Motorola created some of the best low-budget phones for years, but its latest portfolio of devices was a little confusing since it was divided between the Moto G6, the G6 Play, the E5 Plus, and the E5 Play. By 2019, the manufacturer has reduced its portfolio to only four phones and had taken a different turn to each model to meet different needs.
Let’s start with the family star. The Moto G7, $300 (€250 in Europe), costs $50 more than last year’s Moto G6. For that extra money, you get a screen of 6.2 inches and 2270×1080 pixels (compared to the 5.7-inch screen of the G6), a teardrop notch, a Snapdragon 632 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage; the same amount of memory and storage that a Galaxy S9 brings.
The Moto G7 is also the only family member with two rear cameras, which is a great advantage. But its cheaper models, the G7 Power and the G7 Play, can also take photos in portrait mode using Motorola’s camera software without the need for an additional sensor.
Like the G7, the G7 Power has a Gorilla Glass rear panel and a 6.2-inch screen; but the Power screen has a disappointing resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels. The specifications of the G7 are also a bit more conservative. It has the same Snapdragon 632 chip but only 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. However, that low-resolution screen exacerbates the best feature of the G7 Power: its monstrous 5000 mAh battery.
Considering that most phones do not exceed 4000 mAh and come with chips and functions that consume more energy, I’m excited to test how long the G7 Power will last before shutting down.
Finally, the G7 Play, for $ 200 (€ 150 in Europe), completes the Moto phone family. Its back is plastic, it has 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a smaller screen, 5.7 inches, but there seem to be great sacrifices beyond that.
All new G7 models (including the G7 Play) come with fingerprint sensors on the back and a water repellent coating that, according to Motorola, can resist a light splash or two.
The three phones will come with a pure version of Android 9 Pie, a headphone jack and custom camera applications with various shooting modes, such as the option to capture Cinemagraphs (similar to what we saw on the LG V40), hyper lapses, photos with colors Selective and even high-resolution photos that combine multiple shots in a single image to avoid the drawbacks of traditional digital zoom.
I like that Motorola has reduced its offers to something more manageable and easy to digest. The three phones will be sold unlocked, and potential buyers will not have to worry about things like network compatibility.
So, although they are quite similar to the previous models, it seems that Moto will once again maintain control over the low-budget phone market with the new G7 family. The three G7 will go on sale in March, adding a fourth model (the Moto G7 Plus, with a Snapdragon 636 and slightly higher cameras) in some markets.
