Motorola Moto G7 Plus

Motorola launched the Moto G7 Plus smartphone was launched in February 2019. It features a 6.2-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1080×2270 pixels and a 19:9 aspect ratio.

The phone uses an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor clocked at 1.8GHz to power its core. It runs on Android v9.0 (Pie). As for storage, it comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB inbuilt storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. It has a 3000mAh battery along with fast charging support.

It has a dual camera setting in the rear – a 16MP primary camera (f/1.7 aperture) and a 5MP secondary camera (f/2.2 aperture). You get a 12MP selfie camera (f/2.0 aperture) at the front.

The Moto G7 Plus supports dual-SIM and has sensors like Fingerprint Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, and Gyroscope. Also, it has a Face Unlock feature.

It is available in two colour variants – Deep Indigo and Viva Red. In India, the phone costs around Rs. 24,500.

Moto G7 Plus resembles the looks of the Moto G7. It flaunts a curved glass back panel that although isn’t extremely glossy, has a subtle glow to it. Sandwiched between the glass front and back lies an aluminium frame. The rounded corners allow for a  comfortable grip. While the G7 plus doesn’t have an IP certification, Motorola claims that it is “water repellant.” It has a P2i water repelling layer that can withstand light rain or splashes.

On the back, the dual camera module, along with an LED flash sits at the top middle portion. The fingerprint sensor lies just below featuring the Motorola logo. The right side of the casing holds the power button and volume keys. The dual-SIM card slot rests at the top. At the bottom, you get a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB-C port, and a single speaker grille.

The front display has a teardrop notch on top and a small chin at the bottom. The notch houses the selfie camera. Also, there’s an earpiece above the notch. The bottom chin has a Motorola logo. It’s not a loud but a subtle mention of the company name.

The bezel-less display offers a more expansive viewing/gaming experience, which is highly commendable. In hand, the phone feels lightweight and comfortable.

The phone sports a 6.2-inch LED display having a resolution of 1080 x 2270 pixels and a pixel density of 403 PPI. While the screen does not match the standards of Samsung flagships, it is not bad altogether.

The display looks bright and vibrant indoors. It has a decent colour reproduction factor with sharp contrast.  The text and icons appear crisp. Watching movies, videos, or playing games is also an enjoyable experience. You get three colour modes to choose from – natural, vivid, and saturated. However, at maximum brightness, the colours look slightly washed out.

Since the Moto G7 Plus is a mid-range smartphone, it’s only natural that it will have a mid-range chipset. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor, the same processor that powers the Nokia 6.1 Plus and the Moto Z3 Play.

The processor can handle almost everything you throw at it – from routine tasks to graphics-intensive tasks. You will face no issues or lags whatsoever while performing everyday tasks like calling, texting, snapping photos, listening to music, web browsing, etc. Thanks to the 4GB RAM, multitasking is also a breeze.

The phone gets an Adreno 509 GPU to handle graphics intensive games like PUBG, Asphalt, Ark: Survival Evolved, and the like. Although you will not notice any frame rate drops or sluggishness while playing such games, however, we recommend you keep the graphics settings at low or medium. Thus, gaming is also a pleasant experience on the Moto G7 Plus.

Coming to the OS and UI, the phone runs on out-of-the-box Android Pie accompanied with a soft custom UI skin on top. Overall, the aim has been to deliver the pure Android experience, so you don’t have to worry about bloatware. You get numerous customization options in the settings menu, including many gesture controls. While all of them may not be of use to you, you can toggle them on and off as per your wish.

The Moto G7 Plus boasts of having the most stunning cameras of the G7 series. The back panel houses a dual camera module with a 16MP primary camera equipped with Sony IMX519 sensor and a 5MP secondary depth sensor.

The camera gets a notable upgrade from what we saw in the Moto G6 Plus. In favourable light settings, the camera is quick to lock focus and snap images rich with detail and accurate colour reproduction. The Auto HDR is also responsive and highly efficient. Sadly, the phone does not make proper use of its optical image stabilization (OIS) feature. Although it’s not the best out there, it is a welcome addition. Another letdown of the camera is its dynamic range, which often results in brownish tinges in images or dull images in high light contrast settings.

As for the nighttime shooting, the Moto G7 Plus performs only a tad better than the Moto G7. While the camera can capture a fair share of detail in dimly lit conditions, in dark environments, it fails to perform. In such scenarios, the captured images depict a lot of noise and look grainy. This is where phones like Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite get an edge.  

The 12MP selfie camera is nothing spectacular, but it does not disappoint. In favourable lighting conditions, the camera can take detailed images with excellent colour reproduction. Since the Moto G7 Plus can light up the screen, you can use it as a flash in low-light settings for selfies.

The good thing about the camera app is that you get a lot of shooting mode options and fun filters to experiment with. As for video recording, you can shoot 4K videos at 30fps. The OIS feature works well to deliver stable videos.

The Moto G7 Plus comes with a 3000mAh non-removable battery. Frankly, the battery isn’t one of the strongest features of the G7 Plus. With average to medium usage, including calling, video streaming, social media browsing, and other routine tasks, the phone will anyhow last a day. For aggressive usage (prolonged gaming or video streaming), the battery charge will drop faster than you can imagine. Thankfully, Motorola has included a 27W Turbopower charger that powers up the phone super fast.

Connectivity options on the phone are –  Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v5.0, NFC, USB Type-C, FM Radio, GPS with A-GPS and Glonass, and 2G/3G/4G support.

The Moto G7 Plus emerges as a winner from almost all angles. It has a classy design, capable mid-range processor, clean software, and a decent pair of cameras. Granted that you don’t get a great battery life and other expanded specs like IP certification or wireless charging, but the G7 Plus does pack in a lot of useful features within a budget. When compared to the Moto G7, the Moto G7 Plus appears to have an edge in terms of design, power, and camera. However, if you are looking for more, you can check out the Moto G7 Power (with a 5000mAh) and Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite.