Motorola
shook up the market for ultra-cheap smartphone with the launch of Moto E
last year. However, the landscape has shifted by miles now, with
Motorola's parent company Lenovo taking the lead with its 4G-capable
A6000 and rivals like Xiaomi, Micromax and Microsoft following suit
close by.
Now Motorola is back again, this time with a 4G version of its Moto E, which will hit India soon. We got the opportunity to play around with the second-generation Moto E at the ongoing Mobile World Congress, and here's what we think...
Design
Unlike the second-generation Moto X and G smartphones, the new Moto E looks pretty similar to its predecessor. However, the design update is still big enough to distinguish the two upon closer inspection.
While the body is still retains the curvy, slopy elements of the original Moto E, it feels a little thicker and bigger in size when you hold it, even though the two have exactly the same dimensions. However, it is still small enough to be used comfortably in one hand.
On the sides, Motorola has used user-removable bands, which come off pretty easily. We saw bands with rubber coating that make gripping the second-gen Moto E a lot more easier, with no danger of slipping out of the hand. An executive at the demo station said that bands in various colours will also be available.
Another change is the introduction of LED flash on the back and VGA camera in front.
Display
The display size has increased, from 4.3-inch in the first Moto E to 4.5-inch the new one. Though the resolution stays put at 540x960p, the difference is pixel density is hard to judge through the naked eye.
What clearly is noticeable, however, is the improvement in viewing angles as the colours wash out a lot less on the new Moto E compared to its predecessor. The display is also very bright and colours appear vibrant.
Performance
The real update to Moto E is inside, i.e. the chipset. The model we tried out had a 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, a meaningful jump over the 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 chip of the old Moto E.
You can feel the difference in performance between the two smartphones from the start, with the new model not showing any signs of being a slouch. Apps open at the touch of a button, scrolling within the menu is smooth and switching between apps does not take a toll on the phone.
The phone runs on stock Android 5.0 Lollipop software, with a few Motorola apps thrown in. The combination of the Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB RAM and Android Lollipop would allow the new Moto E to handle most tasks pretty easily.
Camera
The camera setup of Moto E has also received an upgrade, getting LED flash on the back and VGA sensor in front. But alas, the camera still remains the Achilles' heel of the Moto E series.
The rear 5MP camera still shoots grainy photos even of objects close by. You, in fact, lose out on a lot of detail with this camera because of the poor sensor. Same goes for the front VGA camera, which barely does a job of a selfie machine. However, we must point out that the demo area where we clicked the images was not very well lit, so daylight images *may* appear better.
We feel that the photos you take with the new Moto E's front and rear cameras would hardly be worthy of your Facebook and Twitter pages.
Now Motorola is back again, this time with a 4G version of its Moto E, which will hit India soon. We got the opportunity to play around with the second-generation Moto E at the ongoing Mobile World Congress, and here's what we think...
Design
Unlike the second-generation Moto X and G smartphones, the new Moto E looks pretty similar to its predecessor. However, the design update is still big enough to distinguish the two upon closer inspection.
While the body is still retains the curvy, slopy elements of the original Moto E, it feels a little thicker and bigger in size when you hold it, even though the two have exactly the same dimensions. However, it is still small enough to be used comfortably in one hand.
On the sides, Motorola has used user-removable bands, which come off pretty easily. We saw bands with rubber coating that make gripping the second-gen Moto E a lot more easier, with no danger of slipping out of the hand. An executive at the demo station said that bands in various colours will also be available.
Another change is the introduction of LED flash on the back and VGA camera in front.
Display
The display size has increased, from 4.3-inch in the first Moto E to 4.5-inch the new one. Though the resolution stays put at 540x960p, the difference is pixel density is hard to judge through the naked eye.
What clearly is noticeable, however, is the improvement in viewing angles as the colours wash out a lot less on the new Moto E compared to its predecessor. The display is also very bright and colours appear vibrant.
Performance
The real update to Moto E is inside, i.e. the chipset. The model we tried out had a 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, a meaningful jump over the 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 chip of the old Moto E.
You can feel the difference in performance between the two smartphones from the start, with the new model not showing any signs of being a slouch. Apps open at the touch of a button, scrolling within the menu is smooth and switching between apps does not take a toll on the phone.
The phone runs on stock Android 5.0 Lollipop software, with a few Motorola apps thrown in. The combination of the Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB RAM and Android Lollipop would allow the new Moto E to handle most tasks pretty easily.
Camera
The camera setup of Moto E has also received an upgrade, getting LED flash on the back and VGA sensor in front. But alas, the camera still remains the Achilles' heel of the Moto E series.
The rear 5MP camera still shoots grainy photos even of objects close by. You, in fact, lose out on a lot of detail with this camera because of the poor sensor. Same goes for the front VGA camera, which barely does a job of a selfie machine. However, we must point out that the demo area where we clicked the images was not very well lit, so daylight images *may* appear better.
We feel that the photos you take with the new Moto E's front and rear cameras would hardly be worthy of your Facebook and Twitter pages.
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