Introduction
The Motorola Moto G9 Power may not be a powerhouse, but it sure feels like a powerplant. The Power models were introduced as part of the Moto G7 series, got upgraded nicely with the Moto G8, and now we see a more streamlined Moto G9 with one of the largest batteries to date - a massive 6,000 mAh unit!
The Moto G9 Power isn't your typical upgrade, where you'd see more powerful hardware, better cameras, a nicer screen. No, it's more of a rethought version of the Moto G8 Power, where the unnecessary features are gone, and the focus has fallen on performance and battery life.
See, this new Moto G9 Power has a larger screen but of lower resolution, and the good sharpness was waived for performance reasons. Motorola has kept a similarly budget Snapdragon chip, but it's powerful enough to run games on an HD screen, and it does that well now.
The quad-camera from the G8 Power is gone, and we are not sure if we will miss it. While it was a pretty versatile setup with main/tele/ultrawide/macro snappers, the new 64MP primary on the G9 Power should be enough to replace the missing zoom camera (by just cropping from its center), plus it can do high-res panoramic shots - as long as your objects aren't moving much.
The one thing we find it hard to get over is removing the stereo speakers. We loved the Moto G8 Power's speakers, and we are already missing them on the G9 Power. This downgrade - we don't get.
In an attempt to make up for that, the Moto G9 Power comes with two proper upgrades over the Moto G8 Power. You get double the base storage - now up at 128GB, and you also get a larger battery - it's now 6,000mAh (up from 5,000mAh).
Motorola Moto G9 Power specs at a glance:
- Body: 172.1x76.8x9.7mm, 221g; plastic back, plastic frame; Water-repellent coating.
- Display: 6.80" IPS LCD, 720x1640px resolution, 20.5:9 aspect ratio, 263ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM6115 Snapdragon 662 (11 nm): Octa-core (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver); Adreno 610.
- Memory: 128GB 4GB RAM; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
- OS/Software: Android 10.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.97", 0.7µm, PDAF; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4, AF; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.2, 1.0µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30/60fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 6000mAh; Fast charging 20W.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted); NFC; FM radio; 3.5mm jack.
Just like other Moto phones, the Moto G9 Power offers many fan-favorite tweaks like water-repellent coating on the internals, a 3.5mm jack, a microSD slot, FM radio, and NFC. And there is a bundled 20W charger that should top-up the 6,000mAh fast enough. Hopefully!
Unboxing the Moto G9 Power
The Moto G9 Power retail box contains a 20W Turbo Charger, a USB-C cable, and a transparent silicone case for out of the box protection.
We like how Motorola is shipping the phone with the case already on the phone - this way, it is safer during transportation and is ready to rock right away. Yes, putting a case is a minor hassle, but we appreciate the extra effort. Oh, and not having a paper compartment for the said case most probably saved a tree, or two.
Design, build, handling
The Moto G9 Power is a budget phone, and it comes with a budget build. This does not mean cheap, though - Motorola has made some nice choices for the G9 Power design - you can see the cool grippy back. And the G9 Power also comes with a water-repellent coating on the internals, a feature Motorola pioneered.
The Moto G9 Power has a glass front and an all-plastic frame and rear panel. No matter if you opt for the Electric Violet or the Metallic Sage (the greenish model we have here), the back cover will always feature this fingerprint-like texture that enhances the grip. The matte finish improves the smudge resistance, which is also a nice bonus.
The front of the Moto G9 Power is flat, the matte plastic frame - almost, while the rear plastic piece is slightly curved towards the frame. But even with these curvy contours, the Moto G9 Power proves a good enough grip to be used safely without a case.
The 6.8" IPS LCD screen occupies most of the front, surrounded by a reasonably thin black frame except for the chin - it's large as it hides the display controller. The screen is of low HD+ resolution, and at that size - you can see the sharpness isn't stellar just by looking at the screen from up close. We didn't notice any major pixelization, but you can spot that it's a low-res screen - whether you are looking at the icons, some pictures or a video.
The round cutout for the 16MP selfie camera at the top left corner is small, though the uneven backlighting makes it a bit of an eyesore. You do eventually get used to its look, it's a €180 phone, after all, we just want you to have the right expectations, though.
Finally, there is one very thin earpiece grille above the screen, just next to the frame.
