Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction
Since last year, the Motorola's releases have been getting harder to anticipate and often come out of the blue even for us, too. The company has also developed a knack for launching new models of the same family separately, so we saw the announcement of the Moto G9 Play at the end of August, but the Moto G9 Plus was not revealed until a few weeks later.
Curiously, Motorola is still using the Moto branding for the G Series and E Series of phones whereas all of their other phone families are sold under the full Motorola name. SO it's Moto G and Moto E but Motorola Edge, Motorola Razr, and Motorola One. Yeah, we like phone name conventions nice and simple, and 2020 has not been the best year for that across different brands. But we digress.
What might have end-users confused, however, is that the Motorola G9 Play, which we are reviewing today, is sold under a different name in the Indian market - it's called just Moto G9 over there. So keep in mind our review findings should apply to both models.
Motorola G9 Play • Motorola G9 (India): Two identical phones for two different regions
No matter what it's called, this handset is still the most affordable from the G family, selling for about €170 in the EU and INR 11,499 (~€130) in India.
Compared to the Moto G8 Play from last year, the Moto G9 (Play) comes with a handful of improvements. The chipset is better jumping from the Helio P70M to the Snapdragon 662 and the battery capacity has been bumped up to 5,000 from 4,000 mAh. The memory and storage have doubled and the main camera has been swapped for a 48MP one. However, the ultra-wide camera has been replaced with a macro camera that no one asked for but hey, something's got to give at this price point.
Moto G9 (Play) at a glance:
- Body: 165.2x75.7x9.2mm, 200g; Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame; Water-repellent coating.
- Display: 6.50" IPS LCD, 720x1600px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 270ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM6115 Snapdragon 662 (11 nm): Octa-core (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver); Adreno 610.
- Memory: 64GB 4GB RAM; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 10.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.7, (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro); Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth); LED flash, HDR, panorama.
- Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.2, 1.12µm; HDR.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30/60fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 20W.
- Misc: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), NFC.
Despite its low price, the Moto G9 Play will surely face some fierce competition from its Chinese rivals, mostly from Realme and Xiaomi. The Moto's biggest advantage remains the squeaky clean Android software with some added features on top. So anyone looking for an affordable, vanilla Android handset, the Moto G series should be one of the first to look for.
But is it really worth it over the competition? We try to find out in this review.
Unboxing the Moto G9 Play
The box contains all the usual user manuals along with the 20W-rated wall charger, USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer and a transparent, silicone case.
Design
The device's chassis is strictly made of plastic, except for the front panel, of course. This one's glass, but Motorola doesn't specify if it has any additional protection, so we would assume it doesn't. To our surprise, the phone weighs exactly 200g, which is quite a bit for a plastic device with a 6.5-inch screen. Speaking of protection, like most Motorola devices, this one features a water-repellent nano-coating, so minor splashes and dips should be a non-issue for the G9 Play.
Still, it's not unwieldy and feels well-balanced in hand without any top or bottom-heaviness. The curved sides of the back panel help with the grip. We are particularly impressed with the fact that there are no gaps or protruding edges. The point where the side frame and the back panel meet is flush - it's as if the phone has a unibody design.
We also liked the small camera bump, which strongly resembles the one on the Huawei Mate 20-series but rounder in a way. It won't make the phone wobble excessively, and the edge of the module isn't sharp.
We also find the fingerprint reader's placement almost perfect. If it were just a little bit lower, we would have loved it. Our colleagues in the office with average-sized hands have to reach a little bit too far for it or adjust the grip so it's less than ideal.
The front panel is ever so slightly curved towards the edges, further adding to that overall feel of a well-built device. The display itself comes with some rather thick bezels, but we didn't expect it to be any other way. The teardrop notch, on the other hand, is quite small, probably because the camera almost fits inside the thick top bezel anyway.
Going around the G9 Play, we find three buttons on the right side. From top to bottom - you have the dedicated Google Assistant key, the volume rocker, and the power button. The latter is positioned really well, and it's also slightly textured, so you will always know that you are pressing the right button without even looking.
The bottom of the phone houses the USB-C connector and the speaker grille while the top accommodates the 3.5mm audio jack. One of those rare instances that the audio connector is on the top of the device.
The color we got is the so-called Forest Green, which looks pretty slick. It's not flashy by any means, and it's a break from all the multi-colored phones we see these days. It still changes colors when you tilt it at an angle but but it's much tamer. The best part is that fingerprints and smudges are barely visible. We suspect that your mileage may vary with the Sapphire Blue and Spring Pink in this respect.
Display
The resolution of the display is roughly the same as the one from the last generation - 720 x 1600px, but it has grown in size and it is now 6.5" instead of 6.2". It's an IPS LCD panel still and there are virtually no halos around the notch and the bezels.
