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Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus come with a massive advantage

July 11, 2018 18:12 IST

But how do they compare with their competitors? Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com has the answer.

Photograph: Courtesy motorola.in

Motorola launched its next generation E series phones, the Moto E5 and Moto E5 Plus, today.

As the configuration suggests, it’s an entry level series from the Lenovo-owned Motorola.

 

This time, Motorola seems to have focused on making the ideal phone for those who are always on the move and need entertainment on the go.

As a result, the Moto E5 Plus comes with a massive 5000 mAh battery; the Moto E5, with its 4000 mAh battery, is not too far behind.

Motorola claims the Moto E5 Plus can last through 18 hours of nonstop video viewing while the Mote E5 can support 16 hours of the same activity.

Both phones come with a 10 watt Rapid charger. All of which should thrill today's multimedia consuming generation.

Let's see how the phones fare in other departments.

The Moto E5 has a 6.0 inch body and a 5.7 inch IPS LCD with a display resolution of 1440 x 720.

It runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 425, a quad core processor with Adreno 308 GPU for graphics.

For storage, the Moto E5 relies on its in-built 16 GB ROM and 2 GB RAM which, in today's times, is inadequate.

The Moto E5 Plus, if one goes by what the name suggests, should have much more than the Moto E5 but doesn't... the upgrade, at a 3 GB RAM, is minuscule.

It has a 6.2 inch body and its 6 inch IPS LCD has a display resolution of 1440 x 720.

The Moto E5 Plus races on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 430, an octa core processor with Adreno 505 GPU for graphics.

Both phones support a memory expansion slot, which can be expanded up to 128 GB.

In both, the fingerprint sensor is moved to the rear of the phone and intelligently hidden behind the Motorola logo dimple.

The display area for both follows the modern 18:9 aspect ratio.

IMAGE: The Moto E5 Plus Photograph: Courtesy motorola.in

In the camera department, the Moto E5 has a 13 MP, f/f2.0 rear camera with LED flash and Phase Detection Autofocus, which supports HDR, Panorama, Manual Mode, Burst Shot, Best Shot, QR code/Barcode Scanner, Slo-motion mode and Video Stabilisation.

The video shooting mode is supported up to 1080 at 30 fps.

The front selfie shooter is a 5 MP camera with a Selfie Flash.

With the Moto E5 Plus, Motorola drops one MP but consolidates it with a bigger 1.25um pixels sensor against the Moto E5's 1.12um sensor.

Don't be fooled by the two modules behind the phone -- that's not a dual camera, it's the laser module for laser autofocus.

It would have been great if the Plus model had a dual camera setup as per modern needs.

The remaining specs are the same as that of the Moto E5.

As far as the audio is concerned, as per Motorola's design specialty, both have the front firing mono loudspeaker.

The phones host the retro 3.5 mm audio jack.

And, yes, FM listeners, the phones include the radio.

The media transfer and charging via wire is possible through the micro USB port.

The Moto E5 supports the Near Field Communication chip but skips it on the Moto E5 Plus.

The Moto E5 is available in flash gray and fine gold whereas the Moto E5 comes in black and fine gold respectively.

The Moto E5 is priced at ₹9,999 and available only through MotoHub or at selected retail stores.

The Moto E5 Plus is tagged at ₹11,999, with a discount of ₹800 when bought with the SBI credit card for a limited period only.

While it is a killer option when one considers the battery, the Android OS 8.0 with no overlay and the timely updates, there are other phones like Xiaomi's Redmi Note 5 and the Asus ZenFhone Max Pro M1 which give value for money and are better balanced that the Moto E5 Plus.

 

Ashish Narsale