We really like the back of the Moto G9 Power. It is quite cool to touch and run your fingers against, and we admit we've done it way too many times already.
There are two major points of interest on the back - the main camera setup and the fingerprint scanner.
The triple camera sits on a separate and slightly jutting glass piece, and it contains the 48MP primary, the 2MP macro, and the 2MP depth camera, plus a single LED flash.
The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner is always-on and typically fast. It works great - once your finger is registered and then recognized properly, the phone unlocks in a flash. It did misread our finger a couple of times, but we are not sure whether this was due to dirt, the thick silicone case got in the way, or if it was the sensor's accuracy to blame.
The phone's left side has a hybrid-SIM/microSD tray and the Google Assistant key. It appears you can't reassign this button's function.
The power/lock key and the volume rocker are on the right.
The top has the 3.5mm jack and one of the mics, while the bottom packs the mouthpiece, the USB-C port, and the speaker grille.
The right side • The top • The bottom
The Moto G9 Power is quite large at 172.1 x 76.8 x 9.7 mm - it is 16mm taller and 1mm wider than the Moto G8 Power. It also weighs 24g more at 221 grams.
The Moto G9 Power is a sizable smartphone, sure, but it doesn't feel bulky or heavy. In fact, it is easy to use and operate, has enough grip, and fits well enough in most pockets. It sure isn't a small handset, but for its screen and battery sizes, we'd say Motorola did the best it can do, and it worked well. And we do appreciate the extra sense of security that gives its water-repellent coating.
Display
The Moto GP Power offers a large 6.8-inch IPS LCD screen with basic HD+ resolution and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The sharpness is far from ideal at 263ppi, but the phone is rather cheap, so it's not unexpected. The panel has a punch-hole cutout around the top left corner and in that whole is the selfie camera.
There is no information on the screen's protective glass, so we can't tell for sure where it's a Gorilla or something else.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the uneven backlight around the selfie cutout. This has always been an issue with LCD screens, especially ones of lower quality, and there is no workaround. You will get used to it, eventually, and it's only really prominent against light backgrounds.
The Moto G9 Power screen doesn't look that bright, and our display test confirms it. We measured a maximum brightness of 435nits in manual mode and 521nits in auto mode. It's an average result for an LCD screen, so screen legibility may not be stellar on a bright sunny day.
The black levels of the Moto G8 Power screen turned out quite good, and overall, the panel offers an excellent contrast ratio of 1680:1.
The minimum brightness at the far left of the scrubber is just 3 nits, which is a great one.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.259 | 435 | 1680:1 | |
| 0.325 | 521 | 1603:1 | |
| 0.341 | 500 | 1466:1 | |
| 0.53 | 741 | 1398:1 | |
| 0.315 | 427 | 1356:1 | |
| 0.39 | 522 | 1338:1 | |
| 0.317 | 477 | 1505:1 | |
| 0.395 | 581 | 1471:1 | |
| 0.303 | 421 | 1389:1 | |
| 0.42 | 575 | 1369:1 | |
| 0.337 | 413 | 1226:1 | |
| 0.412 | 471 | 1143:1 | |
| 0.31 | 457 | 1474:1 | |
| 0.374 | 526 | 1406:1 | |
| 0.376 | 484 | 1287:1 | |
| 0.667 | 571 | 856:1 | |
| 0.354 | 460 | 1299:1 | |
| 0.515 | 631 | 1225:1 | |
| 0.252 | 395 | 1567:1 | |
| 0.277 | 439 | 1585:1 | |
| 0 | 395 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 570 | ∞ | |
| 0.425 | 461 | 1085:1 | |
| 0.501 | 515 | 1028:1 | |
The Moto G9 Power offers three color modes - Natural, Boosted, Saturated (default). The color reproduction isn't great when you are using the default setting - we measured an average deltaE of 5.4 against sRGB targets and a maximum deviation of 8.2. There is a noticeable blue tinge here. Choosing Boosted yields similar results.
If you opt for Natural colors, the accuracy improves, and we captured an average deltaE of 2.7 against sRGB targets - a pretty great one.
Battery life
The Moto G9 Power has one of the beefiest batteries within a smartphone - a massive 6,000mAh cell. According to Motorola, it should last you about 60 hours on a single charge.
Well, we've put the G9 Power through our battery life test, and it did splendidly. The G9 Power outdid its predecessor and scored a magnificent endurance rating of 155 hours. It did splendidly in all scenarios - video, calls, web browsing and even stand-by performance.
