Moto G8 Power review

GSMArena team, 8 May 2020.

Near vanilla Android 10

The Moto G8 Power is not part of the Android One program - that's an exclusive treat for the Moto One series. Still, the phone boots a near-stock version of Android 10, spiced up with a bunch of Moto software tricks.

Motorola Moto G8 Power review

The G8 Power relies on gesture navigation via a single elongated button in the center. Swiping upwards takes you to the home screen, a swipe up with a pause brings out the recent apps menu, swiping on the pill (left or right) switches between the last used apps. If you want Back, then just swipe anywhere from the edge of the screen. If, on the other hand, you want to have the classic three-button navigation, you switch to it from Settings.

System navigation - Motorola Moto G8 Power review System navigation - Motorola Moto G8 Power review System navigation - Motorola Moto G8 Power review System navigation - Motorola Moto G8 Power review System navigation - Motorola Moto G8 Power review
System navigation

The Moto app offers a variety of clever Moto actions for interacting with the phone - including a karate chop for toggling the flashlight on or off, twist motion to launch the camera app, three-finger screenshot gesture, accelerometer-based ringtone silencing.

Moto Actions - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Moto Actions - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Moto Actions - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Moto Actions - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Moto Actions - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Moto Actions - Motorola Moto G8 Power review
Moto Actions

Moto Display consists of just two options and the more important one is Peek Display - the not-always-on display. It will display notifications and let you interact with them right there on the lock screen plus it will wake up when you pick up your phone. Another feature, Attentive display, will keep the screen on as long as you are looking at it.

Motorola Moto G8 Power review

All of these aside, the rest is pretty much Android 10 as Google intended it to be - well, there's also the greenish hue of the quick toggles.

Lockscreen - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Homescreen - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Folder view - Motorola Moto G8 Power review App drawer - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Task switcher - Motorola Moto G8 Power review Quick toggles - Motorola Moto G8 Power review
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher • Quick toggles

Everything else that comes pre-installed on the Moto G8 Power are all Google apps.

Performance and benchmarks

The Moto G8 Power is powered by the Snapdragon 665 - a midrange Qualcomm chip, made on an 11nm manufacturing process. It packs an octa-core CPU in a 4x2.0GHz Kryo 260 Gold (A73 derivative) & 4x1.8GHz Kryo 260 Silver (A53 derivative) arrangement and an Adreno 610 GPU. A single RAM and storage configuration is offered - 4GB and 64GB.

Motorola Moto G8 Power review

We ran some benchmarks and the scores are about average. The CPU performance isn't bad, but the competition offers better performance in the same price segment.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Honor 9X Pro
    1911
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
    1785
  • Realme 6
    1726
  • Realme 6 Pro
    1666
  • Motorola Moto G8 Power
    1394
  • Motorola Moto G8 Plus
    1385
  • Realme 6i
    1349
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    1294

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Honor 9X Pro
    594
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
    570
  • Realme 6 Pro
    565
  • Realme 6
    548
  • Realme 6i
    388
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    347
  • Motorola Moto G8 Power
    311
  • Motorola Moto G8 Plus
    310

Same goes for the gaming performance - it's behind the curve - many of the competitors have already switched to the upper-tier Snapdragon 700 or Helio G series and the tests show their GPUs are much better.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Realme 6i
    31
  • Honor 9X Pro
    30
  • Realme 6 Pro
    27
  • Realme 6
    27
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
    26
  • Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
    13
  • Motorola Moto G8 Plus
    12
  • Motorola Moto G8 Power
    12
  • Honor 9X
    12
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    11
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    8.9

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Honor 9X Pro
    18
  • Realme 6i
    17
  • Realme 6 Pro
    16
  • Realme 6
    16
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
    15
  • Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
    6.9
  • Motorola Moto G8 Power
    6.6
  • Motorola Moto G8 Plus
    6.5
  • Honor 9X
    6.5
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    5.9
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

The AnTuTu score also shows the Moto G8 Power isn't as powerful as the current crop of similarly priced mid-rangers.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

  • Honor 9X Pro
    312668
  • Realme 6
    288931
  • Realme 6 Pro
    268785
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
    254000
  • Realme 6i
    202275
  • Honor 9X
    187528
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    175363
  • Motorola Moto G8 Power
    173607
  • Motorola Moto G8 Plus
    168699
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    167395

The Moto G8 Power has a capable chip, but it's not as fast as the gear available to some of its competitors. What's even worse is that it's not only the dry benchmark scores that suffer, Android OS does not feel that fast either. We had system hiccups here and there when interacting with our review unit - which doesn't even have that much app content on it. Surely, these are no deal-breakers, but knowing what a Realme can do, they are a bit disappointing.

Reader comments

  • frustrated
  • 30 Sep 2023
  • nUk

Rubbish. WiFi disconnect constantly. No 5GHz WiFi.

  • Anonymous
  • 05 Feb 2022
  • 7Cn

One is probably the g8 power (sold internationally) and one is the g power...they look different

  • Anonymous
  • 24 Aug 2021
  • IbF

Plastics are not harmful to the environment; the thoughtless littering and/or improper disposal of plastics by self absorbed morons is...