Motorola’s latest low-cost phone is now available for purchase. You can pick up a Moto E (2015) from the Motorola store for as little as $120.
But if you’ve got an extra $30 to spare, you should probably get the $150 model. It has a faster processor and support for 4G LTE.
In fact, it might even be a better phone than the more expensive Moto G in some ways.
The new second-generation Moto E has a 4.5 inch, 960 x 540 pixel IPS display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a 5MP rear camera, VGA front-facing camera, and a 2390 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Motorola offers a 3G model with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor for $120 and a 4G LTE model with a Snapdragon 410 chip for $150. While both processors are fast enough for basic phone use, the Snapdragon 410 offers significantly better performance — and even helps the Moto E outperform Motorola’s $180 Moto G smartphone in benchmarks.
The Moto G does have a larger, higher-resolution display and a better camera. But it’s slower and there’s no LTE model of the 2nd-gen Moto G available in the US (yet). The folks at Ars Technica reviewed the Moto E and found that for some users, the cheaper phone might really be the better option.
The Moto E isn’t the most attractive smartphone around. Nor is it the most powerful or even the cheapest. But Motorola might have hit a sweet spot between price and performance with this affordable smartphone. If you happen to live in a country that doesn’t have access to Android One handsets, this looks like one of the next-best options.
“There’s no LTE model available in the US (yet)”
https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Moto-Universal-Unlocked-Black/dp/B00K0NS0P4
That’s the first-gen Moto G. I probably should have specified the difference though.
this one will accept cyanogenmod and keep the bootloader unlocked? If the battery is user replaceable that’s another big bonus.
I would have liked a replaceable battery too, but it is sealed.
Is the Moto G described in this article a gen 1 or gen 2? If a gen 1,
it would be an unfair comparison.
Both — the first and second-gen models have the same Snapdragon 400 processor.
Great phone for people who don’t use their smartphones that much, or people who might damage them or lose them (kids!)
Less pixels to push onto the screen probably makes the E perform better than the G.