Motorola Moto E: Price, specifications, features and comparison

After leaving the Indian market in 2011, Motorola made a comeback last year with the Moto G, and how. Its first Smartphone post the comeback shook the Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 segment in the country. Motorola’s retail model, where it only sells phone via Flipkart, may seem restricting to many, but that didn’t stop the Moto G to become the best selling Smartphone in the company’s history. The Moto G was followed by the flagship Moto X, which was in fact launched much before in August last year. The device priced in the Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 range took a different path to its competitors — putting user experience ahead of the specification race. While its success may not have touched the dizzying heights of the Moto G, it nonetheless managed to impress many. Now, Motorola is back with another device, which too seems like a contender to shakeup the entry-level segment. Let’s have a detailed look at the Motorola Moto E.

MOTOROLA MOTO E PRICE IN INDIA
The Moto E is priced at Rs 6,999, which is quite aggressive. Motorola is focusing on changing the perception of entry-level devices and wants to offer first time Smartphone users a premium and well built device.

MOTOROLA MOTO E DESIGN
At first glance the Moto E looks quite similar to the Moto G, but look closer and you will see that the back panels have a different pattern, and there is no front-facing camera. In terms of dimensions, the Moto E (64.8×124.8×12.3mm) is shorter, less wide and slimmer than the Moto G (65.9×129.9×11.6mm)

The customization options include removable back panels, with up to nine different colored panels to choose from.

MOTOROLA MOTO E HARDWARE
DISPLAY – A 4.3-inch qHD display may not sound much, but you have to remember that no other tier-one company offers this kind of resolution in this price segment. The display is quite sharp and does a decent job in reproducing colors. Motorola has also added Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, which means the display won’t be easily scratched.

PROCESSOR – The device is powered by a Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and paired with Adreno 302 GPU. Motorola again gets one over its competitors by including a 1GB of RAM, where other companies only provide 512MB of RAM.

STORAGE – You get 4GB of internal storage of which only about 2.22GB is available for users. But on the plus side, there is a microSD card slot to expand the memory up to 32GB.

CAMERAS – There is a 5-megapixel rear camera, which is the same as the Moto G, but unfortunately it isn’t accompanied by a flash. The camera does an okay job at capturing images, but more often than now you would wish you had a flash. Selfie lovers won’t be happy to hear that there is no front camera.

BATTERY – There is a 1,980mAh battery, which the company claims is good enough to last for a day.

EXTRAS – Like the Moto G and the Moto X, the Moto E has a nano coating on the inside as well as the outside. The coating will ensure your device is protected from an occasional splash of water. The coating also ensures there aren’t any ugly flaps covering the ports.

CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS – Besides the usual connectivity options like 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the Moto E also has dual-SIM card slots. The dual-SIM functionality is quite smart in the sense that it keeps monitoring your usage and then automatically selects the SIM based on the contact you are calling.

MOTOROLA MOTO E SOFTWARE
The Motorola Moto E runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat and Motorola has also promised that the device will get at least one more OS update. Additionally, Motorola has also introduced a host of new features like Moto Alert, Instant SMS and Emergency Mode. Moto Alert will automatically alert preset contacts when you leave a particular location, Instant SMS will send a text with your location to preset contacts in emergency situations, and in Emergency mode, the device will call a preset contact or sound an alarm.

MOTOROLA MOTO E FIRST IMPRESSIONS
We got to spend some time with the device and you can read our first impressions of the device here.

MOTOROLA MOTO E COMPARISONS
At the price point, the Moto E will be up against the likes of the Sony Xperia E1 Dual, Nokia X and the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 among others. All the devices feature dual-core processors, 4GB expandable memory and are priced under Rs 9,000. The Moto E has the best display in terms of resolution, most RAM (1GB) and the biggest battery. It also runs on the latest Android KitKat and will get a guaranteed update. In the photography department, only Samsung offers a VGA front facing camera, while the rest don’t have one.

FEATURES	MOTOROLA MOTO E	SONY XPERIA E1 DUAL	NOKIA X	SAMSUNG GALAXY S DUOS 2
DISPLAY	4.3-inch qHD	4-inch WVGA	4-inch WVGA	4-inch WVGA
PROCESSOR	1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 dual-core	1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 dual-core	1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core	1.2GHz dual-core
RAM	1GB	512MB	512MB	768MB
STORAGE	4GB expandable	4GB expandable	4GB expandable	4GB expandable
CAMERAS (REAR/FRONT)	5-megapixel/ -	3-megapixel/ -	3-megapixel/ -	5-megapixel/VGA
BATTERY	1,980mAh	1,700mAh	1,500mAh	1,500mAh
Operating System	Android 4.4.2 KitKat	Android 4.3 Jelly Bean	Nokia Software Platform	Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
PRICE	Rs 6,999	Rs 8,363	Rs 6,955	Rs 8,305