Moto G8 Power review

Four cameras at the back

The Moto G8 Power has a quad-camera on its back and all four snappers are usable. There is a 16MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultrawide snapper, an 8MP tele cam for 2x zoom and portraits, and a 2MP macro imager. A single LED flash is around, if you ever need it.

The primary camera uses a 16MP 1/2.8" sensor with 1.12µm pixels and f/1.7 26mm lens. Phase-detect autofocus is available.

The ultrawide camera uses an 8MP 1/4.0" sensor with 1.12µm pixels behind f/2.2 13mm lens. The focus is fixed.

The Moto G8 Power also offers a camera for portraits or 2x optical magnification. It uses an 8MP 1/4.0" sensor with 1.12µm pixels and comes with f/2.4 52mm lens. Phase-detection AF is available here. Oddly, by default, this camera saves 16MP images, meaning some sort of upscaling is at play.

The fourth and final snapper is the 2MP 1/5.0" macro camera with f/2.2 lens. Autofocus is available here and it works between 2cm and 8cm.

For selfies, you get 16MP Quad Pixel camera. The sensor is behind an f/2.0 aperture lens that has a fixed focus. Being a Quad Bayer type of module, the selfie cam takes 4MP images by default, but this one can be set to output 16MP shots if that's necessary.

Motorola has been installing its own custom Camera app on the otherwise mostly stock Android software, and that's the case on the Moto G8 Power, too. It is straightforward and functional with a swipe action for switching between stills, video, and assorted modes (tapping on the icons works too).

A set of quick settings is available in the viewfinder for the HDR modes (Auto/On/Off), flash modes (Auto/On/Off), self-timer (Off/3s/10s) and Active Photos (Auto/On/Off). There's also a shortcut to the settings menu right in the viewfinder.

The Manual mode is accessed from another toggle in the viewfinder - not the extra modes. It lets you dial in your own ISO (100-3200), shutter speed (1/6000s-1/3s), or exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV and 0.5EV increments), as well as pick a white balance by light temperature (with markings for common light types), and you can manually adjust focus - all pretty standard. There's also a tiny live histogram.

Camera app

Image quality

The 16MP daylight photos from the main camera are okay but not up to par. The resolved detail is mediocre at best and you can notice noisy areas. The images show great contrast and high dynamic range, though, so chances are you will enjoy them on the phone's screen.

We shot the photos below with Auto HDR as intended by Motorola. We noticed that when it triggers, however, the colors come out unnaturally saturated, but we do get the promised boost in dynamic range and also - less noise. When there is no need for HDR, the noise is more, but the colors are natural and true to life.

Those are definitely not the best photos - even for a budget device - but they will do for most occasions.

Moto G8 Power 16MP photos

The 8MP ultrawide photos are poor in detail, though the distortion correction works very well, and the photos fit a lot inside thanks to the 13mm lens. The contrast is good but not a match for the primary camera and the colors are a bit warmer than they should have been, especially where the Auto HDR did fire.

Moto G8 Power 8MP ultrawide photos

The 8MP telephoto camera shoots 16MP images by default, which is weird. We suspect this is either down to a software issue or by poor design choice.

Anyway, the 16MP zoom photos are not good, even if they present good contrast and dynamic range. The detail is poor, and the images are over-sharpened to mask the upscaling.

You would be better to manually switch to 8MP from Settings, but it will also lower the main camera resolution. Then again, given that the primary is also of poor per-pixel quality, we guess you won't be losing that much, will you?

Moto G8 Power 16MP tele photos

The tele camera is also the one taking portraits and they are saved in the proper 8MP resolution. Other than that - the photos have good detail and the blur looks convincing, but the separation is not - the subjects experience blurred parts quite often.

Moto G8 Power 8MP portraits

The 2MP macro cam has a dedicated shooting mode, and it focuses pretty well on the subjects. The images aren't that contrasty but present good enough detail and they are macro alright.

Moto G8 Power 2MP macro photos

The Moto G8 Plus had a dedicated Night Mode, but we didn't find one on the G8 Power - which is another oddity, especially given the similarities in hardware.

The tele camera doesn't even bother taking pictures when the light is low - you'd be getting digital zoom from the main camera instead.

Unfortunately, the output by the main camera in low-light is not so hot either. They are poor in detail and noisy, with limited dynamic range and often - washed out colors.

Moto G8 Power 16MP night photos

You bet it is not getting any better with the ultrawide camera but on the contrary - much worse.

Moto G8 Power 8MP ultrawide night photos

And here are some digitally zoomed 2x photos, if you need to really see them for yourself.

Moto G8 Power 16MP 2x zoomed night photos

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Motorola Moto G8 Power stacks up against the competition.

Motorola Moto G8 Power against the Realme 6 and the Redmi Note 8 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Selfies

The selfie camera on Moto G8 Power has a 16MP Quad-Bayer shooter behind f/2.0 fixed-focus lens. It saves 4MP images by default, as it should, but if you want - you can set it up to save upscaled 16MP photos instead.

The 4MP images present mediocre detail, but good colors and contrast. The dynamic range is limited, but the Auto HDR helps expanding that a lot.

Moto G8 Power 4MP selfies

Portraits are possible with the selfie camera and they aren't bad - the subject separation isn't perfect but the algorithm masks this with blur and the results are good. We've seen much better, but we've also seen much worse.

Moto G8 Power 4MP portrait selfies

Video recording

The Moto G8 Power records 4K videos with its main camera, 1080p clips with its ultrawide snapper, and 720p with the macro shooter. You can't capture videos with the telephoto camera, though.

The 4K footage from the main camera is poor in detail even if it is captured with 50Mbps video bitrate. Colors are pleasingly saturated and the contrast is nice. The dynamic range could have been higher, but it's not bad either.

The 1080p clips at 30fps aren't showing a great deal of detail either and the dynamic range is limited. The sharpening is unpleasantly excessive though, borderline ruining the whole thing.

Finally, the 1080p at 60fps videos turned out better simply because they show more natural colors and are not over sharpened. If we are to suggest a shooting mode for best quality - that will be the Full HD at 60fps.

By the way, all videos feature stereo audio with 320Kbps bit rate.

The 1080p ultrawide videos are bad - the detail is nowhere to be seen, the colors are off, the one thing that's alright with the clips is probably the dynamic range. Which still cannot redeem these videos.

Electronic stabilization is available on all 1080p@30fps options, no matter the type of camera.

And here, you will be able to compare the Moto G8 Power to the competition in our Video Compare Tool.

Moto G8 Power vs. Realme 6 vs. Redmi Note 8 Pro in our 4K video compare tool