Motorola Moto E 2 (2015) Review

If you’re on a budget, and are planning on buying a new smartphone that has almost all the features of flagship phones, look no further – the Motorola Moto E 2 is only 150$.

Building on top of its predecessor, the new Moto E 2 is elegant and sports a comfortable design, with great battery life, 4G connectivity, and good build quality.

On the downside, you will encounter problems such as limited visibility while out-doors – the display is difficult to read, even with brightness set to max; a mediocre camera that is enough for selfies, or for sharing on Facebook – even if the primary camera has 5 MP, at 2592 х 1944 pixels, you won’t do much photography wise; performance problems – even though it comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7, Adreno 302 for the 3G model, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 306 for the LTE model, it feels like it has half of those stats.

Hardware

If you want to see how the smartphone industry is evolving its tech, the best way for you to do so is to buy budget phones. My first smartphone, that I paid more than 500$ at the time, didn’t even have half of the performance capabilities that the Moto E 2 has. Sure, it was not entirely made out of plastic, but the Moto E 2 doesn’t feel like a toy, it feels like a high-end phone – although it doesn’t act like it. It’s one of the most inexpensive smartphones around, but in all fairness it offers what you pay.

Even though the LTE model sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 306 the tech doesn’t seem to shine in any way. That’s a bad point for Motorola, because a smartphone user requires a fast paced device – playing a game on your morning commute doesn’t have to be stressful, nor infuriating when you try to answer a message. You end up waiting 5 minutes for it to acknowledge a task you have given, and hope it does not freeze due to high RAM usage. It has 1 GB of RAM, but it seems like its running on 256 mb trying to reach the moon – if you try to teach a fish to climb a tree, it will live its whole life thinking it is stupid.

The Moto E 2 comes with 8GB of internal memory, and you can add a microSD card up to 32GB. It’s more than enough for the average Joe.

The screen has been enlarged only by a bit – it’s now 4.5-inches, from 4.3-inches. Although it may seem like a minor change, it feels quite better in your hand now, like a real smartphone should feel. Motorola has removed the smooth edges from it too, so you can properly grip your phone, without worrying that it will slip from your hand.

With the added LTE model, your budget phone can be compared with high-end products regarding downloading and streaming media. But the resolution will not be on the same level – 540 x 960 pixels, qHD, seems off, more so when you try to read an article. Maybe I’m used to devices that offer a higher resolution, subsequently a higher definition. It’s not really a bad point for the Moto E 2, and I’m sure that you can get used to the lower resolution, and more so if it’s your first smartphone, you’ll probably won’t even mind it.

The primary camera stands at 5 MP, 2592 х 1944 pixels, and it also has auto-focus. Like I said before, it won’t do you any good if your planning on taking high quality photos. It does well if you want to post on Facebook, or share a picture with a friend, but that’s just it. It also has an added front camera – 0.3 MP VGA. It has been a long time since I read the word VGA – you can’t take proper pictures with the front camera, but you can video chat with your other pixelated friends.

Moto E 2’s display isn’t top notch, but it stands tall, and proud, amongst other devices that can found at the 150$ mark. IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, with 16M colors will work just great in-doors, but if you’re planning on reading the text, or trying to message someone back while you’re outdoors, well, then, you’ll have a bad time. Even with the brightness set to its maximum capacity, you’ll have to squeeze your eyes and make a face if you want to fully understand the text you’re looking at. But it shouldn’t be that much of a problem if you’re already adjusted with smartphones – it’s pretty user friendly, and you can work solely based on intuition. If not, just seek shelter under huge trees that mark the Earth with their shadows.

Software

Software-wise it’s better than most other smartphones. No, it doesn’t come with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. Some of you may be disheartened by the lack of Lollipop, but don’t fret just yet. You can install it by yourself. The strategy that Motorola has had with the Moto X back in 2013 has seemed to please owners. It doesn’t come bundled up with crapware that strain the smartphone. What it does is it adds apps from Plex, Revision3 and Flixster – and you will surely end up using them.

But, of course, you may choose to install Android 5.0.2 Lollipop that already comes bundled with a ton of cool apps, and it will make you forget the price range of your phone.