We do appreciate the Moto G9 Power massive battery, but we can't but feel some of its potential has been wasted by the fact that it doesn't support reverse charging, so you can't use it as a powerbank.
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 Moto G9 Power 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 speed
The Moto G9 Power supports 20W Turbo Charge, and a 20W adapter is included as part of the retail bundle. Don't expect a miracle, though, especially with that large battery.
Just like previous Moto G models, this G9 Power isn't charging that speedy. In fact, 20% for 30 minutes is rather sluggish.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Realme 7 Pro
94% - Realme 7
58% - Poco X3 NFC
55% - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
54% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
37% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
33% - Motorola Moto G9 Play
31% - Motorola Moto G8 Power
29% - Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
27% - Poco M3
25% - Motorola Moto G9 Power
20%
You need about 75 minutes to hit the 50% mark, while a complete top-up takes 2 hours and 19 minutes.
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Realme 7 Pro
0:37h - Realme 7
1:05h - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
1:15h - Poco X3 NFC
1:15h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
1:45h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
1:50h - Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
2:01h - Motorola Moto G9 Power
2:19h - Poco M3
2:30h - Motorola Moto G9 Play
2:39h
Speaker loudness and quality
The Moto G9 Power has one bottom-firing speaker, and that's quite disappointing. The Moto G8 Power had one very loud stereo speaker setup; it was one of its key features, in fact. But for reasons unknown, Motorola gave that feature the boot.
So, the one speaker on the G9 Power scored an Average mark on our speaker test. As for the quality - it's okay but not as good as on the G8 Power. While the G9 model offers some bass and okay mid-tones, it seems to completely lack in the high-frequency range.
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.
Android 10 with Moto spices
The Moto G9 Power boots a near-stock version of Android 10 spiced up with a bunch of Moto apps and tricks. The phone unlocks via the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner - it is plenty fast and mostly accurate (the thick case may get in the way sometimes).
The Moto G9 Power relies on gesture navigation via a single elongated button in the center. Swiping upwards takes you to the home screen, a swipe up with a pause brings out the recent apps menu, swiping on the pill (left or right) switches between the last used apps.
If you want Back, then just swipe anywhere from the edge of the screen. By the way, if you swipe from the bottom corners, you'll summon Google's Assistant.
If, on the other hand, you want to have the classic three-button navigation, you switch to it from Settings.
System navigation
The Moto app offers a variety of smart Moto gestures for interacting with the phone - including a karate chop for toggling the flashlight on or off, twist motion to launch the camera app, three-finger screenshot gesture, accelerometer-based ringtone silencing.
Moto app • Moto app • Styles
There are also various personalization options, including Styles, where you can change various system icons and layouts, choose between different shapes, fonts, and colors.
Moto Gestures • Moto Display • Peek Display • Attentive display • Gametime
Moto Display consists of just two options, and the more important one is Peek Display - the not-always-on display. It will display notifications and let you interact with them right there on the lock screen, plus it will wake up when you pick up your phone. Another feature, Attentive display, will keep the screen on as long as you are looking at it.
All of these aside, the rest is pretty much Android 10 as Google intended it to be. Google's apps handle the multimedia, too - you get Photos and YT Music. The G9 Power supports FM radio, and Moto has pre-installed a proper app for that.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher • Quick toggles
Everything else that comes pre-installed on the Moto G9 Power are all Google apps.
Photos • FM radio • FM radio
Performance and benchmarks
The Moto G9 Power is powered by the Snapdragon 662 - a midrange Qualcomm chip, made on an 11nm manufacturing process. It is quite similar to the Snapdragon 665 inside the previous Moto G8 Power, but with a refreshed connectivity options and DSP.
So, the SD662 packs an octa-core CPU in a 4x2.0GHz Kryo 260 Gold (A73 derivative) & 4x1.8GHz Kryo 260 Silver (A53 derivative) arrangement and an Adreno 610 GPU. The Moto G9 Power is sold in a single RAM and storage configuration - 4GB RAM and 128GB.
There is one key difference between the Moto G9 Power and Moto G8 Power - the new model has an HD display, while the old one had a Full HD panel. This means the G9 Power screen isn't that sharp, but it will run games much smoother than the G8 Power due to the lower pixel count.
