All right, so this is going to be an interesting blog with really unexpected results because if you have to pick the best phone or mid-range phone of 2023, then these three phones can easily be the top three.
I’m talking about the Motorola G84, the iQo Z7 Pro, and the Infinix Zero 30 5G. Now, this creates confusion because all the three phones are good phones and all of them are around the same 20,000 price point. So which phone should you consider? To answer the question, we have been using all the phones for quite some time now, and things are very, very, very interesting. Without further delay, let’s go. Also, Motorola has launched Edge 40 Neo, which in this festival will cost about 20999, about the same as Moto G84. To make things simple and easy for you guys, we’ll be giving one point for each category, starting off with the look and feel of the phones.
Design
Now, I would say all the three phones have something unique. The IQOO Z7 Pro here has a plastic back, but it has this cool-looking gradient finish on the back. It glitters when light falls on it. It looks subtle and classy. The Infinix Zero 30 here has a vegan leather finish on the back and this unique-looking camera eyelid. Both the IQOO Z7 Pro and the Infinix zero 30 have this curved design. The motorola G84, on the other hand, has a different approach. It is more boxy and flat in nature.
Weight
The vegan leather finish on the back with IP54 rating, and it is the lightest of all the three phones at 170 gram, which is not a major feature, but it’s good to have. Now, design choice is completely subjective. Some may prefer the curve phones, some may prefer flat, boxy phones.
Curve or Flat
I’m personally not a fan of curve displays, but again, from a look and feel perspective, I would give one point to each of them because all of them have a different look and feel.
Display
Moving on to the display, I would say this was a very difficult department to judge because all the three phones have OLED display. Moto is POLED and IQOO and Infinix are AMOLED displays, and the picture quality on all are pretty good and very similar. See, if I play the trailer of FUKRAE 3 here on YouTube, the video looks good in all the three. The color, sharpness, brightness, and all are pretty much nice. That being said, Infinix 0 30 has a few advantage. A, while all the phones have high refresh rate, in default auto mode, the Infinix zero has the highest.
Let me show you. See here, side by side, if I open YouTube, IQOO is doing 60 Hertz, Motorola is doing 90 Hertz, whereas the Infinix Zero 30 is at 144 Hertz. Now, of course, you can force the motor and IQOO to stay at 120 hertz all the time, but that will turn off variable refresh rate, which will cause battery drain. B, both the motorola G84 and IQ Z7 Pro have compromises.
The motorola G84 cannot play HDR videos, so you do not get the HDR option in YouTube. This is because of the old processor. We’ll get to that in just a moment. While the IQ Z7 Pro can do 4k HDR video on YouTube and even Netflix, it doesn’t have a stereo speaker. You get only one speaker, which is a bummer at this price point. The Infinity 035 beats both of them. It has dual stereo speakers and it can even play back 4K HDR videos on YouTube.
Yes, it doesn’t support on Netflix, but then you’ll need a top tier Netflix subscription for that, and most of us usually don’t have that. Do you have it? Let me know in the comment section. So yeah, from a display standpoint, I would give the 1 point to Infinix zero 30
Performance
Coming to performance, I would say all the three phones have a lag-free experience. If you’re doing normal tasks, browsing the web, watching videos, scrolling Instagram reels and all of that good stuff, all three phones are good here, no complaints if you’re doing light to medium tasks. However, when you push the phones a little, like if you play games and all that stuff, that is where Motorola G84 starts to lag. Because see, this has a SnapDragon 695 processor by 2023 standards. That is an old CPU. I mean, it came out more than one and a half years ago.
Benchmark
We ran Android benchmark and it scored the lowest out of all the three phones. It was around 35 % slower compared to IQOO and Infinix, which is fine. If you’re playing games like BGMI and all of that, then only you will see the difference. Like max, it can do only 40FPS at smooth graphics, whereas the IQOO and InfiniX here can do max 60FPS. Even if you leave BGMI, that’s not the problem. But the main problem is SnapDragon 695 starts that it doesn’t support 4K video.
Let me demonstrate the bigger problem. See, if I record this 4K video from another phone and then I send it to Moto G84, see, it shows like a plain black screen, can’t play the video. If some relative or a friends sends you 4k video of a party or an event or a birthday, fest, something like that, it won’t play back here. That’s like a big time bummer in 2023. I would give one point each to IQOO and InfiniX here for performance. Gaming and performance on both of them was similar and a good experience.
Camera
Okay, coming to the camera department, here are where things are quite unexpected. You get a 108-megapixel main camera on the Infinix zero 30 5G, a 64-megapixel camera on the IQOO Z7 Pro, and a 50-megapixel camera on the Moto G84. All the three phones have OIS in the main sensor.
