Moto E 2nd Gen review – better than its predecessor

The Moto E 2^nd Gen smartphone is here for a price tag of Rs. 6,999. If you may recall the 1^st generation Moto E was also launched with the same price tag. The new Moto E is better, more powerful and running Lollipop out of the box.

Inside the Box
Moto E 2^nd Gen handset, standard quality earphone, travel charger with attached micro USB pin, warranty card and quick start guide in Hindi and English languages.

Design, Display and OS
The 2^nd gen Moto E looks almost similar to the 1^st gen handset, however there are some changes and the design is also a little different. You can open up the back panel on the 1st Gen handset but on the 2^nd gen handset there is a Motorola band that can be removed, it is a side skeleton (check images), the battery is completely covered. It seems to be totally sealed, I guess the service center guys will be able to access the battery if needed. The Moto Band is available in different colours you can buy those to add a new look to the handset (colourful sides).

Just like its predecessor the new Moto E is bulky and not at all slim. Weight with battery is 146 grams and it is 11.83mm thick (dimensions are 67 x 129.71 x 11.83 mm). Handset is thicker in the center body and gets slimmer towards the edges.

Power button and volume rocker is placed on the right side. There is a 3.5mm audio jack on the top side and a micro USB port on the bottom side. There are dual Mics for noise cancellation.

The rear side is very soft to touch, feels like rubber and gives a very good grip. The Moto Band has got textures (lines) that again helps get a good grip. Build quality and finishing is very good and handset does look really tough.

This is a dual SIM handset with 3G support; you will need 2 micro SIM’s. The dual SIM slots and micro SD card slot are placed on the left side – you will need to remove the Moto Band to access it.

2^nd gen Moto E sports a slightly bigger screen of 4.5 inches with qHD i.e. 960 x 540 pixels resolution. Colour reproduction is good and viewing angles are okay (not that great). Screen is with gorilla glass protection and touch response is very, very smooth.

There are 3 sensors – accelerometer, proximity and light.

The handset is running Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop) out of the box.

Memory and Storage
There is 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. You will get around 4.3GB free space for apps / personal storage and about 542MB free RAM on the first boot. There is micro SD card slot. Apps are getting installed on the internal storage by default but after installation, some of the apps can be moved to external storage to free up internal storage space.

I tried connecting an OTG pendrive, it did not work, OTG is not supported.

Performance
This handset houses the qualcomm snapdragon 400 1.2GHz cortex A7 quad core processor (MSM8926) with Adreno 305 GPU as show by Antutu and CPU-Z apps, but Motorola official website has specifically mentioned that the chipset is snapdragon 200.

The Quadrant benchmark app is showing MSM8212 chipset that look accurate however it is showing 305 GPU instead of 302.

Overall performance is good and the animations on the lollipop OS works pretty smooth.

Gaming
I played Asphalt 8. The game got installed on internal storage. Game was playable in highest visual quality mode but there was a very mild lag, I then played in medium mode, game play was much better.

Camera and Entertainment
The handset can play full HD videos. There is 5MP rear AF camera without LED flash and VGA camera on the front. Native video calling is not supported. Rear camera still picture quality is much better when compared with 1^st Gen Moto E, however the handset still shoots is max 864 x 480 pixels resolution. Check sample images and videos at the end.

Others
No issues as such, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth worked well. GPS lock was almost instant. Sound is loud and clear, the sound output (loudness) is slightly lower than as experienced on the 1^st Gen Moto E. This could be because of the speaker out that is combined with the in-call speaker (there is a single speaker vent on the front top that houses both loudspeaker and an in-call speaker).

Some features as seen on the Moto G handsets have also been incorporated – for example when the handset is idle (screen off) and you move / hold the phone the screen will turn on showing the time and notification if any, without having to touch the screen or press any buttons.

Battery
The handset comes with a non-removable 2390 mAh battery that does a very good job. With mixed usage it will easily last for over a day. The handset also doesn’t heat up much.

Verdict
The Moto E 2^nd Gen is an improved version of the 1^st Gen Moto E. If you are planning to get the Moto E better get the Moto E 2^nd Gen. Overall a very good, sturdy handset running Lollipop.

It is a good option of the price tag of Rs. 6,999 however it still cannot beat the Lenovo A6000.

Moto E (2nd Gen) is available on Flipkart.

Image Gallery

Rear camera samples

Front camera samples