to get a good, even usable smartphone

but that's far from true anymore.

Now, there are a ton of great phones below that price

and you can even find some great phones below $300.

I've been testing a bunch of them

and one stands out clearly above the rest

and it's only 250 bucks.

That's the Moto G6.

First thing, the Moto G6 does not look like a $200 phone.

I actually find that it strikes one of the best balances

between shape and size out there.

The phone has a 5.7 inch full HD display

with an 18:9 aspect ratio

that nearly fills the front of the phone.

It's a really great size if you're like me

and read a ton of articles on your phone.

I'm browsing Twitter and the Web all the time.

On top of that, it's just a really good screen.

Now, it is an OLED so you don't have those perfect blacks

that you get from a top of the line phone

and it's not always on.

But, I really like the color tuning on this phone.

I even like it better than my own Pixel 2,

which cost nearly twice as much.

The colors look both richer and more accurate to my eyes.

The phone also has this nice curve

on both back edges and it isn't too wide,

Even though you have this big screen,

it's actually really easy to hold

and doesn't look or feel like a big phone.

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Motorola doesn't change Android too much either

and that's a good thing.

This is very close to stock.

And where Motorola does make changes,

they are anywhere from inconsequential

like adjuster to shrink the screen down for one handed use

to slightly helpful like an option

to keep the screen on while you're looking at it.

And if you don't like those changes,

you can actually turn all of them off, which is great.

Software performance is about

as good as you're gonna get in this price range.

In general, I didn't run into any issues

when using phone day-to-day.

Scrolling is smooth and apps and webpages loaded quickly.

I suspect that over time, it probably won't

stay as fast as a more expensive phone.

But right now, it's smooth and snappy

and that is not something every other

sub $300 phone can say.

The one major downside on this phone is its cameras.

The rear camera is slow to fire

so I sometimes miss shots

and while you can get nice images out of it

when you're in bright daylight,

darker settings deliver mushy or noisy photos.

The front-facing camera isn't much

to get excited about either.

Now, you really can't get a better camera than this

without spending a lot more.

But it's still disappointing

that you have to forgo quality on what,

for myself and a lot of other people,

is a key part of a phone.

There are a bunch of other little things

that I love on this phone.

For one, it has a headphone jack.

Everybody loves that.

It also charges over USB-C, which is easier to use

than micro USB and a lot more modern.

Pretty much every other phone at this price

is still on micro USB.

The G6 also has a fingerprint sensor.

It's on the front instead of the back,

which is not my favorite position, but I got used to it.

You can even take advantage of the sensor

by using it to control the entire phone with gestures.

That lets you remove Android's on-screen buttons

and free up screen space.

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Aside from a few flaws like the camera,

there's very little lacking on this phone

that separates it from something twice its price,

which is pretty incredible.

Like I said, performance will probably

be a longer term issue,

but there are no problems as it stands today.

Now, if you're in China or India,

you do have a lot of other options at this price point

from companies like Xiaomi and Oppo,

but many of those phones aren't available in the U.S.

The other budget phones that do make it

to the U.S. just don't hold up.

They're often missing key features

like a fingerprint sensor or support for 5 GHz WiFi,

both of which the G6 has.

Motorola also sells two other variants of the G6.

The G6 Play, which costs $50 less

and the G6 Plus, which costs $50 more.

The G6 Plus has a slightly better camera

and is a bit faster, but it's a little bit bigger

in a way that I don't like quite as much.

The $200 G6 Play is a bit slower

and thicker with the worst screen

but I got its battery to last me

through three days which is pretty amazing.

So if you're looking even cheaper,

that's worth considering.

But by far, I think the best choice

below $300 is the regular Moto G6.

It doesn't just check all the right boxes,

it actually impresses on a lot of them.

Every time I pick up the G6,

I'm surprised at just how good a budget phone can be.

Hey, thanks for watching.

If you like this video, you should check out

our new channel Verge Science.

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You can check all their stuff out

at YouTube.com/VergeScience.