Multiple sources point to the addition of a 64GB Moto X
Many fans of the Moto X have had a pretty valid complaint for the past few months. For such a great phone, why isn’t a 64GB option offered?! Fans of abundant storage and customizable hardware, listen up!
Mobiltelefon.ru, a Russian phone site, recently discovered traces of a 64GB variant on Motomaker.com. Aside from the obvious “64GB” option plastered all over the page, we can also see a price associated with this phone – $449.99. Considering the phone is getting to be a year old, and that’s the off-contract price, that’s a pretty dang good deal.
What’s more is that there is evidence of a 64GB variant in the source code on the Motomaker storage selection page.
Android Police has also gotten some pretty decent evidence regarding the new storage option, as well. When a new phone is announced, basically all carrier employees get a calendar regarding the need-to-know dates. One of these calendars from Sprint leaked out, showing the approximate launch date. The new storage option should have been available for Sprint on 5/23/14, but that date has already happened. We aren’t counting the phone out completely, though. Sometimes these documents are incorrect… who knows.
We’ve seen more than enough evidence to get ourselves excited for this new storage option. We’ll be sure to let you know if anything else surfaces in the next few weeks. All of this poses one question: Would you still buy a 64GB Moto X this late in the game? We’d love to hear your opinions!
Source: Mobiltelefon.ru, Android Police (1), (2)
The post Multiple sources point to the addition of a 64GB Moto X appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Moto E review: Where very good meets very cheap
After Motorola released the well-received Moto X into the world last year, most of us had just one question: What’s Google’s expensive mobile division doing next? Then-chief Dennis Woodside was surprisingly forthcoming for a tech CEO — he said Motorola wanted to reinvent the experience of using a low-cost smartphone. When the Moto G appeared later that year, I thought the company had done what it set out to do. Oh, how wrong I was. Motorola still hasn’t given up on its dream of putting smartphones within reach of anyone who wants one, and the latest weapon in the company’s arsenal is its cheapest yet.
The Moto E costs a scant $129 here in the States, and Motorola seems confident that its low-cost formula will do some real good for the people of the world (not to mention the company’s bottom line). Now we’re left with another set of questions: Does the Moto E live up to Motorola’s lofty goals? Can it stand out against a clamoring crowd of competitors? Are you actually getting what you pay for? Read on for our take.
Hardware
The Moto E is one of those curious devices that’s unassuming and yet immediately recognizable at the same time. That sounds a tad paradoxical, but hear me out. Its face is spartan, to put it politely, and the E’s 4.3-inch qHD screen (swathed in Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 no less) is bounded by some unobtrusive bezels. Your eyes can’t help but be drawn to the two silver strips that run in parallel above and below the screen, comprising the speakers and microphone. Together, they make for a very tasteful touch of personality that gives the E a sense of self without much extra visual noise.
Flipping the Moto E over reveals that the company’s design DNA hasn’t been diluted at all. The recessed Motorola logo, the swooping curve around the 3.5mm headphone jack — if Superman took hold of a Moto G and compressed it a bit (you know, without turning it into a diamond or something), you’d basically have the Moto E. Meanwhile, a 5-megapixel camera sans flash sits high on the E’s rear and selfie fanatics will be crushed when they discover there’s no ego-stroking front camera here. The E skews toward the chubbier end of the size spectrum (compared to the lithe Moto X, at least), but its curved rear means it’ll fit quite comfortably in your mitts. During my testing, I actually found myself cursing at my otherwise trusty iPhone 5s and its prominent edges. The E is awfully nice to hold, even when compared to premium gadgets like HTC’s One M8.
| Moto E | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 124.8 x 64.8 x 6.2 – 12.3mm (curved) |
| Weight | 5.01 oz. (142g) |
| Screen size | 4.3 inches |
| Screen resolution | 960 x 540 (256 ppi) |
| Screen type | IPS LCD |
| Battery | 1,980mAh Li-Polymer (non-removable) |
| Internal storage | 4GB |
| External storage | Up to 32GB |
| Rear camera | 5MP with 4x digital zoom |
| Front-facing cam | None |
| Video capture | 854 x 480/30 fps (rear) |
| NFC | No |
| Radios |
Global GSM Model: North America GSM Model: CDMA Model: |
| Bluetooth | v4.0 |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 |
| CPU | 1.2GHz dual-core |
| GPU | Adreno 302 |
| RAM | 1GB |
| Multimedia | FM radio, Digital TV tuner (Brazil only) |
| WiFi | Dual-band, 802.11b/g/n |
| Wireless Charging | No |
| Operating system | Android 4.4.2 (near stock) |
Our review unit pairs a glossy, black plastic face with a curvaceous, matte rear. Those of you itching for something more chromatically pure can pick up the white-on-white model, and you can replace those default backs with more colorful ones for another $15 a pop. Prying off those back plates reveals… not much, aside from the non-removable 1,980mAh battery, the SIM slot and the microSD card slot. That expansion slot is downright crucial, too, since this little guy comes with a paltry 4GB of internal storage — easily the surest signifier of the Moto E’s wallet-friendly ambitions. Once you factor in all of the preloaded bits, you’re actually left with just north of 2GB of open space for your apps and media; suffice to say, a hefty memory card (the E can handle up to an additional 32GB) should be on your shopping list too. Diving further still reveals the E’s brains: a dual-core Snapdragon 200 clocked at 1.2GHz, paired with 1GB of RAM and a single-core Adreno 302 GPU.
