Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Smartphones for emerging markets are a thing now. We’re seeing a race to the bottom in terms of price but smartphone manufacturers are pulling all the stops to recreate the smartphone experience found on more expensive devices. Motorola’s first salvo was the Moto G, which in 6 months has proved itself to be the best selling smartphone for the company and enjoyed shipment of 150,000 units in Canada alone. Now the Moto E is taking things down a notch and to a whole new level.
There’s now new competition in smartphones and it isn’t about the best specs, largest screens, biggest storage or fastest data connections. The challenge is to create the cheapest, most flexible and universally viable platform for emerging markets and the entry level of the smartphone segment.
Motorola, soon to be part of the Lenovo stable, is upping the ante by lowering the spec sheet. The Moto E, is their budget model and it is available without contract for $179.99. The thing is, it doesn’t feel or look like a budget phone. In terms of specs, performance and build quality, it is surprisingly respectable.
The Moto E, coming to Canada in June, takes the best aspects of the Moto G and distills the feature set to make the device more affordable. You lose some processor power, the LED flash on the rear camera, the front-facing camera and there’s not option for LTE connectivity (although the Moto E does have data speeds that adhere to the HSPA+ speeds in certain networks).
The built-in storage space has also been reduced to around 4GB which is very quickly taken up if you’re moving from a larger capacity device. Thankfully, there’s a microSD card slot that can expand storage to 32GB, something that the original Moto G didn’t have and which people said they wanted.
Being the budget model, one would think that Motorola would have offered the Moto E in black and white and have been done with it. Not so. There’s a plethora of removable rear covers in various colours and finishes, which means the personalization-focus of the Moto X still continues down the line.
The Moto E has a 4.3-inch screen, which is covered in Gorilla Glass III for protection. A nano-coating ensures some basic splash-resistance and a large battery life ensure uninterrupted use for at least a day and a half.
The Moto E feels sturdy and tough but also refined. The advantage of being the third model in a line of similarly designed devices means Motorola has figured out how to do things more cheaply without compromising integrity.
This integrity continues to the Moto E’s look and feel, which means that it looks and feels more expensive than it is and it performs admirably in tasks that matter most to its intended user demographic.
Motorola stressed that the Moto E is a replacement for feature phones and the gateway for these users to discover Android as well as a more connected and interactive smartphone experience. This means apps, HD video, music playback, photos, as well as instant messaging and social media all in one device.
Noted, there already exist devices that are cheap and can do all these things, but none do it better than the Moto E. Nokia’s own entry into the Android low-end is the impressive Nokia X, and while this is a great first step into using Android to recover Nokia’s lost ground in emerging markets, it feels less than accomplished.
That device, which isn’t sold in North America, is slow, doesn’t use Google’s Services and requires various workarounds to get the apps we’re used to. To users in the emerging markets, it is a good first smartphone and from a company they know and trust. The Moto E is better in every way.
The choice of processor, screen technology and just the bespoke Motorola software provide a more complete experience.
Call quality on the Moto E was superb even as I bunny-hopped providers in Canada. The final version of the Moto E will even be useful to Wind and Mobilicity users. Battery life is stellar and plows on with Zombie-like persistence. I had the Moto E off the charger for close to three days, I can’t remember the last time I experienced that with a modern smartphone.
The Moto design language is strong and pronounced with the Moto E, some people wanted to know if it was a Moto X, even if when placed side by side the more elegant X, the E seems rather plump and stubby.
Despite this and the minor weight increase, the Moto E feels good in the hand, it follows the shape and contour of the human hand and face and it is very intuitive to use with very little hint of customization from Motorola.
The Moto E isn’t for anyone coming from a flagship device, the running out of storage-space messages that come after each new app is installed are sure to cause panic and confusion.
While it performs better than many mid-range devices, the Moto E is a budget phone designed for pre-paid users or travelers needing a good device to use while abroad. It is a brilliant emerging market play and an equally impressive device for the majority of cellphone users stepping up to affordable smartphone-hood.
The Moto E continues borrowing from the Moto X’s blueprint and further distills the Moto G experience resulting in a no-frills device that can bring new users around the world into the smartphone fold. That in itself is quite an accomplishment.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5