A long-lasting battery and a budget price make this a steal

I’ll be upfront here: It’s been a little tough to review $1,000 smartphones during this pandemic, especially if they’re worth purchasing. It feels irresponsible to tempt people to drop that much money at a time like this. 

So, when I picked up the Moto G Power, I was suddenly very relieved. 

It’s the latest addition to Motorola’s G-series family, which consists of a long lineup of affordable phones with fairly capable specs.

There’s no quad-camera setup, crazy zoom capabilities, or even a high refresh rate here. But the G Power does come equipped with a 5,000mAh battery and a less anxiety-inducing price tag of $250. 

If you think about it, what better time than a lockdown to release a phone that can last three days on one charge? After all, a lot of us are either scrolling endlessly through social media, sending way more texts than usual, and… actually making phone calls. 

But battery life is even more important outside of quarantine. Particularly because wall sockets aren’t as available as they are at home. 

So, if you’re looking for a basic phone that runs smoothly and won’t die on you after watching two full seasons of a show on Netflix, then it’s a great choice.

That battery life, though

Image: zlata ivleva / mashable

Motorola says the Moto G Power can last up to three days on a single charge. But rather than relying solely on my standard usage to test out these claims, I decided to try something else: I binge-watched my favorite TV show: Schitt’s Creek. 

I powered up Netflix on the handset and started right from the very first episode. As an FYI, there are 13 episodes per season and each episode lasts about 21 minutes. Before the G Power shut off completely, I was able to get through two full seasons of the show. That’s a little over nine hours of streaming in total. And while I wasn’t scrolling through social media as much as I normally would or even answering messages, I was receiving and checking all of my notifications in between. 

To further test the battery, I simply used the phone as I normally would with apps like Instagram, Twitter, Messenger, Slack, and Telegram. I wasn’t able to stretch the battery life to the full three days it’s officially rated for, but I did make it through at least two days. 

As a benchmark, I still had about 57-percent battery after 24 hours of use. And that’s after using it to endlessly scroll through TikTok before bed. That’s still way longer than what I get on my iPhone 11 Pro, which gets me through about 12 hours of the day before I have to plug it back into the charger. 

Of course, the 11 Pro has a smaller, 3,046mAh battery running all of those aforementioned apps in addition to other features like FaceID. But it still felt nice to go to sleep without having to worry about plugging my phone into a charger.

It’s also important to note that, as a reviewer, I’m using it way more than the average person would. I also tend to keep my brightness cranked up to the max, which doesn’t really help with battery life, either.

The G Power comes with a 10-watt rapid charger, as well. So, even when you do run out of battery, you can charge it back up very quickly.

Clean design, smooth performance 

Image: zlata ivleva / mashable

As the successor to the Moto G7 Power, which also came with a 5,000mAh battery, Motorola clearly went with a more subtle design this time around. As far as color options go though, the phone is only available in black. 

For starters, the G Power doesn’t have a notch at the top to house the selfie camera. Instead, the company went with the hole-punch design, which sits to the left of the display. 

On the right is the power button, which also triggers the Google Assistant when you press it twice, and above it is the volume rocker. The bottom houses a USB-C port, two Dolby stereo speakers, and a headphone jack.

The G Power also has a 6.4-inch Full HD+ LCD display with a 1,080 x 2,300 pixel resolution (399 ppi). It may not be the highest quality screen, but I wasn’t desperate to switch back to my iPhone 11 Pro after using it to scroll through TikTok or watch Netflix, either.

Flip it over and you’ll find that the camera sits to the left of the phone, as opposed to being placed in the middle like its predecessor. The module has a pill-like shape that more closely resembles what you’ll find on higher-end phones. 

The Moto G Power also has a plastic back, which can tend to take away from the overall aesthetic, but here it actually looks kind of sleek. It’s also comfortable to hold, even when texting or navigating the phone with one hand. 

I also like that the rear finger sensor in the middle is hidden beneath the Motorola logo. It’s responsive and works really fast to unlock the phone. I’ll take it over an in-display fingerprint sensor, any day.

Image: zlata ivleva / mashable

Under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor running Android 10. Thankfully, the handset’s not packed with a ton of bloatware, which saved me a lot of time from going through and deleting unwanted apps.

You also get all of those Moto Actions, like Quick Capture (twisting the phone to open camera app), Fast Flashlight (turning the flashlight on and off with two chopping motions), and Three-Finger Screenshot (capturing a screenshot by touching the display with three fingers).

I never had any trouble with performance: Apps load quickly, scrolling feels smooth, and, for the most part, it’s very responsive.

As for storage configurations, the Moto G Power only comes in a 64GB option. There is, however, a microSD card slot for expandable storage up to 512GB, if you need it. It also comes unlocked, so you’re free to use it on any carrier.

A very capable budget camera

Image: zlata ivleva / mashable

The Moto G Power features a triple-camera setup that includes a 16-megapixel rear sensor (f/1.7 aperture), 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera (f/2.2), and a 2-megapixel macro lens. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is 16-megapixels. It’s certainly an upgrade from the single 12-megapixel camera found on the Moto G7 Power. But it still delivers some noisy, grainy shots.

Unfortunately, the camera app lags a lot. Sometimes it would freeze after taking a photo and I’d have to exit out of the camera app and open it again. The shutter button is also slow to take shots and requires a bit of patience. 

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

While it was overcast on my walk, it wasn’t this dark outside. The ultra-wide angle shots above and below are also a bit blurry along the corners.  

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

But it does manage to pick up some texture, like the bricks above. The colors are also fairly accurate to those you’d see in real life.

The photo below, taken indoors, isn’t terrible for a budget phone. The texture of the wood table comes through somewhat clearly and so does the plant. But everything behind it looks washed out and grainy.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

The color on the flowers below doesn’t look awful, per se, but it’s a lot brighter in person. And, again, it’s blurry along the edges, which is clearly a theme here with photo quality all around.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

Now, let’s move on to the selfies. These shots are not as grainy as those taken with the rear camera. You can see the knit texture in my sweater looks really clear and the blue color is accurate. But the flyaways in my hair look blurry and my skin looks a bit smoothed out.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

I encourage you to not use beauty mode because the results are kind of creepy. I almost look like a cartoon character in this shot.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

Shots taken in portrait mode look a little similar, but are definitely not as extreme in terms of skin smoothing.

I didn’t find all that much use for Macro mode, but the lens can zoom in to a subject at about five times magnification.

Image: brenda stolyar / mashable

Macro mode is supposed to be able to catch a lot more detail. And, as you can see in the photo above, it clearly works. You can see the grooves in the wood and the textured metal of the pin. But there’s no getting around the fact that it looks way oversaturated.

As you can see, these photos aren’t the most impressive. But they’re certainly usable, of course, with a little bit of editing here and there. 

All about that battery life

If there’s really any one reason to get the Moto G Power when looking for a budget phone, it’s for the massive battery. At 5,000mAh, it’ll easily get you through two days of use. 

In quarantine, I definitely used the phone way more than I normally would. But if this were a typical day where I could actually leave my house and focus on things other than scrolling through apps, I have no doubt I’d be able to squeeze a third day of use out of it. 

But for $250, it’s essentially a steal, especially considering the fact that Motorola packed in a triple-camera setup and the latest Android operating system. All told, the G Power offers a very smooth overall experience. 

So if you’re looking for an affordable phone that’s more focused on powering you through your days than capturing DSLR-quality shots, you really can’t go wrong with the Moto G Power.