Rear Camera
At first glance straight up, see the Moto’s picture? It looks off. My skin tone is too yellow. Now, if you zoom in, IQOO’s color are good, but the picture is slightly soft. Infinex has better picture quality. It has more clarity. Colors are decent too.
Now, in this picture we took in portrait mode, and sorry, the camera position is slightly off, but nonetheless, the story is the same. Motos picture has very off skin tone. IQOO picture is decent, the background blur and all. But I would say the Infinity shot came out the best. It is poppy and the background blur is on point. Not too much or too less background blur.
That being said, IQOO has the biggest sensor here. That bigger sensor and the natural background blur shows when you take up close-up photos of flowers or small subjects. Not just that, in some situations, IQOO takes the better shot in low light conditions like see this Lord Ganesha’s photo indoors, IQOO has the better shot. And even see my picture in low light, IQOO picture looks brighter and even the skin tone is good.
Ultrawide
Now you get a 13-mega pixel ultra wide angle camera with Infinix zero 30, 8-mega pixel ultra wide angle with Motrolla G84, and 0-mega pixel ultra wide angle with the IQOO Z7 Pro. There’s no ultra wide angle camera.
And yes, Infinix has the better ultra wide angle camera. If you see side by side against Moto, if you zoom, Moto’s picture is so soft. Infinix has a good amount of details.
Coming to videos, you can shoot 4K videos with Infinix and IQOO, but the Moto G84 here maxes out at 1080p because the Snap Dragon 695 cannot record 4K videos.
Selfie
On the front camera also, the Infinix can do 4K selfie videos, whereas the IQOO and Motorola here are logged at full HD. Also, the Infinix has 50 megapixel front selfie camera, whereas the and Moto here can only do a maximum of 16 megapixel. But in selfies, it’s a different picture.
In most of the selfies, I prefer the MOTO’s selfie. Even this picture of Sayan, the MOTO’s selfie look better. For the cameras, I would give 1 point to IQOO and 1 point to Infinix because the main camera is just 19, 20 difference, but Infinity can definitely do 4K videos on the front as well as a rare camera, so that’s a plus.
Software
Moving on to software, well, all the three phones come with Android 13 right out of the box, but you will have a different experience with all three of them because all three have their own skin.
Infinix has X OS, IQOO has FunTouch OS, Motorola has myUX. Out of all the three, I would go with Motrola’s myUX because it is very close to stock Android. There are no ads or bloatware or anything, plus you get added features like Moto secure, pinpad scramble, family space, ready for PC. All of that, it’s there. We have already done a dedicated video for myUX. If you want, you can go check that out here. Infinix XOS will be second. It’s not as polished as motorola, and you do get a few first-party apps that you cannot uninstall. There is the Palm Store, X Arena, X team, and all of that. But even then, there are no third-party bloatware apps like those Snapchat, Moj, all of that, and there are no ads either. Icoo’s Funtouch OS has improved over time, but there is still that room for improvement. For starters, it is filled with so many bloatware. You have Candycrush, Snapchat, Royal Match, just to name a few, plus you get hot tabs and hot gains. This affects the software experience of the phone. Now, of course, you can disable it, uninstall it. That can be done. But I’m talking about what you get default with all the three phones. For the software side of things, I would say Motrola is the clear winner. Other than those, all the three phones have some extra features. The Moto G84 has a hybrid SIM card slot, meaning you get two SIM or one SIM and one micro SD card.
Updates
IQOO Z7 Pro has two years of Android updates. Moto and Infinity has only one year, and the haptics of Infinix zero 30 5G is pretty good, like better than the other two. Also, battery performance of all the three phones are normal.
Battery
Like Moto and Infinix has 5,000 MAH battery and IQOO has 4,600 mah battery. But in casual normal usage, all phones should last you about one day. Plus, you get the charger and a back cover with all the three phones inside the box. Really environment-friendly.
Best Phone Under 20000
At the end, what is the conclusion? Well, surprisingly, I wouldn’t have would be the winner here, but it is what it is. To answer the question, which is the best phone amongst the three? Now, of course, Infinix has the highest score here. However, we are a bit hesitant recommending this because frankly, we haven’t used any Infinix phone in the past for a longer time. So we don’t know how the after-sales service or the service center situation is or how the update situation will be. So if you’re a long-term Infinix’s user, please tell us your experience in the comment section and we may give you a shoutout. And if you aren’t bothered that much about Blotware and ads, IQO Z7 Pro at 23999 is a good option. Just make sure you know there is Blotware and ads.
Now, Motorola G84 was an option, but Moto itself has launched the Moto edge 40 Neo, which you can get about as the same price as the G84. I would recommend getting this because it has a 144 hertz curved display. You get better performance with Dimensity 7030. And major thing, you can record, shoot, and play 4K videos on this phone. The Edge 40 Neo is a better option.
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