A Budget Friendly Alternative: A Review of the Moto E
As I began my week-long test with the new Moto E, I wanted to acknowledge that this smartphone is very budget oriented, priced at $150. This is a significant difference from other devices on the market, and it's essential to understand what this means for the user experience. The Moto E comes in two versions: one with LTE capabilities, which will be the focus of my review, and a $120 version without LTE.
The unique feature of the Moto E is its removable bezels instead of a traditional back panel. This design choice allows users to easily swap out the bezels for different colors, which I was excited to test during my review period. However, this means that there's no option for a removable battery or storage expansion via a microSD card slot. The phone comes with 8GB of internal storage, which is still not a lot compared to other devices on the market.
The first impression of the Moto E's screen was a pleasant surprise. Although it has a resolution of 960x540 and is only 4.5 inches in size, I didn't expect much from this budget device. However, considering its small size, the screen doesn't look bad at all. Upon closer inspection, I can see individual pixels, but for $150, I'm not complaining about that. The screen's echoey sound quality was a bit of an issue, but I think it's more noticeable when using a speakerphone or watching videos.
The Moto E is designed to be compact and easy to carry around, making it an excellent choice for those with smaller hands or who prefer a more discreet phone. Its size is very similar to the original Moto X, which was another favorite of mine. Coming from the iPhone 6 Plus, I appreciate how this device fits neatly into my pocket without being too bulky.
Performance-wise, the Moto E has held up well during my review period. Running on stock Android Lollipop makes a huge difference in terms of smoothness and responsiveness. During a travel day, I was able to use the phone seamlessly while listening to podcasts, music, and scrolling through social media platforms like Twitter without any significant issues. The only times when performance felt slightly laggy were during instances of multitasking.
Speaking of multitasking, one minor drawback of this device is its limited 1GB of RAM. This can cause occasional freezing or slowing down, especially when performing complex tasks. However, these instances are rare and don't seem to be a major concern given the phone's budget price.
One feature that stood out during my review period was the front-facing speaker quality. The ability to play audio without needing earbuds made it an excellent choice for commutes or on-the-go situations. Although its VGA resolution is quite noticeable, especially with makeup applied, I appreciate this convenient feature nonetheless.
The camera on the Moto E is another area where the budget constraint shows up. With a 5-megapixel sensor and no autofocus capabilities in the original model, it's not impressive compared to high-end smartphones. However, at least this device has made an effort to improve upon those aspects with its latest iteration. The autofocus feature on the new Moto E is still not top-notch, but I appreciate that there's been some progress.
The battery life of the Moto E has been another area where budget devices often struggle. Fortunately, my experience was different. After using the phone for 4 hours straight and reaching only 25% capacity, I noticed no significant issues with power consumption or heat generation.
One thing that truly surprised me during my review period is how much I enjoyed using the Moto E as if it were any other high-end smartphone. With its LTE capabilities, better specs, and improved camera, this budget device has become a reliable companion in my daily life. While it's not perfect – there are certainly areas for improvement – $150 is an excellent price to pay for such a capable device.
I'd like to hear from the readers! How do you feel about this format for reviewing devices? Are there any other features or aspects of smartphones that you think should be prioritized in reviews? Your comments and feedback are much appreciated, and I may even create more content based on your suggestions.
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSo I want to do something a little different with this videoThis is the new Moto E and this is going to be my only phone for the next week.The thing you have to keep in mind is that the Moto E is a very, VERY budget oriented smartphone.We're talking about $150 here. This is a version with LTE, a little bit later on there's going to be a$120 version that does not have LTE so the battery life probably won't be too bad on the Moto E we'll find out,but the camera I'm a little bit worried about.So, instead of having a removable back panel,we actually have the removable bezels, so once you pop it offyou'll be able to see on the right side you have the option for a micro SD card.Which is important although not quite as much as on the original Moto Ewhich only had four gigabytes of storage.This comes with eight gigabytes out of the box which still isn't a lot,so if you're gonna be using this you'll probably want to throw in a micro SD card, but for my week little testI think I should be fine, and because the bezels are removable that means you can swap them out with different colors.So I have the white and red combo here which actually I think looks pretty good in person.It's really echoey in hereSo first impressions are, the screen is not so bad. So it's not even HD, it's 960x540,but considering that the screen is only 4.5 inches it actually doesn't look bad.I mean, yes if I look closely I can absolutely see pixels,but for $150 I'm not complaining.So after one day with the Moto E I've got to say one thing.This is an awesome size for a phone.Now I really like the original Moto X, and this is almost the exact same size.It's a little bit thicker and slightly bigger in a couple dimensions, but overall, especially coming from the iPhone 6 plusThis is awesome. It actually fits in my pocketIt's really easy to kind of just hold and use in one hand.Performance really isn't bad.Now, I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that's running stock lollipop which makes a huge differenceSo, today was a travel day and the Moto E did great. So I decided to take along the Moto 360 todayWhich is kind of funny considering that the watch costs $100 more than the phone, but they're a great combo.One thing I really appreciated today was having LTE, something that the original Moto E, and even the current Moto G lack.So I'm traveling especially in busy places like airportsUsually it's really difficult to get a decent signal however because it has LTE was actually able to do just fineI was streaming Youtube, you know the catch up with Twitter all that kind of stuffNo problem all day long, but I like that it's also still really impressing meSo after using the phone all day to listen to PodCasts,music, as well as keep up with Twitter and all that kind of stuffI've still got 25 percent, and that's from 4 hours of screen on time.Now the phone did get slightly laggy on me a couple times today, usually when I was multitaskingSometimes it would freeze for 3, 4 maybe 5 seconds, before it would finally catch up.Now, this is a lower end phone, and it only does have one gigabyte of RAM. It's not a big deal, and it only happenedand it only happened maybe like two or three times in the entire day.But you can sometimes notice it's really trying to struggle to keep up, so this is the Moto E. This is a $150 phone,What do you think?The front speaker is definitely a nice feature that I kind of wish that we had as well,Because I will turn on like a podcast or something and if I don't want to have earbuds or somethingand I'm on the run, I don't have my Bluetooth speaker, I'll just turn it on just to have something.No, I want to focus on my face, okay!It's just really great. It's really great. (It's like VGA.) It's really grainy considering how much makeup I've got.Okay, I mean seriously.Hey, (don't know what they said)That's how,(Thumbnail) so it's a 5 megapixel camera, but the thing is the last one didn't even have AutoFocus,It was really bad this one at least has autofocus. It's not, terrible.I'm impressed. I'm impressed that this phone is $150......like total, not like with a contractSo tomorrow is going to be my last day with the Moto E,I think the thing that's really jumped out at me most about this is that there really are no major drawbacksSure, it's not the fastest phone in the world, it doesn't have the best screen or the best camerabut I've used this just like we'd use any other high-end smartphone all week long and it is not let me down.So after one week with the new Moto E, I think the verdict is pretty clear.First of all this is a major upgrade over the original.You're getting LTE,Better specs, (twice as much memory, a much better rear-facing camera and an actual front-facing one). Is it perfect? No.However for $150 it would be hard-pressed to do much betterSo, I'm interested to know, what do you guys think about this format for doing reviews.Let me know in the comments below and if you enjoy it I might make a few more.Thank you so much for watching and I will catch you in the next one
