Moto E7 Plus review: A Moto for everyone

The Moto E7 Plus is a decent performer, it has a great rear camera setup, it sure looks good and it has a looong battery life.

By: SHWETA GANJOO
| Updated on: Mar 20 2021, 22:58 IST

Brand: Motorola

Product: Moto E7 PLus

Key specs: 6.5-inch IPS LCD display, 5000mAh battery, Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 SoC, 48MP rear camera, 8MP front camera

Price: ₹9,999

Rating: 4/5

The Moto E series and the Moto G series smartphones are the backbones of Motorola's budget smartphone series in India. While Motorola updated its G-series by launching the Moto G9, it updated its E-series by launching the Moto E7 Plus smartphone in India.

The Moto E7 Plus costs ₹9,999 and it succeeds the Moto E6s that was launched in India back in 2019. In India, this phone competes with the likes of Realme C15 and Redmi 9 Prime among others.

Coming back to the Moto E7 Plus, while it does succeed the Moto E6s (on paper), it shares its looks with the Moto G9 that was launched in India prior to the launch of the Moto E7 Plus. For instance, the Moto E7 Plus has the same square-shaped camera module that we saw in the Moto G9. It also has a separate Google Assistant button that makes it resemble G-series smartphones than its fellow E-series smartphones. Then there is the back of the phone that subtly reminds you of the legacy of the company's E-series smartphones.

That said, the question remains: is the Moto E7 Plus worth buying? Read on to find out...

Design

The Moto E7 Plus 165.21x75.73x9.18mm and it measures 200grams. Interestingly, the Moto G9 measures exactly the same. And while they both look the same on paper, they couldn't be less alike in reality.

The Moto E7 Plus comes with a plastic body and solid colour options -- Misty Blue and Twilight Orange. The back of the body comes with a water repellent coating and a gradient finish in matte. The Moto G9, on the other hand, comes with a glossy gradient finish. Coming back to the Moto E7 Plus, Motorola has flattened the curves in case of its E7 Plus smartphone -- just as it did in case of the Moto G9 -- which definitely gives you a better grip over the phone.

Besides that, Motorola seems to be opting for a squarish rear camera module in its 2020 smartphones. The Moto E7 Plus, just like the Moto G9, comes with a camera module that is placed in the centre of the back just above the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner with the signature Motorola logo in between.

Turning to the sides, the phone has the SIM card tray on the left, a 3.5mm jack on the top, a micro USB port (yikes!) and a speaker at the bottom. On the right side, you get the dedicated Google Assistant button that sits on top of the volume rockers, which in turn sits on top of the power button. The overall ensemble is quite similar to what we have seen in the case of the Moto G9.

image caption — Moto E7 Plus (Shweta Ganjoo/HT Tech)

The only difference is that the Moto E7 Plus, despite weighing the same doesn't feel as heavy. It also helps that there isn't a silicon cover to add-on to that weight. Apart from that, the back of the phone is wonderful in the sense that it doesn't attract dust particles and fingerprints at all, not unless you dip your fingers in grease and use the phone. All in all, this phone gets a thumbs up in the design department.

Display

Coming to this display, the Moto E7 Plus comes with a 6.5-inch Max Vision IPS LCD display. It has an aspect ratio of 20:9 and an HD+ resolution of 1600x720 pixels. It has thin bezels on the sides and a thick chin at the bottom. On the top, it has narrow bezels along with a dew-drop notch that houses the phone's selfie camera. If you are looking for a comparison, the Moto E7 Plus has a display that looks and feels exactly like that of the Moto G9. Meaning you face the same issues with the Moto E7 Plus that you did with the Moto G9 (yikes! I know).

The Moto E6s, which is supposed to be the predecessor for this phone, came with a smaller 6.1-inch display with a resolution of 720x1560 pixels. So, you know the display of the Moto E7 Plus is definitely a step up. But it does not come without its own set of problems.

For starters, the display of the phone takes quite some time to adjust itself when exposed to the bright sunlight. And even when it reaches the point when it feels (rather its sensors feel) that it is bright enough as per the outdoor light, it isn't. I ended up dragging the screen brightness to the maximum whenever I stepped out in the sun, which admittedly was a pain.

