The Moto E (2015) Review
by Brandon Chester on April 21, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola
- Mobile
- Moto E (2015)
Battery Life
The original Moto E shipped with a 7.52Wh battery. While we don't have data for battery life on the original, it's safe to say that the new Moto E with its 9.08Wh battery and more efficient SoC should have no trouble surpassing the battery life of the original. I've highlighted the 2014 Moto G in the graphs below just to provide an interesting point of comparison.
The combination of a fairly large battery with a power efficient SoC allows the Moto E to take one of the highest spots in our WiFi web browsing test with a runtime of 11.65 hours.
In the BaseMark OS II battery test we see the Moto E pull off a very respectable battery life of 4.35hrs. The score in the battery test is also fairly high, indicating that Snapdradon 410 was able to sustain a high load throughout the test.
The Moto E does very well in GFXBench's battery test, with a score that sits well above most other smartphones. While the performance for the final run is not as fast as flagship smartphones, it actually doesn't really drop at all from the performance of the very first run.
Overall I think the battery life on the Moto E is stellar, and I don't think buyers will have any complaints about it. The Moto E includes a larger battery than the Moto G, and with a smaller display and more efficient components this gives it a significant lead in every test. There's not much more that you can ask for.
Charge Time
The other side of battery life is the time it takes to charge the battery. If a device has a battery life that falls short of the competition, it can be somewhat excused if the time to charge it is very short which minimizes the amount of time the device is dead for. The opposite can also be true, where a device with a long battery life can end up having longer periods of downtime due to a long charge time.
At 4.23 hours, the Moto E has the longest charge time of the devices we've tested to date. While it's not a big issue if you end up charging it overnight, it feels like an eternity when you end up charging it during the day. The problem is that Motorola packages the Moto E with a 5V 550mA charger, which makes it the slowest USB charger I have in my possession. This is definitely another concession for budget reasons, and my recommendation for any buyers is to use the charging block from another device.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
90 Comments
View All Comments
Impulses - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
It looks very similar to the rest of Moto's lineup... You think the Moto X & G are fugly too? How many people have you polled to determine the majority definitely agrees with you?I happen to like how it looks, actually Moto's rounded plastic phones are some of the few I would dare use without a case... Both because they seem more resilient than metal ones and because the customization aspect makes it more unique.
I remember noticing a lip on the Moto X that actually lifted the screen by a mm when face down sans case, not sure if that's standard, but that and lack of a camera hump also make it easier to go case-less.
For reference I like the new SGS6 (tho I still dislike the home button) and Sony's Z line, I could take or leave the One design (poor ergos), and I thought older SGS with plastic imitating other materials was chintzy.
At the end of the day I care more about a phone's features, performance, and ergonomics than it's looks tho. None of them are *that* striking or stylish.
chizow - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Sure, here you go, the same tenets apply to smartphones as they do to people's faces:https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=symmetrical+f...
Its been shown whether subconsciously or not, the more symmetrical a face is, the more pleasing it is to the eye.
The rounded and concave edges just make it look like a cheap toy, too much round around the sharp angles of the rectangular screen and the asymmetrical nature of the speakers and cameras don't do it any favors either.
blzd - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
Well that settles it. 100% Confirmed. Everyone agrees with you.lol please do the world a favor and delete your internet.
hans_ober - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
If it's anything, wide bezels make devices ugly.sonicmerlin - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
lol that was my first thought upon seeing the picture. It looks like a half-done prototype. The Lumias going for half the price look better.DabuXian - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Off topic, but why don't you update NAND performance of the Nexus 6? It's been vastly improved on Android 5.1.Brandon Chester - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Our NAND tests are being moved to Androbench 4. The writing of this review took place over a longer period than I had anticipated, which is why there are a few things like the usage of the older NAND bench and the GS6 not showing up in the charts. In future reviews the Nexus 6 should have up to date storage performance benchmarks done on 5.1.djvita - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
The graph for Basemark OS II battery score is missing the Moto E's score.whiteiphoneproblems - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
"The procedure for iOS is a bit different, and it involves signing into your iCloud account which I'm just a bit weary of..."Should be "...just a bit WARY of".
Also, I don't see the Moto E listed on the "Basemark OS II Battery Score" chart(?)
whiteiphoneproblems - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
(Apologies for x-post with the above)