Motorola Moto G7 Play review

The competition

The Moto G7 Play is easy to love in spite of the 2GB of RAM it packs and the consequences of that. The phone fits perfectly in a hand, is grippy enough, packs a good punch, and the camera snaps nice photos. Also, we appreciate the vanilla Android experience with Moto's extra features.

There is just one problem - the competition often offers better bang for the buck.

Take a look at the Mi A2 Lite for example - where available it will give you a similar stock Android experience, but on a higher-res screen. It also packs a much better main camera and a larger battery.

The Redmi 6A is somewhat of a match for the Moto G7 Play as far as screen size and resolution, performance, battery capacity and camera are concerned. It may run on MIUI but costs almost half the Moto G7 Play.

The Honor P Smart 2019 costs about €40 over the G7 Play, but for the little extra it will offer you a bigger and better screen, a faster chipset, and better cameras on either side. What the P Smart omits is the stock Android the Moto offers.

You may want to look for the Samsung Galaxy M10, which premiered recently. It has a larger screen with a smaller notch, a better main camera and Samsung Experience 9.5 to handle the software side of things.

Finally, the Realme 2, where available, might be the better phone having a larger screen, nicer looks, greater quality portraits, and larger battery. It has the custom Color OS though, so there is that.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) • Redmi 6A • Huawei P smart 2019 • Samsung Galaxy M10 • Realme 2

The verdict

The Moto G7 Play has modest specs and low price and quite expectedly it has some issues, mostly concerning app loading times. But the Play was well-designed, the chipset is a good choice, and the camera is skillful enough for the class.

One word best describes the G7 Play - it's solid. Because of its vanilla Android and Motorola's wide support network you can be confident the G7 Play will last you long enough, probably longer than some of the said competitors. And there is value to be had in that, too, for the right type of customer.

Pros

• Large notched display
• Grippy and compact body with splash resistance
• Excellent battery life
• Decent camera experience and 4K video capturing
• Vanilla Android with appreciated Moto features

Cons

• The competition has better offers at that price
• 2GB RAM is unsufficient for lag-free user experience
• All-in-one earpiece and loudspeaker isn't a good idea