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Motorola Moto G9 Power smartphone review: Motorola phone with enduring battery - Notebookcheck.net

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Motorola's G series is all about solid mid-range smartphones. Within the series, the Power models are traditionally the phones that offer a lot of battery capacity, making them suitable for buyers who are looking for long runtimes. The Moto G9 Power is a bit cheaper than its predecessor, but it also has to make do with a slightly lower performance in return. On the other hand, the manufacturer actually increased the charging performance and the storage capacity a bit.

Therefore, it will be exciting to see how Motorola's battery giant will perform this year, especially since numerous other manufacturers also offer inexpensive phones with a large battery now.

The Motorola Moto G9 Power isn't a light smartphone. At 221 grams, it's the heaviest device in our comparison, but it's also the one with the largest display size. It fits comfortably in the hand and is very ergonomic thanks to the rounded corners at the back. However, you can clearly feel the material transition between the screen and the case on the front, which lowers the perceived quality a bit.

With metallic gray and glossy violet, a more classic and a fairly unusual color variant are available. The textured back feels quite high-quality; the device is also relatively stable and doesn't yield too much under pressure.

The Moto G9 Power is protected against dust and water according to the IP52 rating. This translates into quite good protection against dust and external particles, but the protection against liquids is limited to splashes, so it's not possible to use the device under water.

128 GB of mass storage is good, even though only the quite slow eMMC flash type is available, while the Poco M3 comes with UFS 2.2 storage, for example. The smartphone can accommodate two SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card for memory expansion.

NFC isn't necessarily a given in this price category, but it's included in the Moto G9 Power.

Android 10 is not quite the latest version of Google's operating system anymore, but most smartphones are still shipped with it, including the Moto G9 Power. The security patches are from January 2021 and are, therefore, still fairly up to date at the time of this test.

The Android version installed by Motorola is quite clean, and all manufacturer-specific features are centralized in the Moto app. The only third-party application that is preinstalled is Facebook.

The smartphone offers LTE with download rates of up to 400 Mb/s, and Wi-Fi 5 speed is available for WLAN access. However, the Moto G9 Power is a bit slower than many comparison devices in the test with the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 reference router. At least it's considerably faster compared with the predecessor.

In terms of positioning, the smartphone can resort to GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo. The corresponding satellites are found quickly, and signal is immediately available when the device is outdoors.

In our practical test, we used a Garmin Edge 520 as a comparison device and went on a bike ride. The Moto G9 Power doesn't always detect our position accurately, but it does a good enough job for everyday use in the car or while hiking.

The phone app is Google's standard app and will be familiar enough to Android users.

Call quality is decent via the earpiece, but it's accompanied by a noticeable buzzing at maximum volume. The microphone picks up our voice well, and the person on the other end confirms a clear intelligibility. In hands-free mode and using the internal speaker, the other person sounds even clearer, but our voice is only transmitted well when we don't speak too quietly.

The main camera offers 64 million pixels, but normally, only 16-megapixel pictures are taken since every four pixels are combined into one pixel to increase the light yield. You can only use the camera's full resolution in a special mode.

Photos taken with the main camera offer a good level of detail when capturing objects and also good color reproduction. However, the autofocus struggles a bit when taking pictures of the surroundings, and details look slightly washed out. The situation is similar in low light and with high contrasts: Here, the image is illuminated well in some areas, but it looks quite blurry.

In total, there are three lenses on the back of the Moto G9 Power. The other two only have a poor resolution of 2 megapixels and offer the option of macro shots in a special mode. The second additional lens is a supplementary camera for depth-of-field effects that can't be used to take photos on its own.

Videos can be recorded in 1080p at 60 fps. There are definitely smartphones in this price range that already allow users to shoot 4K videos.

The front-facing camera takes quite sharp selfies, but fine structures like hair can look jagged.

The main camera of the Moto G9 Power also has to prove itself in the lab. The illumination is minimal at a brightness of 1 lux, and hardly anything can be recognized in the pictures. With good lighting, the test chart looks quite sharp in all areas, and it also has good contrast. However, colored areas look quite blotchy.

Besides the quick charger and the USB cable, the package also contains a SIM tool and various documents. The Moto G9 Power rests in a silicon bumper case that is also convenient for everyday use.

Motorola offers a 24-month warranty on its smartphone. With Moto Care, you can purchase a warranty extension and accident protection; this is possible for up to 30 days after purchase.

You will look in vain for a fast 90 Hz display or even faster refresh rates. There are several devices in this price range that have a fast display, such as the OnePlus Nord N100 or the realme 7. This means that the Moto G9 Power doesn't feel quite as responsive during use compared with devices that have a faster display. Nevertheless, it's possible to control the device accurately via the touchscreen.

A fingerprint scanner is found on the back. It reacts very reliably to inputs, but it's not the fastest at unlocking the device. Unlocking via facial recognition is also possible, but it's not quite as secure as with iPhones, for example, due to the use of a pure software solution.

