New budget option from Motorola Android phones will be one of the cheapest to search Google's Circle. The new $200 Moto G and $170 Moto G Play, announced Tuesday, will come with Android 16 and access Gemini features with the Gemini Assistant.
Google Search Circle has been a particularly useful AI-powered feature since its debut, so it's especially noteworthy that it will now be available on devices under $200. The $170 Moto G Play will launch first on November 13, followed by the $200 Moto G on December 11.
Both phones will feature a 6.7-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 5G support (a first for the Play series), and a 5,200mAh battery.
Moto G for $200.
The cheaper Play phone will be powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 6300 processor and have 4GB of memory, which can be virtually expanded up to 12GB using the RAM Boost feature. This capability is essentially taken from the phone's 64GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 1TB via a microSD card slot, and the battery can be charged at 18W speeds. It will also have a 32-megapixel main camera on the back and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. It will be available in one color called Pantone Tapestry, which has a blue-green tint.
The slightly more expensive Moto G will also be powered by the same processor, but will have 128GB of internal storage and 30W wired charging speeds. Its rear camera system consists of a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera coupled with a 2-megapixel macro camera, while its selfie camera is a 32-megapixel camera. It will be available in two colors: Pantone Cattleya Orchid (purple shade) and Pantone Slipstream (gray shade).
While I'm glad to see low-cost phones getting the ability to search in Circle, I'm a little concerned that many of the specs in the 2026 edition aren't included. The Moto G looks like a 2025 model. – especially the inclusion of 4GB of internal RAM. I found that the previous Moto G had stability issues initially, which were largely resolved with a RAM Boost setting that allows the software to simulate additional memory to aid in loading apps and multitasking. We'll have to see if the new 2026 Moto G phones will be better optimized for Android 16, and hopefully larger batteries will also allow these less powerful phones to last even longer between charges.
