While most smartphone makes are struggling over the decision to go with a notch or bezel (or a
punch-hole design),
Motorola threw its hands up in the air and said 'Screw it, we're rolling with both!' Meet the Moto G7, the newest iteration of Motorola's relatively affordable G series. Beyond the price, there's reason not to get caught up in the notch at the top and bezel at the bottom.
One of the major selling points with the Moto G7 is battery life. There are three models initially—Moto G7, Moto G7 Power, and Moto G7 Play—with the middle phone (G7 Power) wielding a capacious 5,000 mAh battery pack. That's good for around 60 hours of run time on a single charge, according to Motorola.
"The new Moto G7 Power gives you up to 3 days of battery life, plus hours of power in just minutes with TurboPower charging.
That's impressive, though somewhat confusingly, the Moto G7 Power is not the top-end model. The regular Moto G7 is, based on the specs. Here's a breakdown:
- Moto G7: 6.2-inch display (2270x1080), 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, 3,000 mAh battery
- Moto G7 Power: 6.2-inch display (1570x720), 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, 5,000 mAh battery
- Moto G7 Play: 5.7-inch display (1512x720), 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, 3,000 mAh battery
All three are powered by a
Qualcomm Snadragon 632 SoC with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz. and an Adreno 506 GPU. These phones also feature a microSD card slot for expandable storage, USB-C connectivity, a 3D glass back with a water repelling P2i nano coating, and Android 9.0 Pie.
For taking photos, the Moto G7 sports an 8-megapixel camera on the front for taking selfies and a dual-camera arrangement on the rear consisting of a 12-megapixel main sensor and a 5-megapixel depth sensor, with LED flash and phase detection autofocus. The Moto G7 Power and Moto G7 Play both also have a front-facing 8-megapixel camera, but only a single rear sensor—12-megapixel on the former and 13-megapixel on the latter.
We haven't spent any hands-on time with the G7 series, though at glance, they look like serviceable alternatives for smartphone buyers who are turned off by the exorbitant price tags of flagship phones, which have now breached the $1,000 mark. Pricing on the G7 line breaks down as such:
- Moto G7: $299
- Moto G7 Power: $249
- Moto G7 Play: $199
So they're obviously much cheaper than top-shelf handsets by the likes of
Samsung and
Apple. Part of the trade off is the bezel—all three have a bezel at the bottom. These phones also have a notch on the top. The size of the notch varies by model—the Moto G7 has a teardrop notch, similar to the Essential Phone, while the other two handsets have increasingly wider notches.
At these price points, notches and bezels should be easy to ignore. Same goes for the plastic shell (though the internal frame is made from aluminum).
These phones are available now in Brazil and Mexico. Motorola says they'll ship to Europe in mid-February, followed by a spring launch in the US and Canada.