The hardware buttons on the right side of the case can be used well. The Moto G9 Power has a button on the left side of the case that has a peculiar shape, but it can be found easily and is used to launch Google Assistant.

The IPS display of the Moto G9 Power has a resolution of 1640x720 pixels. We are used to finding higher resolutions in comparable devices; the Samsung Galaxy M21 even has an AMOLED display. The Motorola phone's brightness leaves a lot to be desired as well: We measure a maximum of 414 cd/m² at the center of the screen, and brightness still drops considerably around the edges.

At least the black level is acceptable, so that the contrast ratio also reaches a decent value of 1,294:1. This means that colors look more vivid, and black areas really look quite dark.

We notice PWM flickering at brightness levels below 20%; the frequency is quite high at 500 Hz and shouldn't cause any problems for the vast majority of users.

In our tests with the spectrophotometer and the CalMAN software, we don't observe a blue tint in grayscales, and color reproduction in Natural mode is at a pretty good level. However, it lacks color-space coverage for professional image-editing.

The screen can be viewed well from all angles, and the contrasts and colors remain stable. The Moto G9 Power has some difficulties outdoors even on cloudy days: Although the screen's content can still be recognized, contrast levels are already quite low. On very bright days, outdoor legibility might no longer be possible.

The Moto G9 Power's Internet browsing speed is inconsistent: Sometimes it's quite fast in one benchmark, and sometimes it's slower than the comparison devices.

In everyday use, you have to wait for content to load when scrolling on websites, and images are also displayed with some delay.

Motorola has cut corners when it comes to storage, and only eMMC flash is installed. This is noticeable in the transfer rates.

We see the usual transfer rates with our reference SD card, the Toshiba Exceria Pro M501, but these are at least considerably faster than in the predecessor.

You can use the Moto G9 Power for gaming if you don't play games that are too demanding and if your expectations aren't too high. While League of Legends: Wild Rift runs reasonably stable at 60 fps even at high details, you can only play PUBG Mobile at a somewhat stable 30 fps at very low details. These conditions are not ideal for a fast multiplayer shooter. We test frame rates with GameBench.

In terms of usability, the review sample does quite well: The touchscreen and the position sensor work reliably as control units.

The maximum temperature increase under prolonged load is 43.5 °C (~110 °F) at the top, which is clearly noticeable. However, this only becomes problematic in very hot environments; heat development isn't critical in normal ambient temperatures.

Both the GFXBench battery test and the 3DMark Wild Life stress test result in quite stable frame rates, so you don't have to worry about performance throttling after prolonged load.

The small mono speaker at the bottom edge delivers a sound that is quite heavy on treble, and high frequencies are also uncomfortably overemphasized at maximum volume. Low mids and basses are hardly present in the sound pattern. At least the speaker is loud enough for a medium-sized room, but it's not really enjoyable to listen to.

Support of the fairly modern Bluetooth 5.0 standard with aptX HD and a 3.5 mm jack enable the output of audio signals to external speakers or headphones. This works quickly and smoothly with a clear sound. 

Energy management does a decent job, but the Moto G9 Power needs more energy than the comparison devices in some scenarios. This might also be due to the larger display.

In our WLAN test, the Moto G9 Power falls behind most comparison devices despite its huge 6,000 mAh battery. After all, they also come equipped with equally large batteries nowadays and have advantages due to the slightly lower energy consumption.

Nevertheless, the Moto G9 Power does very well with 19:25 hours, and it can partly outperform other devices under load or in idle usage; in addition, the runtime has increased noticeably compared with the predecessor.

Thanks to the 20-watt fast-charging technology, it takes about 1:30 hours for the device to be fully recharged.

The Moto G9 Power is a successful upgrade from the predecessor and has faster Wi-Fi, more storage, and above all, better battery life. It's annoying that performance has been slightly reduced, but this is tolerable in view of the lower price.

The tracking system does its job well, and the camera takes nice pictures of objects but lacks sharpness in pictures of surroundings. The display could be brighter and have a higher resolution, but at least it reproduces colors quite well.

The Motorola Moto G9 Power has long battery life and lacks any major weaknesses, but it doesn't manage to properly stand out either.

The competition surrounding the Moto G9 Power is strong, and many smartphones in this price range now offer a 6,000 mAh battery as well. The Moto G9 Power doesn't really manage to stand out, and there are also several smartphones with an even longer battery life.

However, the Moto G9 Power is a solid choice for users looking for a large phone that also offers a fairly pure Android version and that doesn't have any major weaknesses.

At the time of writing, you can find the Motorola Moto G9 Power on Amazon for $189.99 in purple; a gray version bundled with a 64 GB microSD card is also available for $249.98.

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Motorola Moto G9 Power smartphone review: Motorola phone with enduring battery - Notebookcheck.net
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