The display's maximum brightness seems to be sufficient for rather comfortable outdoor use. With the slider cranked up to the maximum, the display can go up to 383 nits. When adaptive brightness is turned on, the panel can boost up to 465 nits in bright conditions, which isn't a lot on its own, but it's par for the course in this class.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.197 | 383 | 1944:1 | |
| 465 | :1 | ||
| 0.303 | 421 | 1389:1 | |
| 0.42 | 575 | 1369:1 | |
| 0.298 | 370 | 1242:1 | |
| 0 | 466 | ∞ | |
| 0.317 | 408 | 1287:1 | |
| 0.384 | 491 | 1279:1 | |
| 0.328 | 528 | 1610:1 | |
Color accuracy, however, isn't one of its strongest suits. With the default "Saturated" preset, the panel produces rather blue-ish whites. The average dE2000 is 5.3 while the maximum is 8.8 - not particularly bad results but not good either. Going for the "Natural" preset, you can bring down the average dE2000 down to 4.4 with almost no change in the whites - they remain blue-ish.
Battery life
With a generous 5,000 mAh battery and not so demanding Snapdragon 662 chipset, the battery life is expectedly excellent. We got an overall score of 120h, which puts it among the top smartphones in this regard. The standby and screen-on runtimes were all excellent while the Moto G9 Play did exceptionally well in the call test.
Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to test out the Moto G8 Play and compare it directly to its successor but it's evident even from the specs sheet that the G9 Play poses a big leap in battery endurance.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Motorola Moto G9 Play for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Charging
Motorola calls it TurboPower fast charging, and it's rated at 20W, but it doesn't seem to be enough for a 5,000 mAh battery. In our 30-minute charging test, the battery replenished about 31% of its capacity, while a full charge took a good 2:39 hours. Still, it's pretty much on par with the competition, and it's something you'd expect from a phone in this price range.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
37% - Realme 6i
33% - Motorola Moto G9 Play
31% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9
31% - Samsung Galaxy A21s
26%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
1:45h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9
2:33h - Motorola Moto G9 Play
2:39h
Speaker test
The handset has a single, bottom-firing loudspeaker that isn't incredibly loud and doesn't sound very hot either. It lacks bass, and there's noticeable distortion at higher volume levels, but about what you'd expect in the segment.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Audio output quality
We've recently discontinued our audio output quality test.
The reason for that is that most phones that arrived for testing were already excellent in this regard and whatever difference there was, it was marginal and probably indistinguishable to anything but our lab equipment.
Clean Android with a few Moto features on the side
The Moto G9 Play comes with the same software as other Motorola devices from this year - clean Android 10 with a couple of added Moto-specific features. However, the G9 Play does miss on several of them compared to the Moto G 5G Plus and the Moto G Pro, but it's kind of expected being the most affordable from the bunch.
You can get familiar with those features right from the get-go as the system will prompt a message that, once tapped on, will take you through most, if not all, of the so-called Moto Actions. There's also a comprehensive guide to the "new" Android gestures. The new bit here is that you can adjust the sensitivity of the back gesture so you don't perform an unwanted back gesture when swiping in apps. The option to use the good old three software buttons is, of course, available.
Home screen, notification shade, recent apps and general settings menu
Anyway, the Moto Actions include screen-on and off gestures like a lift-to-unlock gesture that lights up the screen once you pick up the device, which works well in combination with the face unlock. The iconic karate chop motion is here to turn on the flashlight. Undoubtedly one of the best screen-off gestures around. The same goes for the twisting motion of the wrist when holding the phone to open up the camera app.
Motorola's additional features
The Moto Display section includes three options - Peek Display, Attentive Display, and Screenshot toolkit. The latter is pretty self-explanatory, while the Attentive Display keeps the screen awake as long as you are looking at it. It comes in handy when reading a long article without interacting with the screen.
As for the Peek Display, it works like the Ambient Display on OnePlus phones and other similar features. As soon as you move the phone or touch the screen, a small area of the display will light up with the time, date and notifications. You can even interact with the notifications without having to unlock the device. However, the proximity sensor doesn't work all the time like in other Motorola phones where it will light up the display before you even touch the device.
UI customization options
We've noted before, and we will note it again - we are glad to see the system-wide dark mode working as it should. The previous iteration of the software had some issues with the Dark Mode, so it's nice to have all the menus, including the drop-down in black. Keep in mind, however, that Dark Mode has battery saving benefits only for OLED screens. It's just the opposite with LCDs.
Moto Display options
New to Motorola's software is the ability to customize most of the UI all in one place. The Styles sub-menu under the Display section gives you control over the icon pack, fonts, accent colors, and even the shape of the icons and the quick toggles in the drop-down menu.