The North American version I’ve been playing with is slightly boring compared to some international variations. Models for other markets include a digital TV tuner or dual SIM slots. The vanilla US model is pretty sparse in terms of niceties, though it does (like the Moto G) have a built-in FM tuner for when you need some music that didn’t come from the Google Play Store. There’s no LTE to be found here, alas — just a GSM radio that plays nice with the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands, and UMTS/HSPA+ support for 850/1700 (AWS)/1900MHz frequencies. Really, though: For $130 off-contract, what did you expect? It’s less than half the price of the Nexus 5 and the Moto X, but as you’ll see, cheap doesn’t always equate with crappy.
Display
For a phone of such humble means, the 4.3-inch IPS LCD sitting front and center still manages to impress… even if it’s the lowest-resolution display I’ve laid eyes on in a long time. In a bid to keep costs as low as possible, Motorola ran with a qHD (960 x 540) screen — if you’re doing the math, that works out to a pixel density of 256 ppi. The number by itself isn’t very exciting, but I think we can agree that the quality of a screen hinges on more than just how many pixels a manufacturer can squeeze in there.
Sure, you can pick out individual pixels if you peek closely enough. Taking a step back offers up a different, more positive perspective, though. The display itself is plenty bright, with crisp whites and passable blacks (we’re not in AMOLED territory, after all), though I wish it fared better under the blazing sun. Colors are vivid and manage to pop without dipping into lurid, oversaturated territory. Viewing angles are similarly solid — just be warned: Images can take on a peculiar cast when you peer in from an angle that’s oblique enough. You’ll also have a tough time trying to obscure that screen with your greasy fingers thanks to the anti-smudge coating Motorola has liberally applied. Is this screen perfect? Hardly, but its strong showing helps make the entire Moto E package that much more enticing.
Software
Like its brethren before it, the Moto E runs a nearly stock build of Android 4.4.2 KitKat, which means there isn’t anything terribly exciting to report on the software front. That’s just fine by me — I hate clunky, overwrought interfaces and “features for the sake of features” as much as the next elitist nerd. What you’re ultimately left with is a clean-ish slate that stays true to Google’s mobile vision, but still retains a few of Motorola’s curious software fingerprints.
Take Motorola Migrate, for instance. It first appeared on the Droid Ultra, and it still lets phone switchers transfer their existing data (e.g., contacts, messages) to their new E’s once the app has been installed on the original phone. Assist is still around too, though it lacks some of the smarts it packed when it first appeared on Moto’s most recent Droids. As always, it can monitor your calendar to deflect callers at inopportune times, as well as let only VIPs reach you in your slumber, but there’s no way for the E to detect when you’re driving and auto-respond to folks texting you. As it happens, though, Motorola’s newest preloaded app is also its most curious. The new Alert is of two minds: You can use it to blast your location so a curated list of friends will know where to meet you, and it packs an emergency mode that starts reaching out to those contacts (and emergency services) if you find yourself in trouble. Alert is a surprisingly thoughtful addition to Motorola’s software mix, but with any luck, you’ll never need to touch that emergency feature.
Motorola also promises that it’ll get the next big version of Android in a timely fashion, even with a divorce from Google on the horizon. We’ll see just how well Motorola can keep this promise soon enough — for now, it’s heartening to see a budget smartphone running the latest and greatest version of Google’s mobile OS.
Camera
Smartphone cameras are tricky enough to get right when you’re trying to cobble together a top-tier device, so you’ve got to have the proper expectations when you go downmarket. In the case of the Moto E, I expected very little and I got it. That may sound a bit harsh, but the Moto G’s camera was a pleasant surprise and I was quietly hoping for the same to happen here. Instead, the 5-megapixel rear shooter consistently turned in soft shots with colors that seemed muted at best and downright lifeless at worst. That last issue can be mitigated a touch if you fire up HDR mode — it’s set to auto by default, so you’ll occasionally find a vibrantly colored photo mixed in with the rest of the mud. Low-light performance left plenty to be desired too: The E’s camera isn’t great at sucking up photons, so there’s smudginess and grit all over the place, a situation that isn’t helped by the lack of a rear flash. Oh, and in case you already forgot, there’s no front-facing camera to be found at all here.
If anything, Motorola’s dead-simple shooting interface is the camera’s saving grace. Quick refresher if you haven’t used it before: Snapping a photo requires just a single touch anywhere on the screen, which means it’s nearly impossible to screw up in the heat of the moment. Sliding my finger up and down the screen to digitally zoom in and out feels remarkably graceful too, even if digital zoom by nature makes for lousier shots. You may not absolutely love the shots you end up with, but I suspect you’ll at least enjoy the process of taking them. My only major niggle is a strictly personal one: Despite using the E for over a week, I still had trouble remembering that touching the screen snaps a photo instead of focusing the camera where I wanted. That’s a particular sort of muscle memory that’s only really taken hold after a (shortish) career manhandling high-end phones, so the Moto E’s target audience may not have the same trouble.
