German court has ordered Motorola to stop smartphone sale over the infringe on an antenna design patent. The Mannheim Regional Court has ordered to cease all Moto X and Moto G sales in Germany, as the company is allegedly infringing on antenna related patents held by German firm LPKF Laser & Electronics.
Continue reading “Court orders Motorola to stop selling devices in Germany”
Few weeks after Google pushed out the Android 4.4.4 update for the Nexus devices, Motorola has announced that the it has started rolling out Android 4.4.4 update for the Moto X, Moto G and Moto E users in India, skipping the Android 4.4.3 (KitKat) update that started rolling out in the US early June . Continue reading “Motorola starts rolling out Android 4.4.4 update for Moto X, Moto G and Moto E in India”
Motorola Moto E, Micromax Unite 2, Xolo Q600s and Lava Iris X1 are part of the affordable value for money series of smartphones under the Rs.8,000 price tag and today, we put all of them against each other to help you make a better choice when you are about to purchase a budget smartphone. In this small comparison, we consider the display, performance, the camera, gaming and battery life of the smartphones to help you get a better perspective about these smartphones.
All these smartphones have dual-SIM capability and come with Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box.
Display
The specification of the displays is as follows –
Motorola Moto E – 4.3inch qHD (540×960 pixels) display 256ppi
Micromax Unite 2 – 4.7inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) display 199ppi
Lava Iris X1 – 4.5inch FWVGA (480×854 pixels) display 218ppi
Xolo Q600s – 4.5inch qHD (540×960 pixels) display 245ppi
Moto E is the sharpest display in terms of pixel density, but it is also the smallest and is the only in the lot to have on-screen buttons. So it has a comparatively very small display. Unite 2 has the biggest display amongst the lot, but also has the least dense display with just a WVGA display and a pixel density less than 200ppi. Lava Iris X1 has a reasonable 218ppi 4.5inch display while the Xolo Q600s has the second sharpest display.
In terms of brightness, the Xolo Q600s is the brightest with the Unite 2 coming in second, followed by Iris X1 and Moto E is the least bright. Xolo Q600s emerges as the strongest in terms of viewing angles with the Unite 2 again coming in second. The Moto E ’s display does better in terms of viewing angles than the one on the Lava Iris X1. Color accuracy is maintained well in the Xolo Q600s and to some extent in the Unite 2. The displays of Moto E and Iris X1 appear relatively cooler than usual.
Overall, in terms of display quality, the Xolo Q600s is the clear winner and Unite 2 comes in next. The displays of Moto E and Iris X1 come in next. If you are a fan of bigger displays, then you would be picking the X1 over Moto E as Moto E’s screen estate is shrunk down by on screen buttons.
Performance
In terms of general performance, the Snapdragon powered Moto E is better than the other three. The Unite 2 comes in next thanks to its quad-core MediaTek chip and the Broadcom quad-core chip powered X1 and Q600s take the last place. Both these phones are laggy and that shows in their general user interface. Opening the apps is much quicker on Moto E and Unite 2, while the Broadcom powered X1 and Q600s severely fall behind in this aspect. Web browsing on Chrome is pretty much the same on all these phones with pinch to zoom taking a few seconds to load and that is expected in a budget offering.
Camera
Coming to the camera, here is a quick look at the specifications of the various camera units.
Moto E – 5MP fixed focus – NO LED Flash – No front camera – 854x480pixels video
Unite 2 – 5MP Auto focus – LED Flash – 2MP front camera – 720p video
Q600s – 5MP Auto focus – LED Flash – VGA front camera – 720p video
Iris X1 – 8MP Auto focus – LED Flash – 2MP front camera – 1080p video
In terms of quality, the 8MP Iris X1 does very well while the Unite 2 and Q600s come in next with good details and colors. The fixed focus 5MP unit on Moto E is probably the worst performer in this range and if camera on a phone is very important to you, then you should reconsider Moto E. You can check out the samples of the four phones right below.
