Moto E: a budget phone worth its price

Motorola, a well-known brand in the mobile phone industry, has been in the news lately. With the purchase of the manufacturer by Google and then passed on to Lenovo earlier this year, Motorola has been turning heads and making news for a while now.

Not too long ago, Motorola entered the market again, catering to the budget smartphone hunters with the Android-powered Moto G handsets. The Moto G had two variants, the 8GB and 16GB versions, but the internal storage was limited. Later, the Moto X was released, which was a mid-sector smartphone with better hardware and a higher price-tag.

This time, to break the market of cheap budget handsets flooding the market, the branded manufacturer has launched the Moto E, which caters to the entry-level smartphone buyers. In order to keep the price low and compete with rival brands such as Nokia and other local smartphone manufacturers, namely Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and a few others, Motorola has cut down a few features from the new entrant, the Moto E. However, the Motorola has managed to keep the internal hardware at the mid-strength so that the user does not suffer on performance.

The Moto E is built using a plastic chassis with interchangeable colorful rear panels. The size of the handset, due to the 4.3-inch screen, is perfect for single-handed use and the rear curved shape will allow the phone to comfortably fit into the palm of most hands. The front panel features the earpiece and the rear speaker, which is usually found on the rear of most handsets, is brought to the front and placed on the bottom of the display. Don’t mistake it for a boom speaker like HTC handsets, but yes, the speaker is reported to be pretty loud. The speaker being on the front makes listening to videos pretty easier, and you won’t need to cup your hands behind the handset in order to strain yourself for a clearer audio.

Moving ahead, as we mentioned earlier, Motorola has cut down a few features in order to maintain the low cost of the handset and make it affordable for most budget handset seekers. Yes, the features a simple 5MP camera on the rear, but it lacks a flash. So low-light imaging could suffer, and you better be sure you have adequate lightings to have better indoor shots. The front camera is also missing, which means; you cannot make video calls and take selfies. However, the camera app has an option to take shots by touching any part of the screen, which can help you take selfies easily. The power and volume rocker is placed on the right side of the device. The audio jack is placed on the top, while the micro USB port is placed on the bottom. The phone weighs just 142g and measures 12.3 mm in the thickest part (6.2mm at the edges).

The Moto E is built using a mid-range Snapdragon 200 chipset. The chipset features a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and coupled with an Adreno 302 graphics processor and 1GB or RAM. The chipset is powerful enough to run Google’s latest Android operating system, KitKat v4.4.x. However, the stock operating system could possibly get overloaded with too many applications installed on it later. Motorola has promised that the handset will receive all future updates of the Android operating system, and we assume it would also support the upcoming Lollipop operating system (Android’s next operating system version – either v4.5 or v5.0).

Moving on, the Moto E has a decent display on the handset. It features a 4.3-inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 540x960 pixels and a pixel density of 256ppi. Motorola has also mentioned that the display is scratch resistant, and for sure it is since the screen is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 which is currently known to be one of the toughest scratch-resistant protections. A low-priced phone with a Gorilla Glass 3 displays seem to be one of the first in the category.

Unlike the Moto G or Moto X, the Moto E features an internal storage of just 4GB. However, this can be expanded (again unlike the Moto G or the Moto X) to 32GB using the micro SD card slot. The internal storage of 4GB is internally divided for the ROM (firmware and applications) and approximately 2GB is available for user data and applications).

Connectivity features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and micro USB. The Moto E features a dual-SIM option with micro SIM card compatibility. Additional features include FM radio, Moto Migrate and Moto Assist.

The handset is priced at Rs 6,999 and has been exclusively launched on Flipkart, starting May 14. Flipkart has a promotional one-day offer along with the handset, which includes 50% off on a Transcend 8GB micro SD card, free eBooks worth Rs 1,000 and 50% off on rear panels.

Verdict: The Moto E is a great handset for the price offering. Those seeking a super-budget Android-based smartphone can opt for the Moto E. the Moto E is a great startup phone for students, employees, and gifting. Motorola seems to have a set a new benchmark for the budget smartphone segment by pricing the Moto E even lower than the Moto G. The Moto E is built well, has decent features and hardware specifications and with a price-tag of an impressive Rs 6,999, there is nothing much you can complain about. We would recommend the Moto E Android handset for those seeking a super-budget, yet branded smartphone. Those who want to have other options for budget prices, you may choose from Nokia X, Lava or Samsung, since they too offer Android smartphones on a similar budget.