Motorola Moto G9 Play Review: Good Budget Phone, Top-notch Android Experience

Motorola is back in Nepal with a new distributor; Call Mobility. For the comeback, they have launched Moto G9 Play and Moto E7 Plus in Nepal. Between these two, the Moto G9 Play is a mid-range smartphone with good looking spec and design.

Moto G9 Play brings a 48MP camera, Snapdragon 662 chipset, and a nice design. This phone goes up against the likes of Redmi 9 and Poco M2. Moto G9 Play price in Nepal is Rs. 19,990.

I have used this device for more than a week and this is my Motorola Moto G9 Play review.

Motorola Moto G9 Play Review

Design

• 165.2 x 75.7 x 9.2 mm, 200 g
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Moto G9 Play has a glossy finish on the back but it doesn’t retain much fingerprint and smudges. It also comes with a water repellent coating. However, it using a plastic body.

The square-shaped camera module looks funky and creates a hump when laid on its back. Right below the camera module, we get a fingerprint sensor etched with a Motorola logo.

On the front, Moto G9 Play rocks a standard teardrop notch with minimum bezels and all around. The chin is relatively larger than the side bezels.

The phone feels solid and is built really well. It fits in my hands quite comfortably and is easy to use with a single hand.

Display

• 6.5 inches IPS LCD
• 720 x 1600 pixels
• 60Hz

Moto G9 Play rocks a 6.5 inches HD+ IPS LCD display with a screen resolution of 720 x 1600.

The colors are neutral with slight hint of saturation. However, the brightness is on a lower side even indoors.

Even though it’s an HD+ display, you won’t feel like you are getting a downgrade unless you are watching content on YouTube or Netflix. But it is still a good display for content viewing.

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Performance

• Qualcomm SM6115 Snapdragon 662 (11 nm)
• Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver)
• Adreno 610
• 128GB 4GB RAM

Moto G9 Play is equipped with a Snapdragon 662 chipset. Along with that, it has 4GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Snapdragon 662 is an 11nm chipset. It has an Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver) CPU and Adreno 610 GPU. This chipset is similar to Snapdragon 665.

Snapdragon 662 uses the same Kryo cores as the Snapdragon 665 with the same clock speed. On top of that, both of them use the Adreno 610 GPU.

I played PUBG on the Moto G9 Play. To be fair, it didn’t disappoint as the games ran decent on smooth grpahics and high fps settings.

You will notice slight frame drops but the gameplay is acceptable on the G9 Play. As for the general tasks, Moto G9 Play runs very smoothly without any hiccups.

I didn’t have any issues while browsing, using apps, switching between apps, and navigating.

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Camera

• Rear Camera: 48 MP, f/1.7, (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF
  • 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
  • 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
  • Video: 1080p@30fps
• Front Camera: 8 MP, f/2.2, 1.12µm
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

Moto G9 Play is equipped with a triple camera step that feature a 48MP main sensor, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor.

NORMAL PHOTOS

Daylight photos have good details with a neutral color scheme. The photos have a slight hint of saturation but the colors look natural.

Photos have nice contrast and the exposure is balanced as well. But, the Auto HDR is a hit and miss. Sometimes, it works really good but sometimes it doesn’t work.

The main sensor sharpens the photo slightly but it doesn’t go overboard which makes pictures quite appealing.

If you want more detail then you can also capture photos with a 48MP camera but I prefer normal mode to the 48MP mode.

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PORTRAIT AND MACRO PHOTOS

Portrait photos are quite good with nice edge detection and very good background blur. The color is also consistent with the normal photos. As for the macro photos, the 2MP macro sensor cannot produce good details and the photo lacks appeal.

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LOW LIGHT

G9 Play has an okayish low light performance. You lose details and photos get noisy but HDR works pretty well.

The night mode does improve the pictures as we get more detail but the night mode introduces artifacts and smudges.

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FRONT CAMERA

The front camera is not as impressive as the rear camera. The selfies look a bit soft and there’s not much detail on the face.

While the portrait mode works well, it does not provide good results in challenging situations.

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Video

Moto G9 Play can capture videos up to 1080p 60fps. The video quality is good for a budget phone with nice contrast and colors. But, you won’t get many details in the video.

Battery

• Non-removable Li-Po 5000 mAh battery
• Fast charging 20W

G9 Play has a 5000 mAh battery which is more than enough for a day of usage. Under moderate usage, I was still left with some battery in the tank at the end of the day.

As for charging, the 20W fast charging takes about 2 hours to charge it from 0 to 100.

Security and Speaker

The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner is quite quick and the face unlocks also works well under good lighting.

The G9 Play’s single bottom-firing speaker is loud enough and the clarity is also acceptable for a budget phone.

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Software

I will say that Moto G9 Play’s best asset is the use of the Stock OS.

Moto G9 Play is using stock Android 10 with slight modification and it is really done well. I like the fact that they haven’t tinkered with the app drawer, notification toggle, and icons.

You even get to customize the G9 Play with different icons and color themes. Furthermore, it provides some nifty gesture features like a double chop to the flashlight, twists to open the camera, and more.

It has the best software experience among all of the budget phones under Rs. 20,000 in Nepal.

Conclusion

Moto G9 Play is a good budget phone with a top-notch Android experience. Furthermore, it boasts a massive battery along with decent performance.

Yes, it doesn’t have the best gaming performance out there but it’s fine for average users. Also, the software experience is smooth and elevates the user experience for a budget phone.

I would definitely recommend the Moto G9 Play.

What do you think about the Moto G9 Play? Let us know in the comments!

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