Moto E7 Plus design
Moto E7 Plus reminded us a lot of the Moto G9. The design is very similar and there are a few things that we liked about the Moto E7 Plus as well. The colour of our review unit is Misty Blue. Smartphone companies usually opt for solid colours on budget devices, but in this phone Motorola has gone with a gradient finish, which will help differentiate it from other budget mobile phones. Motorola has flattened the edges of the Moto E7 Plus just like the company did with the Moto G9 and the frame curves slightly towards the back. This helps in holding the phone well.
You get a waterdrop notch at the top for the selfie camera, which is set in a 6.5-inch display. The thickness of the bezels is acceptable for the price, but you will notice that the chin is a bit thicker. The power and volume buttons of the phone are set quite well, making it easy to use the phone with one hand. There is also a dedicated button for Google Assistant. It is set above the volume buttons. Motorola has a dual-camera setup on the Moto E7 Plus which is set just above the fingerprint scanner. There is nothing on the top of the Moto E7 Plus.
Moto E7 Plus specifications
The phone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 is an octa-core chipset, which is based on the 11nm process and operates at 1.8GHz clock speed. Motorola has launched the phone in India only with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
We liked its MyUX custom skin, which is based on Android 10. It gives a near-stock experience. Our review unit had the September Android security patch. The OS gets Motorola’s own gestures. However, the camera quick-launch gesture is missing on this device. Which reminds me that the E7 Plus is an entry-level model. Gesture-based navigation is enabled by default and you can swipe up on the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner to show the notification shade. Motorola has kept the bloatware to a minimum. You only get Facebook and a few Google apps preinstalled.
Moto E7 Plus performance and battery life
We didn’t notice any lag while using the Moto E7 Plus for a week. With 4GB of RAM, multitasking was easy and we switched between apps with ease. We also liked the performance of the face unlock and fingerprint scanner.
Gaming performance on the Moto E7 Plus is decent and we played Call of Duty at mid graphics quality without any issues. We noticed that the phone’s battery dropped by 3 percent in 15 minutes of gameplay. Regular games run fine and the device doesn’t heat up when playing regular games.
Battery life is very good on the Moto E7 Plus. It lasted 18 hours and 23 minutes in our HD video loop test. With normal use, the phone lasted a full day and a half. The lack of a USB Type-C port is disappointing, but Motorola is not alone in this, Xiaomi’s Redmi 9 also comes with a micro-USB port.
The Moto E7 Plus comes with a 10W charger, which is relatively slow. It charged the phone to 22 percent in 30 minutes and 43 percent in an hour. It takes two hours to fully charge. Sadly, there is no fast charging support.
Moto E7 Plus cameras
The Moto E7 Plus has a dual-camera setup that comes with a 48-megapixel primary sensor with f/1.7 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. For selfies, this phone has an 8-megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture.
Motorola’s camera app is very easy to use and I didn’t face any issues with it. The photo mode gives you the option to control ISO, focus, white balance, and exposure yourself.
Daylight photos were good and had adequate sharpness and good detail. The phone automatically enabled HDR for bright scenes and the camera was fast in taking shots. In case of close-up subjects, it added a soft blur to the background and also kept the picture sharp.
Portrait mode uses the depth sensor, but we noticed that the Moto E7 Plus captures people and animals better than objects. It does a good job at detecting edges and also gives you the option to set the level of blur before taking the picture.
Low-light camera performance was average and the output looked smooth. Enabling the Night mode changes the output significantly, resulting in much brighter and sharper photos. The phone takes about two seconds to capture a shot and hence we would recommend you to use the Night mode only after the sun sets.
Selfies taken during the day were good and there is also a portrait mode that lets you set the level of blur. The phone is not able to recognise faces for portraits when wearing a mask. Low-light selfies were average.
Verdict
After using the Moto E7 Plus for a few days, we can say that it is a very good option for its price. The performance is adequate and many budget phone buyers will be happy with it. Its long battery life will make your day go by very comfortably without worrying about charging. However, the micro-USB port here spoils the fun of charging.
Camera performance is good, while it should be noted that this phone only has two cameras. If you want a good all-rounder and a clean user interface, the Moto E7 Plus is for you.