Motorola Moto G77

The Moto G77 sells for about Rs. 91,999 for the 8GB/256GB model, though some stores ask up to Rs. 104,999. It is an official, PTA-approved box pack with a one-year local warranty, and the box includes a colour-matched case and a 33W charger.

What you pay for:

• A 108MP OIS main camera and a 32MP selfie camera that are among the strongest at this price.
• A slim, premium build with a vegan leather back, a 1.5K AMOLED screen and stereo Dolby Atmos speakers.
• Clean, fast software, 5G and NFC.

What you give up: the Dimensity 6400 is a modest chip for the money, the 5200mAh battery with 30W charging is behind rivals with 6500mAh batteries, and protection is only IP64.

Verdict: worth it if camera quality, software and build matter more to you than gaming power. Buyers focused on performance get more from the Infinix Note Edge at Rs. 91,199.

The G77 has a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with 1272 x 2772 (1.5K) resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR support and up to 5000 nits of peak brightness. Colours are punchy and refined indoors, daylight visibility is decent, and Widevine L1 support means streaming apps play in HD, with YouTube up to 1440p at 60fps.

The bezels are slim, though the top one is noticeable, and the punch-hole is small. Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protects the front, and the touchscreen still works with wet fingers.

One gap: there is no true always-on display. The lock screen information shows for only 5 to 10 seconds before turning off.

The Moto G77 runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 6400 (6 nm), an octa-core chip running at up to 2.5GHz, with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage. A RAM boost option adds virtual memory of up to 16GB in total, and the phone restarts each time you change it.

In daily use, Motorola's clean software makes the phone feel fast and smooth. AnTuTu scores of about 570,000 to 600,000 are reported, which is fair rather than strong for this price; rivals such as the Infinix Note Edge use the faster Dimensity 7100.

Gaming results are reasonable: PUBG Mobile reaches Extreme frame rate on Smooth graphics and Ultra frame rate on Balanced and HDR, and games generally run at up to 60fps. A vapour chamber and the vegan leather back help keep heat down.

It suits social media, streaming and casual gaming; heavy gamers should look at a faster chip.

The rear has a 108MP main camera (f/1.7) with OIS and an 8MP ultrawide; there is no telephoto, but the 108MP sensor offers 3x lossless in-sensor zoom. The front has a 32MP selfie camera.

The camera is the G77's surprise. Main camera photos hold impressive detail when zoomed in, and the camera feels a step ahead of other phones at this price. Selfies are also detailed, with natural processing, good depth separation and fine hair detail. The Night Vision mode works well.

There are a few weaknesses:

• Colours can lean slightly magenta or yellow, portraits at 1x look a little cool, and colours shift with more contrast at 2x.
• Video tops out at 2K (1440p) 30fps on both cameras, slow motion is limited to 720p, and there is no bokeh video mode.

Stabilisation, focus and HDR in video are good for the price. Frame Match is a handy extra: it helps a friend recreate your framing so you can appear in a shot you set up.

The G77 has a 5200mAh battery with 30W wired charging, and Motorola includes a slightly stronger 33W charger in the box. A full charge takes about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Motorola phones with this battery size are known for good optimisation, with about 7 to 8 hours of screen-on time expected and up to a day and a half to two days with lighter use. Verified screen-on time results for the G77 itself are not yet available.

The compromise is clear: rivals at this price offer 6500mAh batteries and 45W charging, so the G77 neither lasts as long on paper nor charges as fast.

The Moto G77 runs Android 16 with Motorola's Hello UI, which keeps a clean, near-stock Android feel with a few useful Motorola additions. Motorola promises 3 years of major Android updates.

Useful features:

• The Moto app for gestures such as double-tapping the back, Dolby Atmos sound settings and personalisation.
• Moto Secure, Dual Space for two accounts, and a games hub.
• Google Gemini, Circle to Search and Google Photos AI editing such as unblur; Moto AI is set to arrive in an update.

There is very little bloatware: a few preinstalled games, which you can delete.

Two limits: the phone uses the Google dialer, so the other person hears an announcement when you record a call, and there is no permanent always-on display.