Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Moto G Power | 2021 | 3-Day battery | Unlocked | Made for US by Motorola | 4/64GB | 48MP Camera

Top positive review

Almost never running low on battery

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2023

Living far out in a rural area, I don't like having to worry that I will run out of battery when driving in the mountains with dodgy signal. This phone really packs a lot of battery into the standard android space! I actually find myself having to periodically remind myself NOT to charge it, so I can occasionally run down the battery enough to take care of the "memory" of the lithium ion battery (if you never let the battery run low, it will lose capacity as a result). It can play music shockingly loud, too! The default light of the screen is dimmer than usual but you can make it pretty bright.

One thing I miss from previous android phones is the ability to control whether the screen lights up in response to incoming notifications, without a sound or vibration at the same time. For whatever reason, they didn't include that option on this version.

Also, the volume control buttons default adjust media volume, not ringer or notification volume--even when you do not have media playing. It's annoying but not a deal breaker.

I've been using this phone for about a year now with no noticeable decline in battery life. It is on pretty much at all times. Overall, very reliable and well designed phone!

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Francisco Llanas Jr.

Can't handle basic functionality

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024

We got three of these brand-new. The first 6 months using this phone were fine. After that, it's been a struggle:
Security updates from Motorola would happen every month. We could count on our phones to do the update without knowing, then reboot. If we had an alarm, tough luck, it wasn't going to do anything until we logged in after the sneak update.
The camera constantly crashes and even with no other apps open, you can't count on it launching and keeping anything you take a picture of. I got in the habit of launching the camera, force stopping it and launching it again. That seems to work consistently. If you have more than 2 apps open at a time, it's not going to work well and switching between them is nearly impossible. I'm relieved that I haven't had to experience an emergency with these phones. I can't depend on it if it's my life on the line. I'll ask a stranger to call emergency services before I try it on this phone. I've also resorted to doing a full factory wipe on the phone every month for the past year. That seems to help and at least for the first few weeks after, it's somewhat usable. Yes I've tried memory managers (paid and free) and it has minimal effect on the performance of the phone.
Regular phone calls: the first call of the day is unanswerable. Always. You tap answer, slide up, press the answer button on anything paired to it, it will do one of 2 things: not respond to your tap or swipe, or it will answer, but the screen stops working for a full minute.
A year and a half later the updates finally stopped but so did any support from Motorola. Due to being kind of stuck with the phones, we decided to tough it out. This is our 3rd and final year. Come tax time we're throwing these out the window and running back to Samsung. The more expensive Motorolas might work fine, but the experience with the "power" has caused me to never want to find out.
The motion feature to turn on the flash light has been valuable, but doesn't make up for anything else. The Moto 'Power' line of phones is garbage and not worth the price.
It was attractive because it was carrier unlocked, but that doesn't help the lack of basic functionality when I need it.

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From the United States

onef

Almost never running low on battery

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2023

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

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WALDEN POND

CANNOT GET SD SLOT OPEN

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2021

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

I am going with Tracfone and bought the bring your own phone sim card kit, but I cannot get the sd slot/sim card door to open. Been trying for an hour and getting angry and frustrated. I've used the sim tool and an open paper clip and can't do it. Husband tried also. This phone is a piece of crap. I cannot activate my tracfone service and so I have a phone I cannot use. If it doesn't come open, I will have to send it back and buy something else. What is so hard about manufacturing a functional sd slot/sim card?????

UPDATE: Husband got the sim card slot open after a 3rd try in less thsn 10 minutes and I placed the tracfone/verizon nano cdma sim card in after Tracfone sent one to me via Fed Ex for 99 Cents plus $4.95 for shipping. Then called Tracfone and they trsnsferred my service and 7,500 minutes and kept my phone number. This took 15 minutes, but thrn the CSR said she was transferring me to a higher Dept to finish the transfer and I was disconnected. I tried calling back but when I put in my phone number, it already had a record of the tech ticket and told me to turn off/back on the phone. I called back and finally got through and 10 minutes, I could make calls and texts.

Phone is easy to set up but I hated the "swipe" screen up so changed it to "home" buttons. Nice phone, good price, easy to see sim card status, and home wifi. On the whole I like the phone a lot and would certainly buy again. You have to have s sim card kit and a service plan or sn active tracfone number with an active service plan and it all goes right through.

