This Is Motorola's $200 Smartphone You May Never Be Able To Buy

It's been a relatively quiet 2022 for Motorola so far, having launched only a handful of products like the Moto G Stylus (2022) and the Moto G70/Moto G70 tablet (in India). However, that is about to change as early as next week, with the company expected to announce its first flagship for 2022 — the Motorola Edge 30 Pro. For those unaware, this is the international variant of the China-only Edge X30 Pro, which was famous for being the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-toting smartphone.

Motorola's major focus for 2022, however, would be the wide range of budget devices it intends to launch this year. While the first among these devices – the $300 Moto G Stylus (2022) has already launched, the company reportedly plans to launch an even cheaper device in the weeks to come. And if we are to believe popular tipster Nils Ahrensmeier, this device is likely to be called the Moto G22.

In a recent tweet, Nils revealed pretty much everything we needed to know about the Moto G22 as far as its hardware specs go. Indications are the Moto G22 might just turn out to be the final name for a Motorola device codenamed "Hawaii+," an image of which was leaked by Evan Blass on February 9, 2022.

By the looks of it, the Moto G22 is a direct successor to the Moto G20, which saw a European release in June 2021. To correct the anomaly of releasing a 2021 smartphone with a "20" moniker, Motorola seems to be skipping the Moto G21 name entirely in favor of the Moto G22 moniker. In terms of specs, the Moto G22 appears to be an incremental update over the Moto G20 with marginal improvements to the processor, camera, and the display.

The Moto G22 is rumored to feature the yet unreleased MediaTek Helio G37 SoC (as opposed to the Unisoc T700 on the G20). This processor – by the looks of it – will be a slightly updated variant of the MediaTek Helio G35 chip. At 6.5-inches, the G22's display will be the same size as that of its predecessor. However, there seems to be some confusion over the underlying technology it could use, with Nils talking about a 90Hz LCD panel and Evleaks indicating that the phone may feature a 90hZ OLED panel.

The G22 is also likely to get a triple camera setup at the rear (50MP + 8MP + 2MP) as opposed to the quad-camera array on the G20, which came with a 48MP+8MP+2MP+2MP setup. In addition, the front-facing camera on the G22 is rumored to get a slight jump in resolution — from 13MP on the G20 to 16MP on the G22.

Like its predecessor, the Moto G22 has no 5G aspirations and will only come in a single 4G LTE option. The phone will also feature a microSD card slot, and the internal storage capacity is expected to top out at 64GB. The battery capacity – at 5000mAh – will be identical to the Moto G20, but at 185g, the phone will be noticeably lighter than the G20. At launch, the Moto G20 will almost certainly run Android 12.

The Moto G20 saw a limited global release and only launched in select markets, including Europe and some Asian countries. If Motorola intends to follow the same strategy for the Moto G22, we may never see the phone come stateside. However, if it does, we expect it to be priced well below the $200 mark, given that the phone will sell for less than EUR 200/GBP 200 in Europe.