Motorola Moto G Power (2021) review

The Motorola Moto G Power is a $ 200 phone that does exactly what it claims – gets you through days of use – but don’t expect any more bells or whistles.

The battery is the whole business of this phone. Its 5,000mAh battery is about as big as it is now; it’s the same capability you’ll find in high-end devices like the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Rather than creating a more complete phone, Motorola cut back on features here and there – a low-res screen, a slower processor – and went all out on its title feature. Cheaper components allow Motorola to sell a $ 200 version of this phone, and they’re also less power hungry, taking full advantage of that massive battery.

This device has the same name as its predecessor from last year, but it differs from it in several ways. Rather than offering just one model, this year the G Power comes in the aforementioned $ 200 variant with 3GB of RAM and paltry 32GB of storage. There is also a 4GB RAM / 64GB storage option for $ 250 (I tested the 32GB version). This year’s models ditch the ultra-wide camera and get a slightly larger screen – 6.6 inches from 6.4 inches – with a lower 720p resolution than last year’s 1080p.

If you choose to buy the Moto G Power, it will hold its end of the bargain. The question is whether you can live with the significant sacrifices Motorola made to get the biggest battery possible in the most affordable phone possible.

Moto G Power display and performance

The Moto G Power has a 6.6-inch LCD display with 720p resolution. It’s not a lot of resolution to span across a big enough screen, and it shows. Images aren’t as crisp as they could be, and the screen overall feels a bit dark and washed out to me. The phone itself is rather large, although I find it a bit more comfortable to use with one hand than the slightly larger 6.7-inch Motorola One 5G Ace.

The G Power uses a Snapdragon 662 processor, and I felt the difference between that and the performance of a 700 series step-up chipset. It’s an extra slower pace of jumping between apps and opening the camera. . It takes longer to capture and process images in Portrait and Night Vision modes than the Ace with the same main camera sensor. And heavier tasks like jumping in and out of Google Maps navigation show noticeable stuttering. That said, you’ll be hard pressed to find significantly better performance for the price of $ 200.

Ultimately, the Power handles day-to-day tasks, plays videos, and browses properly. I just felt myself noticing the delays while using the phone which over the course of a day added to a less than satisfying experience. But for a $ 200 phone, it gets the job done.

The G Power offers expandable storage by means of a microSD card slot, which seems necessary here. On the 32GB version I tested, 14GB of this storage is already occupied by Android 10 files. This is just not enough in 2021. You can pay $ 50 more for the 64GB model, but it also gives the impression of spending too much to have too little. If you buy this phone, take a microSD card.

Motorola will offer an upgrade to Android 11 and says it will provide security updates for the G Power until January 2023. By then, years of updates will likely slow the phone down even further. way.

Moto G Power Battery

The Moto G Power offers its flagship function. I started Monday with a fully charged battery. I watched an episode of Bridgerton, you know, for testing. I sailed through town and back. I scrolled through Instagram … a lot. Email, web browsing, flush and repeat; by the third day of moderate use, I was down to 40%.

Even after a trip outside the house with lots of shots, I’m leaving on day four with 26% battery life with just under six hours of screen time. I have charged my personal phone at least three times during this period. We went through about 12 news cycles. I myself have aged at least two years. But the Moto G Power continues.

There is no doubt that the slightly slower processor and lower power screen contribute to increasing these numbers. I left the screen at its default brightness while testing it, which is just a little lower than I would prefer. It certainly doesn’t look too much bright at its maximum setting, so an extra hit on battery life is something to consider if you like a bright screen.

Keep in mind that I spent a good deal of that time at home on Wi-Fi which is easier on the battery. During non-pandemic times, I would have spent more time outside the home on cellular data. And six hours of screentime doesn’t exactly make me a power user.

If you spend more time on data and do more power-intensive tasks, like watching a lot of videos, you’d probably look more like two full days. Either way, Motorola’s claim of up to three days of battery life is quite reasonable, and you could do even better than that if you spend most of your time on Wi-Fi.

Moto G Power Camera

The G Power offers a 48-megapixel main camera that produces 12-megapixel images, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a depth sensor to help create portrait mode photos. There is also an 8 megapixel selfie camera.

The G Power uses the same main camera as the One 5G Ace, and it also takes great photos in good light. It assesses exposure well and captures a lot of detail, especially with close subjects. When his AI recognizes a scene as a landscape, the colors appear appropriately vibrant, but otherwise they tend to have flat, washed-out colors. In less good lighting conditions things get a bit more complicated where the noise reduction smears a lot of detail. In high contrast scenes where the camera has lighted shadows, a good amount of noise and / or noise reduction is visible.

As with the Ace, night vision tends to produce a washed-out image and in this case you and your subject have to stay still for several seconds. There is noticeable shutter lag in all photo modes – enough to make you wonder for a fraction of a second if you’ve actually pressed the shutter button – and the display is shifted when panning in. portrait mode.

This camera is great, and it’s fine for a $ 200 phone. The Moto G Power doesn’t have the processing power to shoot more sophisticated HDR or low-light photographs – for that you have to upgrade to the $ 350 Pixel 4A. It also won’t be able to keep up with fast-moving subjects, or even slow-moving subjects in low-light conditions, but that’s often a problem for phones priced well over $ 200.

If you’re on a tight budget and long battery life is a must, look no further than the Moto G Power. However, I hesitate to recommend it to someone who does not meet this description. You’ll make sacrifices to get that $ 200 price tag and multi-day battery life. Core storage is way too anemic and speed is noticeably pokey.

If you have some flexibility in your budget, the $ 300 OnePlus N10 5G is a great upgrade choice with a better processor and better camera. A little more than that would give you a Pixel 4A with a great camera and a well-supported device with better longevity.

If $ 200 is the limit on your budget, the G Power is a good choice – especially since there are few other options at this price point. On top of its multi-day lifespan, it has a better processor than the $ 100-150 competition, and you’re unlikely to find a significantly better screen or camera at this price point. Just be aware of its limitations and have a little patience.

Photograph by Allison Johnson / The Verge