Let's see what the benchmark scores tell us, shall we?
The processor performance isn't terrible, but obviously, there are faster phones in the same price bracket.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
1862 - Redmi Note 9S
1785 - Poco X3 NFC
1777 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
1775 - Realme 7
1681 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
1402 - Poco M3
1398 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
1394 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
1385 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
1374 - Realme 6i
1349 - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (Prime)
1325 - Realme 7i
1318
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
595 - Huawei P40 Lite
591 - Redmi Note 9S
570 - Poco X3 NFC
568 - Realme 7
536 - Realme 6i
388 - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (Prime)
362 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
315 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
314 - Realme 7i
312 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
311 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
310 - Poco M3
308
The Adreno 610 raw performance isn't up to par. The offscreen tests are done in 1080p resolution, and it's obvious this GPU is rather weak.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
34 - Huawei P40 Lite
34 - Poco X3 NFC
33 - Redmi Note 9S
30 - Realme 6i
16 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
13 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
13 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
13 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
13 - Poco M3
13 - Realme 7i
13
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
21 - Realme 7
20 - Poco X3 NFC
19 - Redmi Note 9S
18 - Realme 6i
9.4 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
7.2 - Poco M3
7.2 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
7.1 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
7.1 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
7 - Realme 7i
7
The Moto G9 Power doesn't have a 1080p screen, though, so it does much better when running HD graphics on its HD screen. In fact, it offers nearly as much power as the popular Poco X3 NFC phone and its Adreno 618 GPU under a 1080p screen. This means the Moto G9 Power will do well in gaming, provided you don't expect flagship-grade smoothness.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 6i
31 - Huawei P40 Lite
30 - Realme 7
28 - Poco X3 NFC
27 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
26 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
26 - Redmi Note 9S
26 - Realme 7i
25 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
12 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
12 - Poco M3
11
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
18 - Realme 7
17 - Realme 6i
17 - Poco X3 NFC
16 - Redmi Note 9S
15 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
13 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
13 - Realme 7i
13 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
6.6 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
6.5 - Poco M3
5.9
The lower screen resolution is probably why the Moto G9 Power scores better than the Moto G8 Power with a similar chipset. Anyway, the G9 Power got an average AnTuTu score - it surely isn't among the leaders, but it's not around the bottom of the chart either.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Huawei P40 Lite
325777 - Realme 7
292828 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
288732 - Poco X3 NFC
283750 - Redmi Note 9S
254000 - Realme 6i
202275 - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (Prime)
201829 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
182875 - Poco M3
177904 - Motorola Moto G8 Power
173607 - Realme 7i
172933 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
170064 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
168699
So, the Moto G9 Power has a feeble chip, but it behaves quite well under the 720p screen. The phone isn't that fast, and you can sometimes feel the interface tripping over its feet - it's not particularly laggy, but it just doesn't feel fast and responsive. But we've seen phones like the Poco M3 (with its Full HD screen) behave much worse when it comes to UI responsiveness, let alone gaming.
If you tune your expectations accordingly - it's a €180 phone after all - we think you'd find the Moto G9 Power performance acceptable, if not good enough. And it earns some extra points for being able to run games rather well.
Finally, the Moto G9 Power has excellent cooling, and it never gets warm and never throttles. In fact, it scored a 99.9% stability score on the Wild Life 3D Stress Test by 3D Mark, which is great.
A triple-camera on the back
The Motorola Moto G9 Power has a triple camera on the back with a primary/macro/depth setup. This is a massive downgrade from the Moto G8 Power camera.
The G8 Power had a wide primary plus ultrawide plus telephoto plus macro arrangement. That was quite the hardware, given the budget class and price. Now, the new G9 Power loses the ultrawide and the macro, replacing them with a depth sensor. The primary camera was given a high-res 64MP sensor, though (vs. 16MP on the G8), a silver lining of sorts.
So, the main camera of the Moto G9 Power uses a 64MP 1/2" OmniVision OV64B sensor with a Quad-Bayer filter. The sensor has 0.7µm pixels, and after the 4-in-1 binning, you'd be getting a 16MP photo with 1.4µm equivalent performance. A high-res 64MP mode, Pro Mode, as well as Night Vision are available for this camera.
The macro camera uses a 2MP OmniVision OV02B1 sensor behind f/2.4 lens. This shooter supports autofocus and Pro Mode, both extremely rare among the macro snappers.
