Ausdroid Reviews: Moto G8 Power Lite – Power through the day

Motorola, which is now part of the Lenovo family, launched the Moto G8 Power Lite a couple of months ago. Based on some of the specs at launch, it could be a worthy device of consideration with the inclusion of a huge battery, big display and triple rear camera. It also comes with an uncluttered Android experience, making for a budget wallet friendly device.

So when Motorola reached out to us here at Ausdroid with a review device, the Moto G8 Power Lite, we thought it would be something good to review and see how it can handle everything we can through at it.

So – let’s see how the Moto G8 Power Lite handled an Ausdroid review.

The design

The Moto G8 Power Lite did interest me getting it out of the box, because I wasn’t quite expecting the size of the device to be bigger, given I had a few years ago reviewed the Moto G4 Power Lite.

The Moto G8 Power Lite comes with a MircoUSB 1 metre cord, charger, headphones, clear phone cover (which I think should always come standard with any device) and the usual paperwork.
The G8 Power Lite is made from a polycarbonate plastic which has a sort of metallic paint finish which looks quite stunning on the device.

Screen wise, the front of the G8 Power Lite comes with a 6.5-inch IPS TFT HD display, which is bright and clear.

The left side of the device houses the dual SIM card and MicroSD card tray, whilst the right side houses both the volume rockers and the standby/power on/off button.

The bottom of the device houses the MicroUSB along with the speaker on the right with a microphone on the left side of the charger.

For those who would like the inclusion of a 3.5mm Audio Jack, I can confirm the Moto G8 Power Lite does come with this built into the right hand side top of the device.

Regarding the rear cameras, which there are now 3 of them, there’s a 16MP main sensor camera, along with 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macro sensor located on the left side rear of the device.

There is also a fingerprint sensor which can be found in the middle rear of the device via the Moto logo.

What’s inside

The Moto G8 Power Lite is powered by a MediaTek Helio P35 with 2.3 GHz Quad-Core and 1.8 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and 680 MHz IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU. Having used the device during the day I did notice the G8 Power Lite did suffer and would become slow running between apps and trying to play some games. Even the benchmark scores show how low the processing power is for the Moto G8 Power Lite.

There is also 4GB RAM, along with 64GB storage available; of course this is much lower once you take into account the usual Android firmware and preloaded apps on the device to the user. Gladly, storage can be expanded to 256GB with a microSD card.

Of course there is a fingerprint sensor on the rear of the device along with Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient Light sensor, Gyroscope, and SAR sensor.

There is also the inclusion of a 5000mAH battery is great and seems like it would last a full day’s charge but sadly the battery performance at full usage between trying to play games, social media, emails and usual internet browsing means it does require some sort of charge towards the end of the day, but with less usage you can get a full day charge (but not much more).

Lights, Camera, Action!

The Moto G8 Power Lite comes with a triple rear camera array made up of a 16MP main sensor camera, along with 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macro sensor.

The rear combination of cameras whilst an interesting feature for a budget device, did offer some good photo shots, but they weren’t fantastic for a triple camera set up. Also in low light, picture quality does also suffer a bit with pictures coming out with a bit of noise and graininess.

Settings include bokeh portrait mode that only works with the beautify. Other modes include panorama, macro along video mode.

The front facing camera is an 8MP which is fine for those who need a decent selfie camera for those almost flawless instagram or snapchat selfies. The broken effect though is only available in portrait mode. Though in low light, don’t expect those selfies to pop as much.

Software

Motorola G8 Power Lite runs Android 9 (Pie) with the manufacturer confirming the G8 Power lite will be updated to Android 10 though there was no time frame given. There’s no word on Android 11 either.

Motorola don’t generally preload many apps other than the usual Google apps such as Gmail, Chrome, Duo and alike. However they do have their own Device help app which is similar to Nokia who also provide a similar app for their users.

Would I buy one?

Honestly, despite some flaws with the device, I have to say there is a lot to like about the Moto G8 Power Lite, but also a lot to possibly dislike about the device too.

Would I consider buying one? Possibly but it is a little hard to say given there is a lot of competition out there for the same price point, such as Vivo, Xiaomi, Nokia and OPPO. Though it might be worth more paying an extra $70 to $150 for the Moto G8 or G8 Plus models.

The Motorola G8 Power Lite is available from Officeworks, The Good Guys and Mobileciti and the Motorola website itself for $249.