With a beefy battery designed to last the weekend, the Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G is for those who like to get away from it all.
While it’s nice to have a smartphone with all the latest bells and whistles, people’s biggest gripe about their phones still tends to be battery life. A vibrant display, tons of grunt and high-end features aren’t much use when your phone is dead flat until you can find a power socket.
There was a time when a 5000 mAh battery was considered generous, such as that found in the $399 Motorola Moto G85, but Motorola has raised the stakes with the massive 6720 mAh fuel tank built into the new $499 Moto G86 “Power” 5G.
Table of contents
Moto G86 Power 5G first impressions
The trouble with big batteries is that they tend to be heavy, but the Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G somehow still tips the scales at 198 g – not a lightweight, but certainly not too heavy. It basically looks and feels the same as the rest of the mid-range Moto handsets, despite that hefty battery lurking within.
The bigger battery isn’t the only improvement that the G86 Power offers for the $100 price jump. While it still sports a 6.7-inch 20:9 aspect ratio display, it’s stepped up from pOLED to AMOLED and boosted the resolution to 2712 x 1220 pixels to offer a super-sharp 446 pixels-per-inch display.
The screen also leaps from 1,600 to 4,500 nits peak brightness, making it easier to read outside. That extra brightness underpins support for HDR10+, revealing more detail in the brightness highlights and deepest shadows when watching streaming HDR video.
In return, you lose the edge-to-edge screen, which was one of G85’s big selling points and quite a luxury at $399. As a result, the G86 Power doesn’t look as striking, although the more practical amongst us would argue the difference is more cosmetic than functional. Personally, I’ve always been a technobogan, putting substance before style when it comes to gadgets.
As for audio, the handset’s earpiece doubles as a second speaker for stereo sound, with support for Dolby Atmos. The tall aspect ratio ensures good stereo separation and a wide soundstage when you turn the phone on its side to watch video.
Call it a pet peeve, but it’s frustrating that the Moto G86 Power relies on a fingerprint reader built into the display, whereas the new Moto G56 has it built into the power button. I’m a big fan of the latter, making it easier to unlock your phone with one hand without needing to stretch down to the onscreen fingerprint reader and risk losing your grip on the handset.
Fingerprint reader aside, you’ve got Motorola’s standard layout of well-placed volume and power buttons on the right. The SIM slot is on the left (with eSIM support), and there’s a USB-C port at the bottom for charging, but you miss out on an old-school 3.5 mm headphone jack.
The handset relies on a plastic frame to help keep down the weight, with a “Soft Luxe Texture” back that feels like fake leather. While Motorola tends to throw in a clear flexible plastic protective cover, the Moto G86 Power’s case is a hard plastic shell.
What’s particularly impressive is the improved IP68/IP69 underwater protection, meaning it can survive a serious dunking and high-pressure water jets, along with MIL-STD 810H6 ruggedness. That’s a big improvement on the “water-repellant” G85, which helps protect your investment.
Moto G86 Power 5G specifications and price
| Display size | 6.7-inch, 20:9 aspect ratio |
| Display resolution | 2712 x 1220 pixel, 446 ppi |
| Display technology | AMOLED HDR10+ 100% DCI-P3 colour space 10-bit; Over a billion shades of colour Adaptive refresh rates up to 120 Hz HDR Peak Brightness: 4500 nits Display Colour Boost |
| Bands | 5G sub-6, 4G LTE, 3G WCDMA, 2G GSM |
| Chipset | MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Octa-core (4×2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) |
| GPU | Mali-G615 MC2 |
| Rear cameras | 50 MP Sony – LYTIA 600 sensor f/1.8 aperture 0.8 µm pixel size | Quad Pixel Technology for 1.6 µm Quad PDAF Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) |
| 8 MP Ultrawide angle (118° FOV) Macro Vision f/2.2 aperture 1.12 µm pixel size | |
| Front camera | 32 MP f/2.2 aperture 0.7 µm pixel size | Quad Pixel Technology for 1.4 µm |
| RAM | 8 GB RAM, expandable up to 16 GB |
| Onboard storage | 128 GB uMCP |
| microSD slot | 1TB microSDXC |
| SIM | Dual SIM (1 pSIM + eSIM) |
| Charging | USB-C 30 W |
| Battery | 6720 mAh |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4 GHz | 5 GHz Wi-Fi 6 Wi-Fi hotspot |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.4 |
| Operating system | Android 15 |
| Security | Fingerprint reader, Face Unlock |
| Ruggedness | IP68/IP69 underwater protection MIL-STD 810H6 |
| Dimensions | 161.21 x 74.74 x 8.65 mm |
| Weight | 198 gm |
| Colours | Pantone Spellbound Pantone Cosmic Sky |
| Price | $499 RRP |
| Warranty | 2 years |
| Official website | Motorola Australia |
Features
The Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G ships with the latest Android 15, with minimal bloatware thanks to Motorola’s new Hello UI – seemingly renamed Hello UX – although you get some “bonus” apps, and it does attempt to foist a few games on you.
