Motorola One: Compact yet powerful Android One Smartphone

The way smartphones have evolved through the years, most of the people tend to go for the mid-rangers keeping the flagships aside and change the device frequently; because why not? The mid-range Android devices have everything to offer a mediocre user of a smartphone is looking out for.

Motorola had launched the Motorola G7 last month and along with this, the Motorola One smartphone was also launched. Here, we have the Motorola One which runs on the Android One giving you the stock Android experience with buttery smooth navigation. Although the device does not have high end hardware, it still sets up to motion keeping the software for accountability. Below are a few good aspects of the device we found worth talking about.

Build and Design

The Motorola One forms up with glass both on the front and the back. From what it looks like, it has been heavily bothered with the iPhone X’s design just like any other smartphone in this decade. Although the device doesn’t feel that large when holding in the hands, the device comes with a chin that looks a bit awkward and the notch just as usual. Also, Motorola seems to have put aside the typical Moto devices design and introduce a new design which as we have said before, depends more on the iPhone X, the Nokia 7.1, and the Honor Play.

We have the glass back which has two camera sensor vertically placed between which an LED flash is placed. And the fingerprint sensor is placed perfectly which also has a Moto logo on it. The fingerprint sensor is quite fast and holding the device feels pretty good. All the buttons are placed in comfortable positions and also give back tactile feedback when pressed.

In the front, we have a 5.9-inch 19:9 HD display along with the notch which looks more iPhone-ish than Pixel 3XL-ish. Basically, we got a 720p display at 720×1520 pixel resolution. Fortunately, there is still a 3.5mm headphone jack even though the device is sleeky (7.97mm) and lightweight (162 g).

Overall, the build quality is spectacular as always in a Moto phone. Little different than the mainstream Moto devices, but it really looks great with this particular design language.

Stock Android experience

if there is something outstanding about this device, we would say that it is the software itself. With the Android One, the Motorola One creates this magical smooth experience with stock Android. Since there is lesser bloatware and not many tasks running in the background, even with the underpowered hardware that is offered, the device runs smoothly.

The Motorola One comes with Android 8.1 out of the box and with the inclusion of Android One, the updates just need to be pushed whenever they are out; as simple as that. Android One also promises monthly security updates and at least two platform updates. There is a catch here since it is Motorola which is making the device. They have included their Moto Actions in the device which will let you trigger the flashlight with a double karate chop, or turn on the camera with a twist of the hand.

Decent Performance

With the Snapdragon 625 on board along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, the Motorola One performs decently in the day-to-day tasks. All of this bundled with the Android One makes the difference because only it can offer such kind of performance with basic hardware. For a mediocre user, it won’t disappoint you throughout the day handling with various tasks.

When it comes to gaming, it is not preferable because playing on a 5.9-inch 720p IPS LCD display doesn’t look great. When we tried playing PUBG on lowest graphics settings, the gameplay was just okay. But when it comes to navigating through the UI, it is fast enough and the apps too launch pretty quickly.

Battery

The Motorola One packs a 3000 mAh battery which seems to be good enough for the device of this size and display. Going out daily with this device feels confident because it can keep you running through the day until you get into bed. Anything more than a day, the device is just not capable. Anyhow, you get the Turbo Charger in the box which helps you charge the device for the usage which will last up to 7 hours in just 20 minutes.

All these above-mentioned aspects of the phone are the features which we found good enough to be discussed.