A quality Android 4G phone for just £100
Motorola makes some great Android devices, but the original Moto E smartphone wasn’t one of them. It may have been cheap, but it was undermined by its poor responsiveness and performance. There was little point in choosing it over the slightly more expensive Moto G. That’s no longer the case with the new Moto E.
The most significant new feature (and the clue’s in the name) is the addition of 4G, making this the cheapest 4G Android phone we’ve tested. When we were connected to Vodafone’s 4G network in central London, the battery lasted a staggering 45 hours 50 minutes when used for web browsing, calls, taking photos and GPS. When playing videos continuously, battery life was equally impressive at 13 hours 18 minutes.
Call quality was generally excellent. The phone managed to shut out the racket of a drill and power washer as we walked by, albeit at the expense of audio quality. Callers reported that we sounded quiet and distant. The quality improved no end once we’d moved away from the source of this noise pollution.
At first glance, the new Moto E looks similar to its predecessor, but look a little closer and you’ll see it’s been redesigned inside and out. While it still has a microSD slot (essential for supplementing the meagre 8GB of built-in storage), you no longer remove the back panel to access it. Instead, you unclip the plastic rim running around the edge of the phone, providing easy access to both the micro SIM and microSD slots. Thanks in part to the fixed back panel, the phone feels exceptionally rigid and robust - especially compared with other phones at this price. This does mean, however, that you can’t replace the battery or add a different coloured back panel for that personal touch.
The first Moto E had a dual-core processor, which simply wasn’t fast enough to run Android smoothly. The new quad-core processor here has no such trouble. Everything from loading web pages to opening apps was a breeze. Although the touchscreen can still sometimes suffer from poor responsiveness, it’s still a big improvement on its predecessor, and many other budget Android phones for that matter.
People with smallish hands will find the 4.5in screen a little unwieldy to use. It’s bright with accurate colours, although the contrast is pretty mediocre. More limiting is the 960x540-pixel resolution, which in a screen this large makes text look a little ragged. As a result, reading for long periods can be a strain on your eyes.
The camera’s only really good enough for quick snaps if you need a record of something or as a last resort when it’s the only camera to hand. With no flash to fall back on, shots taken in low light are dark and blurry, and therefore unusable. Noise was a common problem, even in photos taken in daylight, though these were well lit with reasonable levels of detail.
The Moto E 4G is one of the first phones to come with Android 5.0 Lollipop - all the more impressive given that many more expensive phones are stuck on earlier versions. We covered Lollipop’s major new features in our review of the Nexus 9 tablet. Motorola has wisely left Lollipop almost entirely unaltered, save for the addition of a few apps. The most useful is Alert. Once set up, it lets you quickly send messages to friends and family in an emergency and even informs them of your location.
Motorola has done it again - the Moto E is a bargain. While it’s not perfect (what is?), this is the ideal smartphone if money is tight. If you do have a little more cash at your disposable, then the 4G Moto G is still a great option, thanks to its sharper, higher-resolution screen and smoother responsiveness.
VERDICT: The best budget Android phone available.
SPECIFICATIONS
4.5in 960x540-pixel touchscreen • 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor • 400MHz Adreno 306 graphics chip • 1GB memory • 8GB storage • 4G • micro SIM • microSD • Android 5.0.2 Lollipop • 145g • 130x67x12mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty