Motorola Moto E was one of the underdogs last year at a selling price of just under $100 USD. Now for $149 USD, you will be getting a much improved version that is simply called Moto E 2015.
A refreshed version is always welcomed and in the case of Moto E 2015, we will be specifically looking at the LTE model. There’s not much difference in terms of hardware, but the negligible price difference justifies the selection of the LTE over the 3G model.
So what has changed nine months since the original Moto E was released? In a nutshell, the Moto E 2015 has twice the number of cores, faster processor, better memory (although same 1GB total), twice the internal storage size, bigger screen, larger battery size and Android Lollipop out of the box.
Obviously the biggest impact is on the performance as the Moto E 2015 is now equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 processor, Adreno 306 graphics and 1GB RAM. It could easily mean twice the performance of the original Moto E, and that’s a huge difference to begin with.
You can probably use it without facing any issues in running all the latest apps and games unless you are heavily into multitasking that is.
Then there’s the 0.2-inch increase in terms of the screen size that now stands at 4.5-inch and is blessed with the IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen. Somehow it feels just right but trust me, once you’ve laid your hands on other big screens devices; then you will feel that 4.5-inch is too small for you.
The IPS do help in terms of giving you a wider viewing angle, but at that screen size; doubt that you would be able to share it with a friend or two comfortably enough. The less than High Definition resolution might be another stumbling block as it only provides 540 x 960 pixels or ~245 ppi pixel density.
At least there’s the Gorilla Glass 3 that adds a degree of protection to the device.
The other significant difference is that the Moto E 2015 has a removable back plate that can be personalized. The phone only comes in black and white, but Motorola is offering six different colors plus a larger ‘Grip Shell’ for those with big hands.
Camera-wise, there’s not much progress being made as it is still using a 5 Megapixel primary camera as per its predecessor. Then you will also be getting a VGA camera for taking care of all your selfies.
You do know how terrible a VGA camera is right?
The good news is that for Moto E 2015, you are getting 8GB of internal storage that is double the amount of last year’s model. But in comparison with others in the same mid-range category, it is just average and nothing special.
There’s also a microSD slot to support your expansion plans for up to an additional 32GB.
The battery gets a considerably big upgrade as it went from 1980 mAh to the current 2390 mAh. That’s a 20% increase over there as you get to spend more time with the smartphone before it needs to be charged.
Let’s save the best for last shall we? The Moto E 2015 has the privilege of running the latest Android Lollipop 5.0 out of the box that is awesome news indeed. You know it is awesome if you have been following the updates from another manufacturer who seems to be slow in rolling out the updates to their devices.
Some promised to deliver since last year but until now have come short, so with this piece of news; the potential of the latest Android OS is fulfilled.
We’ve seen how Motorola Moto G has progressed over two years and the Moto E seems to be going through the same process although only one year has passed for them. At this price point, there are so many competitors out there and the strong edge that it seems to have over the rest is the availability of the latest Lollipop out of the box.
But that edge will wear out sooner rather than later once the rest roll out the update to their respective devices. So until that happens, Moto E 2015 is certainly worth buying.
The Motorola Moto E 2015 is currently on sale for $149 USD and is available in black and white.
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Eza EzamieCategory: Team WhaTech Profile: Tech junkie by profession and passionate about anything from the digital world, movies, games and reading. He loves writing and hopes you enjoy his writing as much as he does. Eza, is also known as Don in the virtual world, but don’t him me wrong, he's not a mafia type he's really a nice chap and a devout family guy.
