Moto E Review

Motorola’s comeback to market with Moto X and Moto G has been really exciting. Just when everyone thought Moto G was all Motorola could do to cut costs, Motorola has surprised everyone with Moto E. Moto E for most of it is a very cheap smartphone. I tested this device out for a couple of weeks, I often found myself using this as a secondary phone since I already use a flagship smartphone.

Motorola’s previous two phones had amazing build quality and they’ve managed to do the same for moto E. It sports the same design language, moto E feels lot like it’s big brothers but a lot compact with a 4.3″ inch qHD display which gives it a pixel density of 256 ppi. The display straight off feels a bit dull and a small pattern of rainbow colored boxes was noticed under direct sunlight or direct light, which when checked with other Moto E units were the same.

Motorola Moto E is powered by a 1.2 Ghz Dual Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302 GPU with 1GB RAM. It’s performs smooth with opening multiple applications and multitasking. Playing games like Real Racing 3 and Asphalt 8 worked well without any noticeable frame rate drops. I noticed that it failed to play Full HD videos a few times. Moto E could be called decent performer, but holds up well with some great software.

It has internal memory of 4GB and with expansibility which lacked in Moto G. Here is where the issue comes up, Android is designed in such a way that the applications that are downloaded are installed onto the phone memory. With the 4 GB internal memory of the phone, there isn’t much anyone can do if you wanted to install a couple of huge games or applications. I found myself being treated to the notification indicating me that the device was on low memory.

Moto E is powered by a 1980 mAh non-user replaceable battery which is under a user removable back case which is available in multiple colors. The device held up with making calls, sending a bunch of emails, IM’s and browsing through the day. The battery did a really good job and stayed out an entire day on an average. Motorola has made an effort to put in good external speakers. The sound output is loud enough and since it’s front facing speakers, it doesn’t get lost or echoed off the back.

Motorola has been terribly suffering with the camera they shipped on Moto X and Moto G but the camera on Moto E isn’t what you’d expect in 2014. It has a 5 mega pixel fixed-focus rear camera. The question may arise on what’s fixed focus ? What that just means  you cannot change the focus by tapping on the screen. Tapping on the screen only changes the exposure level. Camera performed okay well-lit conditions. The images aren’t sharp considering it’s a fixed focus, almost all the images looked lowly saturated and had poor dynamic range. It does not have a front facing cameras so that’s a no fly for skype calls and snapchat selfies.

The optimized software with very little bloatware makes Moto E  work just how google would want it to run. Motorola probably is the only manufacturer who gives the least adulterated version of Android and also the latest version. It runs Stock Android along with Motorola’s three apps to help the smart phone user which are Moto Assist, Moto Alert and Migrate. Moto Migrate let’s you migrate from an older phone. Moto Assist let’s you configure Do-Not-Disturb timing and aid you while driving.

Moto Alert can be used to set up emergency numbers for sending location or messages in times of trouble. Moto Alert was the new addition to the family of Motorola apps with the launch of Moto E.

The almost stock Android experience with such cheap pricing from Motorola makes Moto E a clear entry-level smartphone winner. A minor setbacks with the display and camera shouldn’t bother anyone with promised future Android updates from Motorola.