Barcelona, March 5 – Motorola’s new Moto E aka the Moto E (2nd generation) would launch in India in the coming days. The likely date is March 10. We will have more to say about the device once it is here in India.
But while that will take some days, we checked out the device at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and we can give you a rough idea of what you can expect from the new Moto E. In terms of looks and design, the new Moto E is not all that different from the older model.
But the build quality seems slightly better. The finishing is better and the plastic used to make the shell of the device has a better feel to it. The new Moto E is slightly bigger – but has the same 12.3mm thick body.
The difference between the old and new Moto E is so marginal in terms of dimensions that it is not going to be apparent to the users. The new one fits in hands as effortlessly as the old one, largely because of the well-rounded shape and subtly curved back.
The changes between the new and old Moto E are in the hardware. The new one comes with a bigger screen – 4.5-inch compared to the 4.3-inch – though resolution remains the same 540p.
This gives the new Moto E slightly less dense pixel pitch if you go by numbers but in during actual use, it is not noticeable. In fact, the new Moto E has a better screen. It shows punchier colours and has better viewing angles.
This is almost in class of the Moto G screen, although we feel the brightness is still less than optimal. But considering the price the new Moto E is going to carry, we feel that it will be a compromise we can make.
The performance is another aspect where the difference is very much apparent. The new Moto E, at least for daily use, is going to be as fast as any other Android phones. During the brief time we spent with it, we didn’t notice any lag, dropped frames, freezes, missed swipe etc on the new Moto E. Apps open quickly, the scrolling is smooth, and switching between tasks is effortless.
Obviously much of this is because of the improved hardware in the phone. The Moto E that we tried was running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 processor, though in India, the company is likely to launch the one with the Snapdragon 400 processor (3G version) to replace the old Moto E. But much of it is also because of the Android Lollipop.
Motorola is using an almost unmodified version of Android Lollipop aka pure Android on the Moto E. This means almost all Lollipop features, including app drawer with white background is available on the new Moto E.
This is also a surprise because the old Moto G, which has hardware very similar to the new Moto E, did not get these Lollipop user interface features.There is much more to Moto E than design and performance. For example, we know nothing about its actual battery life, camera performance and network performance etc.
We will explore these details in our review of the phone when the device is available in India. But for now we can say that the new Moto E looks like a worthy upgrade to the India’s most popular budget phone of 2014. For more, stay tuned.
-INDIA TODAY
