2014 was the year when we saw smartphone brands change market dynamics by introducing powerful phones with disruptive pricing and exclusive e-commerce deals. Even before Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei andOnePlus Look and feel
The Moto E( Gen 2) is by far the sturdiest and best looking device in this price range. At first glance, you notice that the phone is modelled around the much more expensiveMoto X( Gen 2) ( Review | Pictures), which actually works in its favour. Its body is made of tough plastic and the soft-touch matte finish on the rear makes it very easy to grip. That said, there is no denying that the Moto E( Gen 2) is bulky and heavy, with its thickness of 12.3mm and weight of 145g, when compared to the competition.
The phone is available in two colours, black and white, but Motorola adds a dash of fun to the design with the concept of’bands’. As the name suggests, a band runs around the edges of the phone and is cleverly utilised by Motorola to hide the SIM and microSD card slots. The band is available in a variety of funky colours such as Golden Yellow, Turquoise, Blue, Raspberry, Purple and Red. Moreover, the ribbed texture of the band also aids in gripping the phone. While this is no Moto Maker customisation tool, we still appreciate Motorola trying to introduce some differentiation in a segment otherwise filled with the same old boring candybar designs.
their value-for-money devices, there was one company that started this trend - Motorola. With the introduction of theMoto E ( Review | Pictures) last year, we had a smartphone in the sub-Rs, 10, 000 range that was a decent performer and completely worth the money.
However, a year has passed and it is time for an upgrade. Motorola’s latest budget offering is the new Moto E( Gen 2), which has a slightly tweaked design and upgraded specs in the form of a bigger screen, a higher capacity battery, a front camera, and a faster processor. On paper, all these changes might seem like incremental updates but we are expecting the overall experience to tell a different story. Let’s find out how this smartphone fares in our performance tests and in daily usage.