One person found this helpful

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Cameron Lamothe

Best battery life but lacks a good camera

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2022

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

Full disclosure: This is my first android device since having iPhones since the 4. I'm coming from an iPhone 7 that I would have to charge 3x a day and got fed up. I currently use Mint Mobile (GSM) and it works great on this device.

Pros:
Price: inexpensive yet capable.
Battery life: I can go about 3 days without charging with normal use. I don't really stream anything on it, but I do use it heavily for web browsing on the go.
Screen: Sharp and big large
Functionality/gestures: The gestures are neat and the built in moto stuff isn't overbearing.
Fit and finish: Well built and durable. I have a Spigen case on it and it fits well. Overall good looking device.
Fingerprint reader/buttons: responsive and work well. Have not had an issue using biometric recognition.
Operating system: No issues here except for the fact that I was new to Android. It does work well and functions as advertised without any weird bloatware. The built in moto stuff was actually helpful in the transition.

Cons:
THE CAMERA: It stinks. sometimes there is a second delay before it takes a picture. It lags out and usually the pictures are pretty grainy. For a phone that has 3 lenses on it, I was surprised that the quality is lacking in that department.
Performance: It's not the fastest thing around, but it gets the job done for the price. Sometimes it will get a little low on RAM. If you're a mobile gamer, this might be a concern to you.

Overall, I'd give this device a 4.3/5. It performs well and WiFi calling is supported by my carrier. The biggest thing is the camera, I just wish it was better. All in all, it is a good daily driver, or phone to have around in case you break your main one.

5 people found this helpful

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Patti Anders

Battery life is crazy good. Camera is average at best.

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2021

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

I bought this phone to replace my Moto Z4 because the Z4 split in half along the left side of the phone and I could see the battery through the split.

I purchased this phone based upon price and a few reviews I read that complimented the phone. I have to say, the battery is outrageously good. I'm not sure why, but it compares like this. I always leave my phone in the kitchen when I go to bed. If I set my Z4 on the countertop with 100% battery at 8pm, and picked it up at 4am the next day, the battery would usually be at 80%, plus or minus. If I put the Moto G Power on the countertop at 8pm, and pick it up at 4am the next day, the battery is usually 95%, plus or minus.

During the normal work day, I plug in my phone on the way to work and take it back to 100 %. If I left the Moto Z4 unplugged at the office with regular use (texts, email checks, no social media) the battery would be at 60% by 1pm and I would plug it in at work for about an hour or so to get it back to 85/100% before leaving for home. The Moto G Power, with the same usage at work, will be at 92% at 1pm, and I don't have to plug it in at all until I leave for home and plug it in in the truck.

I have left the Moto G Power unplugged all day on a weekend and it barely goes under 90%. Maybe 85%, plus or minus. Could possibly be app related, but I don't know for sure. The only app I don't use on the new phone is the "News" app. Decided not to install it this time, but that's about it.

Even took this phone to Cheap Trick/Blue Oyster Cult concert here in SoCal and left with battery around 79% after Snaps and Instagram posts during the concert. Usually concerts would kill my phone battery or at the very least take the battery to 20% plus or minus.

Camera is okay. Not as sharp as the Moto Z4, and coloring could be better too, but it works. Selfies are great with the G Power as the lens is wider than the Z4.

Everything else works great for a $200 plus or minus phone. I highly recommend it for a value purchase

6 people found this helpful

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jetfyta

Hard to tell apart from an expensive Galaxy phone!

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2022

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

I bought this for my daughter as a starter phone. However, after playing with it for an hour, I can hardly tell the difference between this and the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G I got for myself! The screen is actually bigger and looks great, the touch screen is smooth and responsive, it has an expandable micro SD card slot, and the camera is 48MP. And, it had no issues with texting right out of the box. I stuck a Mint Mobile SIM card in it and everything worked perfectly. So apps don't run as silky smooth as on a pricier Android phone and it's not waterproof, but at this price point that doesn't matter. If you use it to do all the normal smartphone things - text, call, social, apps, streaming, this phone fits the bill. It's a great phone at any price point, hands down. I had no idea a phone with these features and high quality could be had for this price. So why did I spend five times as much on a Galaxy? I need to go ponder that now.

11 people found this helpful

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Francisco Llanas Jr.

Can't handle basic functionality

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

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Jefferey Bowman

A Beast Of A Battery, Not Such A Beast Of Performance

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2022

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

UPDATE: 8/26/2022 at the end. Not great.