Video leaves much to be desired too, which is hardly a shocker. The Moto E is incapable of shooting HD video — resolution maxes out at 854 x 480, which is good enough for Instagram, but slightly less so when trying to capture important moments as they unfold.
Performance and battery life
Ah, now we’re getting to the meaty part — what’s the Moto E actually like to use? Despite a spec sheet that looks like it was pulled from the headlines two years ago, the E has more than managed to keep up with my daily grind. I can’t in good conscience call the Moto E a speed demon, but it’s still been a worthy companion during my week of testing.
And what exactly did that week consist of? Plenty of frenzied swiping between pages of apps and widgets, to start. The whole process was consistently and pleasantly buttery, with nary a hint of stuttering or visual slowdown to be seen (though in fairness, KitKat probably deserves some of the credit for that). Scrolling down long websites was generally smooth, too… most of the time, anyway. An abundance of images on a web page (like Engadget!) occasionally threw the E’s modest brains for a bit of a loop. The act of actually firing up apps usually took a few seconds more than on some premium handsets, but that’s just par for the course considering what we’re working with. The games I did manage to install on the Moto E (I’m looking at you, Minecraft: Pocket Edition) fared rather nicely considering the dearth of sheer processing power they had to work with. This is all anecdotal, of course — here are some hard numbers, if that’s more your speed.
| Moto E | Moto G | Moto X | HTC One mini | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrant 2.0 | 5,264 | 8,723 | 8,958 | 5,200 |
| Vellamo 2.0 | 1,173 | 1,962 | 2,427 | 2,118 |
| AnTuTu 4.0 | 12,510 | 17,364 | 20,292 | 10,048 |
| SunSpider 1.2 (ms) | 1,626.2 | 1,377 | 1,023 | 1,442 |
| GFXBench 2.7 Offscreen (fps) | 4.4 | 16 | 15 | 15 |
| CF-Bench | 6,483 | 15,030 | 14,092 | 6,542 |
| SunSpider: lower scores are better | ||||
The funny (or sad) thing about downloading games for testing was that, well, it was more troublesome than it should’ve been. It had nothing to do with network connectivity (though I only hit down/up data speeds of 1.82 Mbps and 0.84 Mbps, respectively in San Francisco over AT&T’s HSPA connection). Those headaches were all because of a dearth of storage space. Like I mentioned before, the E ships with just 4GB of internal storage, and only about half of that is available for your stuff right out of the gate. It didn’t take long to almost completely fill up that modicum of space with just our usual suite of test apps and files. And those two-stage game downloads from the Google Play Store? The ones (like Need For Speed: Most Wanted, for instance) that prompt you to download an installer that then downloads more stuff once it’s in place? Yeah, good luck with that. Picking up a microSD card is damn near a necessity, and even then, you can’t move all of your apps from their current homes onto an external card. I get that it’s a concession Motorola made to keep the E’s price under a certain threshold, but I can definitely see some cost-conscious consumers ruing that decision.
On the upside, the Moto E’s modest spec sheet means that its 1,980mAh battery can hang in there longer than you might think. When Motorola says it’s got an “all-day” battery, it actually means it. I spend my days dealing with a barrage of emails, chatting with colleagues, taking phone calls and generally running my device into the ground. There wasn’t a time when the E failed to hang in there for a full 12-hour day, despite my best efforts. Things were a bit more subdued when it came time for our standard video rundown test (screen brightness set to 50 percent with a 720p video set to loop indefinitely): It stuck around for 5:45 before it needed to be lashed to a wall outlet.
The competition
There’s no shortage of cheap hardware out there, and more than a few competitors may wind up duking it out with Motorola over first-time smartphone shoppers. Take older, pint-sized versions of high-end phones like the HTC One mini and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini — both of them offer more oomph, but even now they’ll cost close to twice what the E does. Speaking of Samsung, you can nab a dual-SIM Galaxy S Duos 2 for close to the same price as the E– you can juggle multiple phone numbers and enjoy a camera with a flash, though TouchWiz could bog things down a bit. There’s the LG L40, too, a cheapo device the Korean company showed off at MWC. It hovers around the same price range as the Moto E, but its screen is markedly worse and a shortage of RAM doesn’t exactly bode well for performance.
The Nokia X will also give the Moto E a run for its money in certain locales. It’s a curious little thing with its peculiar Finnish pedigree, offbeat launcher and €89 (about $141) price tag, but a weaker spec sheet and Nokia’s control over its own app store means the experience it offers is limited in some key ways. Not all of the E’s competition comes from outside Motorola, either. The Moto G packs more power and performance into a bigger body, and it’s still only $50 more than its little brother. I’d wager that a decent number of shoppers on a budget will gravitate toward the more impressive G, but the difference in price could be too much for some to swallow.
Wrap-up
There’s no two ways about it — the Moto E is exciting, if not in the way most mobile buffs would like. You really shouldn’t underestimate the sort of world-shaking power that can come from making something that’s both very good and very cheap. So what if the spec sheet is a bit passé? For all its minor shortcomings, the Moto E still represents a level of power and quality that’s become even more accessible to people the world over, and that’s something worth celebrating. If all you need is a smartphone that can take you to Facebook, capture fodder for Instagram or fire off missives on Twitter (or WhatsApp or Weibo), the Moto E will make a worthy sidekick. Not every important device has to be a flashy flagship.
