Motorola Moto G9 Play Review

Hearing the word ‘play’ in a device title brings up some feelings. ‘Play’ should be fun, entertaining, light-hearted even - it should be something that you just flat out enjoy. So, the question is whether the Moto G9 Play lives up to it’s moniker, or whether it is simply all work.

You would have heard the saying, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – well the Moto definitely isn't dull. This handset is simple, elegant in it’s own way and even if it does have it’s flaws it has still been a great phone to test out.

Freelancing

The majority of the pain points I encountered with the Moto G9 Play come from the fact that it’s an affordable device, and you’re always going to need to make a couple of sacrifices to get that price down. For the most part however these little offerings haven’t created anymore labour on behalf of the user – it’s mostly style and design choices and a major camera foible, but more on that later.

Take the bezels for example, they are huge. Downright gargantuan. You lose about a centimetre of length on the display simply because of these spacious views into the void. Does it effect performance? No. Is it a major issue? No, not really but it is a noticeable trade-off with the formfactor.

Apart from that, the design is actually quite sleek for a phone in this price range. The camera bump isn’t imposing, and the Electric Blue backing is that nice kind of plastic that doesn’t tend to attract fingerprints and smudges. The display is vibrant and crisp but there is something a little bit off about how the phone feels in your hand. It is a touch wider than most and that throws the balance of the device out a touch which does make holding and operating it single-handedly more work.

A labour of love

While these tidbits are annoying or off putting, none are enough to denote from the entertainment aspect of the Moto G9 Play. What is however is the camera. Taking photos on this device is work. Hard work. It is possible to take striking pictures and when you do it almost seems worth it, but to do so is labourious. 

The shutter speed is slow to the point where it can take up to ten seconds to take a photo, that is if the phone even registers that you’ve tapped the button. While taking a photo on a smartphone should literally be as simple as touching the screen and going on with your life, this Moto is far more touch and go.

About half of the time when I would tap the screen to nab a shot nothing would happen, and the other half when I did capture the picture it would come after a substantial delay. For someone like me who’s main subjects are swiftly moving animals it has been a complete nightmare to try and get a decent picture.

Here is the best shot I’ve been able to get off my fur child in motion.

This is the most in focus picture the Moto G9 Play could handle of a moving object. The blur, the strange focus points and the general murkiness of the photo is obvious. It’s just not a good picture, and it is easily the best of the lot.

These results are made all the more disappointing because other shots can come out beautifully. Take this stunner as an example.

The colours are slightly oversaturated with a higher contrast which makes that pink really pop and creates more depth to the shot. The focus is sharp even down to the details of the light reflecting off the stem of the glass.

Or even look at this good girl when she’s sitting still. Getting this shot took a lot of treats and patience from both parties while waiting for the shutter to go. When it did, this turned out to be a decent point-and-click photo but you shouldn’t have to stage every single photo that you take.

Even if every picture that came out of the Moto G9 Play was like the one above then it could have elevated the handset enough to be a real contender in the budget smartphone market. But unfortunately, the vast majority of pictures just don’t look like this and it’s not practical to have to take your time with smartphone photography. If that’s something that you care about then there are better sub-$300 phones with zippy cameras, like the Alcatel 3L.

Burnout

Theoretically the battery can last for days – hell when I first charged it up it sat for weeks before I got around to putting my SIM card in, and it was still kicking. Although once I switched it over as my primary device I have been unpleasantly surprised to see the battery burn through so quickly.

On average I got between four and five hours of screen time between charges, which is far less than you should expect from a 4,000mAh battery in a budget device. Personally, I tend to spend hours staring at the screen of my phone either on TikTok, or some fun mindless scrolling so the battery wore down quick smart. Days when I had less active screen time (like when listening to music or interacting with the real world) were when I got some proper longevity out of the battery. The main drain is when the screen is on in all its bright glory, but music apps can play in the background without causing too much extra strain.

Toggling power-saving features on boosted the screen time up to between seven and eight hours, which is a huge improvement but also stops any apps running in the background and will only refresh your app contents when you actively go into the app. That is all well and good, but it just means that you need to actively check your emails, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, et al. Also known as work.

Other performance factors are fine. No complaints. Response times for opening and closing apps are zippy and the rear fingerprint scanner is fast. Even the Motobuds which are included as the standard in-box headphones are surprisingly decent. These wire-free headphones pair seamlessly with the handset and have a good sound that I wasn’t expecting. They come in a neat little charging box which has a USB C cord that folds in underneath for quick access when you need it. These are definitely a step up from other included headphones, and considering that the Moto G9 Play still has a headphone jack, Motorola really didn’t need to flex that hard and include these but I’m sure glad that they did.

Moto G9 Play -Final Thoughts

The Moto G9 Play is anything but dull, but it is also a lot of work. Between battery and camera issues it can be hard to just enjoy all the great aspects of the device. The sleek design, the beautiful display, the zippy speeds, the photos when the stars align properly, the headphones – these are all hugely playable features which unfortunately can get outweighed by how much effort a photo takes.

If your photos tend to be of still or staged scenes and your screen time is usually under four hours a day then I would happily recommend the Moto G9 Play. However if either of these sacrifices don't sit right with you then there's bound to be another Motorola out any week now.

Moto G9 Play Camera Samples

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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