Motorola Moto G7 Power: Review | Specifications | Pricing

Where to buy

Motorola's G-series phones have long been the company's best sellers here in Australia. The Motorola G7 Power pitches itself largely on the inclusion of a hefty 5,000mAh battery, and it's clearly the prime reason why you might be interested in it.

What's surprising is that while Motorola has made some significant concessions to pack that much battery power into the Moto G7 Power, it's also created the best of this year's G-series phones. If you're keen on a Motorola G-series phone this year, the Motorola G7 Power is the one to buy.

Design

• Design is rather bland.
• Protective case included.
• Prominent notch.
• Lower resolution screen.

• Read more about the Motorola Moto G7 Power's design

  

  For the most part, Motorola has adopted a one-size-fits-all strategy with this year's Moto G series handsets. That means you get rounded corners, rear-mounted fingerprint sensors with the Moto "batwing" logo on them and a relatively cheap plastic feel.

  That's in line mostly with the Moto G7 Power's asking price. Where it differs from the more expensive Moto G7 and Moto G7 Plus phones is in the notch on its 6.2 inch display. Pick up the Moto G7 or Moto G7 Plus and you're faced with a teardrop notch, but the Moto G7 Power instead opts for a more standard, and presumably cheaper, rectangular notch.

  Notches are very much a matter of personal taste, although annoyingly there's no easy way to obscure the whole notch with a black bar if that's your preferred option. It's possible to do so via enabling developer options, but that's a rabbit hole that few everyday consumers are going to want to go down.

  The Motorola Moto G7 Power has the same screen size as its pricier siblings, but it drops the resolution down to an ordinary 1,570 x 720 resolution. For email, social media and some web browsing this isn't likely to be an issue, but it is noticeable next to its siblings when you're watching video or scrolling through photos.

  It's a compromise that Motorola has built into the Moto G7 Power in order to accommodate the battery, and it's one of the bigger strikes against it. There are plenty of Full HD phones in this price bracket, but not the Moto G7 Power.

  One feature that Motorola has kept consistent through its Moto G line in 2019 is the inclusion of a wired headphone jack. It also supports Bluetooth, so you've got the best of both worlds there.

  Cases for budget phones can often be a nightmare to source, so it's also nice to see Motorola ship the Moto G7 Power with a pre-installed plastic case. Like the phone itself, it's not fancy in any real way. That won't matter when you drop it, however.

Camera

• Single rear 12MP lens is nothing special.
• Simple camera app is adequate for ordinary shots.
• Portrait mode doesn't work all that well with glasses.

• Read more about the Motorola Moto G7 Power's camera

  
  The Motorola Moto G7 and Moto G7 Plus both feature dual rear cameras to give them a small bump over their competition. On the Motorola Moto G7 Power, you'll only find a regular 12MP rear lens for your everyday photos.

  It's a fine camera in decent lighting situations, but it's also very much in line with the kinds of cameras you see at this price point. That's the polite way of saying that if you push it with too much action, or in less than perfect light, you can expect blurry shots with a serious loss of detail.

  It's much the same story at the front of the Motorola Moto G7 Power too. There, a single 8MP camera does photo duty, with an optional "portrait" mode that attempts to add bokeh to your narcissistic photos.

  There's a lot that can be done with AI and photo depth, as we've seen from phones such as the Google Pixel 3a, but the Moto G7 Power falls pretty far from the mark.

  As an example, here's a portrait shot taken of me against a plain white wall. The bokeh effect has pretty badly mangled the side of my glasses, giving me a hefty white chunk of skull along the way.

  

  We're seeing more phones in the budget space with decent cameras, but the Moto G7 Power really only has an average one. It's functionally the tradeoff between the battery and the camera, but the practical upshot here is that the Moto G7 Power's camera isn't the worst budget camera we've seen. It's just that it's not a standout either.

  Motorola Moto G7 Power sample photos

  

  

  

Performance

• Snapdragon 632 is decent for a budget offering.
• Android 9 installed.
• Moto software is good.

• Read more about the Motorola Moto G7 Power's performance

  

  As the cheapest member of the Motorola G series family we'll see here in Australia (for some reason the even cheaper Moto G7 Play is nowhere to be seen), you might think that the Motorola Moto G7 Power would have seriously compromised internal components.

  It's certainly not a premium flagship, but within the budget space the Motorola Moto G7 Power is a suitably well equipped phone. It runs on a Snapdragon 632 processor with 3GB of RAM. From a practical viewpoint, that's just the Motorola Moto G7 with less RAM. On the storage front, it's only packing 32GB, but that can be expanded via MicroSD by up to 512GB if needed.