Finally, the depth sensor has the same 2MP OV02B1 sensor with f/2.4 lens as the macro cam.
The selfie camera packs a 16MP 1/3.06" OmniVision OV16A1 sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a Quad-Bayer filter. The sensor is behind an f/2.0 aperture lens that has a fixed focus. Being a Quad Bayer type of module, the selfie cam takes 4MP images by default, but this one can be set to output 16MP shots if that's necessary.
Motorola has been installing its own custom Camera app on the otherwise mostly stock Android software, and that's the case on the Moto G9 Power, too. It is straightforward and functional, with a swipe action for switching between stills, video, and assorted modes (tapping on the icons works).
A set of quick settings is available in the viewfinder for the HDR modes (Auto/On/Off), flash modes (Auto/On/Off), self-timer (Off/3s/10s) and Active Photos (Auto/On/Off). There's also a shortcut to the settings menu right in the viewfinder.
The Manual mode is accessed from another toggle in the viewfinder - not the extra modes. It lets you dial in your own ISO (100-3200), shutter speed (1/6000s-32s) (or up to 1/2s in macro), or exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV and 0.5EV increments). You can also pick a white balance by light temperature (with markings for common light types), and you can manually adjust focus - all pretty standard. There's also a tiny live histogram.
Camera app
Photo quality
The 16MP photos from the main camera are excellent for this class and turned out a lot better than we expected. They are plenty sharp and rich in detail, even in areas of high complexity. They aren't overprocessed, evident by the apparent noise and natural-looking foliage (like grass).
Contrast is excellent, and so is the dynamic range. The colors stayed true to life in most scenes, too.
Overall, we liked what we saw, and these photos are definitely of high quality, better than the ones coming from the regular 16MP camera on the Moto G8 Power.
And while we are talking about the G8 Power - do you remember it also had an 8MP telephoto shooter? Well, if you crop the center of these G9's 16MP images, you'd get a 4MP 2x zoomed photo, quite detailed at that, so we'd say few are going to miss the zoom shooter (and it had its issues anyway).
Main camera, 16MP
There is also a high-res 64MP mode, and it does a good job in saving one detailed photo, though it seems to be lacking any sort of processing - be it HDR, noise reduction, or sharpening. Downsizing such photos to 16MP didn't seem to offer more detail than the default ones, but if you don't like the Moto's take on a scene, the full-res 64MP option is a good alternative then.
Note that shooting in 64MP takes a couple of seconds, and a 64MP photo weighs about 20MB.
Main camera, 64MP
The Moto G9 Power omits an ultrawide camera, and that's a bummer. It does support high-res panorama mode (up to 180-degrees), though, so if a super-wide photo is a must, you aren't without options. Your subjects better be standing still, though.
A high-res panorama
The 2MP depth camera should be helping when shooting portraits. And it probably does, as the 16MP portraits we took with the primary camera are excellent - the detail is abundant, the contrast is excellent, and the subject separation is proficient enough for this class. The artificial blur looks quite good, too.
Note that when light conditions are not ideal, the photo sharpness will drop, rather drastically at that.
Portraits, 16MP
The 2MP macro camera has a dedicated shooting mode, and it even supports autofocus. The 2MP photos are okay, but even with autofocus, they were more often miss than hit. And then their quality turned out to be a mixed bag - the detail is enough, but they are often noisy, with mediocre contrast and washed-out colors.
Macro camera, 2MP
The 16MP low-light photos aren't that good - they are underexposed, poor in detail, and quite noisy. The colors are washed-out, too.
Main camera, 16MP
Night Vision is available on the main camera, and it does improve the exposure and the color dramatically. It also gets rid of the noise, but the left detail is even less than regular snaps.
Sure, the Night Vision photos aren't good in full resolution but resize them to 8MP or even 4MP, and you'd be looking at some great snaps that will do a fabulous job for sharing with friends and family.
Night Vision, 16MP
We also shot our usual posters with the Moto G9 Power. Here's how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.
Moto G9 Power against the Poco M3 and the Moto G8 Power in our Photo compare tool
Selfies
The Moto G9 Power has a 16MP Quad-Bayer selfie shooter behind an f/2.2 fixed-focus lens. It saves 4MP images by default, as it should, but if you want - you can set it up to save upscaled 16MP photos instead.
