The Motorola Moto E is a slightly smaller brother of the highly popular Moto G. It is slightly smaller and slightly cheaper than the G at a price of Rs 6999 or 120$. A cellphone from a tier-1 brand is generally a laggy phone with age-old specs. Lets see if the Moto E falls into the same category or will it be able to provide a "true" smartphone in the budget market section.
Buy Moto E from Flipkart (Exclusive Seller in India)
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to stay updated about our future posts.
You May also Like:
 |
| Motorola Moto E |
 |
| Moto E Back Panel |
Design and Build:
The Moto E has a somewhat similar design to that of it's elder brothers- The Moto X and the Moto G. It has the same curved back design with a soft rubber back finish. The back panel is removable but the battery is sealed in. The front of the device has rather subtle bars on the top and bottom of the screen. These are two long bars which may seem like buttons but actually are speakers. Motorola has been very smart with the device's design as not only have they managed to provide a very easy to use device but also have managed to maintain the design language of the Moto X and the G thus including it into the Moto family. The front-facing speaker is a very loud and clear one and Motorola should be commended for putting one. The design is a really nice one and gives a very solid feel in the hand due to it's slightly higher weight of 142 gms. The phone is a bit thick though at 12.5 mm in it's thickest part. All in all the overall look and feel of the phone is really comfortable and the screen size makes for the apt dimensions for single handed usage.
Rating: 8/10
Display:
The display on the Moto E is a 4.3 inch display with a qHD display resolution i.e. 960*540 giving it a pixel density of 256 ppi. To put this under some perspective, most of the mobile brands provide screens with only WVGA resolution (i.e. 480*800) or even a meager HVGA resolution (320*400). So at the price point at which the Moto E sells, the screen is absolutely amazing. The colour reproduction is good with a lot of clarity and sharpness. The viewing angles are not that shabby either when compared to other devices. The screen is quite bright and makes for an easy outdoor legibility. Not only this but the phone is protected by Coring Gorilla Glass 3 which make the screen scratch resistant. The only downside for some people might be the screen size of 4.3 inches but according to me it is ample for the full usage of a smartphone. The phones fits properly in the hand and is well suited for single handed usage. I don't know how Motorola managed to provide such a nice screen at such a low price. It is easily the best screen in it's segment right now or below Rs 10,000 for that matter. So the bottom-line is that the phone's display is out and out gorgeous for the price.
Rating: 9/10
Hardware:
The Motorola Moto E has a 1.2 ghz Dual Core Snapdragon 200 processor along with Adreno 302 gpu. The device sports a 1GB of RAM along with 4GB of internal storage. Though the internal storage is really low, the good thing is that this is the first Moto to support a micro sd card slot. This somewhat compensates the low internal storage though not all apps are movable to the external sd card. The available storage is 2.2 GB of the 4GB of the total memory. Though the internal memory is low, apps can be installed on the external sd card (only few though) somewhat combating the problem of the low internal storage. Unfortunately the phone does not support USB-OTG. The phone has another strong point. It comes with nano-coating which makes the phone somewhat water resistant. This again is the first in class and is becoming a standard for Moto devices.
The hardware is really nice for the price and really helps in providing a smooth user experience.
The hardware is really nice for the price and really helps in providing a smooth user experience.
Rating: 8/10
Software:
The Moto E comes with Android Kitkat 4.4 out of the box with a guaranteed update to the next version of android. The software in the Moto E (or in any Moto for that matter) is an almost stock version of android with only 2-3 Motorola specific apps installed. These apps are Motorola Migrate, Motorola Assist and Motorola Alert which make the life of the users a bit easy. The using of an almost stock android software has enabled Motorola to provide a smooth working phone which is a rarity in this segment or even in a higher one. The stock android provides provides a really smooth user interface with seldom lags (if any). This experience is much superior than those of the other tier-1 brands which put a custom skin of their own over stock android. The local brands which also provide a stock android version of software are not able to provide the same level of smoothness due to the lack of proper optimization. The inclusion of 1 GB of RAM further enables one to work freely with multiple apps running at the same time. The experience is no lesser than higher priced phones and is certainly much better than the other phones below the Rs 10,000 mark. One of the biggest advantage of this phone is that Motorola has promised to provide software update to at least the next major Android version. This is a great thing for the consumers as not many tier-1 brands provide updates for devices in this price range.
Rating: 9/10
Camera:
When building an entry-level smartphone, companies have to cut the corners. This is most evident in the Moto E's camera. It has a 5MP shooter at the back with no flash. A secondary or front camera is also missing from the phone so this is not particularly ideal for 'selfies'. The picture output from the primary camera is nothing to boast about. The picture quality is below average with low details. The camera is a fixed focus one with is again a bummer. Although the outdoor picture quality in bright and ample light is okay-ish, the weakness of the camera is clearly seen indoors and under low-lighting conditions. Thus, this phone is certainly not for the shutterbugs out there.
Rating: 5/10
Gaming:
The Moto E comes with a Adreno 302 GPU clocked at 400Mhz. This along with 1GB of RAM helps the phone to run almost every game you throw at it. Ranging from casual games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run to mid-range games like Dead Trigger, all the games are handled pretty well without any hiccups. Not only this, the Moto E (surprisingly) was able to play even heavy games like Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3 without much issues. Apart from the occasional dropped frame rates, the games ran quite smoothly. No other phone in this price range can match the gaming performance of the Moto E (as of now). The only con of the phone is the low internal memory of only 2GB. The big games take a lot of space and thus can lead to the shortage of storage space. Though the phone supports an external sd card, not all apps and all app data can be moved to the external card.
Rating: 7.5/10
Battery and Connectivity:
The battery on the Moto E is a 1980 mAh battery. Though this seems big being just slightly lesser than that on the Moto G, the E does not perform as good as it's elder brother in this department. Don't get me wrong, the battery life on the E is quite good when compared to the modern smartphones. It can last a day on charge easily (normal usage). But when compared to phenomenal battery life of the Moto G, this falls a little short on battery life than expected. Nonetheless the battery life is above average.
The phone supports 3G, Wifi and Bluetooth. The call quality is really good with good strong networks and stable wifi speeds. The phone also supports wifi and usb tethering.
Rating: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Conclusion:
The Moto E certainly packs a punch with a good display, nice hardware and a nicely optimized software. The good gaming capabilities along with an above average battery life and good call quality makes it a decent buy. The biggest downside or rather the only downside is the camera.
At a price point of just Rs 6,999 it is hard to complain about anything. This is by far the best cellphone in it's class and is certainly one of the top cellphones under Rs 10,000.
Pros: Cons:
Good Display Pathetic Camera
Powerful processor and Low Storage
nice ram
Latest Android Guaranteed
Buy Moto E from Flipkart (Exclusive Seller in India)
If you liked this review, feel free to share it with people on your social networks.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to stay updated about our future posts.
You May also Like:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave a comment for this post.