Motorola says the Moto G86 Power will only receive one OS update and three years of security updates, which is very disappointing considering that the new $399 8/256 GB Moto G56 gets two OS updates and four years of security updates, even though it’s $100 cheaper.
Motorola has confirmed in the past that scaling back on updates is not a technical limitation but rather “based on value proposition”. Skimping on security updates for budget devices doesn’t sit well with me.
Under the bonnet, the G86 Power abandons the G85’s Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 powerplant in favour of the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset. It sounds like a step backwards, but that’s not always the case, so let’s hold off on judgement until we get to the GeekBench 6 shootout.
There’s still 128 GB of onboard storage, but it steps up to 8 GB of physical RAM (expandable up to 16 GB using virtual memory) rather than the 4 physical and 4 virtual on offer in the old G85.
As the same suggests, the G86 Power is a 5G handset that supports Australia’s sub-6 GHz 5G networks but not faster millimetre wave 5G, which is still quite rare in handsets.
When it comes to the camera array, you’ve still got the very decent 50 MP Sony LYTIA 600 sensor backing the main shooter, with the benefit of optical image stabilisation. Likewise, it’s accompanied by the same 8 MP Ultrawide, plus a 32 MP selfie camera around the front.
Then there’s that massive 6720 mAh fuel tank, which Motorola says is good for 53 hours. Such estimates are usually optimistic, but it’s safe to say you could head out with a full charge on a Friday night and enjoy a lost weekend without worrying about running out of juice.
When that giant battery finally needs a top-up, you still miss out on wireless charging. Motorola has stuck with 30 W wired fast charging, but this time there’s no AC adaptor in the box, and it will take a long time to fill that big battery if you’re relying on a low-powered charger.
Quality
The GeekBench 6 benchmarks reveal that the Moto G86 Power comes out well ahead of the old G85, even though it forgoes Snapdragon silicon in favour of MediaTek. The G86 Power core 1,044 single-core, 2,960 multi-core and 2,061 OpenGL graphics – jumping 10, 30 and 20 per cent respectively on its predecessor.
| Phone | CPU single-core | CPU multi-core | GPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy A56 | 1,364 | 3,898 | 6,539 |
| CMF Phone 2 Pro | 1,010 | 2,992 | 2,497 |
| Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G | 1,044 | 2,960 | 2,061 |
| Motorola Edge 50 Fusion | 1,016 | 2,937 | 1,802 |
| Samsung Galaxy A35 | 1,011 | 2,897 | 3,001 |
| Motorola Moto G75 | 1,022 | 2,874 | 1,801 |
| Motorola Moto G86 | 943 | 2,099 | 1,609 |
| Oppo A5 Pro 5G | 783 | 1,988 | 1,412 |
It’s still no gaming beast, but that’s certainly enough to keep things humming, especially with 8 GB of real RAM at your disposal.
When it comes to photography, the Moto G86 Power can hold its head high. That Sony main shooter offers excellent results with great colours and plenty of detail, looking crisp but not over-processed – with very impressive low-light performance. Likewise with the ultrawide lens, although its colours are a tad oversaturated. The selfie camera is also excellent, with great skin tones and minimal beautification.
Who is the Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G for?
The price has leapt by 33% from the G85, putting the Motorola Moto G86 Power 5G out of reach for some. At $499, you’re moving out of the budget space and into the mid-range Android arena, where competition is tough – case in point, the amazing $449 Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro.
That said, you can certainly see where the money went. The Moto G86 Power 5G is a major upgrade, not just in battery life but also with a better display, more rugged design, extra grunt and additional physical RAM. Plus, it has retained the most excellent cameras of its predecessor.
If you can step up from the budget price range and you’re looking for a decent Android companion that won’t leave you in the lurch, the Moto G86 Power is tough to beat.
