Moto G71 5G Review: The perfect Android all-rounder on a budget!

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Motorola is now slowly adding new budget 5G smartphones to its G-series. Recently we reviewed the Moto G51 and we liked its performance very much. Now Motorola has launched the Moto G71 5G. This is the first smartphone in India to feature the new Snapdragon 695 processor. This smartphone has a powerful 50-megapixel rear camera. So is the new Moto G71 5G a value for money phone or should you look for another option? To find out, I tested this smartphone.

Moto G71 5G price in India

Moto G71 5G Comes in a single configuration and has 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. The price of Moto G71 5G in India is Rs 18,999 and it is a Flipkart exclusive phone. In color variants, you get the option of Neptune Green and Arctic Blue.

Moto G71 5G design

The Moto G71 5G is smaller in size than other smartphones in its segment. Apart from being compact, this Motorola phone has been designed keeping ergonomics in mind. Its curved sides make it easy to hold. Its display size is 6.4 inches, which includes a hole for the selfie camera. The bezels of the display are thin on both sides. This allows the phone to be easily used with one hand. Still, it becomes a bit difficult to reach the top of the display.

Motorola has made its frame out of plastic, but still, it doesn’t feel cheap. However, four buttons are fitted together on the right side of the phone, which fill up the frame. Whereas, only the SIM tray is provided on the left side. The power button has a textured finish, which makes it recognizable when touched, but after applying the case that comes with the phone, it becomes difficult to identify the buttons without looking at them. The volume buttons are fitted above the power button, which are easy to reach. Clicking them gives good feedback. The Google Assistant button is fitted above the volume button, which would have been better in terms of convenience if it was on the left side. Your finger may have to struggle a bit to reach this button.

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Nowadays, when almost all smartphones are having side mounted fingerprint scanner, Motorola has given capacitive fingerprint scanner in the back panel. The company has fitted it at a precise place, so that while holding the phone, my finger rested directly on it. There is also a camera module on the back, which feels a little more protruding than other smartphones. The back panel of the phone has a glossy finish, due to which it easily catches fingerprints and smudges. To avoid this, you can use the case provided in the box.

The 3.5mm jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and loudspeaker are fitted in the bottom frame of the phone. Only the secondary microphone is provided at the top. The phone comes with a splash resistant design and weighs 179 grams, which cannot be called heavy, but it is not light either.

Moto G71 5G specifications and software

Talking about the hardware of the Moto G71 5G, Motorola seems to be going a bit different way. The phone has a 6.4-inch AMOLED display, which comes with FHD resolution. It is equipped with scratch resistant glass and supports a standard refresh rate of 60Hz. If we look at other smartphones in this segment, Realme 8s 5G ,Review) And Moto G51 ,Review) has a higher refresh rate than this, but both these smartphones do not have AMOLED display.

The performance of the phone is dependent on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor. This is India’s first smartphone equipped with Snapdragon 695 processor. It is an octacore chipset clocked at 2.2 GHz. The phone has 6GB of RAM. Along with this, RAM Boost feature is available, which allows 1.5GB space from the storage to be used as RAM. This feature comes enabled by default in the phone.

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Moto G71 5G supports 13 5G bands, which is the highest in India in this price range. It supports 4G VOLTE, Bluetooth 5, NFC, dual band Wi-Fi and 6 satellite navigation systems. The battery capacity is 5,000mAh and a 33W TurboPower charger is also available in the box.

Motorola’s Moto G71 5G comes with stock Android 11 and my unit was given the December security patch. The phone is also expected to get an Android 12 update but its timeline has not been confirmed yet. The MyUX skin is not visible in the software, those who like stock Android will like it.

Some useful things have been added to the phone like Moto Actions, with the help of which many tasks can be done by just shaking the phone. Moto’s existing features include a double-chop gesture to turn the flash light on and off. Apart from this, there is a flip feature to silence. Moto’s Gametime app quickly mutes incoming calls and disables autobrightness during gaming. Now bloat apps are not seen in Motorola phones and only Google apps are pre-installed. Although Cred and Facebook were pre-installed in Moto G71 5G, there was an option to uninstall them.

