Motorola's new Moto E (2nd gen): First impressions review

The improved specs and same price as the last year's model may make the new Moto E a desirable upgrade, but do these enhancements make it a worthy contender to offerings from rivals in the same price segment?

We got to spend some time with the successor to the original Moto E that made its way to India on Tuesday and will go on sale from Wednesday. Here's our first impressions of what is the cheapest new Motorola phone in India.

In comparison to the original model, the new Moto E comes with a slightly improved design. The key highlight here is the swappable band that runs along the phone and hides underneath slots for SIM cards and microSD card. The ability to swap out the band allows users to replace the existing band (which is of the same colour as the phone) with more colourful options. These colourful bands will be available for purchase as accessories. The addition of the swappable band element in the new Moto E not only gives the phone a refreshed look but also hints at the company's sincere approach towards its entry-level devices.

Unlike the new model, the original Moto E had a removable rear panel concealing the SIM card and microSD card slots underneath. However, the battery, as in the new model, was non-removeable.

Another noticeable improvement in the new Moto E is the ribbed pattern beautifying the swappable band that also helps offer a better grip in combination with the curved back. The phone's rounded edges add to its ergonomics and make it nestle in your palm easily.

Though the phone comes with a tad bigger display than the predecessor, the difference in their screen sizes appears to be negligible. At 540x960 pixels, the resolution of the screen remains the same as the old model. The touch responsiveness on the display is good and it's smooth to navigate on it, but the colours it produces and the viewing angles it offers are only of acceptable quality.

Given the competition and offerings available in the sub-Rs 7,000 smartphone segment today, the display on the Moto E fails to live up to expectations. The similar display on the original Moto E last year earned better ratings than what the new Moto E would get.

The placement of the front camera in the upgraded version of the Moto E isn't really the upgrade we had been looking for. The quality of the front VGA camera is poor and the competition can easily score. The rear camera, on the other hand, manages to capture only satisfactory results in both soft and bright light conditions. Though we are yet to put it to extensive use. Quite like the last year's model, the camera app on the new Moto E offers very basic options to customise settings.

What you would appreciate in the new model is the increased internal storage. The built-in memory in the new Moto E has gone up from 4GB (in the old model) to 8GB (with around 5GB user-accessible). The microSD card slot for additional storage supports a card of up to 32GB.

Powered by a faster engine, the chipset in the Moto E has four cores as against two cores in the first-gen Moto E. Also, the phone is claimed to come with a better battery. But the actual performance of the phone can only be determined after putting it to different real-world tests.

The speaker positioned at the front produces only satisfactory audio results - both in terms of loudness and clarity. Running Android 5.0 Lollipop, the phone is not pure Android, but it does not come pre-loaded with heavy bloatware like what we see on phones from other smartphone makers, though it does include pre-installed Motorola apps.

Priced at Rs 6,999, the new phone comes in two colours - black and white. The black-coloured model appeared better looking to us than the white.

The new Moto E, undoubtedly, has some key improvements over the predecessor, but it may lose to similar offerings from Asus, Lenovo and Xiaomi. Wait for our full review of the new Moto E to know where it actually stacks up against the competition.