Bought this for my Dad who needed to upgrade from his old Galaxy S7 Edge (also a security risk as it's no longer updated...yikes) and this was the most affordable option for him at that point in time that wasn't refurbished, used, or overpriced for what you're getting. (Man, there are a LOT of those.)

Pros:
-Battery life. (When you hear "all day battery" they ain't kiddin'. Motorolla (really Lenovo) gives you a big, beefy battery with this thing.)

-USB-C. (Yay! No more having to futz around with Micro-USB.)

-Fingerprint reader and face unlock.

-Android 11! (I really don't like 12 and have missed 11.)

-They actually give you a charger! (Take *that*, Apple!)

Cons:
-Performance isn't where it needs to be. (4GB of RAM sounds reasonable for Android, but it's kinda pushing it. The older 600 series Snapdragon is long in the tooth and showing its age, so it's not exactly a speed demon, itself.)

-64GB of storage isn't exactly going to win any awards. (And much like any storage device with an operating system, the fuller it gets, the slower it runs. Use the Micro SD slot, people!)

-Only 10w charging. (So no matter what brick you throw at it, it'll TurboCharge (their branding) but it won't be like a Google Pixel series phone, which is lightning fast by comparison.)

-720p display. (Don't take that 1600 to heart, because you're not getting that. I'm not sure why they chose this display or this particular size, but it's a rough 720p as in it's barely there, but there nonetheless.)

-Camera notch IN the display. (Not a cut-out, not at the top of the bezel, no. Smack-dab right in the screen (much like the Pixel 4/4a, onward.)

-Screen is polarized. (If you wear certain sunglasses, you can't rotate this to landscape mode as you won't be able to see the screen. It's LCD and probably akin to a Nintendo Gameboy Color, but much better quality.)

Overall thoughts:
I can see why people had problems getting their Verizon service to work with this phone. I got it to work with a simple SIM swap but the texting was a pain as their texting services are now secured and this didn't secure them right out of the box. (I forget the setting, but it's in the Hamburger Bar settings menu, it's per user and not overall. It's a pain to work with, but it does work.) Phone calls and everything else (including E-911) work well, after finagling. So does Wifi calling. It's just a needless pain to set up, really.

The performance is okay, good even, if you let the AI in the phone follow what you do. (Sounds like a security risk, but it's actually a caching mechanism allowing the phone to know what you use the most and giving it priority over everything else.) Kinda like how you can use Optane memory in an Intel-based computer to speed up a HDD akin to using a Hybrid drive. (In its current form/update, the phone reminds me of a Pixel 2 in overall power.)

The screen could be better. You can see the individual pixels and the lines/rows they're in and they're so noticeable that you can actually be taken out of the moment with what you're watching/seeing when it happens. It is capable of displaying 1440p and 4k signals, still at 720p, but usually devices with smaller resolution screens get stuck at 480p or 720p signals and make the best of it while this can successfully take in those signals and at least cleans up the picture and makes it look like proper HD, even though it's at the low end of it. Buffering isn't nearly as bad because it's driving a 720p display, so movies and shows will load slightly faster because of it. (Within in reason. Some apps drag like they're being operated by snails until the stream fully loads. Ugh.)

The lack of stereo speakers is a real pain. (I miss my Pixel for that alone.)

I traded my Dad my phone (Pixel 4a) for his (this one) because I can use it better (this is a MASSIVE phone) and the Pixel works better for him. This is capable enough for most people and it's quite usable. The hotspot feature works (you have to have a subscription with your carrier to use it), it works with Android Auto (very sluggish start up time...bleh), and for A/V stuff, it works well enough.

For the price? Solid phone. Especially when you consider it's brand new and not used or refurbished. That said, if you're fine with used/refurbished and want something with more power in the same price range, I recommend a Pixel 4a or 5/5a. Both will still be supported with updates through 2023 (possibly 2024) and have a solid feature set, whereas this will be using Android 11 for the foreseeable future (but with security updates!) and if you want Android 13 and beyond, you'll need a better/newer phone.

I'm honestly more or less happy with it, the price was good for what you're getting (brand new), and it's a sturdy beast with a massive battery (by comparison). Recommended.