If Motorola ever manages to offer the $129 Moto E for under $100 (and I bet it will eventually), we could be looking at a game changer; a device that could really help bring the next billion people into an age of connectedness most of us already take for granted. Until then, the E’s value is obscured a touch — the superior balance of performance and price means the Moto G will be worth the extra $50 for most people.
Daniel Orren and Edgar Alvarez contributed to this review.
OtterBox Defender Series Case for Motorola Moto G Review: Nothing but the best Protection
One name generally stands out when it comes to ultimate mobile protection: OtterBox. It’s hard to go past the steadfast quality of OtterBox cases, particularly when you are considering getting the best protection for your smartphone. Despite the Moto G being one of the best selling phones that Motorola has ever produced in recent years, there are still lack of cases that are capable of fully protecting the device. Enter the OtterBox Defender Series for Motorola Moto G.
What’s in the box
If you have never heard of the OtterBox Defender Series, the premise of the product is to be the best possible protection for a device in any given environment. It’s dust proof, water proof, and drop proof. Just by looking at it, you’d think it were also tank proof (definitely unconfirmed).
Inside the humble little box, you will find the Defender along with a belt harness that can be mounted on all manner of things. There aren’t any peripheral things like screen protectors or screen cleaning cloths included because you won’t be needing them; a plastic film encases the screen to stop errant debris being forced into the case, making for a relatively airtight seal.
The Defender is made up of three pieces; two of these make up the hard plastic inner case which can be likened to a skeleton protecting inner organs (i.e. your previous phone). A silicon outer layer goes on top of this skeleton, giving your Moto G the shock proofing it needs. The process of opening the case can be a little fiddly, but once inside, you really do get the sense that your Moto G can now face any adversity. We have the Black version of the case here today, but the case can also be had in Glacier, Key Lime, Wild Orchid, and Hornet variants.
How does it perform?
As with the previous entries in the Defender Series, the Moto G version does exactly what Otterbox does best, and that’s protecting your phone. The inner plastic frame forms an extremely snug fit around the Moto G, allowing for no free space inside. I found it a little frustrating trying to get it open initially, but perseverance is the key here.
Once the silicon cover goes over, each accessible port on your device (bar the microphone on the bottom and the back speaker) are covered with a flap to prevent any dust or dirt getting in. The hold and volume buttons are also encased within the silicon case, and I had been concerned that the case would ruin the tactile feel of the Moto G’s normally crisp buttons. To my pleasant surprise, the buttons remained impressively tactile; dampened of course, but much better than I had expected.
Over my test period of several weeks, my device suffered absolutely no damage and the silicon case looks exactly the same as the day I put the case on, save for some specs of dust. As you might expect, there was a little build up of dust in specific parts of the case including the microphone and speaker port, as well as the slit where the front facing camera and ear speaker are left open. In general, the Defender engulfs the Moto G and makes it look fairly ambiguous, which is good or bad depending on how you look at it; all I know is I was asked why I had such a big case for my iPhone quite a few times.
The harness has been a staple for the Defender Series and its inclusion with the Moto G version is no surprise. The construction is basically identical the previous versions, including the swivelling clip. The harness is made from hard plastic to withstand the rigours of outside activities. I’m personally not big on using the harness myself, but it’s a great little accessory with great durability.
What I like about the Defender Series case
I like that the Defender case is protective; I know that sounds almost like a moot point given OtterBox’s reputation, but it’s one thing to say it, but it’s another to excel at it, which the Defender does. If you’re the type of person who drops your device frequently, or just needs a little more security in case something happens, the Defender has those credentials written all over it.
As I mentioned earlier, I was quite afraid that the case would impair the Moto G’s button tactility, however I’m hugely impressed that it hasn’t really taken away from that at all. The same can’t be said for the Commuter case which we reviewed earlier, as the silicon buttons seemed to absorb too much of the force to create a nice feeling button press. So yes: you could say that the Defender pushes my buttons.
What I don’t like about the Defender Series case
While the Defender is a supremely protective case, that naturally comes at somewhat of a cost. Because the edges around the screen are raised so high and ends right where the screen is, I found that the screen near those edges became a little more difficult to use. Case in point for me has been while I try to swipe words on my screen and I want to hit the letter “p”; because the edge is so close to the screen and the fact that fingers are round, it would actually take a few attempts to properly spell the word I was intending to. Sure it might be a small peeve, but since it happens on a daily basis, it’s more than a little frustrating.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard not to give the Defender Series top marks as a smartphone case; if you’re in the market for something super-heavy duty to protect your Moto G, you can’t go past the Defender. Sure it has its peeves and downsides, but if your concern is protecting your phone, you can be sure that the Defender has the same concerns in mind. And for $49.95, that’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. That said, if you’re looking for something almost as protective with a little more freedom, take a look at the OtterBox Commuter instead (read our review here).
If you’re interested in picking up the OtterBox Defender Series Case for Motorola Moto G, you can visit its product page here, or to take a look at OtterBox’s other products, you can check out their full website here.
