Moto G8 Power, i.e. in battery strength (review)

One day of work on charging - this result is the maximum for most smartphones on the market. It is hardly surprising, the processes responsible for the smooth and trouble-free operation of the phone consume a lot of energy. So far, none of the manufacturers has found a way to revolutionize the market in terms of battery capacity, but from time to time there are products whose flagship feature is long operation time on a single charge. This is the equipment I have had the opportunity to test over the past few weeks - so I invite you to my review of the Motorola Moto G8 Power.

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Moto G8 Power technical specifications:

Price on the date of publication of the review: PLN 999

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Housing

The first contact with a new device always begins when we take it in our hand - after taking the Motorola out of the box, we will quickly notice that the back of the phone is built made of plastic. I do not consider it a big disadvantage, in this price range such a finish is a complete standard - especially that the quality of the material used here is quite good.

The side frames of the device are aluminum (6000 series) and the front of the smartphone is covered with glass. The color version I got for testing is the so-called. Capri Blue - beautifully shimmering in the sun and looking very interesting. The structure of the material has light-reflecting vertical stripes, which positively affects the visual aspect of the finish and will certainly appeal to many users.

One cannot mention, however, the problem of all high-gloss-finished devices - fingerprints are very visible here and significantly affect the beauty of the phone. If you are sensitive to the visual aspect of using a smartphone, you should equip yourself with a micro-fiber cloth and a little patience. The housing did not pick up any visible scratches during the tests, so it seems to be well made.

The fingerprint reader has been placed in a place I don't like very much - it is in the rear upper part of the device. A very interesting procedure is to sink the round logotype of the brand in it. Such a procedure makes the phone look aesthetically pleasing, and identification of the company is possible at first glance - no case will cover the key security element.

On the left side of the reader there is a quadruple camera module - its main eyelet is placed in a separate ring, much larger than the others, and next to it we will find a single LED flash. The rest of the lenses (zoom, macro and wide-angle) were placed in a triple island - one under the other, following the trend that took over the market after the premiere of the iPhone X.

The right frame of the device is three standard buttons - volume up & down and the wake and sleep key. They are located at the right height and convenient to use with one hand. On the right frame we will not find anything but a drawer for two nanoSIM cards placed in the upper part (one of them is interchangeable with a microSD card).

The bottom of the device is the centrally located standard (and pleased in devices from the lower shelf) USB-C port and the speaker module placed on the right - which is part of the stereo system with Dolby support - the second speaker can be found at the top, and next to it a welcome Mini-jack headphone port by most users. After two parts of the phone, there are also two microphones that record sound in stereo mode, they have the form of small holes visible in the pictures below.

The phone is quite heavy, thanks to which the device fits more securely in the hand and feels more solid. It is worth mentioning that the manufacturer adds a transparent silicone case to the set, which nevertheless spoils the beauty of the device a bit. The phone is also splash-proof, which is an advantage considering the class and price of the device. The design of the smartphone makes a good impression, it is well fitted and seems to be quite solid.

Screen

A large screen that fills 88 percent of the front of the device. is a display made in IPS technology with Full HD plus resolution (i.e. 2300 x 1080) and a density of 399 pixels per inch and an aspect ratio of 19:9.

The selfie camera is located in the upper left part of the screen and it must be admitted that it is quickly forgotten and does not interfere with the everyday use of the phone. The frames at the top and bottom of the device are not symmetrical - the one at the bottom is noticeably thicker, although it still does not negatively affect the appearance of the front. The side frames are the thinnest and look nice, the phone in terms of design will not stand out from any currently known mid-shelf devices.

The colors of the display are highly saturated and very nice - in the settings, the user can adjust their intensity. We will also find there the option of filtering blue light and the ability to automate this function according to the selected schedule. We will also set a dark mode here (which I did right away) and several functions that adjust the size of elements on the screen - especially useful for people with poor eyesight.

The brightness of the screen is very high - in strong, bright light, the readability of the image is great. We will also get good quality of the displayed image when we reduce the value of the screen backlight to a minimum - it does not become completely dark, and its readability is still satisfactory. Blacks look good - at full brightness, however, we can easily see the difference compared to OLED screens - but there is no reason to worry, in everyday use it is practically irrelevant.

The G8 Power screen presents good quality of displayed content - the resolution of 1080 x 2300 pixels gives an excellent result, it is not possible to see a single pixel. The viewing angles are also very good - looking at the phone from the side does not cause any color distortions and offers good quality - Motka is undoubtedly equipped with a display that meets the requirements of even more demanding middle-class users.