UPDATE: Changing my final thought to mildly recommended. The phone still works, but the AI garbage is nothing but a sales pitch. The phone somehow seems to go slower, with some new feature or task you give it. The AI is supposed to be helping it learn which apps you use the most and adjusts itself accordingly. Well, the AI decided "I'm going to use the slowest lane possible. We'll get there in 2 hours, instead of 30 minutes. Enjoy the ride!" and boy, oh boy, does it crawl.

It's gotten to the point where using Android Auto is just almost completely impossible. Button presses/taps can take upwards of 30-60 seconds to register! (That's insane when you're supposed to be using it as a GPS!) YouTube music lost most of my songs and refused to play them, asking me to redownload them (and it never did), so there would be entire skip spots during any journey. (I had to pull over once to figure out what the heck was going on.)

Voice commands are sluggish, reaction times are the equivalent of a newbie going up against Tyson in his prime. You take the swing, but nothing happens until after you needed it many seconds ago.

Even outside of Android Auto, it's sluggish. Loading Chrome can be a nightmare, given the page you're checking out. *sigh*

Part of the problem is the storage. Much like on a computer, eMMC (which is what a phone uses) can slow down once it's too full, and all storage drives (regardless of the type) all have a recommendation of keeping things at, or below, 50% of the storage. Well, that's impossible on this phone because nothing will install to the SD card and the Motorola bloatware takes up a good chunk of your available space. You can max out the storage on this thing in no time flat.

It's a great starter phone, it's fine if you're needing one in a pinch and can't afford more (believe me, I get it, I've been there more times than I can count.), but it's not going to be your #1 daily driver in the long run. Not unless you're fine with Motorola apps, chrome, some texting, and maybe some YouTube. Forget Android Auto, forget gaming, and forget packing a bunch of apps on here. It's clearly just a phone in a pretty Android wrapper.

150 people found this helpful

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Doug S

From iPhone to this phone and life is good still

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021

Color: Polar SilverSize: 32GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

Switched from an elderly iPhone 6s plus that I had paid almost a grand for in 2016. The only issue with the half a decade old iPhone is that the battery life isn't so great anymore but I decided it was time to retire it.

Battery life on this Moto is fantastic. I do get 3 days between charges, but I am a relatively light phone user. Others may have to charge every couple of days. The speaker is loud and the ringers are loud.

There are two annoying things. First is the location of the fingerprint reader. Evidently when I pick up my phone I touch the power button. The fingerprint reader is fast and accurate so it unlocks immediately. This is great except oftentimes I am picking up my phone to pocket it not use it. So that is annoying. The other thing is time Easter games in landscape mode mess up quite often when loading so I have to close and reopen to start playing them. This is only mildly annoying since I have the time to do so having just launched an app that is only intended to fill time.

Great phone at a great price with only very minor annoyances. So far I am happy with this purchase.

One person found this helpful

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A Customer

Very poor software makes it useless

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2022

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

I will start with the 2 worst, most functionally-deficient things. I ended up returning it because of the first defect. Maybe they will patch it?

1. The status bar is all messed up. This phone has the camera cutout as a little dot on the left, so that space can't be used. But it ALSO prohibits icons in a center area as if it had a medium-sized notch there, which it doesn't. This leaves space in the status area for no more than FOUR notification icons before it does a little dot thing as if you are overflowing. Did they forget to change the software from a previous model which had a giant notch there? It makes this phone unusable for me. I need a status bar with room for a bunch of stuff I have going on constantly. I need to see download and message statuses for multiple things. My current phone, a Blu XL4, has an option to ignore the top sliver of the display with the garbage "notch" so I have a full-width status bar. Motorola does not, AND they messed up the default. There is no way to use this phone if you need more than 4 icons visible.

2. There is no screenshot icon in the pull-down menu. I need to take a lot of screenshots, and the power/volume combo is both annoying to use and wears out the buttons. Motorola's new method requires you to tap-and-hold with 3 fingers on the screen. The problem with that is it activates buttons/links/etc on a lot of pages. So you will need to download some shady 3rd-party app with adds or whatever if you want to add a screenshot function. It also has a (not)"helpful" menu which pops up every time you do a screen shot, which gets in the way.

3. I don't use split-screen much, but if you do... you can't long-press the recent app icons to do this. Motorola's idea is to swipe from the center of the left edge of the screen (oh how clever, cut the screen in half!). Problem: THAT GESTURE IS ALREADY USED BY ALMOST EVERY APP to access menus. Did the genius who removed the long-press method to replace it with side-swipe not know this?

