Moto G7 Power Review: The phone that goes on forever

The days of carrying a power bank with you is officially over. True to its namesake, the moto G7 Power is all about battery life, and OMG, does it deliver. I’ve had Moto’s live-wire device for several weeks and you may have checked out the unboxing and first impressions post earlier. Here’s the full juicy review.

The moto G7 Power is unapologetically a mid-range smartphone; none of the fancy raw power of the Z series, and no Moto Mods. But it does have a secret weapon—a humongous battery.

Before we head into the review proper, let’s have a quick look at the overall package.

Design and build

The moto G7 Power is pretty good looking and feels well-built. It’s unmistakably a moto device with its circular camera module on the back. It doesn’t at all feel cheap in any way. Its “glasstic” body fits well in the hand and offers a good grip. The downside of its shiny exterior, like many other devices with shiny backs, is that it’s a smudge and fingerprint magnet. If that bothers you, don’t leave home naked. I mean the phone, silly. There’s a transparent soft silicone case included in the box. It offers protection from scratches and smudges, but not for falls, so be careful.

The body itself doesn’t have an IP-certified rating, but Moto says it’s “water-repellent” and is resilient against accidental spills, sweat, and even light rain.

On the back is the single camera with a fingerprint sensor built into the motorola logo. It’s a nice touch, although rear mounted fingerprint scanners are fast becoming extinct, thanks to the rise of in-display implementations as well as face authentication.

You’ll find the volume rocker and power button on the right side, USB-C port at the bottom and 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. I was expecting some sort of speaker grille for down-firing speakers, but nada. Audio only comes from the front earpiece that’s housed within the display’s notch. The good news is, it’s front-facing. The bad news is, there’s only one audio source.

Hardware

Right off the bat, the moto G7 Power isn’t going to blow anything out of the water, specs-wise. It sports a decent 6.2-inch HD+ Max Vision display with a notch that houses the 8MP f/2.2 front-facing camera and earpiece.

Powering the device is an octa-core Snapdragon 632 processor that’s paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. MicroSD storage expansion is available for those who need more.

In terms of the camera setup, the moto G7 Power features a sensible single 12MP f/2.0 main sensor with large 1.25-micron pixels and PDAF.

As mentioned, the device has a 3.5mm headphone jack, in addition to a built-in FM radio.

Saving the best for last, the moto G7 Power is slapped with a massive 5,000mAh battery. Motorola claims this baby lasts up to three days on a single charge. The great thing is that it supports motorola’s TurboPower fast-charging technology. You’ll find a USB-C 15W TurboPower charger in the box. With just 15 minutes of charge, you can get up to 9 hours of power. That said, I can promise you that you won’t be using the charger all that much, at least not as often as a regular smartphone.

Software

Software is perhaps the department where the moto G7 Power excels in. Running stock Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box, it’s overlaid with some motorola-exclusive trickery including shortcuts and gestures. The camera software and features are pretty cool too. Despite having just a single camera, it features Portrait Mode, Google Lens, augmented reality (AR) stickers, and even cinemagraphs.

Performance

I know stock Android isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. We’ve been bombarded and somewhat spoiled by the plethora of third party Android skins out there over the years. Whether its Samsung’s One UI, Huawei’s EMUI, Xiaomi’s MIUI, everyone’s got a favourite flavour. That said, there are some out there who appreciate Android as Google intended. OK, so this particular Moto experience has a sprinkle of Moto-ness in it, so it isn’t pure stock Android per se. But it’s close.

The benefit of stock Android is of course—speed and response. You can’t fault it. It’s always snappy. It’s always responsive. Multi-tasking is a breeze. Even on mid-range hardware like on the moto G7 Power, performance is typically lag-free and flawless. So if you’re looking for something less fancy and gimmicky, and expect snappy performance all-day long, this is it.

The other benefit of stock Android is fast updates. You’ll be one of the first to receive latest security patches and OTA updates.

Moto has injected nifty additions like Moto Actions that give you additional controls including gestures. Chopping motion to turn on the flashlight. Doing a twisting motion to quick launch the camera. I especially love One Button Nav where you can navigate the phone using just one on-screen button.

Now to the icing on the cake. The bread and butter. The pièce de résistance. Battery life is where the moto G7 Power truly excels. It’s downright insane. I’ve never seen 10-11 hours of screen on time on a smartphone before. But yes, this is what I got from this phone. This done without any fancy tricks—screen is left at adaptive mode, cellular and Wi-Fi on. I did everything that I’d normal would on a daily basis—browse the web, check/post on social media, take photos, watch videos on YouTube and Netflix, play games.

The phone took everything I threw at it. Short of magic, it’s part the HD+ display, efficient processor, large battery, and pure Android that works together to deliver this mind blowing performance. I literally only charged the phone every 2-3 days depending on usage. Which is unfathomable even when you’re talking about phones that have similar battery capacities. When I do end up short on juice, charging is decently fast with the 15W TurboPower charger. It fully charges up the moto in about two and a half hours. Just 15 minutes of charging will give you up to 9 hours of power.

The display, despite its lack of pixels, is decent. Sufficiently bright and sharp for movies and games, with decent visibility under sunlight.

Speaking of which, you’ll get decent performance from games. My current muse, Battle of Warships: Naval Blitz plays flawlessly, as does Tacticool – 5v5 shooter. Things get slightly choppier with Asphalt 9, War Robots, and PUBG Mobile, but never unplayable, especially with quality settings pared down a notch or two.

The lack of a down-firing speaker, let alone a pair of stereo ones, was worrying but the front earpiece surprised me with its decibel-spitting prowess. Not the best details but sufficiently loud.

Performance from both the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and front face unlock are acceptable. Both unlock at decent speeds and I didn’t come across any issues using either.

Camera

In the optics department, the main camera captures details and reproduces colour well when given good light. Focus is generally snappy.

Despite having only a single camera, the moto G7 Power offers a Portrait Mode. It’s all software trickery and some machine learning involved. Some Pixel- and iPhone XR-inspired single camera wizardry here, but like the iPhone XR, only works on faces. So, if you’re hoping to capture some bokehlicious food shots, you’re out of luck.

While you may come out disappointed with the lack of depth-of-field options, perhaps you can be entertained by the cutesy AR stickers and distracted by the ability to do cinemagraphs.

In low light conditions, results are as expected–noisy with loss of details.

The front-facing 8MP shooter is decent too, and selfies come out good colour balance and details. Thanks to Auto HDR, they’re generally properly exposed despite tricky lighting conditions. As with cameras in this price range, just don’t expect too much.

What’s in the box:

moto G7 Power unit
USB-C 15W TurboPower charger
USB Type-A to USB-C charge cable
In-ear headphones
Soft protective cover
Screen protector
SIM ejector tool
Manual and warranty documentation

Pros

Insane battery life
TurboPower fast charging
Pleasing iconic design, good build
Fast and responsive performance
Decent cameras
Cinemagraph and AR stickers are fun
Stock Android experience
Moto Actions (gestures) are useful
Fast Android updates
Surprisingly loud audio from earpiece
Face and fingerprint unlock decently fast

Cons

Only single camera
Portrait mode only for faces
Stock Android experience not for everyone
Audio only from earpiece
Only HD+ screen resolution

Verdict

Overall, the moto G7 Power is an affordable, well-put together package that offers out-of-this-world battery life. It may not offer the best specs in the world but if a long-lasting device is what you’re looking for, THIS IS IT.