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Still exploring? Enter your email to sign up for Fi updates Submit email address You have been subscribed. Close modal. My current choice is the iPhone XS Max. Apple has released several iPhone models in each of the last few years, but none of them were what I would call inexpensive. If I wanted to find a cheap iPhone, I'd look for a used one. Android users have their share of expensive phones, but they also are blessed with some great choices that are really affordable.
The G7 looks great with its edge-to-edge 6. The front and back are made of glass. The phone is water-repellent, but I wouldn't count on taking it swimming. Motorola moved the fingerprint sensor to the back, under the cameras, which is perfect for my hands. The fingerprints are easy to register, and the phone unlocks very quickly with just a touch on the sensor. The G7 is almost as big as my iPhone XS Max, but it has a slightly bigger bezel at the bottom of the screen where Motorola has placed its logo. The G7 also has a headphone jack.
It comes with 64 gigabytes of onboard storage and has a microSD card slot for additional storage. The G7 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1. There are two cameras on the back of the G7. If you give the phone a quick twist, like you're turning it over twice in a row, the camera app will launch. The G7 also has a One Button Nav mode that replaces the three onscreen buttons at the bottom with one button that acts like all three with the swipe of a finger.
The G7 has a 3, mAh battery with 15 watt TurboPower charging that'll give nine hours of phone use with just 15 minutes of charging. The faster charger is included in the box. There are a lot of nice features on the G7, but when you pay one-third the cost of an Apple or Samsung flagship phone, you'll notice some missing features.
And, as I mentioned above, the camera is good but not great. I also love the microSD card slot. Not being able to pay for things with the phone is a bummer, but if that feature isn't important to you, I can certainly recommend the G7.
I know plenty of users who look for affordability over features. The G7 is a the best inexpensive Android phone you can buy right now. Explore further. Unfortunately, our review unit arrived with December security patches, which were a few months outdated at the time of our tests.
In short, even Android newcomers should quickly acclimatise to using and navigating through the OS. The company continues to include Moto Actions, which integrates additional functions that are not present in stock Android. Moving the G7 Play down swiftly twice in a chopping motion enables the flashlight while twisting your wrist quickly twice turns on the default camera app. The G7 Play also has an always-on display AOD feature that allows you to preview the battery percentage, date, time, and notifications or missed calls.
The AOD can be customised within the overhauled Moto app. Likewise, the device supports LTE Cat. Our review unit maintained decent network reception throughout our tests in Germany though. Our review unit finished dead last in our comparison tables and averaged just The device also took around 30 seconds to find a sat fix inside compared to the two or three seconds that it took to locate us outdoors. The device also performed well on our bike ride where we compared its location accuracy to a Garmin Edge , a professional navigation device.
The app functions just as well as it does on other devices that we have tested. Calls are intelligible at both ends, but they do not sound as clear as they do on other G7 devices. Likewise, the earpiece gets loud enough for making calls in most environments, but the microphone picks up too much background noise for our liking.

Additionally, our review unit struggles to pick up our voice if we speak quietly. The other G7 devices that we have tested do a better job in this regard, so we suspect that Motorola has equipped the G7 Play with a cheaper microphone. Again, we would recommend standing close to your device on hands-free; otherwise the microphone will struggle to pick out your voice.
There is no secondary rear-facing camera to help create depth of field shots as we saw with the G7 Plus. The device also has a rear-facing LED flash to help in low-light conditions, but do not expect miracles. Overall, the G7 Play has decent cameras for the money that take passable photos and videos.
Photos generally do not look that sharp, but our test shots look particularly blurry and washed in poor lighting conditions. Image noise also dominates pictures shot in low-light.

Our review unit tries to compensate for its narrow aperture rear-facing camera by setting a longer exposure, but this only adds motion blur. In short, you will need a steady hand, or a tripod, to take passable pictures at night or in low light. Likewise, the front-facing camera is good enough for taking the occasional selfie.
However, it will overexpose bright areas in a scene to the point where they are blown out, as demonstrated by our selfie. Photos generally look sharp though.
The front and back are made of glass. This document is subject to copyright. Android smartphone developed by Motorola Mobility. Retrieved 6 May Jan 13, Your message to the editors.
Both cameras can record video in up to p at 30 FPS. Unfortunately, neither camera has image stabilisation as the G7 Plus does, so panning shots are ruined by motion blur and jerky movements. Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window.
The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.
While photos generally look good, the lack of sharpness means that details are lost when you look closely. In short, we would not recommend making any large printouts of photos that you have taken with the G7 Play. The rear-facing camera reproduces colours surprisingly naturally, but almost all tones apart from dark grey are much brighter than ColorChecker Passport reference colours. Overall, the G7 Play is good enough for taking occasional snapshots, but little else.
Motorola includes few accessories in the box, but there is a silicone cover that should protect against most drops. There are headphones in the box, but this is also the case with other G7 devices. The capacitive touchscreen in our review unit is responsive into the edges of the display and reproduces our inputs accurately.
Likewise, the accelerometer worked perfectly throughout our tests. The fingerprint sensor takes longer to authenticate our fingerprint than more expensive smartphones, but it works reliably, and its speed should be of no issue during everyday use. The power and volume buttons have decent pressure points and sufficiently crisp strokes for a budget smartphone. Motorola also pre-installs Google Gboard as the default keyboard. The G7 Play has a 5. The device also has a broad notch that is impossible to miss and houses the earpiece, front-facing camera and some sensors.
The notch is often camouflaged by software during daily use, especially when watching videos that have been shot in The taller aspect ratio allows the G7 Play to display more content onscreen though, such as when web browsing in portrait mode. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting.
If PWM was detected, an average of minimum: 5 - maximum: Hz was measured. We also subjected our review unit to further tests with the CalMAN analysis software to assess its colour accuracy. The display is also relatively colour accurate, but it has a strong blue tint to it. Fortunately, Motorola includes its Nightlight feature that reduces the amount of blue light emitted and makes the display look much warmer. Viewing angles are also stable, but reflections can restrict the angles from which you can read the display.
The G7 Play performed surprisingly well in synthetic benchmarks considering its price. The same also applies to browser benchmarks, in which our review unit consistently outperforms our comparison devices. It did generally average around 30 FPS in the former though. Less complex games such as " Shadow Fight 3" play much more smoothly and offer a better gaming experience in our opinion.