Gallery of Photos
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Moto 360 Design Face-Off rules suggests Moto 360 will cost $249 USD
A few days ago, it was suggested that the price of Motorola’s highly anticipated Android Wear smart watch, the Moto 360, is going to cost €249 in Europe, though that hasn’t really given us a good indication of what it will cost in other regions given the disparity in electronics pricing. Thankfully though, it seems Motorola may have let the cat out of the bag after launching its Moto 360 Design Face-Off competition, which states that the prize, a brand new Moto 360, will have a retail price of $249 USD. The competition centres around the new Moto 360 and offers artists the opportunity to decorate their own Moto 360 template as they see fit for the opportunity to win the elusive smart watch.
Motorola has gone on record since going live with the Face-Off competition, saying that the $249 price has been quoted for ‘tax purposes only and should not be interpreted as the suggested retail price’, though that seems a lot like official mumbo-jumbo designed to throw us off the scent. Whatever the truth is, we’re expecting to see more of the wearable device at Google I/O next month so we won’t have long to wait to find out. And if you’re interested in partaking in the Moto 360 Design Face-Off competition, be sure to check out the Google+ link below.
What do you think about the $249 price-tag? Would you consider one at this price? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
Source: Google+ (1), (2) via TalkAndroid (1), (2)
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Motorola contest pegs the price of a Moto 360 smartwatch at $249
If you’ve been at all interested in Motorola’s Moto 360, the biggest question has likely been the price: how much will that swanky circular smartwatch set you back? Not that much, if you believe the company’s rules for a watch face design contest. The legal details set the average retail value of a Moto 360 at $249; that’s as much as a relatively posh smartwatch like the Pebble Steel, but less than the $300 you’d pay for tech-laden wristwear like the Gear 2. Before you start budgeting for a timepiece, though, remember that this still isn’t official. While Motorola’s figure gives at least some idea of what to expect, we wouldn’t rule out a higher price tag when the Moto 360 reaches store shelves.
Filed under: Wearables, Google, Lenovo
Via: Droid-Life
Source: Motorola (Google Drive)
Moto 360 release date and price suggested in Report
The smartwatch market has grown increasingly quickly in the last few months, but one device has still managed to stand out among its peers. The Motorola Moto 360 was announced the same day that Google announced its new smartwatch-centric operating system, Android Wear, and it captured, at least for some of us, what we had hoped smartwatches would eventually look like in the near future. At the time of its announcement, it was said the Moto 360 would be released sometime in summer, but today we have a new report that may have suggested a more accurate Moto 360 release date and price.
According to French site, Le Journal du Geek, more information is going to be divulged about the Moto 360 at next months’ Google I/O event which will be followed by a July release of the device. The site has also suggested that the asking price for the device will be a very pretty €249 or around $340 USD, though it must be said that region pricing tends to vary depending on where you are.
What do you think about the pricing of the Moto 360? Is it what you expected? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
Source: Le Journal du Geek via Phones Review
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EE Kestrel review: a good low-cost 4G phone, but with a Moto on its back
The adjectives “affordable” and “budget” often allude to something of inferior quality — a questionable substitute for something more premium. Something out of financial reach. A few years ago, I would’ve assumed the same, having set up enough low-end Samsungs for family members to want only high-end handsets, extortionate contracts attached. Thanks to devices like Google’s Nexus range and, most recently, the OnePlus One, we’ve never been more aware of value for money. The Moto G, in particular, proved that a solid smartphone could be an absolute bargain.
It’s this newfound, positive connotation of affordable that EE’s aiming for with its first own-brand smartphone, the Kestrel. Launched earlier this month for £99 on pay-as-you-go, or free from £14 per month on contracts, it’s EE’s play for the 4G-curious, money-conscious consumer. The Kestrel’s LTE radio and inviting price tag aren’t the sum of its selling points, either; there’s also expandable storage and a very capable processor. Components such as the display and cameras are understandably more modest, but on paper, the Kestrel still ticks the value box. In the increasingly competitive area of low-cost handsets, however, the question isn’t just whether the Kestrel is a worthwhile purchase, but whether you’ll see it the same way a month later.
Hardware
EE doesn’t manufacture the Kestrel directly, of course. Chinese handset maker Huawei has been drafted in for this job, and if for some reason you’re particularly knowledgeable about that company’s own range, you might see the Kestrel bears a resemblance to Huawei’s Ascend G6. The Kestrel isn’t a straight rebrand, though: It suffers from a downgraded camera and softer detailing around the rear lens. Otherwise, it’s the same phone inside and out.
The handset fits the square-with-rounded-corners stereotype well, but not without a little flair thanks to its curved bottom edge. Three standard Android soft keys and the primary mic sit below the 4.5-inch display, with the front-facing camera, earpiece and multicolour notification LED above it. The flat back panel, which pops off to reveal the micro-SIM and microSD slots (but no removable battery), is host to a small loudspeaker grille in the bottom-left corner and the camera lens, LED flash and secondary mic along the top. The power key and volume rocker sit on the right edge, with the micro-USB data/charging port on the top perimeter. You get the picture: pretty standard layout.