Having only just 1GB of RAM can put a strain on your gaming experience, or surfing on websites that have been optimized for mid-quality and up phones, but I didn’t encounter any latency problems playing Angry Birds, Into the Dead, checking out photos on Instagram, or just scrolling down on my Facebook news feed – that is, if I do one thing at a time, and wait for them to come up.

The 4G connectivity is arguably the biggest change from the previous model, and in an era where the internet is a part of our lives, and it’s constantly evolving into something more, 4G connectivity is a must!

Battery

The non-removable Li-Ion 2390 mAh battery fits the design perfectly – too bad we can’t change it with a spare. It’s one of Moto E 2‘s strong points, and we can compare it with Samsung Galaxy S5‘s battery – both devices can offer stand-by time up to 390 h, talk time up to 21 h, and music play up to 67 h. For a 150$ smartphone this is sublime. But let’s not get drunk on cold water here – it has an outstanding battery life, but if you crunch hard on apps all day long, it won’t last you more than 8 to 10 hours a day. Still good though.

Other tests show that after looping, continuously, a 720p video, the battery died after 10.5 h – that’s double of what last year’s model could stand.

The Competition

At this price range we can think of only a few that could stand alongside the Motorola Moto E 2. Sharp’s AQUOS Crystal for 149$, Lumia 640 LTE at 70$, and of course the Moto G that is a little bit more expensive that the E – it’s about 180$. Let’s break them down.

Sharp AQUOS Crystal

149$
TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
5.0 inches, with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels
Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat)
Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400
CPU: Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU: Adreno 305
Internal memory of 8 GB, with the possibility of adding a microSD card up to 128GB, sporting 1.5GB RAM
Primary camera stands at 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels
Secondary camera stands at 1.2 MP
Li-Ion 2040 mAh battery – up to 13 h of talk time

Lumia 640 LTE

70$
IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
5.0 inches, with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, sporting Corning Gorilla Glass 3, ClearBlack display
Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim
Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400
CPU: Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU: Adreno 305
Internal memory of 8 GB, with the possibility of adding a microSD card up to 128GB, sporting 1GB RAM
Primary camera stands at 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels
Secondary camera stands at 1 MP, 720p
Li-Ion 2500 mAh battery – up to 864 h standy-by, and up to 26 h 30 min talk-time

Moto G

180$
IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
5.0 inches, with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, sporting Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Android OS, v4.4.4 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.0 (Lollipop)
Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8226 Snapdragon 400
CPU: Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU: Adreno 305
Internal memory of 8 GB, with the possibility of adding a microSD card up to 32GB, sporting 1GB RAM
Primary camera stands at 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels
Secondary camera stands at 2 MP
Non-removable Li-Ion 2070 mAh battery

The one that seems to stand out is the Lumia 640 LTE. For 70$ it rivals Moto E 2 at everything – it even has a better secondary camera that stands at 1MP, 720p. The only complaint we have is that it runs on Windows Phone 8.1. I, for one, am not a fan of Windows Phone. I had only miserable experiences with Microsoft’s OS, and it will be another 10 years from now until I try it again.

The Conclusion

If you’re looking for a cheap smartphone just for that long talk-time battery life, that also has some of the capabilities of high-end products, then the Motorola Moto E 2 is the one for you. But if you’re planning on multi-tasking, and having as many apps as possible on the screen, while at the same time sending and receiving text messages, then you should probably look for a different phone that has its strengths in performance, not battery life.

It’s a good phone, and at the end of the day I can give it a score of 7. I will most likely keep using my Samsung Galaxy S5, and I will not change it even for the S6, but if I had to choose between the Motoral Moto E2, Sharp AQUOS Crystal, Lumia 640 LTE, and the Moto G, I would definitely go for the E2. Not only do I love what it can do technically wise, but the design, how the phone feels in your hand just adds a little bit more magic to it.

The only thing that I hate about the device is the horrible camera that they decided to put into the phone. Yes, I can wait for my apps to open, but I can’t stand the VGA camera at all. It’s a major drawback when you see it in action, and deep inside you regret their poor choice. But yet again, for 150$ I can’t wish for HD quality.

Motorola has stated that it will come only in: Black or White. But you can change the bands – Golden Yellow, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry, Purple, Red – and grip shells – Golden Yellow, Charcoal, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry – they are sold separately.

Are you planning on buying the Motorola Moto E2? Or are you going to wait for another option that will rival with Motorola?

Image Source: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.