Motorola Moto G7 Plus review

The competition

The midrange competition is heated, that's clear. It's hard to go against the value-oriented smartphones from Honor, Realme and Xiaomi. Motorola is counting on brand recognition to help them in sales but this won't be the case in all markets.

The Moto G7 Plus is not going to impress you with raw power. Carrying a Snapdragon 636, the handset drags behind most of its rivals that are even priced way below the €300 mark. Take the legendary Pocophone F1 for example. For the same price, you get a flagship SoC and a huge battery. That's something you don't want to miss if you are looking for longevity and battery life. However, we weren't compelled by the camera performance, whereas the Moto G7 Plus takes the lead in this aspect.

Xiaomi Pocophone F1 • Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 • Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite

The next one that made it to our list is once again from Xiaomi's camp - the Redmi Note 7. It's almost twice as cheap as the Moto G7 Plus while being more powerful, has long battery life and will surprise you with great low-light and daylight camera performance. However, the Moto G7 Plus still has the subjectively better screen, measurably faster charging and stereo loudspeakers if you are into those.

The third option is the recently reviewed Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite which is once again better in terms of raw performance and it has better battery life but fails to impress with image quality (camera-wise) and overall set of features. Still a lot cheaper, though.

The Nokia 7 Plus is a nice stock Android alternative to the Moto G7 Plus but this is a tricky one. The Moto G7 Plus surely has more added value and offers arguably better camera experience and brighter screen. Yet, it fails to deliver the battery endurance scores.

Honor 8X • Nokia 7 plus

The last on the list is the recently launched Honor 8X. A great value smartphone for sub-€250 but a lot of corners have been cut here - no 4K video recording, no fast charging and there is the aging microUSB. Also, the camera experience is rather uninspiring.

Fortunately, the battery life and the relatively powerful SoC are here to save the day. You can even say that the Moto G7 Plus and the Honor 8X are the exact opposites. The Moto G7 Plus impresses with camera quality - the 8X doesn't. The latter has more powerful SoC and highly-customizable EMUI while the Moto G7 Plus takes a more conservative approach with clean Android and a more efficient Snapdragon 636 chipset.

Verdict

If you haven't picked it up by now, let's make it clear - if you are looking for raw performance and endurance, the Moto G7 Plus probably isn't the best choice, especially at this price. Those factors alone hold us from giving the handset a great score when weighing the feature set. The €300 price tag would have been otherwise justified if Motorola went for the Snapdragon 660.

However, the extra cash for the Moto G7 Plus can be somewhat made up for by a few rare features in this price range. We are talking OIS, stereo loudspeakers and the super fast TurboPower 27W charging. Mainly thanks to the OIS, the daylight and nighttime performance is one of the best in the class. The Redmi Note 7 is probably the only one that could argue with that for now.

Perhaps if Motorola didn't lean so much on brand recognition, it could have scored an awesome all-rounder at a decent price or at least with a more powerful Snapdragon 660 SoC. Remember the first Moto G? It didn't have all those fancy features like unique gestures, functions, OIS, etc., but it focused on what really matters - performance, longevity, battery life and screen quality on a budget. It seems that the company lost all this somewhere along the way to the 7th generation, but that's why you can opt for the less expensive vanilla Moto G7 or even the Power, for example.

Instead of cramming everything in a single package like the first Moto Gs, Motorola has now taken a more diversified approach by launching four models for the masses each offering something the others don't. It's up to you to pick the right one for you.

Pros

• Pretty clean design with nice color options.
• Super fast TurboPower 27W charging.
• Great image camera quality for the asking price.
• Front camera supports 4K@30fps video recording.
• Clear and loud stereo loudspeakers.
• Clutter-free Android experience with a few useful features on top.
• Audio output quality from the 3.5mm jack is stellar.

Cons

• The battery endurance rating it scored is appalling.
• A more powerful SoC was a better fit for the price range.
• The screen is not as good as last year's Moto G6 Plus.