After launching the Moto E in India, Motorola has officially launched the device in the UK. Available unlocked for £89, the Moto E is the most affordable smartphone from Motorola yet.
After extensive customer feedback, Motorola said that it focused on four key factors when developing the Moto E: build, power, style and software. As such, the Moto E comes with a design that is reminiscent of the Moto G/X and features an edge to edge display. The device comes with a 4.3-inch qHD screen that offers a pixel density of 256 ppi.
Internal hardware is in the form of a Snapdragon 200 SoC that features two Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.2 GHz. There is also an Adreno 302 GPU clocked at 400 MHz that delivers stellar gaming performance. The Moto E has 1 GB RAM, 4 GB of internal memory along with a microSD card slot that can extend storage a further 32 GB. The device also features a 5 MP camera at the back, but does not have a front-facing shooter. The 1,980 mAh battery is touted to last an entire day on a single charge.
Customization is also an area that Motorola has lavished its attention on. The Moto E will be available in nine color variations and will feature five grip shells that will be sold as accessories.
On the software side of things, you get Android 4.4 KitKat along with a few Motorola exclusive utilities like Motorola Alert. With Motorola Alert, you can set a location status to notify friends and family of your current location. Motorola Alert also has an Emergency Mode feature that sounds an alarm or notifies someone in the case of an emergency.
During the announcement, Motorola called out fellow handset manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and LG for delaying rollout of newer versions of Android. For instance, Samsung took 106 days to roll out Android 4.4 KitKat to the Galaxy S4, while HTC took 92 days to update the HTC One and LG took 116 days to bring KitKat to the G2. Meanwhile, Motorola rolled out KitKat in 19 days to the Moto X.
With the launch of the Moto E, Motorola is signifying an end to the featurephone, even going so far as to create a "Goodbye dumbphone" website in which the manufacturer states, "Life before mobile apps should be a thing of the past. Introducing the Moto E. Made to last. Priced for all."