Now some less-important details...

One good thing: it does have double-tap to wake the display. This should be standard. It saves wear on the power button and is sometimes more convenient depending on how you are using the phone.

You can't turn off a mystery feature which wakes the display in response to the slightest wiggle or movement.

You can't turn of a wallpaper animation which stretches your wallpaper and displays it in a distorted form, and then shrinks it to normal temporarily when you touch menus. Your wallpaper will spend most of its time blurred.

The fingerprint sensor can't lock the display. You must click the button. I don't know why. I had 2 other Motorola phones which would let you lock them by touching the sensor. Another way Motorola really wants you to click the power button constantly. The reason I prefer not to have the power button used for everything is because the only phone I had break in the past several years was a Moto E4, and the power button stopped working.

About that camera... it's pretty good, but FYI it doesn't give you 48MP pictures (you kind of knew it wouldn't). They use a 48MP sensor and you end up with 12MP pictures. The idea is to reduce noise by averaging groups of 4 pixels. It works somewhat, and I like the pictures, but calling it a 48mp camera makes it sound much better than it is.

19 people found this helpful

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sam-i-am

First Week Review

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021

Color: GraySize: 64GBStyle: G PowerVerified Purchase

First Note: I’m switching from a Moto E4 to the Moto G Power 2021.
The E4 began life as a Verizon prepaid offer that I switched to AT&T. Neither service gave good call performance from my rural home on the E4.

I was considering switching back to Verizon but the signal and call quality on the unlocked Moto G Power 2021 has been a big improvement so I think I will leave it on AT&T prepaid. My call signal and quality went from zero to two bars and people telling me I was breaking up to reading two to four bars and clear conversations. That in itself is a big win.

All I had to do to switch to the new phone was move the prepaid AT&T SIM from the old phone to the new. I set the old phone to back up everything to Google and let the new phone copy those apps and settings. In hindsight I wish I would have just backed up my contacts and manually installed the apps I use. It didn’t save all my passwords anyways and I’m not sure it didn’t install some system stuff I don’t want. After the initial setup it consumed 21GB of internal storage. The old E4 only had 16GB and was at 14GB consumed after I cleaned it out and backed it up. Go figure?

Battery consumption is great. The first day I had it on a lot and only ran it down to 50%. After a normal days use it is at 78%-82% left. I charge every night. The 3' cord and straight charger supplied is a disappointment. I plug my charger in behind my dresser and there isn't room for a charger that comes straight out and has a wire plugging straight into it. A 3' cord also won't reach from a standard height wall plug to the top of my dresser. I had to order a longer wire and use an old Samsung charger that plugs in from the side. A charger with side or bottom plugin with a 5' wire should be standard.

Android 10 or Motorola’s implementation of it has been a challenge to get used to. Simple settings like changing the notification tone and volume for specific apps is buried deeper than it should be. The system should be intuitive enough you don’t have to Google how to set it. It also has multiple nags and reminders I could do without. Some I have been able to turn off and others keep popping up each day. Copy and paste was turned off in the Gboard and I had to search for a way to turn it on. That’s pretty stupid to think people would not want that feature on by default. It makes word insertions I can’t get to go away sometimes. I think there is a way to turn it off but I’m going to have to research the Gboard settings further.

I was hoping for a $200 upgrade on the camera but that is a disappointment. Trying to zoom in on something isn’t much if any better than the old E4 and has produced some out of focus images. Regular picture and video taking is fine but not a big improvement over the old phone. One aggravating thing is when you switch it to video it doesn’t want to switch back to photo. Sometimes it’s easier to turn the camera off and restart it than to get it to switch back to photo. Oh, you have to make sure it’s not set to return to the last setting used for that to work.

The touch recognition of app shortcuts is inconsistent. One time they will open right up and another you might have to touch it 3 times. If you hold on it too long or touch it a second time too quickly a sub menu opens.

The screen seems to turn dark in the sunlight. In bright sun it is impossible to see even at full bright. I just turned on adaptive brightness. I had to set it brighter for indoors and it automatically went to full bright outdoors but the sun isn’t shining today.

The signal and call quality is the only thing that makes this phone a keeper. If that had not been such an improvement I couldn’t justify the higher cost of this phone.

54 people found this helpful

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Moto G Power | 2021 | 3-Day battery | Unlocked | Made for US by Motorola | 4/64GB | 48MP Camera | Gray

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