**Why You're Probably Paying Way Too Much for Your Phone**
Hey guys, this is Austin and today I'm here with a video going over why you're probably paying way too much for your phone.
Earlier this year, I reviewed the Moto G, a phone that's a lot better than its price would suggest. I honestly thought that was about as good as it gets on a budget, but Motorola wasn't done there. For $130 off contract, the new Moto E is a very, very good smartphone.
However, this is only half of the story. It doesn't make much sense to save all that money in buying the Moto E and then spend $100 a month on cell service, so for testing, I went with SIMPLE Mobile, a prepaid carrier here in the US. Once everything is set up, it's totally seamless.
SIMPLE Mobile uses T-Mobile's network, so you get coverage basically everywhere, meaning you're really not giving up anything. Besides the camera, I've been happy with the Moto E's performance in normal day-to-day use, especially with the great battery life. It comes in a design that's not too far off from the Moto X, with the same nice curves and relatively small size, which makes it feel great in the hand.
It is a bit on the thicker and heavier side, but that doesn't stop it from being a very nice phone to use. Pop off the back, and you can get at the MicroSD card slot, which is important as the Moto E only comes with 4GB of storage out of the box. If you want to customize the look, you can buy different-colored backplates, which snap on and off without too much trouble.
**Don't Get Caught Up in Spec Comparison**
Now it's easy to get caught up in a spec comparison when you're shopping for a new phone. How many megapixels does it have? How fast is the processor? What resolution is the screen? All of these are important questions, and yet they definitely don't tell the entire story.
If all you look at are the raw numbers, the Moto E falls a fair bit behind its more expensive competition. As far as the internals go, there's just no way a $130 phone will match the specs of devices costing three times the price. Actually use the Moto E though, and you'd be hard pressed to notice a major difference at all.
**Real-World Performance**
To give you an example, I have the Moto E side by side with the new LG G3. Now, the G3 is a very expensive phone; it's very powerful, and it's better in a lot of ways, however responsiveness is surprisingly close. So we can go ahead and open up the app drawer on both phones – you'll see that the Moto E actually has a slight advantage.
Go ahead and hit the home button together right now – about the same, open up multitasking, and jump into settings; you'll see that the Moto E absolutely has no problem keeping up or even being just a little bit faster than a phone that's over five times the price. Part of the reason the Moto E is so responsive is that it's running nearly stock Android KitKat.
**Motorola's Software Updates**
This paired with Motorola's lightning-quick updates are something I wish everyone would just copy. Of course, there are areas where the budget price is more noticeable. The rear camera is a pretty unremarkable 5-megapixel shooter that lacks a flash or autofocus and produces pretty mediocre pictures. It's the same story with the video – so the Moto E tops out at 480p on the video side, which actually isn't the worst thing I've seen, however it definitely would be nice to have a little bit more resolution.
One thing I will say positively about it though is that it does a really good job of cutting out the wind noise. So it is very windy where I'm standing right now; however, it does a pretty good job of dealing with it. Oddly, there's also no front-facing camera either – not the end of the world, but of all the things to cut this seems like a bit much.
**The Screen**
Thankfully, a place Motorola didn't skimp is with the screen. We're looking at a 4.3-inch display, which is actually quite nice; it's got good viewing angles, and it's not too harsh on the eyes – so all in all, a very solid effort from Motorola.