Last week, Motorola unveiled its low-budget wonder — the Moto E. The handset is priced even lower than the Moto G, which had set a new benchmark in the value for money and price-to-performance ratio and made all the other high-end phones feel extremely overpriced. The Moto E retails for US $129, and even less in some emerging markets, which makes it cheaper than the Moto G by “only” $50. However, is the 50$ jump from the Moto E to the G worth it? Or does buying the former make much more sense? Read our simple spec comparison of the devices to find out.
The main target market of the Moto E is not the United States or the UK, but many developing countries like India and Brazil, where many people are still using a dumbphone. Since the Moto E runs on a near stock build of Android 4.4 KitKat, it makes for a perfect first time smartphone for many users in these countries. Below is a quick on-paper comparison of the Moto E and the Moto G, showing off the key differences in the specs:
Now, on paper, the difference between the Moto E and Moto G seems to be only limited to a slower processor and a smaller screen size. However, in real life, these make all the difference, and the $50 price change between the two is easily visible. The Moto E is clearly a low-end device, while the Moto G belongs more to the upper mid-range tier. Even in normal UI performance, the Moto G feels much smoother to use than the Moto E. While the cameras on both devices are terrible, the Moto G can at least snap usable pictures. This does not mean the Moto E is a bad handset by any means. It is head and shoulders above its competition in its price range, where mostly Chinese OEMs dominate with devices that run on Jelly Bean with no guarantee of being updated to KitKat or the next version of Android. The Moto G and Moto E are also very similar to each other in many aspects. They sport the same design language and build quality. The back cover on these handsets can be replaced with different colored shells from Motorola, giving users a certain amount of customisation power as well. In the end, you cannot go wrong with either handsets. While the Moto G is obviously more powerful and makes for a better buy, the $50 jump in price might be a bit too much for many people in emerging countries. Don’t worry though. The Moto E is the absolute best piece of mobile technology that $129 can get you.
