Moto G8 Power review
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.
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.
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 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.
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 • 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.
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...