Budget Moto E4/E4 Plus with metal bodies, fingerprint scanner unveiled

Do you remember the original Moto E? It was one of the devices in 2014 that set the budget smartphone category on fire with specifications that a phone of its stature should deserve. Fast forward to the present and the Moto E3 Power barely finds a place in the consumer’s consideration, partly because the competition has raised the bar higher and Motorola has stuck to the old recipe. To gain back little of what it had established back then, Motorola has unveiled the new Moto E4 and E4 Plus.

A major change for Moto’s budget warrior has been the build. Until now, Moto E’s have had a great build but in polycarbonate material. So, the Moto E4/E4 Plus had to adapt to the modern trends and go for metal bodies. It takes inspiration from the pricier Moto G5 series which is surely not a bad thing. Both the phones also gain a fingerprint sensor on the front as well.

As for specifications, the standard E4 features a 5-inch HD display with a quad-core Snapdragon 425 chipset along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage, which is expandable via a microSD card. It features an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera with a LED flash. The E4 has a 2800mAh battery to power the handset.

As for the bigger Moto E4 Plus, it shares the basic chipset with the standard E4 but gains a 32GB storage option as well. It gains a bigger 5.5-inch HD display. The rear camera gets a bump to 13MP along with a bumped up battery of 5000mAh battery.

Both the phones will run Android 7.1 Nougat out-of-the-box. The standard Moto E4 will cost $129 (roughly Rs 8,000) and the E4 Plus will start at $179 (Rs 11,000) for the 16GB variant. Expect Motorola to have aggressive pricing for the Indian market to compete with Xiaomi Redmi 4 and Lenovo K6 Power. The new Moto E4 is about to make budget segment more exciting.