Components and smooth operation

The performance of the G8 is supervised by the octa-core Snapdragon 665 and 4 GB of RAM, the user's files have a memory of 64 GB with the possibility of expansion using a microSD card. It is worth noting that the card slot is a hybrid solution - we can use two SIM cards at once, or replace one of them with an additional bone with a memory size of up to 512 GB.

Now that we know what Motorola's components look like on paper, let's move on to how they work in practice. The phone suffered the first "lag" right after its first launch. The lagging animation of returning from the application menu to the main screen did not bode well for the final, overall evaluation of the device's operation. Later, surprisingly, it was only better, small downtimes in the smoothness of operation were very short and sometimes almost imperceptible - but they were there. I got used to them quickly and, although I know that for demanding users they will be unacceptable, I must admit that they were not particularly burdensome for me.

The components of the device allow for a relatively smooth mobile game and trouble-free operation of most applications. If you use social media, camera and streaming applications, the phone will not let you down. In terms of operation, the smartphone performs well, although it could be much better.

The smartphone has an accelerometer and a gyroscope. The light sensors responsible for the brightness and dimming of the screen have not been forgotten here, in a word, the G8-eye has a number of basic functions to facilitate work. And the speed of its operation, although it is not perfect, should be satisfactory for most users.

System and Connectivity

The phone runs on Android version 10, which ensures a pleasant use of the device's interface. The system controls are almost identical to those on iOS phones. To leave an open application, slide your finger from the bottom to the top of the screen, holding it will bring up all recently opened apps. The "back" command will work when you move your thumb from left to right on the screen. We get access to the full list of installed programs after pulling from the bottom of the main screen.

The control center is available after sliding down the top edge of the display (it doesn't matter from which side we do it), and in it we will find a standard set of shortcuts to functions such as WiFi, Bluetooth, flashlight or automatic screen rotation. After scrolling the entire menu to the right, we gain access to Google services, including search, personalized news and widget settings and your own account.

To sum up, each of you - no matter what platform you have used so far, should not have any problems with the smartphone I tested. It is as it should be - simple, easy and pleasant.

The phone supports the LTE network and WiFi 802.11 in the 2.4 GHz frequency and has the function of sharing the network with other devices in the form of a Hotspot. The connection to the home network is reliable and stable - the only problem that appeared during the tests was connecting the smartphone to the Hotspot from my iPhone - here it took some time each time, and Motorola did not always detect the source right next to it internet connection. The quality of telephone calls is satisfactory, in a word, everything works as it should.

The smartphone also has GPS - so you can easily run any applications that require it, such as Google Maps, Yanosik or Pokemon Go. Its operation is completely trouble-free - the location is consistent with the facts, you can safely use the skein as a basic GPS - especially considering its brilliant battery life.

A huge and noticeable lack here will be the resignation from the NFC implementation - this is something that, as a great fan of mobile payments, I absolutely could not accept. Interestingly, after starting the smartphone, the Google Pay application was immediately installed on it, but it can only be used for payments when shopping online.

Audio

The designers of the G8 focused on the use of stereo sound in the device, all thanks to the placement of two good quality speakers on the bottom and top of the device. Sound quality is a big advantage of the skein - using YouTube or Netflix becomes much more comfortable when we can use the surround sound option.

Speakers signed with the Dolby logo give a great quality musical experience - the sound is clear and free of crackles even at high volume. There is no exaggerated bass here, and the vocals are clean and clear. Consuming digital content or listening to music using the built-in audio system is pure pleasure - it's much better than the class of the device might suggest.

You won't find headphones in the box and I don't consider it a disadvantage at all - the sets attached to budget smartphones are usually of quite poor quality and are not suitable for everyday use, which makes them another electro-waste. I suppose that most of you have good quality headphones that you use every day and that you can also use with your new smartphone.

A nod in this direction is also leaving space for a mini-jack port in the construction of the phone, it is a good decision, especially since it is this standard that most of the headsets in use are still compatible with.

Access security

As I mentioned, placing the fingerprint reader on the back of the device does not suit me too much - although I know that the group of fans of this solution is quite numerous. In my opinion, the work of this module can only be assessed as correct - the scanner is relatively accurate, although sometimes it is wrong and you need to put your finger on it again, especially if you happen to touch it at an angle.

When it comes to the speed of unlocking the phone, the situation here is not so simple in an unambiguous assessment. As soon as our finger is on the round ring with the Motorola logo, we will immediately receive a return vibration, indicating that the scanner has started working. However, we still have to wait about a second to unlock the device, this is due to the fact that at the beginning the phone lights up displaying only a black screen, to give us full access to the interface after a while.

