Moto G71 5G review: Perfect Android on the whole budget!

Motorola is slowly adding new budget 5G smartphones to its G series. We recently reviewed the Moto G51 and really liked its performance. Now Motorola has released the Moto G71 5G. This is the first smartphone in India, in which the new Snapdragon 695 processor was given. This smartphone has a powerful 50-megapixel rear camera. So is the new Moto G71 5G a value for money phone or should I look elsewhere? To know, I tested this smartphone.

Moto G71 5G price in India

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

Design Moto G71 5G

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

Motorola has made its frame out of plastic, but even so, it doesn’t feel cheap. However, four buttons are packed together on the right side of the phone, filling the frame. At the same time, only the SIM tray is provided on the left side. The power button has a textured finish, which makes it distinct to the touch, but it becomes difficult to identify the buttons without looking at them once you put on the sleeve that came with the phone. The volume buttons are placed above the power button, which is easily accessible. They get good feedback when clicked on. The Google Assistant button is positioned above the volume buttons, which would have been better in terms of comfort if it were on the left side. Your finger may have to work a bit to reach this button.

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Nowadays, when almost all smartphones feature a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Motorola has provided a capacitive fingerprint scanner on the back panel. The company put it in the right place so that while I was holding the phone, my finger was resting directly on it. There is also a camera module on the back, which sticks out a bit more than other smartphones. The back panel of the phone has a glossy finish, so it easily catches fingerprints and smudges. To avoid this, you can use the case that is in the box.

The bottom frame of the phone houses the 3.5mm jack, main microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker. Only a secondary microphone is provided at the top. The phone comes with a splash-resistant design and weighs 179 grams, which is not heavy, but it is not light either.

Moto G71 5G specs and software

Motorola seems to be going a slightly different path when it comes to the Moto G71 5G’s hardware. The phone has a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen, which comes with FHD resolution. It is equipped with scratch-resistant glass and supports a standard 60Hz refresh rate. Looking at other smartphones in this segment, Realme 8s 5G (Review) and Moto G51 (Review) have higher refresh rates, but both phones Smart phones don’t have AMOLED screens.

The weight of the performance of the phone is on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor. This is India’s first smartphone equipped with the Snapdragon 695 processor. It is an octa-core chipset clocked at 2.2 GHz. The phone has 6 GB of RAM. Along with this, the RAM Boost feature is available so that 1.5 GB of storage space can be used as RAM. This feature is enabled by default within the phone.

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The 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 a 6-satellite navigation system. The battery capacity is 5000 mAh and a 33W TurboPower charger is also included in the box.

Motorola’s Moto G71 5G ships with stock Android 11 and my unit received the December security patch. The Android 12 update is also expected to hit the phone, but its timeline has yet to be confirmed. The MyUX skin is not detected in the software, which will be liked by those who like stock Android.

Some useful things have been added to the phone such as Moto Actions with the help of which many kinds of work can be done by simply shaking the phone. One of Moto’s pre-existing features is the dual chopper gesture to turn the flashlight on and off. Other than this, there is a flip to mute feature. Moto’s Gametime app quickly silences incoming calls and turns off auto-brightness while you’re gaming. Bloated apps are no longer seen on Motorola phones and only Google apps are pre-installed. Although Cred and Facebook were pre-installed on the Moto G71 5G, there was an option to uninstall them.

Moto G71 5G performance and battery life

Moto G71 5G offers smooth performance. Apps and games launched quickly on the phone, and multitasking was smooth thanks to the 6GB of RAM. However, I did notice an unusual lag in the camera’s viewfinder once the battery percentage dropped below 15, even without battery saver turned on. Ignoring this, the phone did not disappoint anywhere. The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner was fairly accurate and the phone unlocked in a jiffy. The facial recognition feature was also good. The experience of watching videos on the AMOLED screen was great. Viewing angles of the screen are good and the screen looked bright even outdoors.

Since the Moto G71 5G is the first smartphone in India to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 695, I wanted to see how it stacks up against its rivals. The phone achieved a score of 3,78,268 points on AnTuTu, which was higher than MediaTek Dimensity 810 on Redmi Note 11T 5G 5G. The phone scored 668 points in the Geekbench 5 single-core test and scored 1900 points in the multi-core test. In terms of graphics scores, the phone managed 60fps on GFXBench’s T-Rex and 18fps on the Car Chase test. While it scored 4159 on the 3DMark Sling Shot test.

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I played Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on the phone. By default, it ran with HD graphics and a high frame rate. There was no problem playing the game on this setting. After 33 minutes, the battery percentage dropped to 6 percent, which is normal. The phone did not feel hot even after gaming sessions.

I get a day and a half of battery life on the Moto G71 5G. In normal use, the phone can further extend battery life. For heavy users, the phone can run smoothly for a day. In our HD video loop test, the phone ran for 17 hours and 58 minutes, which is pretty good for a 5,000mAh battery. A 33W charger has been provided in the phone with the help of which it charges very quickly. It charged from 0 to 54 percent in 30 minutes and from 91 percent in an hour.

Cameras Moto G71 5G

Talking about the camera setup of the phone, a triple camera setup has been provided in the Moto G71 5G. The main camera is 50-megapixel, which has an f/1.8 aperture. The second camera is an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens that comes with a 118-degree field of view. The third camera is a 2-megapixel macro camera. The phone has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. Motorola’s camera app is very simple and easy to use. The most commonly used photo and video shooting modes are front and center, while other modes are listed in the menu. The phone remembers the last shooting mode you used so you don’t have to go back to the same mode to start over. Other than a slight lag in the viewfinder (as mentioned above), the camera app didn’t have any issues.

The phone is very quick to lock focus and exposure. By default it saves the photo at 12.5 megapixels. Photos taken in daylight are good, and distant objects can be easily identified as well. The dynamic range is average, so reflections couldn’t be maintained in photos taken in bright light. Comparatively, shots taken with the ultra-wide camera weren’t as good, and the edges of the frame looked distorted.

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motorcycle

Close-ups were sharp and colors accurate. With the help of its wide aperture, the background is slightly blurred when taking photos and the subject is clearly visible. The camera UI automatically suggests switching to the macro camera when the subject gets too close. Macro shots with a lot of detail were not found, but the macro lens is capable of getting very close to the subject. Edge detection is good in portrait mode and I was able to set the blur level before taking a photo.

motorcycle
motorcycle
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The low-light performance of the camera is average. No details were found in the photo and the photo looked grainy after zooming in. After enabling night mode, the phone would take 4-5 seconds for each shot. But its output was quite bright and there was a lot of difference even in the shadow places. However, looking at it closely, the photo seemed contrived.

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motorcycle

In the case of selfie, the phone worked fine. Sharp selfie and background blur was better in portrait. Selfies taken in low light conditions were also worth posting on social media.

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motorcycle

Speaking of video recording, it was able to record 1080p video on both the main and selfie cameras. The phone has Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) and it is enabled by default. Footage taken while walking during the day was largely stable and at night there was more disturbance on it.

Verdict

Now the number of 5G smartphones is increasing in the budget smartphone market under 20,000 thousand. The Moto G71 5G is quite capable in this segment and you can choose it as your next smartphone. The phone has a powerful processor, good battery life, supports fast charging, and the cameras are good too. The Moto G71 5G is aimed at users who want a smartphone with a simple design and a standard Android experience.

The phone’s low-light camera performance is one area where it misses out; otherwise it could have been a full smartphone. If you are looking for another option in this segment of phones, you can take a look at Redmi Note 11T 5G (Review), Realme 8s 5G (Review) and iQoo Z3 (Review).

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