Motorola has been bullish so far this year with its pricing and strategy
for India. After a long absence, it came back with the Moto G and Moto X, and
now continues with the Moto E, making other manufacturers sit up and take
notice.
At Rs. 6,999, the Motorola Moto E is priced to ruffle
feathers. Motorola is clearly sending a message to buyers that they can get a
whole lot more for their money than they have before, and competitors had
better adapt to this new reality. However, it is rather unfortunate that
Motorola has chosen to stick to online sales only in India. Even though it
managed to run through its first stock of Moto E within two days on
Flipkart, Motorola could have done a lot better with a more traditional retail
presence - at least competitors have that advantage for now. There has been
lots of buzz around the Moto E even before its official launch, but that's
nothing compared to the actual potential of the Indian smartphone market.
Look and feel
The Moto E follows the same design language of its elder siblings,
the Moto X and Moto G. This is evident in the dimpled chin on
the curved back which features the Motorola logo. There are a few subtle
differences, though.
At its thickest point, the Moto E measures 12.3mm, making it a bit
fatter than the Moto G. Also, at 142g it weighs slightly more, and
definitely feels heavier in the hand. Fortunately the heft is reassuring
considering its compact size. The body feels sturdy, and we get the impression
that it will be able to withstand years of use.
Despite being predominantly plastic, the Moto E feels premium, almost
making us wonder how Motorola could afford to price it so low. Our only
complaint is that the rear has a rubbery feel to it which could get oily after
prolonged use. The rear cover is interchangeable, and nine colours will
be available, all of which look pretty good.
Above the distinctive dimple is the recessed rear camera module. This
protects the lens from scratches - a small example of attention to detail from
Motorola that we appreciate. Prying open the rear cover is a rather tedious
process. Once opened, there are two slots on the right edge for the Micro-SIM
cards and a slot for the memory card. The battery is non-removable.
The right edge of the Moto E houses the volume rocker and power button.
Motorola has decided to leave the left edge blank. The ambient light, proximity
sensors and a hidden status/charging indicator LED are above the screen. A
front-facing mono speaker is masked by a metallic strip below the screen.
The Moto E uses on-screen buttons for navigation. The bottom of the
phone has a Micro-USB port for data transfer and charging, and the top features
the 3.5mm jack for headphones. Inside the box, apart from the phone, you'll
find a charger and a headset. The absence of a data cable is a downer.
Features and specifications
The Moto E is powered by a low-end Snapdragon 200
dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, with an integrated Adreno 302 graphics
processor. There is 1GB of RAM, which is a good sign that the phone will be
able to run without stuttering (more on that later). The Moto E has 4GB of
internal storage with 2.2GB available for use. Surprisingly, the phone
recognizes it as external storage and installs apps to this partition. Unlike
the Moto G, Motorola allows expansion of storage by up to 32GB using a microSD
card. It supports two Micro-SIM cards in dual-standby mode, each of which can
connect to a 3G network.
The phone has a 5-megapixel rear camera with no flash or auto-focus, and
there is no front camera. We can already hear selfie lovers grumbling about
this exclusion.
The Moto E's 4.3-inch display is protected by a
sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 - a first for a phone in this price range. The
display has a qHD resolution of 960x540, which translates to a relatively sharp
density of 256ppi. We couldn't really discern individual pixels. The colours
displayed are quite vibrant, though viewing angles and sunlight legibility are
not up to the mark.
Software
A major complaint among detractors of Android is the fragmentation of
software versions across different devices. In that regard, it is extremely
heartening to note that Motorola is constantly striving to bring the latest and
the best version of Android to its smartphones. The Moto E
runs Android 4.4.2 (KitKat), and Motorola has promised that it will
get at least one future upgrade. This is another first for any Android smartphone
in the sub-Rs. 10k segment.
Motorola leaves the Android software largely untouched, and so we are
treated to the taste of unadulterated KitKat (pun intended): clean home
screens, a lock screen with a camera shortcut, a whole collection
of Google apps, Google Now, and on-screen navigation buttons which
hide when you play games and watch videos.
Motorola adds a Moto Assist app that lets users determine which ringing
mode the phone should be in at certain times. For example, it syncs with your
calendar to check for meetings and enters the meeting mode at the appropriate
time. The app offers two presets - meeting and sleep. We don't consider this
bloatware because it is actually useful, and owners of other Android devices
can also download it from the Play Store. Motorola also preinstalls an app
called Moto Migrate that makes transferring important data from an old phone to
the Moto E an easy process. Setting it up is quite effortless, and it functions
as advertised.
Camera
The less we talk about the Moto E's 5-megapixel camera, the better.
Before we get into the performance details, we want to remind users about the
HTC Desire 310's abysmal camera performance. The Moto E is only slightly
better. We don't expect anyone to buy this phone if they need a device that can
take decent photos.
The default camera app on the Moto E is the same as the one on the Moto
G. It is extremely basic with very few available settings. There is an HDR mode
and a panorama mode. Motorola allows for selective exposure (with a very
intuitive interface) but no autofocus. This baffles us, although without an
autofocus lag, you can take shots really quickly.
Captured images have a lot of noise even in broad daylight, and
low-light performance is a whole lot worse. Colour reproduction is average,
which is the only saving grace of the camera. Video performance is dismal too.
Then again, we can't expect much more from a phone priced this low.
Performance
Obviously, this phone isn't meant to be a performance beast. The best we
can expect of it is to function without lags during everyday use. Thankfully,
we found that the Moto E is extremely responsive while browsing through apps
and websites . It is a really capable budget smartphone, and really does stand
out amongst its competition. The performance benchmark scores are surprisingly
good too.
In AnTuTu and Quadrant, the phone registered scores of 12,546 and 5,324
respectively. The Moto E rendered the GFXbench animation at an impressive 10.7
fps. To give users some perspective, this is close to the performance of the
Sony Xperia T2 Ultra. We tried Dead Trigger 2, a graphically intense
first-person shooter for Android, and it was mostly smooth, with only very few
lags.
The default video app doesn't play 1080p videos, but we were completely
surprised when third-party apps managed to do so just fine, without any hiccups
or dropped frames. The mono speaker's sound quality is just about average, but
it is adequately loud. The bundled earphones are uncomfortable to use and just
sound bad. The situation did get better with the use of our reference
headphones.
We were slightly disappointed with the battery life, considering the
phone has a powerful 1,980mAh battery inside. It lasted only 5 hours, 41
minutes in our continuous loop test. This means that users will have to charge
it at the end of each day, if not more often. On the flipside, call quality was
phenomenally good.
Verdict
What Motorola has done with the Moto E is let loose a performance beast
in the sub-10k range of smartphones. It might have a bad camera, but in every
other respect the Moto E trumps its competition by a large margin. The only
other smartphone that comes close is the Nokia Lumia 525 which runs
Windows Phone 8, is more expensive, and has a limited number of applications in
the app store.
Motorola is now the Goliath in the budget smartphone battle. We admire
this phone immensely, and we're also excited to see how the competition in this
extremely important market segment will respond now that the bar has been
raised.
Nice review...really helpful...(y)
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