The Moto E (2015) Review
by Brandon Chester on April 21, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola
- Mobile
- Moto E (2015)
GPU Performance
The Adreno 306 GPU in Snapdragon 410 is more or less just a variant of the Adreno 305 used in the Snapdragon 400 series SoCs. Because of this, there's not likely to be much improvement in terms of overall GPU performance when comparing the Moto E to older Snapdragon 400 devices like the One Mini 2 or the Moto G.
As expected, Adreno 306 performs roughly the same as Adreno 305. In the graphics test the Moto E does slightly worse than the Moto G, while it does substantially better in the physics test. Due to the heavier weighting of the graphics test, and the harmonic mean used to calculate the overall score, the Moto E actually performs every so slightly worse than the Moto G overall. I would consider the difference in graphics scores to be within the margin of error, and in general users can expect essentially the same level of performance from Adreno 306 as that of Adreno 305.
While I would normally run BaseMark X after 3DMark, a GPU driver bug prevents the test from finishing properly and no results are reported. Because of this, our last GPU test is GFXBench 3.0. In both T-Rex HD and Manhattan, the offscreen performance of Adreno 306 is roughly comparable to that of Adreno 305 in Snapdragon 400. Onscreen performance pulls ahead of the Moto G due to the Moto E's lower display resolution.
Overall, the GPU performance of the 2015 Moto E is what you'd expect from a budget device. It would be nice if there was a larger performance improvement over Snapdragon 400, but Motorola can't be faulted for that. Buyers shouldn't expect to be able to play any intensive 3D games, but the performance is more than sufficient for simple 2D games and rendering the Android interface.
NAND Performance
NAND performance is another important aspect of mobile devices. While in the PC world vendors will sometimes make note of their HDD/SSD speeds, in the mobile world we haven't reached a point where anything beyond the amount of flash memory is stated by manufacturers. Despite this, poor NAND can be a serious bottleneck of system performance whenever something is being loaded from the internal storage, or when a background app is doing reads and writes or downloading updates.
Random read speeds on the Moto E are fairly slow, and random writes are right in the middle of our comparison devices. While I don't think the random write will cause any issues, the slow random read speed may contribute to some slowness whenever applications are loading files.
For those who are keeping track, the Moto E does not come with Android's full device encryption (FDE) enabled by default. Google appears to have stepped back from requiring FDE, and instead just recommends that it be enabled. Despite it not being enabled on the Moto E, the sequential read performance is not quite as fast as some other budget devices like the One Mini 2, although it is in line with the 2014 Moto G. Sequential write performance is unfortunately one of the lowest results on our list, although with only 5GB of accessible storage I don't imagine users will be writing many large files where it becomes a noticeable issue.
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Brandon Chester - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
That's a really bad mistake I commonly make. Thank you for pointing it out. Also the Moto E should be on the basemark chart, it might have glitched out and not regenerated or something. Let me take a look at it.mayankleoboy1 - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
I have the MotoE 1st gen. I have only 2 complaints:1. The internal storage is too low at 4gb. I cant install many apps.
2. The gallery app takes a long time to sharpen zoomed images.
PsychoPif - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
I'm happy to see you got some Windows Phone in there. While there is newer alternatives at this price, it's nice to see the diversityPeichen - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Overpriced when comparing with Chinese phones that have way better parts for the same price. The only reason Moto charge as much as it does with the the X, G, E and speciality phones is because it is the only American Android phone and if you want to buy American you have to pay the premium.Daniel Egger - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
> Overpriced when comparing with Chinese phones that have way better parts for the same price.And which phones would that be? At least there're no brand phones at that price tag with this (hardware) feature set and then we haven't even talked about software yet; it's close to impossible to find a phone which is available with (mostly unadultered) Lollipop and given that many or even most vendors in this price segment do not even care to offer *any* updates that's a major factor for any sane person. Also Motorola is one of the few companies which allow for easy rooting and even bootloader unlocking -- that's no small feat.
I totally agree with Brandon that the only reasonable price/performance competition can be found in the Windows Phone camp.
Peichen - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Xiaomi Redmi 2 is $112 with Snapdragon 410, 1 or 2GB of RAM, 8 or 16GB of storage, 720p 4.7" screen, 8mp and 2mp camera and Android 5.0Daniel Egger - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Aha, I can't find it for less than $132 (the 1GB/8GB version). Here in Europe the cheapest price is 40€ more expensive then the Moto E 2nd Gen LTE. Also MIUI v6 is based on KitKat and 32bit so not really interesting.Impulses - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Not sure why the slightly xenophobic tinge is necessary... It might be designed in the US but I'm pretty sure no Moto phone is made there anymore (they closed the Texas assembly plant no?) and Moto's parent company is Chinese anyway (unless Lenovo decided to move).Moto has better distribution than Xiaomi etc, particularly within regions that Anandtech's readership is at, get over it. That isn't even saying much considering how woeful Moto's distribution and site are, but it's still a fact. I'd actually love to see some Xiaomi reviews but if I can't easily buy one it's pointless.
Nothing against them, I've got a pair of Xiaomi Pistons that are some of the best IEM I've tried under $70, if not the best (and they were $25).
blzd - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
If you actually try and buy an imported Chinese phone you end up paying a lot more then their MSRP, often more then double.Also who wants to use an Android interface that was never designed to be used with the English language?
RealTheXev - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
I just picked up the LTE version of this phone for my mother on Verizon Wireless (and yes, I am 100% sure it is the 2015 model). It comes setup for pre-pay plans and has a bargain basement price of $69 (at Walmart no less). I even read on XDA of a few people being able to add it to their post paid Verizon plans simply by calling Verizon.For THAT price, its a freakn' sweet phone and its a huge upgrade over my mom's something LG with Android 2.6 3G (it was soo old.. and it was only a year old.. not even worth looking up the model # lol).