Moto E7 Power Review with Pros and Cons

Raju Shaik
Feb 20, 2021
4 min read

Motorola has taken an India 1st approach with the launch of the Moto E7 Power, a new entrant in the budget category. The phone is made in India and will be exclusively available via Flipkart at a sub-10K price. Some of its highlights include a near-stock Android software, a 5000mAh battery, eMCP storage, LPDDR4X RAM, and USB Type-C charging. With these, it aims to take on Poco C3, Micromax In 1b, Realme C15, Redmi 9i, and the likes.

Mobile Phone box contents

Phone
Charger
USB-C cable
Sim ejector tool
Read Me papers

Battery and Performance

The thing that comes to mind from that Power title has to be the battery. On the box, it claims up to 2 days. Well, E7 Power bags a 5000mAh cell that should easily run for a day and with modest use, even cover the major portion of the next day. That said, it scored only 8Hr 38 mins (with 15% remaining) in the PCMark Work 2.0 battery test, which is noticeably an hour behind what we got with the Moto E7 Plus and other similar juiced phones. The bundled 10W charger takes around 2Hr 30 mins to fill the tank from 15% to full.

The rest of the innards comprise a 12 nm-based MediaTek Helio G25 CPU with 8x Cortex A53 cores clocked at a max speed of 2.0GHz. This configuration is backed by up to 4GB LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB eMCP ROM. This storage standard comes with a built-in memory solution for enhanced inter-chip communication. It should be hence theoretically faster and efficient than eMMC found within contemporary phones.

This has been true in the case of gaming as well. While Asphalt 9 isn’t supported, I ran Asphalt 8 and much to my dismay, it crashed the first few times. However, besides the initial hiccups, I did play for an extended period of time in medium (at 30fps) and high graphics. As for Call of Duty, the game was playable at low graphics and high frame rates.

In half-hour gameplay, the temperature rose from 26.3 ℃ to 39.6 ℃ and the battery level fell from 97% to 89%.

Last, but not least, a major selling point of a Motorola phone is its software. It is stock with no ads, no bloat, no BS. Some nifty tricks like – Press the Power Button twice to launch the camera, swipe on the Moto mark to pull down the notification shade, quick chop-chop to turn on the flashlight, and the 3-finger screenshot. I also love that Google feed is just a right-swipe from the homescreen.

Android 12 is here and still, we have the E7 Power on a rendition that’s generations old. Budget handset or not, that’s disappointing.

Connectivity, Calls, and Audio

Connectivity options include 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, Dual 4G SIMs (hybrid slot) with VoLTE support, and 2×2 MIMO throughput.

As for call quality, I didn’t have any problem, nor did the other party.

The general sound quality is tinny. It comes from a small slit by the back that gets easily blocked depending on how you hold the phone and how you place it on a surface. So, you are better off with a headphone.

Design and Display

The jack is at the top. By the foot, there is a mic and a USB-C socket. Hallelujah! Moto wins a point in my book for its port choice. The right-arm side is where you’d find all the three perfectly tactile buttons — the power key, volume rocker, and the Google Assistant trigger. Whilst the placement of the latter at a finger’s stretch avoids accidental presses, I wish it was remappable.

The E7 Power faces a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel that is HD+ in resolution. A big surface offers more leeway for touch and vision. But, the 720×1600 pixels in such a canvas means less pixel density viz. 269 PPI in this case. My other quibble with the screen is that it is too dim outside. The adaptive brightness is aggressive. So, I had it off. As for indoors, it is alright for media and mundane activities.

Atop, there is a neat notification LED, an earpiece, and the customary drop notch with the sensor looking at you. It can’t scan face though. So, you have to rely on the rear fingerprint scanner (within the Moto logo), which is snappy enough. Rest, there’s just the main camera panel. More on that in the succeeding session.

Camera

Moto E7 Power is outfitted with a 5MP front camera and a 13MP+2MP duo by the back. You get to record 1080p@30fps from both sides.

Here are some sample shots

In daylight, the results are pretty good with accommodating details. It falters when it comes to controlling the exposure, which is especially noticeable in highlights. Also, the colors are much lighter than they are actually. There seem worse when seen on the native screen. So, viewing them on a laptop screen is advisable for a better idea.

I’m glad Moto chose macro over depth or monochrome lenses. I’m all for the little things in life but here, let’s just say, the efforts don’t reciprocate well.

As nature’s clock strikes night, the camera starts to struggle. Still, provided with a decent light source, you can capture some legible stills.

Moto E7 Power Review: Verdict

Motorola sticks to the basics so much so that the E7 Power is a cookie-cutter budget phone. While it could go the extra mile in terms of battery mileage, vanilla Android, sustainable storage, and peripheral solutions, there are some areas where it falls short. This is but applicable only if you demand from it what the title suggests (Power!). For instance, performance from the low-geared processor is passable at best. Similarly, the camera and speaker output albeit serviceable, won’t take your fancy.

So as we remarked in the beginning, what matters is whether this is power-packed enough to meet your needs. The cutbacks would mar a power user, but that’s not for whom this is out for. Rather, this might interest the common folk who just needs something that does the basic smartphone-y things well. If you are such, Moto E7 Power is among the few phones worth considering in the segment.

Pros