which is a better budget 5G phone in India?

Realme C65 5G vs Moto G34 5G: design

The Realme C65 5G and Moto G34 are two budget offerings in the country and the designs don’t offer anything fancy. While the Realme phone has a familiar circular module on the back to house the cameras, the Moto G34 gets a vegan leather back only for the Ocean Green edition. This adds some elegance to the overall aesthetics.

They both have a punch-hole cutout for the selfie shooter, flat edges, and noticeable bezels around the screen. The phones have a boxy frame like all Android phones in recent times. The Moto G34 gets an IP52 rating for spill and dust resistance but the Realme C65 gets an IP54 rating.  

Realme C65 5G vs Moto G34 5G: display

Both the Realme C65 5G and Moto G34 5G have an IPS HD+ display, which is expected from the segment they are placed in. They both have a 120Hz rate for smoother scrolling through the UI and the animations also are seamless. Interestingly, Realme C65 offers a variable refresh rate of 50/60/90/120Hz and this helps with lower battery consumption by reducing the refresh rate where it’s not required to be at maximum. 

Where Realme C65 5G takes the lead with its peak brightness of 625nits compared to 500nits brightness. This aids with better outdoor visibility and sunlight legibility.

Read our Moto G34 5G review

Realme C65 5G vs Moto G34 5G: performance

Performance-wise, both Realme C65 5G and Moto G34 5G are neck-to-neck in terms of performance. The former is powered by the new MediaTek Dimensity 6300 SOC while the latter gets the tried and tested Snapdragon 695 SoC. They both have managed to score in the range of 4.3 lakhs in the AnTuTu benchmark platform. This suggests the performance will be on similar lines.

The phones come with LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.2 storage tech, so the app opening/closing speeds will be almost identical. Our Moto G34 5G review notes the phone was able to handle everyday tasks with ease and there was no heating issue. The Moto G34 5G has a dedicated ‘Game Mode’ to enhance the gaming experience. We will have more to talk about the Realme C65 5G’s performance in our in-depth review.

Realme C65 5G vs Moto G34 5G: cameras

Both the Moo G34 and Realme C65 5G have a 50MP primary camera on the back. The Moto G34 review notes the phone was able to click decent pictures with good colour accuracy and details in favourable lighting conditions. However, the low-light images are not the best in the segment. We can expect similar results with the Realme C65 5G as well considering it also a budget offering.

The 8MP camera on the front should do an acceptable job with the selfies. But then again, the images might not be the best in the segment. 

Realme C65 5G vs Moto G34 5G: battery, software

The Realme C65 5G packs a 5,000mAh battery with 15W charging support, while the Moto G34 also has a 5,000mAh battery but with a slightly faster 20W charging speed. Barring the marginal difference in charging speeds, both phones should offer a similar battery backup.

Our Moto G34 5G review notes the phone lasted 12 hours and 26 minutes in the PCMark battery test. The bundled 20W charger took 1 hour and 21 minutes to juice up from 0 to 100 percent. We expect the timing will be slightly higher on the Realme C65 5G.

Both phones run on Android 14 OS out of the box. While Realme is offering two OS upgrades i.e. Android 15 and Android 16, Moto G34 will only get one OS update i.e. Android 15.

Verdict

If we compare just the specs, the Realme C65 5G has a slight edge over the Moto G34 5G. It gets a year more of software support, a better IP rating for water and dust resistance, a brighter display at 625nits, and a new chipset. Where Moto takes the lead is with its leather design and slightly faster charging speeds. The camera performance should be similar to Moto G34 but we will have more to say in our review. Strictly from the specs perspective, the Realme C65 looks to be a better buy.