But wait, the headphone jack appears to be on the left edge? And right at the bottom by the soft keys, no less. I’ve no idea why this component in particular was exiled from its usual home, but I do know that the design decision isn’t quirky; just annoying. I shouldn’t have to think about reorienting my phone every time I take it in and out of my pocket. It doesn’t slide in there either, with the headphone plug sticking out the side, constantly looking for something to snag.
Unlike the Ascend G6, EE’s Kestrel comes in just one colour: “Graphite,” which is dark grey in human speak. The matt plastic that makes up the back panel and the thin frame around the glass has a pleasant look and slightly tacky texture. Thankfully, ignoring its normal palette of yellows and green, EE’s logo is instead humbly stenciled in silver on the rear cover. The understated colour scheme gels with the handset’s simple design, but the combo is let down somewhat by a plastic band that runs along the Kestrel’s three flat edges. It’s made of slicker, shinier stuff that frankly looks a little cheap, something an all-matt design could’ve avoided.
The Kestrel doesn’t feel particularly cheap, though. You can squeeze a few creaks out of the back panel, but it fits snugly in the hand, and feels sturdy at 145g. It’s also on the thin side at 7.85mm, but being 131mm tall and 65mm across, there’s plenty of bezel flanking the 4.5-inch display. Space for the phone’s guts has to be found somewhere, and if I had to choose, I’d prefer a phone have a slightly bigger footprint as opposed to a thinner profile. The Kestrel’s still small by today’s standards, after all, so I don’t imagine many people will have issues here. Mind you, EE’s smartphone isn’t something you’ll be buying to show off in the pub, but it’s unassuming enough to be widely acceptable, especially considering the double-digit price tag.
Display
Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t always tell the whole story either. The Kestrel has a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display running at a qHD resolution of 960 x 540, which translates to a pixel density of 245 pixels per inch. It’s easy to declare those specs irrelevant when 2,560 x 1,440 displays are verging on commonplace. We’ll get to the pixel issue, but the quality of the panel itself deserves a mention. General colour temperature, as well as blacks and whites, are good to the point of surprising. Minus a small amount of unwanted glare, sunlight readability is adequate, as are the viewing angles. I seem to be in perpetual disagreement with the auto-brightness setting on most phones, flagships included, but somehow not the Kestrel.
In real life, my personal device has a 5.2-inch 1080p display, and yes, games and media look better on that than on the Kestrel. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a fetish for high pixel counts, and that I spend the majority of time browsing, checking email, sending IMs and the like, but I hardly register or care about the difference. Video is perfectly watchable, particularly if you stick to 480p content that fills the screen (any higher and you’ll start to see letterboxing). Motorola gets infinite brownie points for cramming a splendid 720p panel into the Moto G, but the Kestrel has 4G and expandable storage, with qHD being part of the trade-off. Obviously it depends on your priorities, and resolution is a valid one, but for me, at least, a good-quality panel is more important than having a higher resolution simply for the sake of specs.
Software
Being a Huawei creation, the Kestrel runs its manufacturer’s Emotion UI 2.0 Lite on top of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. EE tells me an update to KitKat or beyond is under consideration, but far from guaranteed. Probably the biggest customisation of Huawei’s Android skin is that there’s no separation between the app drawer and home screen. It’s a simple tweak, but one that highlights the redundancy of the app drawer in other builds. Having everything on one carousel suits me fine. Most of the stock icons and the insistence on framing other app icons do make the UI a tad cartoony, but I like the minimalist notification drawer and its comprehensive selection of settings toggles.
EE’s done its part to keep in-house bloatware to a minimum, pre-installing only My EE, through which you can view your bill and data usage, and access various other services. There’s also EE Film, a movie-rental portal where you claim discounts on cinema tickets. Music-streaming service Deezer also comes pre-loaded to complement the free subscription EE customers get. These are all deletable, which can’t be said for everything else that’s been crammed onto the Kestrel. Both Google’s and Amazon’s app suites are present, joining a few utilities and social networking apps you might actually use. Then there are apps like the generic, duplicate browser, “Voice Dialler” and Lookout security that’ll likely go untouched; and even worse is the app with a sketchy icon called “Free Games,” which you’ll purposefully avoid.
Camera
The Kestrel’s front and rear cameras are the only components on the handset that don’t match the Ascend G6′s spec sheet. Instead of eight megapixels round the back and five up front, EE’s variant drops down to 5MP and 1MP, respectively. As with display resolution, the quality of the camera is more important to me than raw specs, and there are plenty of smartphone shooters that aren’t as capable as their sensor size might suggest. The cheap Moto G, for example, has a pretty versatile camera that’s only 5-megapixels strong. Unfortunately, the Kestrel’s camera doesn’t have anywhere near the same range.
Getting the most of the 5MP sensor is as simple as taking pictures in glorious, sunny conditions, but in most other scenarios, results fall off fast. I’ve never been one for toying with the manual camera settings on smartphones. If I’m using a proper camera (or maybe something like a Lumia 1020), then I pay close attention, but I want to be able to pull my phone out, snap a quick shot and not worry about white balance or scene selection. The camera app on the Kestrel has a Smart mode that automates those kinds of things, but it struggles outside of the perfect parameters I mentioned earlier.
