Moto E (2nd Generation) Detailed Review : An Affordable Android Lollipop powered Smartphone

Motorola has updated its fairly successful Moto E with a new version called Moto E  Second Generation. Officially launched in March, this new smart phone is available for sale online like all other phones from the company. The Moto E (2^nd Generation) is available in both 3G and 4G variants.

Our team of experts got a chance to inspect the phone and came up with a detailed overview as below.

Unboxing the pack: The phone comes in a white box in which you will find the Moto E (Second Generation) along with its user manual, headset, charger cum USB cable and warranty card.

Design and Display: The Moto E (2^nd Gen.) is made up of a rigid  plastic body available in matte white or black. It is slightly curved on all edges, and features a small indentation beneath the camera. This gives it a stylish look. We found it comfortable to hold and grip. The Moto E (2nd Gen.) has a 4.5-inch Gorilla Glass screen and 960×540 display. We tested its display by playing some video samples of movie trailers and songs. What we observed is that, its resolution is at a low end .The screen can become little blurred  at times, especially when the phone is held closer to the eyes, but under the normal usage it has a fair display. Colors look accurate and viewing angles are good. There is a speaker and front VGA camera on the top of the screen. The 3.5mm headphone socket is provided on the top edge while the bottom of the device has a micro USB port. Volume control and Power button is on the right side of the screen. It has a dimension of 5.11 x 2.62 x 0.48 inches and weighs 5.11 ounces. This fits perfectly in pocket and hand purse. It is layered with a water- resistant packing.

Brightness meter test for Moto G and Moto E (2^nd Gen.)

Moto E => 393 nits

Moto G => 303 nits

This shows that it has a brighter than Moto G and an most smartphones having an average score of 371 nits.

Sound: The audibility of the Moto E (2^nd Gen.) is softer that most of the smartphones. We tested the speaker for audio frequency and came up with a 74 dB value which is little less than average value of 80.9 dB. The phone’s speaker is not made for party and loud sound.

Storage Efficiency: The processing unit of new Moto E (2nd Gen.) is the mix of 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor and 1GB RAM. It runs on cortex quad core A7 processor and when it comes to gaming. We tried certain games like, Temple Run 2, Asphalt 8 and Sonic The Hedgehog. It was noted that Temple Run 2 took a while to load on a fresh start, but when switching between apps, it started back up without any problem. The browsing is smooth and response time is handy enough. The low on storage space for apps in Moto E first generation phone is enhanced by providing a  8/16GB internal space.

Moto E(2^nd Generation) Camera: The phone is equipped with a 5 MP shooter at the rear which is Auto Focus but missed on LED flash .The Moto E first generation was hugely criticized due to lack of front camera. The updated second generation Moto E comes with a useful VGA camera at front. While this may not be a good option for taking selfies, yet it may be helpful while making video calls. The software for camera is a custom Motorola app and is easy to operate.

Battery: The handset  underlays  a non-removable 2390 mAh battery, which is more powerful than the  Moto E’s 1980 mAh battery. It can easily give a battery life of a day and more. Even the 4G variant can perform quite decent with this battery. The drop in battery charge was between 4 to 7 percent when viewing full HD videos or while playing heavy games in full brightness and data connection on for a period of 20 -25 minutes. The heat up issue is not much.

Operating System: The Moto E (2nd Gen.) runs on latest Android 5.0.2. This will provide a new experience as most devices are still coming with Android KitKat 4.4.

Moto apps: Moto E (2nd Gen.) features custom Moto apps for easy accessibility.

Some of the apps are:

• Moto Assist It will automatically silence the phone during sleep hours and meetings and can it can also send auto-replies to missed calls from your favorite contacts.
• Moto Actions – It will enable you to activate the camera from anywhere just by twisting your hand-wrist a couple of times. This app works fine with the screen off and while the camera takes a moment to activate, the feature still gets you ready to take a shot pretty fast.
• Moto Display – It will show clock and other important notifications and lets you catch with important updates.
• Moto Alert – It can be activated to get useful alerts and warning messages.
• Moto Migrate – It lets you easily move data and contacts from different platforms.

Wrap up Note: The phone is a budget phone with decent price tag, good  battery life and solid built. It may face tough competition from the other smartphones like Lenovo A6000 and Xiaomi Redmi 2.