Moto G71 5G performance and battery life

The Moto G71 5G delivers smooth performance. Apps and games were opening quickly on the phone and multitasking was very easy thanks to the 6GB of RAM. However, I noticed an extraordinary lag in the camera viewfinder after the battery percentage dropped below 15, that too without turning on the battery saver. Ignoring this, the phone did not disappoint anywhere. The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner was quite accurate and the phone was unlocking in one go. The face recognition feature was also good. The experience of watching videos on the AMOLED display was great. The viewing angles of the display are good and the screen looked bright even outdoors.

Since the Moto G71 5G is the first smartphone in India to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695, I wanted to see how it would stack up against the competition. The phone scored 3,78,268 points on AnTuTu, which was higher than the MediaTek Dimensity 810 of the Redmi Note 11T 5G 5G. The phone scored 668 points in the single core test of Geekbench 5 and 1,900 points in the multi-core test. Talking about the graphics score, the phone scored 60fps on GFXBench’s T-Rex and 18fps in the Car Chase test. While it scored 4,159 in the Sling Shot test of 3DMark.

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I played Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on the phone. By default it ran on HD graphics and high frame rate. There was no problem playing the game on these settings. After 33 minutes the battery percentage decreased by 6 percent, which is normal. The phone did not feel hot even after the gaming session.

I got one and a half days of battery life on the Moto G71 5G. In normal usage, the phone can give even more battery life. For heavy users, the phone can easily last a day. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 17 hours and 58 minutes, which is quite good for a 5,000mAh battery. The phone has a 33W charger, with the help of which it gets charged very quickly. It charged from 0 to 54 percent in 30 minutes and was charged 91 percent in an hour.

Moto G71 5G cameras

Talking about the camera setup of the phone, the Moto G71 5G has a triple camera setup. The primary camera is 50 megapixels with an aperture of f/1.8. The second camera is an 8-megapixel ultrawide angle lens with a 118-degree field of view. The third camera is a 2-megapixel macro camera. The phone has a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies. Motorola’s camera app is quite simple and easy to use. Commonly used photo and video shoot modes are front and center while other modes are given in the menu. The phone remembers the last used shooting mode so that it does not have to go to the same mode again to start it again. Apart from a slight lag in the viewfinder (as mentioned above), no flaws were seen in the camera app.

The phone is pretty quick to lock focus and exposure. By default, it saves photos at 12.5 megapixels. Photos taken in daylight are good and even distant objects can be easily identified. The dynamic range is average so highlights were not maintained in photos taken in bright light. Shots taken with the ultrawide angle camera were not as good in comparison and the edges of the frame appeared distorted.

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Close up shots were crisp and the colours were also quite accurate. With its wide aperture, the background gets slightly blurred while taking photos and the subject is clearly visible. When you get too close to the subject, the camera UI automatically suggests switching to the macro shooter. Macro shots are not very detailed but the macro lens is capable of getting very close to the subject. Edge detection is good in portrait mode and I was also able to set the blur level before taking a shot.

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The low-light performance of the camera is average. The details were not visible in the photos and the photos looked grainy when magnified. After enabling the night mode, the phone took 4 to 5 seconds to take each shot. But its output was quite bright and a lot of difference was seen even in shadow areas. However, the photos looked artificial when viewed closely.

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The phone performed well in terms of selfies. Selfies were crisp and background blur in portraits was better. Selfies taken in low-light conditions also looked worthy of posting on social media.

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Talking about video recording, it was able to record videos in 1080p on the primary and selfie camera. The phone has electronic image stabilization (EIS) and it comes enabled by default. Footage taken while walking during the day was largely stable and more disturbance was seen in it at night.

Verdict

Now the number of 5G smartphones is increasing in the smartphone market with a budget of less than 20,000. Moto G71 5G is very capable in this segment and you can choose it as your next smartphone. The phone has a powerful processor, good battery life, fast charging support and good cameras. Moto G71 5G is for those users who want a simple design smartphone with stock Android experience.

The low-light camera performance of the phone is one area where it misses out, else it could have become an all-rounder smartphone. If you are looking for another option in this phone segment, then you can buy this phone. 5G ,Review, Realme 8s 5G ,Review) And iQoo Z3 ,Review) you can take a look at.