Artificial lighting and even an orange sunset can make the white balance setting quite unreliable, and although the auto-exposure compensation is more consistent, it’s set too high in both Smart and normal modes by default. HDR mode is similarly hit-and-miss, and everything gets worse in low light. Most snaps taken in twilight and beyond are grainy, overexposed versions of what would otherwise be just a dark picture. The LED flash is pretty powerful and, as you’d expect, it washes out the colour of anything within its blast radius.
The decline in image quality outside of ideal conditions is joined by a drop in shutter response time, which often results in significantly blurred shots. It literally takes Panorama mode minutes to render a picture after you’ve the done the necessary twirl. Last but not least, the autofocus is a bit jittery, but it does have decent macro range. Video recording at 720p (30 fps) is much the same story. Image quality is proportional to the situation in which it’s filmed, going from good to noisy rapidly in failing light. Audio quality on recorded clips stood out as abnormally crisp.
The 1MP front-facing camera doesn’t need too much explanation. It’s good enough that you’ll be able to tell it’s you in selfies, as long as it’s not dark. The Kestrel’s 5MP camera isn’t very good, and I did expect more despite the handset’s price point. Again, it’s about priorities, and if you’re happy with something that’ll take a picture you can slap a filter on and throw up on Instagram, then you might even learn to like the white balance freak-outs.
Performance and battery life
Performance is, for me, the main area where newer budget handsets have really excelled. I’m happy to accept that corner-cutting is necessary to keep costs down, so long as phone makers don’t skimp on the user experience. The Moto G had me questioning the need for ever-increasing clock speeds when it was practically as quick as my top-tier flagship, so it’s good news, then, that EE’s Kestrel shares exactly the same internals. That’s a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 chip, paired with 1GB of RAM and eight gigs of onboard storage — only 5.5GB of that is available to you, but it doesn’t matter much when there’s a (much-appreciated) microSD slot supporting cards as large as 32GB.
Emotion UI is not a graphically intensive or feature-loaded skin so, much like the Moto G’s near-stock Android, you can fly through the one carousel as fast as your finger will take you. App-loading times range from instant to around 15 seconds for serious games. My go-to test title is NBA Jam and, as expected, the Snapdragon 400 handles it with ease. When I’m not smashing backboards, I also like a spin on Asphalt 8: Airborne. An eight-player online multiplayer match running at max graphics wasn’t a problem for the Kestrel, and having thrown other resource-hungry games at the Moto G, I knew I wasn’t going to find anything to complain about. In this respect, the Kestrel is a fantastic phone that shows once again that you don’t need the highest-tier components to ensure a quality user experience.
Chrome runs as fast as you’d like and only stutters briefly at the tail end of page loading. You can, of course, browse the web over LTE with the Kestrel, that being one of its main selling points and all. And it’s not just your run-of-the-mill 4G either: The device has a Cat 4 radio capable of handling 150 Mbps download speeds that are theoretically possible on EE’s “double-speed” tariffs. In various parts of London, I got speeds ranging from 15 to 30 Mbps down, and 10 to 15 Mbps up. There was evidently enough money left over to ensure the WiFi/Bluetooth chips and particularly the GPS module were capable of establishing quick and robust connections. Audio quality is fine, if not a little lacking in the bass range and needing an extra notch on the volume dial (Google Play Music; on-device MP3s). Like the majority of smartphones, the loudspeaker is for hands-free calling, not playing music. Please.
The 2,000mAh battery on the Kestrel is nothing special. Indeed, the phone was immediately incorporated into my nightly charging routine to keep it alive throughout the following day. In our standard looping-video rundown test, the Kestrel died in a fairly average time of six hours and 50 minutes. Moderate use throughout the day will slowly chew through battery life, with the display being the primary drain. An obvious point, but I highlight it because processor-intensive games and highjacking the phone’s 4G connection for tethering don’t guzzle as much juice as I expect them to.
The competition
I’ve compared the Kestrel to the Moto G too many times not to consider it competition. Available through various carriers on pay-as-you-go for £100, it has a more striking design, better display and more useful camera. It’s where the G itself is lacking that the Kestrel shines, particularly with the simple addition of a microSD slot. It wouldn’t be fair to recommend the Moto G over the Kestrel, because the whole point of the latter is to be a low-cost 4G smartphone, with the emphasis on connection speed.
If we look at what else out there has LTE and goes for a similar price, it’s slim pickings. On pay-as-you-go, O2 has the Lumia 625 for £100 and the BlackBerry Q5 for £130, neither of which are really compelling alternatives. Vodafone, too, has the Lumia 625 at a higher price of £115, whereas EE itself has the same Windows Phone for £100, and the Galaxy Ace 3 at £140, which, I’d say, is very much a budget device.