But that wasn't the only problem. The phone's resolution isn't exactly great either. You can see in the wallpapers and you can see in the videos that you watch on the phone. I spend a lot of time surfing Facebook and Instagram for fun videos during whatever free time that I get and in my time with the phone, I noticed the videos lacked clarity not because of the connectivity issues but because of the phone's resolution. But there is not much to expect for a phone that costs just 10 grand.

Camera

Coming to the cameras, the Moto E7 Plus comes with a dual rear camera setup that is placed inside a square-shaped camera module -- a standard in the company's 2020 smartphones. This camera module has a 48MP with quad-pixel technology, which is the same as the one present in the Moto G9. The difference is that, unlike the Moto G9, the camera module isn't the same colour as the back of the phone. Back to the specs, the rear camera setup also has a 2MP depth sensor with a single LED flash.

As far as the performance is concerned, the rear camera of the phone does a great job at preserving the colours and the clarity in the broad daylight. Whether you have your eyes set on a particular subject or you are trying to capture the scenic beauty in front of you, the Moto E7 Plus does a great job (especially for a phone in this price range) in capturing sharp images that maintain composure even on zooming, which I must add is a feat. Some might say that the colours aren't bright enough but I say that Motorola is working on the philosophy -- let's not fix what's not broken.

As far as the low light photography is concerned, the phone ends up capturing a lot of noise while clicking images using the generic mode. The images are grainy and not as bright. But that as you switch to the Night mode. The images are a whole lot brighter and clearer. They are a lot less noisy too.

Coming to the front camera, the Moto E7 Plus comes with an 8MP front camera, which again is the same as the one available in the Moto G9. Yet when it comes to performances, it's different and it comes with its own set of challenges. The core issues of depth and clarity, however, remain the same. Unlike the Moto G9, the Moto E7 Plus doesn't over smoothen faces, which means you get more realistic images. But you also get a lot of noise with the colour bleed. The images lack both depth and clarity in the indoor and outdoor lighting conditions during the daytime. Unfortunately, this doesn't change during the night time either.

Performance

Now comes the most important part of this review: how well (or not) this phone works. But first, some stats. The Moto E7 Plus is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor that is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space that can be expanded further using a microSD card of up to 512GB space.

Details aside, the Moto E7 Plus is a decent performer especially when it comes to handling your daily chores. The overall interface is a bit laggy yet mostly smooth. It worked fine without any nervous jitters while handling my daily work routine which involves tons of emails, messages and calls and a whole lot of social media time. It also handled itself well as I juggled in-between apps while multitasking, but as expected there was a noticeable lag. But hey, that is to be expected from a phone that costs just 10 grand!

Moving to the software, the Moto E7 Plus runs on Android 10 with My UX on top. It follows Motorola's no-nonsense strategy well as it doesn't include too much bloatware, which is such a blessing! You get Facebook, Google apps and a couple of Motorola's own apps and that's it. You also get Moto Actions (such as shaking the phone to activate/deactivate torch) along with gesture-based navigation, which is enabled by default.

Moving on to the biometrics, you get a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor along with the face-recognition system in the Moto E7 Plus smartphone. Both these biometric authentication systems are fast and accurate and they work flawlessly each time. They sit in stark contrast to the phone's somewhat laggy interface.

Lastly, the battery. The Motorola E7 Plus comes with a 5,000mAh battery with a 10W charger. Motorola says that the phone provides over two days of battery life. In my experience I found the phone to provide a-day-and-a-half long run time on typical usage which includes 9-10 hours of constant messaging and emailing time, three to four hours of social media time (are you too addicted to Tasty videos?), and an hour or so of calling time and occasional bouts of Temple Run (you got to stop judging me!). The phone took close to two-and-a-half-hours to go from zero to charge up completely.

Conclusion

Now the million-dollar question: should you buy the Moto E7 Plus or not? Well, the answer to this question is an ‘yes', if this is your budget. The Moto E7 Plus is a decent performer, it has a great rear camera setup, it sure looks good and it has a looong battery life.

Sure, there are some negatives as well, like the average display, front camera and the micro USB port. But those are the things that you get in almost every phone in this price range so there nothing to fret about really. All in all, the Moto E7 Plus is a great budget buy, in some cases even better than the Moto G9 I might add.