Motorola Moto G7 Power review

The competition

The Moto G7 Power is more of a niche smartphone rather than targeted at the mass market.

But if you are willing to live with the phone's bulkier body, the G7 Power's will reward you with a spectacular, if not record-breaking, battery life. And this alone makes it is worthy of serious consideration.

But the G7 Powers has a few other tricks that could make it an even better purchase - a nice looking design, splash-proof at that, skillful cameras (in daylight), and clean Android.

The first smartphone that comes to mind around the Moto G7 Power's price and class is the Redmi Note 7. It has a bigger and higher-res screen with much smaller notch, faster chipset, better camera department - all of this wrapped in a dual-glass body. The Note 7 can't do 4K clips with its default app, but while its battery is just 4,000 mAh, its endurance isn't a match for the Power, but it's still quite respectable. Oh, and did we mention the Note 7 is cheaper where available?

Then the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite costs as much as the Moto. It has a better design, screen, chipset, and cameras, but inferior battery life and no audio jack.

The Realme 2 Pro costs as much as the G7 Power, once again - where available. It has a higher-res screen with a droplet notch, a faster chipset with more RAM, and its main camera can do better portraits. The Realme 2 Pro battery is a 3,500 mAh one, but still offers some great battery life.

Now, if you live in a market where both Xiaomi and Realme aren't available officially, then you surely have access to Huawei or Honor smartphones. The Honor 8X has a larger screen with higher resolution, an eye-catchy design, and once again - a faster chipset. The cameras on both ends are also more capable. The battery of the Honor 8X is a 3,750 mAh one, but its endurance rating is close to 100h, so it should last you enough.

The Huawei P Smart 2019 is more or less a reworked Honor 8X. It has a bit smaller display and battery than the 8X, which means the Smart matches the G7 Power in size but can't offer the same battery life, not by a longshot.

Finally, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M2), if available in your market, might be a better option than the G7 Power. It has a similarly large but higher-res screen, a faster Snapdragon 660 chip, a dual-camera on its back, and a 5,000mAh battery, too. The Zenfone runs on stock Android but it's Oreo, so there is that.

Redmi Note 7 • Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite • Realme 2 Pro • Honor 8X • Huawei P smart 2019 • Asus Zenfone Max Pro (M2)

The verdict

Obviously, the Moto G7 Power isn't the most powerful smartphone in its price bracket. Motorola is no Xiaomi or Realme, so we never really expected for Moto to match their budget offers. And yet, the Power comes very close, which is quite the surprise.

The G7 Power has a large screen and a long-lasting battery, something that few makers are ready to offer. You can even use it as a power bank if you purchase the appropriate cable.

The camera is good, yes, and the chipset is dependable. But the other key strength lies in the vanilla Android Pie. The ninth major Android version is still a rare sight on budget phones and yet Moto has it on all of its devices.

So, as far as recommendations go - it's quite simple. There is nothing wrong with the Moto G7 Power and it's worth your attention. It may not have the fancy tricks of the competition but seems quite dependable in both hardware and software.

Pros

• Large display (with a notch)
• Splashy design with splash resistance
• Massive battery and chart-topping battery life, and decently fast charging
• Very good camera experience in dayling and 4K video capturing
• Latest Android with a few nice Moto enhancements on top

Cons

• The competition would offer better features at that price
• Quite slippery, back is easy to scratch too