moto g9 power ( 6.8" Max Vision HD+, Qualcomm Snapdragon, 64MP triple camera system, 6000 mAH battery, Dual SIM, 4/128GB, Android 10), Metallic Sage

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Low-light photography isn’t nearly as impressive. Visual noise is noticeable throughout and the camera often struggled to focus on whatever I was pointing at, but the G9 Power’s nighttime pictures aren’t the worst I’ve seen. Motorola makes sparing, judicious tweaks here and there, many of which are accumulated in the classy Moto app. Here you can learn about Moto Gesture, which lets you do things like activate the torch with two chop motions, or twist twice to open the camera app. The situation in the US for this phone is a little complicated. The company unveiled its Moto G Play at CES 2021, and it seems similar to the Moto G9 Play but it isn't exactly the same.

In the Geekbench 5 single and multi-core CPU tests, the Moto G9 Power gains a small lead on its predecessor, the Moto G8 Power and outperforms the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 in multi-core processing, as well as the more expensive Galaxy M31. It isn’t quite as good as the Realme 6 in these tests, but the differences between the two won’t really be noticeable for the vast majority of Android users.We didn’t leave the Moto G9 Power wishing it had more pixels, but Full HD+ displays always look better. Moto G9 Play price and availability As for the cameras, the Moto G9 Play uses a triple-camera array on the rear. The primary snapper is a 48MP (f/1.7) affair, and this is complemented by a 2MP (f/2.4) macro and a 2MP (f/2.4) depth-sensing unit. Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that the depth sensor actually replaces the Moto G8’s wide-angle camera, which is a bit of a shame. In my view, the option to squeeze more stuff in the frame is more beneficial than any marginal gains achieved by a depth sensor. The Moto G9 Play has a perfectly solid screen. However, we are now quite accustomed to 90Hz and 120Hz screens, and the switch down to a 60Hz one with clearly sub- OLED pixel response times did take a day or two to bed into. The secondary macro camera is slightly more useful. With it, you’re able to capture objects up to a minimum distance of 2.5cm and, while you might not use it very often, the pictures do look quite impressive, as you can see in the image of the coin below. For the best results, though, I recommend using a tripod or a gimbal, since even the slightest of hand movements this close up results in a blurry picture. Android 10 comes as standard on the Moto G9 Power, and while phones are moving onto Android 11 by now, that’s not unusual in the budget sphere.

Its large size is also a big benefit for almost all games and apps. Can you do better for the same cost? Yes. Xiaomi sells several phones for similar money with higher resolution displays. The Xiaomi Redmi 9 and Redmi Note 9 have 1080p screens, as does the Realme 6. All of this, together with that fuzzy display and a single speaker, means that the Moto G9 Power really isn’t well suited to gaming. It’ll run PUBG no higher than Balanced/Medium frame rate, which is just one notch off the lowest rung. It doesn’t look good.Images are pixel-binned to 16MP by default, which should be enough for most people's needs (you can capture the whole 64MP resolution if you want to, through the settings). Video recording, meanwhile, tops out at 1080p and 60 frames per second, and is acceptable enough without reaching the quality of higher-end phones that can offer better color depth, video stabilization and so on. Motorola has mercifully ditched the glossy fingerprint-magnet design of the Moto G8 Power. Indeed, the Moto G9 Power might be even less concerned with turning heads than its predecessor. We recommend using Night Vision for any indoor shots of non-moving subjects, as it more or less fixes the dull and dingy appearance you’d otherwise get. Low light photography is very hit and miss, despite the presence of a night mode in the camera settings. Noise creeps in and a lot of detail gets lost, but at the same time we were able to get photos that were just about usable at night – and considering this is one of the cheapest phones around at the moment, that's not bad going at all. If low light shots really matter to you, you're going to have to spend a bit more cash.

But now, more than a week later? We don’t really notice the slightly old-school handling of fast-scrolling menus. Given the Moto G9 Play’s price we’re happy with the phone’s screen quality. Motorola’s ceaseless smartphone release schedule continues at pace. Undeterred by the global pandemic, Motorola’s factories are still churning out as many smartphones as the firm can possibly muster, and the third (and supposedly final) phone in the Moto G9 family has arrived before the year finally comes to a close.Of course, most phone cameras can cope with bright conditions – even if this is a particularly good example – but the real test is low-light photography, where dark conditions often lead to an abundance of visual noise and pesky artifacts. For those who value stamina way more than media experience, or who are routinely away from a power point for three days at a time, the Moto G9 is near the top of a relatively short list of options. Such phones have smaller batteries, of course, but also smaller, higher resolution, and higher refresh rate displays. This right here is the pay off for having such an underwhelming screen in the G9 Power. Asphalt 9’s frame rate is inconsistent, which it is on most affordable phones, and it doesn’t look as pretty as it might on a higher-end mobile, but it’s still fun. The other cameras? Well, they’re all fairly standard and probably not of much use other than as a novelty when you first unbox the phone. Here’s the same picture of the church above, only this time taken with the ultra-wide lens. A huge amount of detail is lost in the effort to capture a wider scene.

As for the main camera, Motorola says its light-gathering abilities are now four times better than its predecessor. I no longer have a Moto G8 Power to directly test this claim but the sensor is a larger 1/1.97in compared with 1/2.8in and it translates into remarkably good performance. On a sunny winter afternoon in London, I was able to capture detail-rich images of local skyscrapers as well as boats whizzing down the Thames with a pleasingly neutral colour palette and well-judged exposures. Entry-level phones that attempt this usually only make images a bit brighter, if that, but the Moto G9 Play also manages to improve detail and image texture over standard Auto shots.Generally speaking, performance is actually rather good. There may not be a boost in processing speed, but it could be argued that the Moto G9 Play doesn’t really need it: launching apps felt snappy and I didn’t run into any problems when navigating menus or switching between applications. Flip it over, and it’s plastic all the way, though Motorola has gone for an extremely reflective metal look, which reminds me of the dazzling sheen of the HTC U11. In our case, this was a royal blue, but it’s also available in ‘blush gold’ if you like your phones on the shiny side. The glistening surface means that the Motorola ‘M’ logo is barely visible, but there’s no hiding the curved rectangle of the camera bump in the top left-hand corner, which houses four lenses and a flash. With that out of the way, it’s time to talk about the fun stuff. The Moto G9 Play is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor, which is paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (which can be expanded up to a further 512GB via microSD). It comes bundled with Motorola’s 20W TurboPower 20 fast charger, which I found was able to get from 16% to 99% in two hours. 15 minutes will generally get you a 13% increase, right up until the final stretch when the charging rate invariably slows down.