The 4MP images show good detail, excellent colors and contrast. The dynamic range is limited, but the Auto HDR helps to expand that more than enough.
Selfies, 4MP
And if you wonder what the 16MP selfies look like - here are a few. As we said - they look upscaled from the 4MP images.
Selfies, 16MP
You can do portrait selfies, too, and they are good, too. The subject separation isn't as proficient, but the algorithm masks this with blurring and the results are acceptable. The portraits are also good in detail and with nice contrast.
Portrait selfies, 4MP
Video quality
The Moto G9 Power captures 1080p videos with its main camera, both at 30fps and 60fps. Unlike the Moto G8 Power, the G9 Power cannot shoot 4K videos.
The 1080p footage from the main camera is average in detail but with good colors, contrast and dynamic range. Noise is handled well, too.
Video is captured with 20Mbps, while audio is recorded stereo with 256Kbps.
Electronic stabilization is available on 1080p@30fps, and it does what it is supposed to do - stabilize the footage at the expense of some fine detail and minor FoV loss.
Finally, closing this camera section off, here is the Moto G9 Power in our video comparison database.
1080p: Motor G9 Power vs. Poco M3 against vs. Xiaomi Redmi 9 in our Video compare tool
Competition
The Moto G9 Power did not turn out the upgrade over the G8 Power that the bump in the model's name would suggest. While it does come with more storage, a larger battery, and theoretically faster GPU performance, too much of the original G8 Power was cut out. With the stereo speakers and two of four cameras gone, and screen pixels reduced in half, the Moto G9 Power can be considered as an alternative sibling model to the G8 Power rather than a true sequel or an upgrade.
The budget market is oversaturated, and there are many phones you can buy for €180 or less - the retail price of the Moto G9 Power.
Take the Moto G8 Power, for example. The G8 version costs €165, and it has a better screen, better speakers, and more cameras. It is not an ideal smartphone either, but it also delivers an outstanding battery life. If GPU performance is an issue, you can always lower the game resolution and get the best of both worlds - sharp videos and smooth gaming.
Realme has just launched the Realme 7i in Europe, and currently, it goes for €159 apiece. The 7i has a similar display, performance and the same battery, but it offers an additional 8MP ultrawide camera. The Realme 7i has half the storage and omits NFC, so you should choose your priorities.
The 4/64 version of the Redmi Note 9S costs between €160 and €190 in Europe, and it's quite the treat, provided you don't need NFC. The phone has a large 1080p screen, a powerful enough Snapdragon 720G chip, and a quad-camera with 4K video capturing. The Note 9S is also a battery champ, just like the Moto G9 Power.
The Poco M3 is an even cheaper offer at €149 with a higher-res screen and stereo speakers, but matching hardware elsewhere - chipset, camera, battery. We found the M3 to be rather slow because of the demanding screen, though it is a great device for watching videos on the go. And it's cheap.
Motorola Moto G8 Power • Realme 7i (Global) • Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S • Xiaomi Poco M3
The verdict
There aren't many phones within the Moto G9 Power price bracket that are equally good or better. Sure, the aging (well at that) Redmi Note 9S is probably the only one to offer a better package at a similar price, but it's not without faults either.
There are a lot of variables to consider when you are buying a budget phone because, invariably, there are tradeoffs to be made. Do you prioritize battery life, viewing experience, camera quality, sound performance, gaming capabilities, design, software? You can't have it all for a phone that's priced under €200.
But you can have a phenomenal battery life, smooth UI, great photo quality for the primary camera, and enough punch to play a game or two. And you get everything wrapped in a nice looking plastic body with basic water protection. These seem like enough to warrant our Moto G9 Power recommendation if it fits your budget and your priorities.
Pros
- Good-looking design, grippy body, water-sealed gaps.
- Large screen with small notch, great for videos or games on the go.
- Exceptional battery life.
- Clean Android with a few Moto tricks.
- Great photo quality from the main camera (can replace tele if needed).
- 128GB storage.
- 3.5mm jack, microSD, FM radio, NFC, bundled 20W charger.
Cons
- Low-res screen.
- Slow to charge, doesn't support reverse cable charging./li>
- The Moto G8 Power had stereo speakers.
- The year-old chipset is mediocre.
- No ultrawide camera and no 4K video recording.
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