In the security tab, inside the phone settings, we will not find the option to unlock using the face image - maybe it's better technologies based on recording a flat image coming only from the front camera of the phone rarely have a high security value, for me it's better not there weren't any. The standard, second option here is a numeric pin code, also required - obviously - when configuring the fingerprint scanner.

An interesting function seems to be the so-called Smart Lock - this is an option designed to facilitate the use of the device at the expense of the security of our data. So what is it about? This is nothing more than the ability to disable the lock with the use of a fingerprint in certain circumstances selected by us. The first of them will be detection of contact with the body - if the phone remains in motion, i.e. we hold it in our hand or in our pocket during a walk, it will not lock automatically and will be at our disposal without the need to use a scanner or enter a code.

The second is the ability to set the so-called. trusted place - by manually or automatically selecting a location where the phone will not be blocked - thanks to this, for example, at home it will not require a code.

The last option is trusted devices - a Bluetooth accessory configured by us, such as a smartwatch or a car audio system, after connection, will disable access security and enable more convenient use of the phone.

Although each of these functions seems interesting, in my opinion they contradict the idea of ​​protecting one's own data and may cause situations in which access to the phone is obtained by unauthorized persons. Well, in this matter, the choice is up to each of the users.

Battery and charging

Moto G8 Power - as the name suggests - is characterized by a large amount of stored energy, thanks to which our smartphone should last for long hours on a single charge. It's all thanks to the capacious cell that is inside this device - we are talking about a battery with a capacity of up to 5000 mAh.

Initially, I didn't pay attention to how rarely I had to reach for the charger during the tests - one evening in the initial phase of testing, I began to wonder when I actually charged the phone and it turned out that not even once! The phone arrived to me with an almost full battery and I plugged it in three days after that date, and not because it needed it anymore.

The battery is characterized by a great working time, as well as a small loss of energy when the device is not in constant use. When the phone served me as a second device for four days, the battery level dropped only by 25% - I can't count how many times I had to charge my two-year-old iPhone X during this time, which, with all my sympathy for the Apple system, fails completely in this field .

The manufacturer ensures that Motorola will be able to operate on a single charge for about three days, and I must admit that such a result is possible to achieve, but only with less intensive use of the phone. If you press your smartphone hard, using power-hungry applications, the smartphone will do just fine anyway - it will last up to about two days of such work - spending the weekend away from home without taking the charger with you is absolutely possible.

Charging the phone is quite fast - the set includes an 18-watt cube that will fill the device's battery in about 2.5 hours - a good result considering the size of the cell used in the phone.

If you connect a completely discharged Motorola to the included fast charger, the screen will indicate that fast charging has started and that the process may cause the device to heat up more. After 15 minutes, the battery will show about 13-15 percent charge, after an hour it will already exceed half its capacity, two hours is about 95 percent. At the very end, the energy delivery rate drops and it takes an additional 20 minutes to fully recharge.

I think the result is good, especially if we remember how long the phone is able to work after a little over two hours of charging. The battery is certainly the strongest point of this phone and because of it it is really worth considering buying the Moto G8 Power.

Camera

After turning the phone around, everyone will notice that it has quite a lot of cameras - the manufacturer has placed a quadruple optics system and a flash inside. But does their number significantly affect the quality of the photos?

First, some information. The smartphone offers a main camera with a resolution of 16 Mpix, with a light of 1.7, a telephoto lens with a resolution of 8 Mpix and a light of 2.2, a wide-angle lens with a resolution of 8 Mpix and a light of 2.2 and a macro lens with a resolution of 2 Mpix and with a light of 2.2. A lot of what?

From the camera application level, we have access to modes such as portrait, macro or panorama.

There are also additional functions, such as the "photo cropping" mode, which allows you to replace the background in the photo being taken, spot color, which allows you to take a black and white photo with one color of your choice. The moving photos function will help us create gifs and short movies similar to the popular boomerang application (although here we will decide what area of ​​the photo is to move) and a live filter that offers ready-made, simple color presets to be applied to photos.

In the settings, available directly when taking pictures, we can adjust the aspect ratio of the photos (there are 4:3, 16:9 and 19:9 to choose from), and choose a photo resolution between 16 and 8 Megapixels.

We can also take advantage of intelligent camera functions, such as smile detection, automatic composition according to the rule of thirds or automatic detection and fine-tuning of the photographed scene. On the right side of the snapshot we also have access to the Google Camera app, which allows you to translate a live image, copy visible text, scan barcodes and search for products and analyze the menu - functions that are not essential in my opinion.

