Motorola Moto G7 Plus review

18 February 2019
The Moto G lineup has come a long way since its first release in 2013. The original Moto G is still one of the most iconic handsets ever created as it jump-started a new era of mid-range smartphones. It was quite frankly the first budget phone that made sense with a fairly powerful SoC for the asking price, good battery life and clean, fast and clutter-free Android experience. But seven generations in, does the Moto G7 lineup still have it? Or the focus had shifted so much, it’s hard to recognize the new Motos, for better or worse?

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • L1c
  • 22 Mar 2019

I have had AMZ send me a Note 7 and was quite impressed by the hardware and battery capacity. The camera was so-so, and MIUI honestly sucks big time, there are a lot of things that just don't work, not out of the box, and not after tinkering.

So I bought a G7+ the other day, and got that up and running in literally 30 minutes all data+apps moved. It does not have the raw power of the Note 7, but the camera is at least on par (and it can do 4K without tweaking). It also ran all the things right out of the box that were needed (like showing menu dots where requested by old software, like play-on-connect with bluetooth (not only wired), like proper notifications on the lockscreen (not only from Xiaomi software), etc. etc.). The Redmi Note 7 had to go, not because of the more-than-adequate hardware, but because of the sucky MIUI 10 (9 was way better, btw, but there's no downgrade path).

I am now happy with a Moto G7+; the only thing that noticeably sucks is battery life, so the charger is in my backpack and thanks to the CR-32 delivering 27 watts, topping up the phone is a matter of minutes.

I would recommend to check out the software experience. Hardware is great on the Redmi, more than adequate on the Moto, but the software, oh please...

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • MkE
    • 20 Mar 2019

    HKNY, 04 Mar 2019It is one of the few phones that have stereo speakers, 4k v... morethat sums it up, great phone, the 660 simply would have made mid ranger of the year....too bad....

    Maybe motorola renews an S version later this year with an improved 660 SoC

      viano, 21 Feb 2019No, you can go pretty wrong with this fooling Moto G7 plus.... moreHaha. I changed from the Zenfone 5 to this phone and this is better in every aspect (except for display quality).
      Moto Display a thousand times better than a notification LED, battery lasts longer (I'm getting 5 hours SoT compared to 4 on Zenfone 5) yet a smaller battery by 10%, QC 4.0 is amazing (from 8% to 100% it takes 40mins) camera is miles better than the one on the Zenfone 5, stock Android is beautiful and - maybe it's market dependent - but here the Zenfone 5 costs 390 EUR right now (it opened at 470 EUR last year), while the Moto G7 Plus costs ~ 290 EUR.

        Something is not clear. The optical stabilization is only applied to photos, not videos? For videos, there is just electronic stabilization?

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • xq5
          • 04 Mar 2019

          HKNY, 04 Mar 2019It is one of the few phones that have stereo speakers, 4k v... moreI'm using G4 Play with Snapdragon 410 cpu and 2GB ram. After two years and few months it still works fine. Navigation is smooth. No lag at all. My friend's brand new Huawei P20 Lite lags like hell. I've changed animation scale to 1x in developer options and it lags like hell. They scaled it to 0.5 to hide their sluggish performance.

            • H
            • HKNY
            • Jbu
            • 04 Mar 2019

            It is one of the few phones that have stereo speakers, 4k video recording cameras, main camera with OIS and f1.7 aperture at the same time in this price range. It stands out with its high quality camera setup (maybe the best camera setup of its class, higher megapixel count that recently got popular as a 48mp main camera challenge between Chinese manufacturers doesn't mean higher camera quality). SD660 isn't a lot better than SD636, these two doesn't have a significant performance difference. Screen should be as good as a standart midranger IPS screen. Battery life is not impressive, though. While J7 2015 has a 91h stand-by endurance rating, G7+ only has a 59h stand-by endurance rating although the identical 3000mah battery capacity and a better 14nm chipset. (J7 2015 has a 28nm SoC; the battery life issue of the G7+ may be fixed with software updates) Unlike its Chinese competitors, it doesn't focus on delivering the best price to on-paper specs ratio. If the camera is your top priority or you find the pure Android as the best Android experience, G7+ is for you.

            https://www.notebookcheck.net/636-vs-660_9956_9944.247596.0.html (SD660 vs SD636)

            https://www.notebookcheck.net/Adreno-509-vs-Adreno-512_8782_8778.247598.0.html (Adreno 509 vs Adreno 512)

              • M
              • Moto User
              • XPX
              • 02 Mar 2019

              Does it have front flash

                • o
                • oddsox
                • pmH
                • 02 Mar 2019

                Headphones?!? There are no headphones included. Even your photos clearly show that!

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • NjA
                  • 22 Feb 2019

                  BelowAverageAndroid, 20 Feb 2019I guess you are right. Maybe I am bashing too much on the G... moreAnd you forget something important which is that samsung m20 matches moto g7 power in price and not g7 plus it's even cheaper than the regular g7
                  So this phone is trully overpriced

                    • v
                    • viano
                    • 6mN
                    • 21 Feb 2019

                    Tom, 20 Feb 2019If you look for a cell with great camera in mid and even hi... moreNo, you can go pretty wrong with this fooling Moto G7 plus.

