Motorola Moto G7 review

Design and 360-degree spin

The Moto G7 is a contemporary looking handset with what's become the defacto standard glass-on-both-sides build. It's virtually indistinguishable from its more upmarket sibling Moto G7 Plus, so effectively you'd be getting the premium build at a discount.

We say premium, but the frame is still polycarbonate as opposed to aluminum. Even so, it's well within reason in this price range.

We've asked Motorola reps if the back is made of Gorilla Glass 3 as is the front, and they've confirmed. That said, it's not stated explicitly on the official websites and we don't really have a way of testing it. In any case, the included... case will keep it safer.

What the specs do say is that the Moto G7 has a water repellent design that should keep it safe in case of accidental spills and light rain. The phone's not meant to be submersed, though, keep that in mind.

The rear is a classic Moto design with a large circular camera bump that houses the two modules and the flash. The face now has a domino across its eyes, nice.

The fingerprint reader is below the camera assembly with an 'M' logo printed on it. It's recessed a bit, plus it's placed conveniently, so you won't be fumbling to find it when unlocking.

Down on the bottom of the back panel there's a pinhole for one of the three microphones. It's a solution we saw on the G6s, but we still feel it looks a little weird. It's not a common design, that's for sure.

The Moto G7 comes in its own two distinct paint jobs that aren't available on the Plus. Or rather, the Moto G7 doesn't get the gorgeous Viva Red of the Plus. Then again, you can't have the Plus in the Clear White that you can get on the vanilla model. The Ceramic Black of our review unit is the other color the Moto G7 is available in.

Over on the front, there's no telling the Moto G7 apart from the Moto G7 Plus. That means a tall LCD with rounded corners and a larger-than-usual waterdrop notch. Above and to the right of the camera is a sensor array that holds the proximity and ambient light sensors. Higher up, where the front glass meets the frame, there's an earpiece slit. The earpiece doesn't double as a second speaker as it does on the Moto G7 Plus, though.

Folks with mild OCDs would be irked by the fact that the top bezel is ever so slightly thicker than the ones on the sides (which themselves aren't among the thinnest), but those are niggles that quickly disappear with actual use.

The chin below the display is noticeably thicker than the rest of the display outline, but as chins go it's reasonably svelte. There's still enough room to spell out a motorola logo in there. The primary mic is behind what looks like a nick in the display glass.

The right side of the polycarbonate frame is home to the power button and volume rocker. The power button is textured so there's no mistaking the two, but it could have been a bit larger. The clicky action is positive on both.

Up top there's another microphone and the card slot. As was the case on the previous model, the Moto G7 comes with a triple slot - two nano SIMs and microSD card can be used at the same time.

Down on the bottom, there's a USB-C port in the middle with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a loudspeaker to either side. It's the only loudspeaker the Moto G7 has, while the Plus rocks a stereo setup.

The Moto G7 measures 157 x 75.3 x 8 mm which is what you should expect for its display size. It's also reasonably light at 172g, though it doesn't have a very high-capacity battery, in all fairness. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 is only 0.1mm thicker for a whole 1,000mAh larger battery, though the difference does show in the weight - 186g for the Redmi. The Galaxy A7 (2018) is both thinner (7.5mm) and lighter (168g) than the Moto G7, yet it does pack a bit more juice (3,300mAh).