Source: Pocketnow
The Moto G series of Android phones have often been considered the best value for money when it comes to budget-friendly smartphones. The 2022 version of the Moto G Power steps things up with a 50 Mp camera (one of a kind) and a new texture on the plastic of the case, as well as a different layout of the cameras on the back. We also have a storage bonus with 64GB on the lower end and a 128GB option for $ 50 more. However, the 3-day battery life is the best seller with the Moto G Power series, and that’s a huge advantage over the iPhone users we often see begging for power outlets in restaurants.
What’s in the box
Source: Pocketnow
The accessories supplied for the Moto G 2022 are minimal, as is usual today, but thankfully not so minimal that it can do without a charger. You also get a tool to remove the SIM card tray.
battery
We’ll start by talking about the Moto G Power 2022’s battery because that’s the big standout feature. The 5,000 mAh battery has a battery life of 2-5 days. My first charge only took about 2 days, probably because a lot of apps were being installed. Reloads took much longer, but consumption was also lower. This is similar to the Moto G7 Power, although I think it’s a little less than the battery life of this model.
I like to complain about non-removable batteries in phones because the ones that are removable are so easy to take out and new ones to put in to keep the phone going for the rest of the day. With the Moto G Power 2022, I kind of forgive the non-removable battery, aside from seeing numerous Moto G Power phones with expanding batteries that press open the back and cause cracks on the sides; something that could be easily fixed with a user-replaceable battery but will destroy the entire phone if glued into the plastic. Will that happen to this model after a year or two? We don’t know, but you probably won’t be able to inexpensively repair it if it does.
Source: Pocketnow
Specifications
The Moto G Power 2022 has a MediaTek Helio G37 processor with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB or 128 GB of built-in storage. There is a microSD card slot to upgrade the memory up to 512 GB. The phone measures 167.24 x 76.54 x 9.36 cm and weighs 203 g. The screen is a 6.5 “HD + 1600×720 pixel IPS TFT LCD display with 269ppi and a 90Hz refresh rate. There is a 5000mAh battery that supports 10W charging. It has an IP52 rating for water resistance. The telephone radios support 4G LTE Cat 13 , UMTS / HSPA + 3G and GSM / EDGE 2G on the following bands: AT & T / Cricket:
4G: LTE band 2/4/5/12/13/14/30/66/29 | 3G: WCDMA band 1/2/4/5/8 | 2G: GSM band 2/3/5/8
T-Mobile / Sprint / Canada / MVNO / Retail / (Comcast) / Verizon:
4G: LTE band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/25/26/38/41/66/71 | 3G: WCDMA band 1/2/4/5/8 | 2G: GSM band 2/3/5/8.
Hardware and design
In terms of hardware, the 2022 Moto G Power is not particularly convincing. It’s supposed to be a budget-friendly device, after all. The plastic certainly doesn’t feel high quality, but it’s perfectly fine.
Source: Pocketnow
The back has a new wavy texture that looks great and hides the grease marks from fingerprints.
Source: Pocketnow
The “M” logo on the back is a fingerprint scanner for logging in and turning on the device. There’s a really nice option you can toggle that shows the notifications list when you swipe down on the fingerprint scanner. I think this should be on by default, but it’s a simple option that can be set.
Source: Pocketnow
A USB-C port is located on the lower edge next to the microphone hole and the loudspeaker grille. This doesn’t have high speed charging, so you need to remember to schedule your charging time twice a week.
Source: Pocketnow
We actually have a 3.5mm headset jack at the top, which is great. You can actually plug headphones into this device! The headphones can also be used as an FM radio antenna for the FM radio software included in the device. It’s great to be able to listen to the radio for free without sometimes having to stream it over the internet.
Source: Pocketnow
Of course, the power button and the volume rocker are located on the right edge. The power button has a nice different texture so you can feel the difference without looking at it or feeling its position in relation to other buttons. This is the smart way of doing buttons.
Source: Pocketnow
On the left is the SIM card slot, which also offers space for a microSD card to expand your storage. This is one more thing that is nice to see as many phones have lost this feature as well.
Source: Pocketnow
In terms of performance, the Moto G 2022 is absolutely acceptable. It handles all basic smartphone tasks with no problem. Web browsers, watching movies, streaming, emails … none of them have any problems.
software
The Moto G Power 2022 comes with a largely standard Android 11 and all Google apps. There are no custom email programs, music programs, or browsers that you might get with other brands.
However, there are some tweaks from Motorola and good ones that really improve the Android user interface. Motorola adds its cute gesture controls like flip to do not disturb, pick up to silence, quick flashlight, quick capture – rotate to start camera, and so on. Annoying is that the version of the Moto G Power of Android 11 starts with the terrible sausage button below for touch gesture navigation. The classic three button user interface is much easier to use because it takes less muscle movement and less cognitive energy to remember invisible gestures. It is much easier to associate the visible square, triangle and square buttons with specific functions because they are always there visually and only a simple tap is required. Of course, using actual words as buttons requires even less cognitive energy, since all people learn to read words at a very young age.
Peek display is still there and that’s great. It’s similar to Nokia’s old Glance mode, where it just shows a few pieces of information on the screen in a very low-power mode, so you can quickly see things like the battery level, the date, time, and even some little notification icons that you can type and tap hold on for more details and response actions.
When I first inserted a T-Mobile SIM card, the phone automatically started installing the T-Mobile software. During this process, it crashed a few times and the phone shut down without warning. After completing all of these apparently mandatory software installations, it was more stable again.
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
camera
Source: Pocketnow
The Moto G Power 2022 has a 50Mp f / 1.8 camera on the back along with a 2Mp f / 2.4 macro camera, a 2Mp f / 2.4 depth sensor and LED flash. The 50 Mp camera is quad pixel, so that’s really only about 12 Mp of the actual output data.
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
The included camera software is fine, but it doesn’t save photos in RAW DNG format, so I installed Open Camera to have some more professional features for the 50 Mp camera. The dynamic range of the 50 megapixel camera is very narrow, highlights are cut off quite often. That means you have to be very picky about lighting to get good photos.
Source: Pocketnow
The depth sensor is just as useless as it is on any other phone. The background filter masking is messy with a lot of bugs, but to be fair it is the same problem on all phones that try to do this.
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
The macro camera is a little more useful than the depth sensor camera, but the 2MP resolution and image quality is very poor. You know, 17 years ago it might have been acceptable.
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
Source: Pocketnow
The front camera is the only other one that can output RAW DNG format in Open Camera, and it has the same low dynamic range issues as the rear camera. Photos are often overexposed or blurry due to slow speed.
Prices and availability
The Moto G Power 2022 retails for $ 199 with 64GB of storage or $ 249 with 128GB of storage. That’s a pretty good price for a good 3-5 days of battery life!
Source: Pocketnow
diploma
The Moto G Power 2022 is a decent upgrade to the G Power series, but it doesn’t bring anything super new and spectacular to the table for the same very budget-friendly price of $ 200. The incredible 3-day battery life is certainly great, but we had that a few years ago with the Moto G7 Power. Even so, these old phones wear out. So if you have an older Moto G Power that has a bulging battery, it might be time for the new model. It will likely last just as long as a much more expensive phone that also has a sealed battery that is non-replaceable. Final verdict? For $ 200, the Moto G Power 2022 is perfectly fine for most people.
