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
Kakti - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Don't all companies have to unlock phones these days once you're not in a contract though? I personally use the month to month for $45, but figured if they ever scrapped it or raised the price I'd move to an MVNO.Also, I recently received a MS Nokia Lumia 635 from my work - that's another real nice cheap phone IMO. Was originally going to get one for my personal but went with the Moto E when I saw the price. Everyone complains about it at work (they all use Iphones) but I think it's great for what its intended purpose is i.e. make calls, read emails, read news, weather, etc. I dunno maybe I'm just getting old (get off my lawn) but the prices and specs of top end phones these days are so overkill. Having a 2560p 6.5" screen and then needing a 300g battery to power it? No thanks....
RealTheXev - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
Several people on XDA forums have been able to contact Verizon and get the phone added to their postpay plan. I would have gone that route myself if I could have unlocked the bootloader (but you can't with Moto's tools).All Verizon LTE phones should come unlocked, but I have no other carriers to try my mothers Moto E on (that would get reception no less).
Gunbuster - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Would be nice to see a review of the new BLU Win JR LTESamus - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
Super nice phone for $150. Probably the only android phone id recommend to people like my parents.grant3 - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
Does this phone respond to 3-button android headset controls?What is the sound quality on music playback?
I'm disappointed that so much effort and detail was put into analyzing the display/software/etc. but there is nothing about the audio.
Kakti - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
Can't comment on android headsets but the sound quality through $10 earbuds is fine. Sounds the exact same as my previous phones playing FLAC files.Playing music without headphones is alright, it's definitely loud enough for most uses; I play music on it after most leave my office and can hear it probably 50-75 feet away. There's roughly 0.0% bass as expected....played some Omni Trio drum and bass and it was like listening to half the song ;) But that's a given for any cell phone speaker really. Playing rock music FLAC files sounded as good as I could ask for from a cell phone.
grant3 - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
The issue I had with a previous motorola droid was there was a lot of line hiss. i.e., if you were in the quiet portion of a song, you can hear a background hiss (sounds like when you're on a phone call and no one is talking)It's sometimes tricky to notice because the internal amp would shut off when music is paused. and usually people are listening to their phone in a place where there is some background noise.
Kakti - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
Just checked with some live concert soundboards - between songs it's pretty much silent and I didn't hear any hiss at volume levels that are comfortable to listen to.ASEdouardD - Thursday, May 7, 2015 - link
Why use FLAC files using $10 earbuds? I'd go high quality MP3.CharonPDX - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
I'm curious - is lack of 5 GHz WiFi (n or ac) really that much of a problem in an ultra-low-cost phone?I understand it would be great for future-proofing, but how often are people looking at ultra-low-end phones going to have 5 GHz 802.11n, much less ac? Or the high-enough-speed internet to notice the difference?