it yourself. It's often silly, but always interesting and often jaw-dropping in tone. The finale is complete bonkers and great fun, so don't give up! Loved it. It's just arrived on Mubi, or you can still see it at the cinema - and I imagine that it would be great on the big screen!

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of October 2024

  ...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

Projector Room
Episode 171 - Lee's Beaver
Wednesday 2nd October
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another roundup of the film, cinema and TV stuff we've been watching - along with yourselves. Demons destruct Halos, Munich meets M3gan, Knives Out for Stath in his Flats, there's No Exit to Tulsa but there is a Jawsathon!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 822 - Pump up the Power, Fire up the Diagnostics!
Saturday 5th October

It's just Steve and I this week as we catch up with stuff hangin' about! Cables that tell you charging info, Gemini Live, live(!), Xperia vs Pixel 8 sound, resetting and Beta testing, Anti-Theft from Google and a Treo of looks back at the Golden Age of Smartphones! It's all here - good job there wasn't a guest really!

Whatever Works
Episode 213 - A Scones and Scons QuickMix!
Monday 7th October
Aidan and I are back once more with a veritable feast of fortnightly fumblings! This time we offer a Lazy Susan to Hazel's BeeLink, whisk up some interest in British Egg Week, firk around with French Butter, purify Epoxy Resin and tons more besides. Do join us for an hour and you won't regret it. Well, you might. Try anyway - YOLO!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 823 - N950 to Clicks!
Saturday 5th October
Steve and I are joined this week by Liangchen Chen, the man behind the f(x)tec Pro1 and Clicks Keyboard. We chat about his work, how his projects evolved and what he thinks about the current state of mobile. Plus lots of the usual stuff including a brand new Moto, Beta dabblings and Shorts galore from Steve.

Projector Room
Episode 172 - A Wednesday Kipperbang
Wednesday 16th October
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with our regular look at all things film, cinema and TV. We Outrun a Beetlejuice or two, leap to Level 16 with Eyes of Fire, focus on Denzel Washington - the Unstoppable Bone Collector - and even fire off the Odd Angry Shot in 1992! Loads more as always, so do join us!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 824 - Updates and Accessibility!
Sunday 20th October
Michael Hell was our guest on the pod this week. Steve and I find out what he's been up to for the last few years. We chat Pixel a lot, for 'tis his leaning, but also indulge in a Eulogy for the Surface Duo, an Android 15 drill-down, more on Moto's Flip's screen vs Samsung's and we even have time for a look back at the first Android phone in Bygone Beauties.

Whatever Works
Episode 214 - Gnasher Basher!
Monday 21st October
Aidan and I are here again to slag stuff off, raise some up and treat the rest with amused tolerance! We invite you to an hour of the usual mayhem as we think about Whatever Works for us and you, stroking our well-waxed and groomed beards as we do! It'll be kickin' about it the usual corners of t'internet!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 825 - Special Edition Incoming
Sunday 27th October
Steve and I welcome Alan Newton back this week, I think the PSC record-holder for numbers of device-switches in the shortest time! We find out about what he's using now, a bit Sammy, a bit Pixel, a bit iPhone, chat about Sony's Music Pro app update, Moto's Smart Connect, Special Editions, importing phones and even have time for Photo of the Month for September.

Projector Room
Episode 173 - An Exorcistic Oddity
Wednesday 30th October
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another fortnightly roundup of all things film, cinema and TV - this time with a Halloween leaning as we pick a film each for The Main Feature that scared the shit out of us years ago! We give The Gift of Robin Hood to Carol as we focus on Cate Blanchett in Themed Treats, grab some thrills and scares in Coming Soon and conclude that You'll Never Find Me if I keep Moving!

The Podcasts

PodHubUK - Phones Show Chat - The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - Tech Addicts

The MeWe Community Groups (follow the links to join up)
Phones Show Chat & The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - PSC Photos - PSC Videos - PSC Classifieds - Tech Addicts

The Team
Ted Salmon - Steve Litchfield - Aidan Bell - Gareth Myles - Allan Gildea