Gadgetory

in sunny San Francisco I just got fresh off of a meeting with Motorola to take a look at their new budget device hey it's Josh of agora from Android Authority and this is the Moto e moto moves on to yet another part of the alphabet to bring you a budget device that is not only accessible to people in the international market which it is definitely tackling but it's still able to be taken advantage of by users in the West and in North America especially with its lower price point this is probably one of the best entry points available for anybody who has not had just an Android phone but a smart phone in general when you have the design of the phone you take a look at basically a design language that's very similar to previous devices like the Moto G and the Moto X and that gives you the curve on the back that gives it a bit of a pebble like design but also with a 4.3 inch display this phone is very very easy to maneuver in one hand and you are actually able to pretty much grip the entire phone in your hand as well customization is also available on the Moto e as the Motorola shells as they're calling them will be made of applicable to this device with a number of different colors available for the back cover which is quite easily removable but just because the back cover is removable it doesn't mean that Moto compromised on the overall build quality indeed there's a bit of a heft to the phone and overall it just feels very sturdy but there are some aspects that add to it for example the display is coated in an anti-smudge coating but is also made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and the entire device has been coated in a material from p2i that allows it to have some water resistance as well so you'll be able to have the phone take a tumble or even a splash and you'll still come back wanting more at 4.3 inches the screen might be one of the smallest that you end up using especially if you're used to the larger 5-inch screens out there but nonetheless the resolution here comes in at 960 by 540 which is a qHD display that also has 256 pixels per inch but that being said what the smaller size display it still performs quite well I found text to still be quite good in terms of its sharpness and after that I threw on a couple of videos in this case the Transformers trailer and I still found that it was enjoyable even if I was more used to larger screens that still was enjoyable to use even if I had to squint a little bit because the screen is that much smaller underneath the hood the Snapdragon 200 is the dual-core processor that you get in the Moto e that let's put this way it pretty much gets the job done it is not going to be able to handle a lot of the more advanced tasks that some Android users are needed out there but moto has told us that that is not necessarily the demographic that the Moto e is going for anyway this is a phone that is made for anybody who's never had a smartphone before oranges need something that pretty much just works and doesn't need to do anything else above and beyond the core experience that is found in Android 4.4.2 which is what is installed in here I did play some of the Angry Birds racing game on here and yes I did find slowdown in more intense portions of the game but that did not stop me from having fun with it as I was still able to complete a couple levels with really not too many hiccups at all while there might be some stutter and a little bit of slowdown in some of those portions of the game it still did not keep me from enjoying what was happening on the screen after that you have one gigabyte of RAM for multitasking as compared to the 512 megabytes of RAM that's found on a lot of other devices in the same price range which is a bit of a feather in the cap of the Moto e and after that you also have expandable storage now eight gigabytes is what you get built into the phone but a micro SD card slot found underneath the removable back cover will allow you expandability of only up to 32 gigabytes as far as the battery life goes yes having a dual core processor definitely helps with the overall power consumption but ultimately having a nineteen eighty milliamp hour battery unit inside which is a capacity that you don't always often see in phones of this price range and also in this size moto is claiming basically that that large battery for this phone will last all day and with all day battery mode oh really is trying to create a phone that is ultimately reliable for pretty much any user now of course with the lowered spec sheet all around we're not going to be seeing the touchless control or the active display that was originated in the Moto X but that's perfectly fine because the Moto e is not really catering to that kind of demographic that needs that kind of functionality after that the camera also sort of keeps to this core experience ideal in it's a 5-megapixel shooter that doesn't have that many bells and whistles but then again the moto camera on previous editions also wasn't all that extravagant and his features as well but at 5 megapixels moto has reassured us that the optimizations put into the camera software will allow the 5 megapixel pictures to still be pretty good and reliable nonetheless and finally in software we are seeing the latest version of Android on here Android 4.4.2 kitkat now that is the latest version that is out right now but moto is guaranteeing that the Moto e will get the next version of Android in an upgrade which looks to be Android 4.4.3 but nonetheless the general experience of the user interface is pretty much what you would expect from a moto device and that it is pretty close to a stock like experience so if you used the Moto X or Moto G before or even a Nexus device from the past then you pretty much know what you're getting into with this version of Android after that moto has baked in a few of their additions including the moto assist and the Moto migrated applications but after that it's pretty much the home screens with a notification drop down the quick settings recent apps screen and pretty much the stock like experience pretty much just cater to Moto's own vision and so there you have it the Moto e Motorola really is trying to shake up the lower price to your market by providing a device that not only has a build quality you don't normally see at 2 129 dollars unlocked and $79 on contract but also has the promise of the most updated software available including Android 4.4.2 right now and future versions of Android after it so keep it tuned to Android authority for more on the Moto e we will have a comparison with the Moto G coming up very soon and then our full review will be coming as well pretty soon so keep it tuned to Android authority for all of that and the best coverage because we are your source for all things Android