Shooting in wide-angle mode allows you to register an image with a width of 118 degrees, which gives you the opportunity to capture the full scene when photographing architecture or landscape. However, it is worth mentioning the rather obvious distortion of the proportions and perspective of the objects in the field of view.

The telephoto lens also does its job well - the double lossless zoom is enough to photograph details or objects at a distance. The effects of both lenses can be found below.

The dedicated macro mode will allow us to look into the world not visible to the naked eye - using it, however, is not so easy. The smartphone often has problems with focus and in order to take a good photo, you need to make a few attempts and feel the right distance to snap. The effects and quality of close-up photos are quite average, although I consider the possibility of using the function to be a plus.

The quality of photos from Motorola is quite good, although it's hard to talk about fireworks here. Photos with good lighting conditions are detailed and noise-free. The scenery is well lit and the colors are naturally reproduced. The smartphone does not have a dedicated night mode and copes with photography after dark on average. In low light conditions, detail drops significantly and the glow source is often blown out and out of focus.

The phone has the ability to shoot with HDR mode, which does a good job of brightening shadows and extinguishing an excessive light source. It calms down the brightly lit sky very nicely and highlights the details in the shadow.

The camera offers interesting shooting possibilities, but only during the day. The advantage is the wide viewing angle and the possibility of double zoom - such functions will certainly affect creative, mobile photography. However, due to the quality of photos taken in less favorable scenery, the general photographic possibilities should be assessed only as average. In conclusion, it is correct and could be better.

The selfie camera is equipped with automatic beautification functions - its intensity can be controlled in the camera settings. There is also a portrait mode with the ability to change the strength of the background blur and effects that appeared for the first time with the premiere of the iPhone X. The cut-off is quite smooth, although sometimes it badly distinguishes the elements of the foreground and the background - as long as it looks like in photos with a visible background quite well, but when using studio effects, the shortcomings are much more visible.

The photos from the front camera are quite nice and detailed enough - I'm quite happy with the results of its work and I think it would be hard to expect anything more here.

The phone allows you to film in HD resolutions, Full HD in 60 frames per second (also in 19: 9 format) and 4K Ultra HD (the format mentioned above is also available) using the basic and wide-angle lens. The smartphone also has the option of recording slow motion in 120 and 240 frames per second. We also have the previously mentioned two microphones, thanks to which it is possible to record sound in stereo mode.

Motorola also has digital image stabilization - turning it on improves the smoothness of recorded clips, although you can still notice the distortion resulting from its use. While the feature isn't perfect, videos made with it will be noticeably better - so I recommend leaving it on all the time.

When it comes to assessing the film capabilities of the phone, the situation here is similar to the photos, i.e. it is just average. The phone will record basic video in a satisfactory resolution, but there is no question of their high quality here. The advantage will be the natural color reproduction and the correct detail of the recorded clips. If you are looking for a phone with a good quality photo-video function, then in my opinion you should look elsewhere.

Summary

What kind of phone is the Moto G8 Power? In my opinion, it is quite a successful device, the purchase of which can be recommended, especially to people who are tired of constantly charging their current phone. The most crucial function (the importance of which is additionally emphasized by the participation in the name) does not disappoint and will certainly satisfy a wide range of customers. A large battery means convenience in everyday use - if this issue is the most important to you, you will be very pleased with Motorola.

The phone is characterized by a nice design and an interesting finish, the quality of the materials used is good, thanks to which communing with the device is quite a pleasant experience. The smartphone is characterized by a beautiful screen extending to both edges, a friendly and intuitive interface and relatively smooth operation. It is also convenient to use, considering the large size of the display.

The camera, or rather their set, is not the strongest point of the device - photos and videos are average and only satisfactory, but I think they will satisfy the needs of less demanding users.

The advantage of the phone, however, will be the audio system, stereo speakers and general sound quality - in this field the manufacturer has done a lot and it is worth appreciating. Like the optional dual SIM with the ability to use an SD card; I am sure that this issue will please a large group of potential users.

During the tests, the phone was very pleasant to use and I just liked it, despite the previously mentioned disadvantages. I am of the opinion that it is an interesting and interesting product in this price range.

Moto G8 Power (review)ConclusionDesign7Screen8Smoothness6System7Audio8Biometrics6Battery9Camera60User rating0 votes0Advantageswork on a single chargedesign and workmanshipstereo systemfast chargingdual SIMexpandable memory mini-jack slotDisadvantagesphoto and video qualityfingerprint scanner operation downtime in liquid work 6.3 EVALUATION