Motorola Moto G7 Play

The Moto G7 Play is another lower priced edition of the Moto G7 series. Priced at Rs. 15,000, the phone is decent enough, but it does not live up to its ‘Play’ title in its name.

However, if you are looking for essential performance, the phone has a mid-range processor which will serve you well. The display of the phone falters, and the camera is not the best either. The Moto G7 Play has more bad than good and is not a recommended model.

Moto G7 Play arrives as the smallest model among the G7 series. The phone has a plastic finish but sits well in your hand and is quite easily manageable. The textured back makes it grippy as well. The phone has the Moto signature round camera module which protrudes out and has the classic M logo underneath it. It is also the mark of the fingerprint sensor location. The rear panel does not attract smear marks since it is not the common glossy back. The phone has a headphone jack on top. The volume rocker and the power button is on the right. The power button has a texture on it, which makes it easy to identify. The bottom has the USB Type-C port, making it quite modern in that respect. However, it does not come with waterproofing, which is a shame.

Moto G7 Play has a 5.7-inch LCD screen with a large notch on top. Plus it has a thick bottom bezel as well. The screen is not up to the mark, getting about 1,512 x 720-pixel resolution. It has about 294 pixels per inch which are almost similar to the 268ppi of the cheaper Nokia 3.1 Plus. The screen, however, is quite bright. The colours may appear a bit over-saturated, but you have the option to tweak with them in the display settings. The viewing angles of the phone is quite decent too. Just the notch and bezels make the screen smaller to handle.

Moto G7 Play comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chip which is the same processor as the Moto G7. Yes, it is a capable device which is paired with 2GB RAM. It is also surprising that this mid-range chipset has been added to a phone dubbed as ‘Play’. The game loading times are long, and it does lag a little when you are switching apps. Gaming is excellent in low settings, for high-end games like Asphalt 9. Casual games can run without a stutter. It gets a decent 4227 score in Geekbench multi-core tests too.

In the camera department, low mid-range phones tend to falter. The Moto G7 Play comes with a 13MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture. The camera is quite decent, and it is capable enough to capture colourful shots when the light conditions are right. The colours on the pictures remain bright and vibrant. However, it struggles with subjects that are in motion and thus, results in blur. The difference in lighting is not handled well either since there is a visible blowing out of subjects as well as overexposure. The low-light shots are inferior and have a lot of noticeable noise in the images. The G7 Play, unlike the G7, does not have a depth sensing secondary lens. The result is an abysmal portrait mode where the camera cannot detect which point to blur and which point to not blue. It attempts to define the face and then, blurs off everything else. Hence, it might happen that when two faces are being shot, it will blur out the face which is not in focus completely, though they are both at the same distance from the camera. It can also record 4K videos.

The phone comes with an 8MP selfie camera on the front which does an excellent job in clicking selfies.

The phone arrives with a 3,000mAh battery, which is the same as Moto G7. The screen is small, and so, the battery is quite adequate the fuel up the phone. Video streaming on the phone found that it was able to last for 9 hours and 21 minutes for a video on loop. It is quite exceptional for a low mid-range phone. However, the video it supports is 720p and not 1080p. Of course, it is not going to match the massive 5000 mAh stamina of G7 Power. The phone does not come with wireless charging and does take about 2 hours to charge to get to full.

The Moto G7 Play does not have the oomph factor that Moto G7 brought, but being a cheaper model, it does have enough features in it. The phone is excellent for its battery life and performance. However, it is not a gaming phone. The closest competitor of this phone is the Moto G7 Power with a massive battery and better screen. Nokia 3.1 Plus is also a good alternative. The phone does not have water resistance, but the plastic build looks sturdy enough to keep it durable. If you want substance over style and have a tight budget, then this phone can be an excellent handset for your pockets.