                    "compass (market dependent)"
                    That means, if you get NFC you won't get that elementary e-compass!
                    A traditional bad joke from Lenovorola.

                    (only in $ 60 Redmi Go won't you get that!
                    but you will even in better entry-level ones at $ 100 lol)

                    Not that better with the "few standout features"
                    and even with that "a unicorn of some sort" OIS ...

                    There are some very good (sadly forgotten) phones with OIS camera
                    and flagship-class Sony ExmorRS large-pixel sensors
                    at half the price
                    of this Moto - without e-compass
                    and notification LED.

                    - check for ASUS Zenfone 3 (ZE552KL)
                    has the same 3000mAh akku at 5,5" display;

                    - the ASUS Zenfone Zoom S (ZE553KL) has better cameras - incl one telephoto -
                    and Amoled screen, with 5000mAh;

                    Both have that original "TriTech Autofokus" (incl. Laser AF)
                    just "overtaken" by Xiaomi in new Mi 9. lol !!!

                    Both also have (had in 2016!) that overhyped USB Type-C connector.

                    But even the ZenFone 5 (ZE620KL) in the same 6,2" size can you buy for much less
                    and that one year old phone takes nearly everything better:
                    - has the same SDM636,
                    - more premium build (metal body, smaller, lighter, GG5)
                    - even with bigger battery!
                    - better display (DCI-P3);
                    - Sony IMX363 dual PDAF flagship sensor w/ OIS/EIS,
                    - has a more usefull - rediscovered in 2019 - secondary ultra-wide angle lens/cam;
                    - has stereo speakers as well;
                    - a full sensor set-up, incl e-compass;
                    and color notification LED and so on . . .

                    Offers a clearly better package at about € 250 bestprice,
                    Moto is at least one year to late and can offer useless expensive gimmicks only,
                    likeTurboPower and Co.
                    ... much better to get bigger battery with "simple" fast charging.

                    I don't know how 'GSMArena team' the alternatives choose,
                    but not to take the ZenFone 5 (ZE620KL) as a competitor (or other Zenfones with that unique OIS, lol)
                    was a very big mistake and makes the 'alternatives' part of the review pretty useless.

                    Dear Team,
                    there are other brands as Xiaomi still, but may be not much long, if you always ignore them and not provide infos about better techs.

                      BelowAverageAndroid, 20 Feb 2019I guess you are right. Maybe I am bashing too much on the G... moreBut, I am not too sure however, since the Mi 9 series came out a moment ago, and the pricing of the Mi 9 SE matches the G7 Plus, and it has significantly better specs than the latter. It will be hard for this phone to try to do something in the competition. Maybe it can get like thousands or 10 thousands, maybe 100 thousands, but, it's gonna be difficult with a phone like this.

                        • T
                        • Tom
                        • PpX
                        • 20 Feb 2019

                        If you look for a cell with great camera in mid and even high range you can't go wrong with Moto G7 plus. The quality of pic, details are amazing. Just compare under GSMARENA tool and you won't find better picture than taken by Moto G7 plus.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • ssa
                          • 20 Feb 2019

                          I would like to see how the camera on this device compares to the Nokia 8.1.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • 0Wf
                            • 20 Feb 2019

                            BelowAverageAndroid, 20 Feb 2019I guess you are right. Maybe I am bashing too much on the G... moreThe devil inside, fooling with the brand name, more than anything else. Don't fall in the trap...

                              Anonymous, 19 Feb 2019Xiaomi and Samsung M series are online exclusive targeting ... moreI guess you are right. Maybe I am bashing too much on the G7 series. The M20 doesn't even match this thing in design, camera, performance, charging speed, etc... And it's made out of plastic, which is not that durable. The G7 Plus definitely has it's advantage like a good screen, great charging speed, decent performance, stereo speakers and decent camera. But, maybe if they could go aggressive with the price, raise it's battery capacity and probably give out faster updates, then this think would be MURDERING the whole competition, which is filled with tons of Xiaomi phones.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • j5y
                                • 20 Feb 2019

                                George, 19 Feb 2019Most consumers don't give a damn about the soc while the ph... moreAnd what is the point of such phone if it does not even last a day? the battery life is biggest turnoff for me as I am sure is case for most people, I wonder what do you have to say about that?

                                  • c
                                  • cruitz
                                  • XQy
                                  • 20 Feb 2019

                                  gyro not compatible on PUBG mobile.. please fix it

                                    • S
                                    • Syeed khan
                                    • DkS
                                    • 20 Feb 2019

                                    Good quality of products never compare with some other brands

                                      • T
                                      • Tom
                                      • PqC
                                      • 19 Feb 2019

                                      If you look for a great camera, Moto G7 plus is the best option. Using GSMARENA tool I did compassion with many mid and high range phones and it's definitely one of the best cameras at the market now.

                                        • T
                                        • Tom
                                        • Pr{
                                        • 19 Feb 2019

                                        Anonymous, 19 Feb 2019Just looked up the latest price on Asus Zenfone Max Pro 4 G... moreI will buy it, mainly because of camera, you won't find any better camera in this price range.

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