If you’re looking to sign up to a pay-monthly plan, the Kestrel is free on EE’s frugal £14-per-month contract (500MB data cap), with the Lumia 625 and Galaxy Ace 3 requiring £20 and £50 upfront, respectively. Until recently, EE also ranged the Alcatel One Touch Idol S as its lowest-cost handset, priced at £130 on pay-as-you-go and free from £14 per month. You won’t find it on EE’s online store any longer, which could well be a shrewd move to push customers toward the Kestrel. I’m not sure this was entirely necessary, though. Yes, the Idol S does come off better on paper in a number of areas (720p display, 8MP camera), but I’d hedge my bets that its 1.2GHz dual-core processor can’t hang with the Kestrel’s quad-core Snapdragon 400. Vodafone has nothing competitive on its 4G plans, and the only thing on O2 worth considering would be the free Lumia 925 from £19 per month (500MB data). That’s a higher monthly commitment, but it’s a gorgeous handset and worthy of an honourable mention.
All told, the problem the Kestrel faces isn’t about what’s available now; it’s what Motorola is bringing to the market in a matter of weeks.
Wrap-up
EE has achieved with the Kestrel exactly what it wanted to. It offers good value for the money, warts and all. The camera isn’t great; the display resolution may leave some wanting; and there’s nothing special about its design apart from the poorly placed headphone jack. But, with a good choice of display panel, excellent performance and Cat 4 LTE, £99 is a fair price. There’s nothing attractive in the way of alternatives for that kind of money, either, especially if it’s an Android phone you’re after. So, the Kestrel fits into a comfy niche, for now, but Motorola’s recently announced LTE variant of the Moto G with expandable storage is about to spoil the party.
Arriving in the next few weeks, this 4G version will nullify the advantages EE’s Kestrel had over the 3G model, albeit for the higher price of £149 unlocked. But, that’s before carriers start pumping subsidies into the system. In the same way the £135 unlocked 3G edition was available everywhere on pay-as-you-go for £100 almost immediately, the 4G variant should come in at closer to £120 when locked into a network. I therefore have no choice but to advise you sit on your hands for a couple weeks, save up a little extra pocket money and decide whether you want the black or white model of the new Moto G when it eventually launches.
That doesn’t give EE much of a window to work with, and the irony is it’s kind of forced to stock the 4G Moto G at a competitive price, or it’ll miss out on new custom the other networks will be happy to pick up. This is EE’s first venture in own-brand hardware, and we know it’s but one of a future flock that’ll all be named after birds of prey. The Kestrel is a promising start and I’m interested to see what else Huawei is working on, and whether they make a play for the high end. Not the best timing in the wake of Motorola’s announcement this time around, but perhaps EE’s next handset won’t find the predator-prey dynamic reversed quite so quickly.
Filed under: Cellphones
Motorola Moto E wallpapers available here Now [Download]
The Motorola Moto E was officially announced last week and continues Motorola‘s current aspirations to offer great value smartphones in the budget device market. As with any new device release, we like to take a look at the wallpapers that are available with the device, so without further ado, here are all eight of the Motorola Moto E wallpapers:
A nice set of wallpapers that should look great on the 4.3-inch 960×540 resolution display. With lower hardware specifications than the Moto G, the Moto E looks like it will still be able to deliver the minimum level of performance with yet another great screen, not unlike the one we saw on the Moto G.
What do you think about the Motorola Moto E wallpapers? And what do you think about the device as a whole? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
Source: YouTube
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Apple and Motorola agree to drop lawsuits against each other, work on patent reform
And just like that, the longstanding legal battle between Apple and Motorola appears to be winding down. The two smartphone giants have reached an agreement that will see them drop patent lawsuits against each other. The truce doesn’t involve technology licenses, but Apple and Google (still Motorola’s owner at this point) say they’ll “work together in some areas of patent reform.” Neither side is revealing what this entails, although it won’t be surprising if it involves efforts to curb the patent trolls that they face.
The companies haven’t said what prompted the change of heart. However, it comes hot on the heels of an appeals court reviving patent claims from Apple and Motorola that had been dismissed in 2012. The phone makers faced the prospect of renewing a fight over some relatively old (and no longer very valuable) infringement allegations — peace may simply be the more pragmatic option. Whatever led to the decision, it’s good news for those who’d rather see phone makers compete in stores than in the courtroom.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Google, Lenovo
Source: Reuters
Motorola Alert app for the Moto E in the Play Store not quite ready for the Moto G or X
Motorola Mobility has released a new app to the Play Store today called Motorola Alert. the new app is free in the Play Store for Moto E devices but isn’t quite ready for prime time on the other Motorola devices like the Moto G or Moto X. Not sure what they were thinking on that one. The app is basically a simple location alert trigger app that sends your location data to the people you have designated.
It will periodically send location updates to those people to help them find you as fast as possible in case of an emergency. Which means you should probably put people in the list that are close enough to actually help you and not so much your mom that lives across the country. The app does a little bit more than emergency location though. It also can create geo-fences so that you can get an alert for when your kids get to school, leave school, get home or what not.
The app is only available for the Moto E currently, but Motorola is said to be bringing it to the Moto G and Moto X later with no real plans to make it ‘just an app’ that everyone can have. However, the recipients don’t have to have the app or a Moto device to receive the alerts. It isn’t a bad concept really, Motorola is definitely trying to capture the youth / parents market with the Moto E and this app. having a teenager my self, I know it would come in handy. however there are a number of other apps that do similar things and a whole lot more and aren’t device specific.
You can check it out on the Play Store at your leisure, but Motorola doesn’t share much of anything on the app in the description section. Shame on you Motorola.
Via Phandroid
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