Motorola has been through a lot in the last decade or so, changing owners a couple of times while constantly longing for the glory days of the original Razr clamshell or even the OG Android-powered Droid smartphone.
But if there’s something the now Lenovo-owned brand has consistently pulled off in recent years, that’s without a doubt budget-friendly handsets with incredibly large batteries. Trying to capitalize on its greatest strengths, Motorola is spreading the “Power” love to the newest “regular” member of the Moto G family.
Sleek design, modest screen, triple camera action
There’s no question that mid-end and even low-end Android phones have come a long way in the last few years in terms of style and elegance, but like a number of other companies, Motorola can’t seem to make up its mind which is the better choice between a waterdrop notch and a hole punch for its non-flagship devices.
The newly unveiled Moto G9 sits in the former camp, adopting a relatively discreet screen cutout and a fairly large chin, unlike the spring 2020-released
G8, which comes with a small hole punch at its top left corner and a… similarly wide bottom bezel.
Entirely made from plastic, just like its predecessor, the G9 sports an ever so slightly bigger 6.5-inch “Max Vision” display with a similarly unimpressive resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels producing a modest 269 ppi density. Unsurprisingly, the Moto G9 is also a tad taller than the G8, but not much thicker despite packing a significantly larger battery.
At 200 grams, the G9 is definitely no featherweight, while the triple rear-facing camera system is overhauled to integrate a 48MP primary sensor with 12MP output powered by Quad
Pixel technology, as well as a mediocre-sounding 2MP depth lens and an outright useless 2MP macro shooter. In case you’re wondering, the
Moto G8 employed the same 2MP macro lens alongside a 16MP main cam and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle shooter, so the G9 is gaining some skills thanks to the 48MP upgrade while actually downgrading the secondary camera.
The battery is the key selling point
It’s true, the Moto G9 comes with a 5,000mAh cell in tow, up from an already respectable 4,000mAh battery inside the G8 and tied with the cell capacity of this year’s
G Power and 2019’s
G7 Power. That makes us wonder if there will even be a G9 Power variant now, but for the time being, we should just be happy the Moto G9 exists.
Its 5,000mAh battery, by the way, is equipped with fast charging technology, and you even get a 20W TurboPower adapter included as standard in the handset’s retail box, which is not bad at all for such an affordable device.
Curiously enough, the G9 packs a Snapdragon 662 processor, which is a (small) step back from the 665 chipset powering the G8 and
G8 Plus. For what it’s worth, there are no changes to report in the memory and storage departments, with the Moto G9 offering 4 gigs of the former and 64 gigs of the latter.
On one of its sides, the phone has a dedicated
Google Assistant button, while the fingerprint scanner sits on the back, “hidden” behind the iconic Motorola “batwing” logo. Other features include a water-repellent design, good old fashioned headphone jack, modern USB Type-C port, pre-installed Android 10 software, and a modest-sounding 8MP front-facing camera.
Pricing and availability
Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of official information to share on this front just yet. All we know is that the Moto G9 will go on sale in India on August 31 at a recommended price of 11,499 rupees. That equates to around $155 right now, and knowing
Motorola, the handset will be released across various European markets soon at a similarly competitive price.
Also based on recent history, however, we can’t be sure the G9 will ever spread its wings to the US, which is bound to sadden a lot of bargain hunters around these parts.
Of course, the Moto G Power,
G Stylus, and
G Fast are still very appealing, not to mention this is clearly just the beginning of a beautiful Moto G9 family, which will undoubtedly include at least a couple of members headed for North America.