  The Motorola Moto G7 Power isn't a high-end flagship phone, but against other budget range phones, and the rest of the Moto G7 range, its performance for basic app tasks is entirely satisfactory.

  Here's how the Motorola Moto G7 Power compares using Geekbench 4's CPU test:

  It's not quite the same story with regards to overall 3D graphics performance, where the Adreno 506 GPU on board struggles to compare. Here's how it ranks using 3DMark's Slingshot Extreme test:

  It's not a gaming phone, then, although obviously if your passion was lengthy sessions of simple titles it may be an adequate option.

  The Motorola Moto G7 Power runs on Android 9 with Motorola's own action-centric launcher on top. As Android interfaces go, it's pretty lightweight, with just a few additional functions on board. Motorola's recent track record with updates for its phones has been quite solid, so there's decent hope for future upgrades here too.

Battery life

• 5,000mAh battery is simply superb.
• Fast TurboPower charging.

• Read more about the Motorola Moto G7 Power's battery life

  

  The headline feature for the Motorola Moto G7 Power is the inclusion of a 5,000mAh battery. It's a bold step for Motorola in the budget space, and one that absolutely pays off in terms of actual achievable battery life.

  Here's how the Motorola Moto G7 Power compares against a range of affordable handsets using Geekbench 4's battery test:

  While the Geekbench test puts a steady load on a phone, so it's exactly representative of an everyday workload, there's an interesting contrast here between the previous budget battery king, the Oppo AX7 and the Motorola Moto G7 Power. The AX7 actually ran longer in a pure minutes sense in this test, but scored much lower, because its workload wasn't as heavy. It's simply not as powerful a device, and that gave the Motorola Moto G7 Power the edge to do more work while still maintaining an excellent battery life.

  In more day to day anecdotal testing, the Motorola Moto G7 Power can easily make it through a day's usage, and two days is within reach too. Motorola's hype for it is that it can manage "up to" 60 hours of usage, but you'd have to be using it very lightly to stretch up to that kind of level.

  The one potential drawback of a massive battery is that it could take a lot longer to recharge simply due to its capacity. Motorola supplies one of its own "TurboPower" chargers in the box with the Motorola Moto G7 Power. It's not quite as rapid as some premium chargers we've tested, but for a phone in this price bracket, it's a lovely inclusion. Just bear in mind that if you do piggyback onto somebody else's USB C charger, you might be waiting a while for the electrons to trickle down.

Verdict

• Fantastic battery life make this the best budget buy.

• Read our early Motorola Moto G7 Power verdict

  

  The Motorola Moto G7 is a very good phone. The Moto G7 Plus doesn't really do enough to justify its price tag.

  By making the Moto G7 Power cheaper than either, and packing in an immense battery, meeting one of the key pain points of most budget phone buyers, Motorola has trumped itself, producing what is easily the best phone in its 2019 G7 range. Indeed, within the budget space, it's pretty much the best option available right now.

  Alternatives

  If you want to keep within the Motorola brand, you could step up to a dual lens camera with the Motorola Moto G7.

  

  Motorola Moto G7

  Motorola's value-centric phone

  The Motorola Moto G7 brings simple style but plenty of value to the budget sector.

  Buy Now
  

  If the battery life of the Motorola Moto G7 Power is what you're keen on, then the Oppo AX7 is definitely worth considering.

  

  Oppo AX7

  Stylish and affordable

  The Oppo AX7 provides great battery endurance in a stylish phone body.

  • Battery lasts for ages.
  • Decent dual lens camera.
  • Teardrop notch design.

  Buy at eBay
  

  If you're after a modified Android look in a stylish body, consider the Huawei Nova 3i.

  

  Huawei Nova 3i

  Great performance at a budget price

  The Huawei Nova 3i combines Huawei's excellent Kirin processor with its camera smarts at a more affordable price point than its premium Mate series.

  Buy Now
  

Pricing and availability

• Price: ~$300
• Where to buy: Amazon | eBay

Specifications

Latest news

Motorola Moto G9 Play review

Motorola's Moto G9 Play includes some compromises to meet its price point, but it's an overall appealing smartphone.

Read more…

Motorola Edge review

Motorola's first 5G-capable handset for Australia aims high with a funky curved design, but its limitations in other areas leave us wanting.

Read more…

Motorola Moto G8 2020 review

Motorola delivers yet another quality mid-range phone in the Motorola G8, but it's a phone with few really exciting features.

Read more…