Moto G7: Price, Specs, and Features

Motorola has long been a contender in the budget smartphone arena, consistently delivering capable devices at accessible price points. However, for 2019, the landscape has shifted. With increased competition and a slight price hike, the Moto G7 faces a tougher challenge to retain its crown as the king of budget phones. This review delves into what the Moto G7 offers, its pricing, and how it stacks up against its rivals, including other models within the expanded Moto G range and offerings from competitors like Honor.

Moto G7: A Price and Competition Analysis

In 2019, the Motorola Moto G7 arrived with a price tag of £239, a £20 increase from its predecessor. This price point places it in direct competition with some formidable devices. The Honor Play, for instance, offers a significantly faster Kirin 970 processor at a similar price. For those looking to save, the Honor 8X (£225) provides a strong alternative with more processing power than the Moto G7, despite not matching the Honor Play.

Perhaps the most intriguing internal competitor is the Motorola Moto G7 Power. Launched concurrently, it shares many of the Moto G7's internals and a similar, albeit slightly less advanced, camera setup. However, its standout feature is a substantially larger battery, offering exceptional stamina. Crucially, it comes in at a more attractive price of £179, a £60 saving compared to the standard Moto G7.

Design and Features: A Familiar Yet Evolved Aesthetic

The most striking new design element on the Moto G7 is its expansive 6.2-inch edge-to-edge display. This larger screen, an increase from the Moto G6's 5.7 inches, is accommodated without a significant increase in the handset's overall dimensions. Motorola has adopted the now-common notch design to house the front-facing camera, a stylistic choice that may divide opinion. The slimmer bottom bezel has necessitated the relocation of the fingerprint reader from the front to the rear of the device. While some may prefer a front-mounted sensor, the rear placement is generally intuitive and quickly adaptable.

Beyond the display and fingerprint sensor, the Moto G7 retains much of the design language of its predecessor. The construction features Gorilla Glass 3 on both the front and back, held together by an aluminium frame. The familiar layout of physical buttons on the right edge, along with the 3.5mm headphone jack and USB Type-C port on the bottom, remains. The top edge houses the nano-SIM card slot, which also serves as the location for the Micro SD card for expandable storage up to 512MB.

Flipping the phone over reveals further similarities to the Moto G6. The gently curved edges meet a colour-matched frame, available in black or silver. The dual rear cameras are housed within a circular, centrally located bump, positioned above the fingerprint sensor. A subtle change is the camera bump's surround; the faceted design of the G6 has been replaced by a smoother, glass-topped cavity on the G7.

Display: A Good, But Not Great, Visual Experience

The 6.2-inch IPS LTPS display is undoubtedly the Moto G7's most prominent new feature. While it doesn't offer the perfect contrast of AMOLED panels, it presents a generally good visual experience. The screen achieves a respectable peak brightness of 481cd/m², with good contrast ratios and colour representation. Users can select from three colour profiles – Natural, Boosted, and Saturated – with 'Boosted' offering a pleasing balance of saturation, accuracy, and contrast.

However, when compared to some of its rivals in the same price bracket, the Moto G7's display falls slightly short. The Honor Play, for example, boasts a brighter display with a higher contrast ratio and superior sRGB coverage.

Performance: A Solid Upgrade with Caveats

Under the hood, the Moto G7 is powered by the 1.8GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chipset, paired with 4GB of RAM. This represents a significant performance boost over the Moto G6. Benchmarks indicate a marked improvement, though it's important to note that the market has seen faster processors emerge at similar price points since the previous year.

The Moto G7's higher resolution 1080p display contributes to slightly lower frame rates in graphics-intensive tests compared to the Moto G7 Power and Play. In demanding games like PUBG Mobile, the Moto G7 can deliver smooth performance at reduced settings, maintaining a solid 30fps with excellent stability. However, in titles like Shadowgun Legends, with graphics set to low and a 60fps cap, the frame rate stability drops to 67%, with a median frame rate of 28fps. This suggests that while the Moto G7 can handle demanding games, it requires compromises in graphical quality.

Battery Life: A Disappointing Aspect

In terms of battery life, the Moto G7 presents a rather disappointing picture, especially when contrasted with its siblings and competitors. The 3,000mAh battery, possibly strained by the higher-resolution display, lasted just 11 hours and 26 minutes in our video rundown test. This is a noticeable step down from the Moto G7 Power's exceptional 26 hours and 22 minutes. While it does outperform the Moto G6 by nearly 40 minutes, it is significantly outpaced by the Honor 8X, Honor Play, and Honor 10 Lite, which all offer an hour or more of additional battery life.

Camera: Still a Strong Performer, Especially in Low Light

The camera was a highlight of the Moto G6, and the Moto G7 largely maintains this strength. The rear camera setup is identical: a 12-megapixel primary sensor (f/1.8) and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor (f/2.2), complemented by an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The absence of a front LED flash, due to the notch design, is a minor drawback.

In good lighting conditions, photos from the Moto G7 are very similar to those from the Moto G6, with perhaps a slight improvement in edge detail. Colour balance and image processing remain consistent. The HDR mode on the Moto G7 shows more discernible improvements, producing more natural colours, better clarity, and less visible noise.

In low-light scenarios, the G7 and G6 perform almost identically in terms of colour reproduction and detail. However, the Moto G7 does edge out the G6 slightly in detail capture. This leads to the conclusion that both the Moto G6 and Moto G7 possess some of the best cameras available on smartphones priced below £300 for still photography.

Video capabilities see a more significant upgrade. Thanks to the new Snapdragon processor, the Moto G7 can now record 4K footage at up to 30fps, a substantial leap from the Moto G6's 1080p maximum. The camera software also introduces new features, including RAW shooting in manual mode, a horizon levelling tool, live filters, and smile-to-capture functionality. The latter, however, proved unreliable for users with beards.

Verdict: A Good Phone, But Is It The Best Budget Option?

Despite the minor quirks with its smile-capture feature, the Moto G7 boasts a seriously impressive camera for its price bracket, outperforming most rivals except for the Moto G7 Plus. It offers marginal improvements in detail over the Moto G6, better HDR colour balance, and the significant advantage of 4K video recording.

The Moto G7 represents a solid upgrade in design and performance compared to last year's budget champion. However, the decision to recommend it as the top budget smartphone this year is more challenging. The increased competition and the £20 price rise mean that its position is less dominant.

Ultimately, the Motorola Moto G7 may not be the undisputed budget king of 2019. The Motorola Moto G7 Power, with its massive 5,000mAh battery, offers superior longevity and shares the same processor. While its display resolution is lower and its camera slightly less capable, its exceptional battery life and lower price point make it a compelling alternative. The Moto G7 remains a superb low-cost smartphone, but the market has evolved, presenting new contenders that challenge its supremacy.

Motorola Moto G7 Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the price of the Motorola Moto G7?

The Motorola Moto G7 was launched with a price of £239 in the UK.

Does the Moto G7 have a good camera?

Yes, the Moto G7 features a strong camera system for its price point, offering excellent performance in good light and capable low-light photography, along with 4K video recording capabilities.

What is the battery life like on the Moto G7?

The battery life on the Moto G7 is considered disappointing, lasting around 11 hours and 26 minutes in video rundown tests, which is significantly less than some of its competitors and even other models in the Moto G range.

What are the main differences between the Moto G7 and Moto G7 Power?

The Moto G7 Power offers a much larger battery (5,000mAh) for significantly longer battery life, a lower resolution display, and a slightly less advanced camera. It is also priced lower than the standard Moto G7.

Does the Moto G7 have a headphone jack?

Yes, the Moto G7 includes a 3.5mm headphone jack.