Sure, the new $299 Moto G7 has a more head-turning design and dual rear cameras, but for people who really care about battery life, the $249 Moto G7 Power could be the way to go.
We went hands-on with this new phone at Motorola’s press event, and it looks like a pretty compelling value so far.
Moto G7 Power price and availability
The Moto G7 power costs $249 and is available today (Feb. 7) in Brazil in Mexico. It will be available starting in mid-February throughout Europe. The G7 Power will then roll out to India in the coming weeks and to North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific in the coming months after that.
Battery: This is ginormous
The G7 Power packs a huge 5,000 mAh battery into a design that’s not much bigger or thicker than the regular G7 and it costs $50 less. The G7 makes due with just a 3,000 mAh battery.
Motorola says the G7 Power has enough juice for three days of use, but we’ll have to put that claim to the test in our own battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over LTE until the fully charged phone runs out of juice.
Design: Attractive and not too heavy
The Marine Blue finish on the Moto G7 Power gives the phone a premium look and feel. It’s just not as premium as the curved Gorilla Glass on the regular G7.
The G7 Power retains the headphone jack on the Moto G7, but shuffles it over to the top edge. The G7 Power also lacks the IP54 water resistance the regular G7 has, but most users likely won’t mind too much.
Weighing 6.9 ounces, the G7 Power feels substantial in the hand but not too heavy. By comparison, the G7 weighs 6.06 ounces.
Display and Notch
Just like the battery on the Moto G7 Power, the display is pretty big at 6.2 inches, which makes it larger than the iPhone XR’s 6.1 inches.
The display has a resolution of 1520 x 720, so it’s not full HD like the G7 (2270 x 1080), but I do like that the screen-to-body ratio on this Max Vision display is more than 78 percent.
The notch up top swoops down far enough that it reminds me of the iPhone XR, while the regular G7 has a smaller, tear-drop like notch.
Specs and Performance
The Moto G7 Power packs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 632 processor, which promises 50 percent faster performance than the Snapdragon 450 chip in the Moto G6.
MORE: Moto G7 Hands-On: The Budget Phone Champ Grows Up
This new CPU is paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of memory, which is not bad for this price. (In contrast, the regular G7 offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.) There’s also a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 512GB.
Cameras
One of the trade-offs you’ll have to make with the G7 Power is that it features a single-lens 12-megapixel camera on the back. The regular Moto G7 features both a 12-MP main camera and 5-MP depth sensor on the rear.
Up front, there’s an 8-MP camera on the G7 Power for taking selfies.
There’s plenty of handy camera features on board here, including Auto Smile Capture (you don’t even need to press the shutter button) and Spot Color for picking which part of the frame you want in color.
Software
As usual, Motorola is using a light touch when it comes to software, which is welcome because this phone is running the latest Android 9.0 Pie.
Some of the key features include the ability to take screenshots with a three-finger press on the screen, Quick Capture for the camera (by twisting the device in your hand) and Fast Flashlight for activating the flashlight by making a chopping motion with the phone.
Outlook
The $249 Moto G7 Power should live up to its name with that beefy battery, and it represents a major upgrade in terms of processing power, screen size and camera capability versus the Moto G6.
The more premium $299 Moto G7 has several advantages of its own, including more RAM and storage, a sharper screen, dual cameras, water resistance and a headphone jack. But if you want a phone that won’t have you reaching for the outlet by the end of the day, the G7 Power should satisfy.
Stay tuned for our full review.
