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For the last few weeks I have been playing about with Android on the Moto E, Motorola's latest entry level smartphone. As you would expect from a phone you can buy sim free for £89 the Moto E is clearly a budget offering. However, overall my initial impressions over the last month have been extremely positive and it is certainly a lot of phone for the money.

The style of the Moto E is a continuation of that used on the Moto G and Moto X (although the Moto E is slightly shorter as a result of its smaller 4.3 inch screen) and feels very nice in the hand. Like its big brother the Moto G, the E supports swappable rear shells in a range of soft touch colours if you want to customise the look of the phone. The build quality of the Moto E is decent although not quite as solid as the lower end Nokia Lumia phones it competes with and the shell does flex slightly if gripped hard. The Moto E does however have a screen made from Gorilla Glass 3 (the latest version) and it should stand up well to normal wear and tear.

As a quick look at comparisons on YouTube will show, the dual core Snapdragon 200 processor in the Moto E is significantly slower than the quad core processors in the Moto G and the current crop of medium and high end phones. However, it is comparable with the processors in the flagship phones of only a couple of years ago and when coupled with the performance improvements in Android KitKat (4.4) aimed at lower end hardware the phone feels consistently responsive and even snappy in normal use. This relatively low end processor is also an advantage as when coupled with the large 1980 mAh battery and as a result the Moto E has very good battery life.  It will reliably last a full 24 hours and has on occasion (admittedly with relatively low use in an area with limited 3G coverage) lasted more than two days without needing to be charged.

 The Moto E also only has 4GB of built in internal storage although this can be supplemented with up to 32GB of microSD storage. This  should not be a problem for most users and while I am not a heavy user of apps or games I haven’t run into any issues as a result of the limited onboard storage. However, the limited built in storage may be an issue for those looking to install a lot of apps or large games which do not support being transferred to the microSD card.

Connectivity is another area where savings have been made to but without greatly affecting the day to day use of the phone. The Moto E does not have have 4G but with up to 21MBPS HSDPA this should not be a major problem for most users, especially those in rural areas without 4G coverage.   The Moto E also lacks NFC support although I was pleasantly surprised to find it does have Bluetooth LE and so should support the latest fitness trackers as well as the anticipated wave of smart watches.

While most of the choices made by Motorola to produce a phone for under £90 should not be particularly noticeable to most users the choice of display unfortunately will be. The relatively low resolution of 960 by 540 screen actually looks quite sharp as given the relatively small 4.3 inch screen the equates to  a screen density of 256 pixel per inch. However, the brightness, colour reproduction and viewing angles of the screen are all relatively poor in comparison with higher end phones.  This should not be a show stopper for most users and is reasonable for a budget offering such as the Moto E but you should probably try to get a look at a display model  if you use your phone  a lot in bright sunlight as the low brightness of the screen could be a deciding factor for you. 

The camera is probably the area where the economies necessary to make a £89 smartphone are most noticeable. There is no front facing camera at all and while there is a 5 megapixel rear sensor the Moto E has no flash and no autofocus. It is just about possible to take a passable landscape shot with the in bright daylight, but forget the camera on the Moto E in less than ideal conditions or for any macro or close up shots. This is forgivable given the price of the phone but is one of the major limitations of the Moto E  and as a result if you have any interest in smartphone photography or video calling this is not the phone for you. 

The audio on the Moto E is nothing to write home around but  voice quality for calls is decent and sound quality over headphones is good if unremarkable.  The front facing speakers (the sliver bars on the front of the phone above and below the screen) provide plenty of the volume but unsurprisingly for a budget phone are somewhat tinny especially at high volume.

The Moto E comes with virtually stock Android KitKat (it ships with 4.4.2) as well as a guaranteed update to Android L once it is released (which is as far as I am aware unique to the Motorola line).  While updates will not be as quick as the Nexus line from Google and only one update is guaranteed, they should be as close as any other model of phone  and this is a much cheaper way to get a stock Android experience than buying a Nexus. It is probably worth mentioning that thee has been a significant delay in the international roll out of the first update to Android 4.4.3 which was available on unlocked phones in the US a month ago but is still not available in the UK but compared to most Android phones this is not a big deal.

While the user interface is pretty much stock Motorola have added some of their own software and it's actually quite good, although the Motorola camera app is rather hobbled by the poor camera hardware.  In addition to the camera app the Moto E comes with Alert, Assist and Migrate Apps. The Alert app provides an easy way to alert  selected contacts and share your location with them if you feel unsafe. The Assist app automatically silences the phone at night and when you are in meetings (providing a range of options to allow certain contacts to bypass this or to respond to missed calls by text message). The Migrate app, as its name suggests, is intended to help migrate information from your previous phone although as I have used an Android phone before I did  not need to use this as my information synchronised directly from my google account. Nevertheless this could be a nice touch for first time Android users.

In conclusion the Moto E is a great little phone (although it still feels strange to call a phone with a 4.3 inch screen little) with a responsive stock Android experience at an amazing price. Given the Moto Alert app the Moto E would be particularly suited to a phone for a teenager. However, if you are interested in mobile photography you should look elsewhere and if you are a serious mobile gamer you also  might want to consider spending another £50 to £60 on the Moto E’s big brother the Moto G

Drew Craze (@MrBatwench)

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Ewen Rankin

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