Last, but not least, the fingerprint reader's performance is outstanding. Rarely did we have to place our finger more than once to unlock the device, and the snappiness makes the unlocking experience even better. It does feel faster than most of the mid-range under-display fingerprint implementations if that's of any concern to you.
Motorola is famous for going with older SoCs for its budget-oriented devices, but it seems that in 2020, Motorola has learned a thing or two over the past couple of years. The handset comes with a 2020 Snapdragon 662 chipset based on the 11nm manufacturing process employing an octa-core CPU consisting of 4x Kryo 260 Gold cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and 4x Kryo 260 Silver cores running at 1.8 GHz. The Gold cores are based on the Cortex-A73 design, while the Silver derivatives are based on the energy-efficient Cortex-A53 cores.
On the GPU front, we have an Adreno 610. The SoC holds 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable internal storage. These two have been doubled since the last generation, so the change is very welcome.
Here's how it stacks against competing handsets with different SoCs.
GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Realme 6i
5890 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
5655
GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Realme 6i
1835 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
1510
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
1785 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
1402 - Realme 6i
1349 - Redmi Note 9
1292 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
1100
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
570 - Realme 6i
388 - Redmi Note 9
361 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
314 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
184
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
254000 - Realme 6i
202275 - Redmi Note 9
200414 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
170064 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
107157
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
30 - Realme 6i
16 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
13 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
9.4
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 6i
31 - Motorola Moto G9
26
26
19
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
18 - Realme 6i
9.4 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
7 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
6
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 6i
17 - Redmi Note 9S
15 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
13 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
11
3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 9S
2357 - Realme 6i
1347 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
1103 - Samsung Galaxy A21s
901
Benchmarks aside, we did notice that the software doesn't feel as snappy as we'd expect it to be. One would expect that the main advantage of the vanilla Android is the relatively smoother and faster operations. However, the Moto G9 Play feels slightly sluggish, and animations seem to be slowed down intentionally to mask that.
Three cameras, just one focal length
The push for multi-camera setups has been the staple in today's marketing in modern smartphones, and the Moto G9 Play is no exception to the rule. The handset has three cameras - one 48MP main one with f/1.7 aperture, 1/2.0" sensor size, and 0.8µm pixels, one 2MP dedicated macro shooter with f/2.4 aperture, and one 2MP for depth sensing.
This setup feels like 'one step forward, one step backwards' kind of an upgrade. The G8 Play may have had an inferior 13MP main sensor but it had an ultra-wide camera alongside it. The G9 Play is missing the ultrawide and we are kind of disappointed.
Anyway, the notch on the front houses the same 8MP sensor coupled with f/2.2 lens.
Camera menus
Motorola has a slightly different approach when it comes to the camera app. Swiping left and right switches between just three modes - the standard photo mode, video mode, and the last used one. There's also another icon that opens up the list with the additional camera modes, including the Pro mode that lets you tinker with settings manually.
Camera menus
The good old settings icon is located in the upper-right corner of the viewfinder and gives you access to the rest of the settings.
Daylight samples
The Moto G9 Play offers daylight performance comparable to most of its competitors at this price range. But there are a few key takeaways. The detail is okay, for example, although it deteriorates fast as the light begins to drop. You can notice a visible difference in sharpness and detail in the darker parts of the photos. Noise is only an issue if you look close enough and it's only visible in areas of uniform colors. Dynamic range isn't bad, for the most part, and colors are always punchy.
Main camera daylight samples
Macro
As with almost all macro cameras these days, the main drawback is the lack of autofocus. The fixed focus makes shooting outdoor or slightly moving subjects a challenge. Make sure to take multiple shots at different distances to make sure that at least one of those photos has the subject is in focus.
Macro camera samples
In any case, the 2MP resolution just isn't enough for satisfactory detail and sharpness. Also, colors look a bit washed out and contrast is somehow lacking.
Low-light
While the daylight images were good enough to challenge some of its rivals, the night shots are rather disappointing. Gone are the punchy colors, the dynamic range is narrow while the lack of detail and sharpness make the photos look foggy. It's almost as if they are out of focus at times. Perhaps the noise suppression algorithm is working overtime smudging some of the detail.
Main camera low-light samples
The so-called Night Vision, which is Motorola's dedicated Night mode, improves the image quality in some aspects, but makes it worse in other. The dynamic range is vastly improved by extracting a lot more detail out of the shadows and highlights while introducing some sharpness to the overall scene. However, the noise can be seen from afar, especially in the shadows and in the sky. In our opinion, the sky is just too grainy ruining the photo. So it's really up to you to decide whether the Night Vision is worth the trade-off.
Night Vision samples
Once you are done with the real-life photos, take the time for some pixel-peeping using our photo compare tool.
Moto G9 Play vs Realme 6i and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 in our Photo compare tool
Portraits
Colors are looking good, skint tone too. Detail is looking okay while the edge detection is doing a really good job even with more complex backgrounds. And perhaps since the processing of the portraits is more demanding, the HDR is virtually non-existent. The subject's face can often be too dark so that the background isn't clipped. But if the scene isn't all that challenging, you can expect nice portraits for social media purposes.
Portrait samples
Selfie
The selfies are generally soft with poor dynamic range, yet colors are looking good. Switching over to portrait mode will disable HDR and as a result, the selfies won't look as balanced, not that they were from the start. And to our surprise, the edge detection is quite convincing once more.
Seflies: Normal • Portrait • Normal • Portrait • Normal • Portrait • Normal • Portrait
Video
Video recording caps at 1080p@60fps because of the chipset's limitations. But we wouldn't recommend the 60fps mode anyway because even the 30fps video isn't impressive on its own.
The sharpness is satisfactory for an 1080p video but the dynamic range comes of a little too narrow. Notice the buildings in the distance - they are clipped. Some of the cars with darker colors come out as black. Colors are a bit off too - maybe a little bit more contrast would do wonders.
There's also stabilization at 30fps but not on 60fps. That's another reason to go for the 30fps video mode. Anyway, the EIS itself is quite competent.
To see how the Moto G9 Play fares against some of its competitors, take a look at our video compare tool.
2160p: Moto G9 Play vs Realme 6i and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 in our Video compare tool
Competition
To our surprise, there aren't many competitors in close proximity to the Moto G9 Play. Most of the phones that are worth considering are a bit more expensive. Still, it's a shame that the phone isn't available in the US, where we believe Motorola is doing pretty okay in the low-end to mid-range markets. So how's competition in Europe and India then?
Costing around €160, the handset is a direct competitor to Samsung's Galaxy A21s. Both devices offer similar performance, battery life, and screen quality. However, the Galaxy A21s proves to be the better shooter and the more versatile, too, as it also features an ultra-wide camera too. But some may prefer Motorola's clean Android experience over Samsung's heavily customized One UI. Keep in mind that in India, the Moto G9 (Play) has the price advantage.
Samsung Galaxy A21s • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 • Realme 6i • Realme 7i
Hovering around the same price tag in India is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9. It edges out with a slightly better battery endurance score in our tests, but when it comes to performance and camera capabilities, both are pretty similar. Perhaps the Redmi Note 9 takes an extra point for having an ultra-wide camera. The Redmi also impresses with Gorilla Glass 5 and a more premium feel. Not that the G9 Play is built poorly, it just falls behind a little. And again, it boils down to personal preference over the OS - it's either vanilla Android or Xiaomi's MIUI.
Another competitor from China is the Realme 6i. Which at this point is an old phone with the Realme 7i already available in Indonesia. But it's clear that they are both the better options mostly because of the insane battery life the 6i offers and the much better camera performance. Whereas the Realme 7i tops that with a 90Hz display, while having with the same HD+ resolution. It's also easy to assume that the battery life of the 7i would be roughly the same as on the Realme 6i since the Snapdragon 662 will theoretically do better than the Helio G80 (11nm vs 12nm) in terms of energy consumption. It's really hard to recommend one device over another as we've reviewed just one of them so if you have the time, we suggest you hold off until the Realme 7i pops up in your area. And there's a good chance it will come to Europe and India as well.
Verdict
The Motorola G9 (Play) is a low-end phone, and it's unrealistic to expect game-changing performance from it. Still, the handset is equipped well enough to stand its ground against most of its competitors mainly because of its price advantage. We think it would fare much better in the US where competition is even more limited.
In any case, if you are in the market for a modest phone with killer battery life and usable camera during the day, the Moto G9 Play should be included on your list of considerations. But if you have the luxury of waiting a bit longer, we suggest waiting for the Realme 7i to launch in your area, which will probably happen with Realme's recent global expansion efforts.
We weren't exactly happy with the camera capabilities and the overall performance. And by performance we don't mean benchmarks, but the general feel when navigating through menus and using the device for everyday tasks. Besides, the key selling point of Motorola phones is the snappy, clean Android. We didn't see much of the snappy part in this model, unfortunately.
Pros
- Sturdy and well-built body.
- Adequate display performance at the given price.
- Excellent battery life.
- The main camera does pretty okay in most cases during the day.
- Clean Android but with a couple of Moto-added features.
Cons
- No ultra-wide camera.
- Unsatisfactory low-light performance.
- Operating the phone feels somewhat sluggish.
Related Posts :
Vivo V11 Pro launched in India: A mid-range smartphone that goes beyond the basics
0 Response to "Moto G9 (Play) review"
Post a Comment