Motorola Moto E
Micromax Unite 2
Xolo Q600s
Lava Iris X1
Gaming
Among the four phones, Moto E takes the crown mainly because of its Adreno GPU while the others are stuck with VideoCore GPU or Mali GPU which aren’t quite capable. Most of the games we tried included – Subway Surfer, Riptide GP2, Temple Run 2, Dead Trigger 2 and Shadow gun. Moto E was able to run the casual games well, but just started lagging on the big ones like Shadow gun. The next best is the Unite 2 and that is because of the Mali400 GPU. The VideoCore GPU powered Iris X1 and Q600s performed less than the Moto E and Unite 2. Both these phones could run the game, but that isn’t their strongest suit.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHYnTjNOvAQ
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQju_ToG9lw
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cweKJuuFH-Q
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmNw9CwhzkM
Battery Life
Moto E is the winner here again. Moto E has striped down specifications of the Moto G, but Motorola have kept almost all of its battery juice intact. Moto G had a great battery life and the Moto E does even better. The other phones aren’t that good when compared to the Moto E, but all the three will last at least one day of normal usage. Moto E will definitely last a day and half of normal usage.
Conclusion
As you can see from the comparison above, no phone is perfect and at this price range, almost all of them are far from perfect. But the choice of the perfect phone for you rests with you. If you want an excellent display, but can do with average performance, then you can get the Xolo Q600s. If the phone needs to be fast, compact and have a long battery life, then the Motorola Moto E should be your choice. If you are a fan of big displays, the Micromax Unite 2 should be the one for you. If you want a premium looking device at a bargain price, then the Lava Iris X1 should be your choice with its iPhone like looks. All the phones have their pros and cons and we try to summarize it below.
Motorola Moto E
Pros
Cons
Micromax Unite 2
Pros
Cons
Xolo Q600s
Pros
Cons
Lava Iris X1
Pros
Cons
Android KitKat 4.4.4 update is hitting Moto G Google Play Edition users. The over the air update does not bring any UI or other feature changes. It only adds security and stability improvements along with bug fixes which might improve your Android experience.
Continue reading “Google Play Edition of Moto G gets Android KitKat 4.4.4 update”
Motorola finally showed off the Moto 360 at Google I/O few hours back. The Moto 360 was announced earlier this year and is powered by Android Wear. Motorola already confirmed that it is water resistant, compatible with Android devices running Android 4.3 or later and uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE to connect to them. Motorola is yet to detail the specifications of the Moto 360, but you can see the smartwatch in pictures below that would give an idea about it. Continue reading “Motorola Moto 360 Photo Gallery”
After several rumors, the first render of the Motorola Moto X+1 has surfaced. This comes from the @evleaks that leaked the existence of the device back in April. Later it revealed that the smartphone would come with 25 custom backplate options. Moto X+1 placeholder appeared on Moto Maker website last month and Moto X+1 for AT&T showed up on official website. Continue reading “Motorola Moto X+1 render surfaces, shows the phone inside a case”
Motorola is giving Android KitKat 4.4.4 update to Droid Ultra, Maxx and Mini. The company is skipping 4.4.3 update entirely on all these devices. All of these device users were eagerly waiting for the update which has been cancelled by Motorola in order to work on the latest update which will take some more time.
Motorola is all set to bring its very first smart watch with Android Wear OS, in a few days. Moto 360 watch will be sold in ‘a selection of styles’. Motorola invited designers to create different looks for the new watch. Winner of the contest will get a Moto360 watch. Moto received nearly 1300 entries that were judged by the team that created Moto 360. Amongst the many entries received, here are Motorola’s top 10 picks. Which of these designs would you want to see adorn your wrist? Share your comments at the end of the post. Continue reading “Motorola Moto 360 Top 10 Designs”
Its long been expected that Motorola will launch a higher capacity variant of the Moto X. Today, the company has confirmed that it plans to launch a 64GB version of the phone.
There’s little else that has changed here. The base specifications of the phone include a 4.7 inch 720p display, a 1.7Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC and this is paired with 2GB of RAM. The USP of the phone comes in the form of touchless controls that let you activate Google Now and use voice based commands without touching the device. Continue reading “64GB Moto X now official, Priced at $449”
Motorola announced the Motorola Moto X nearly nine months ago and it was the company’s first smartphone after being taken over by Google. The smartphone was the company’s flagship and at that time, it could not compete with the top of the range specs laden flagships that came with 1080p displays and powerful quad-core processors. Moto X took a different approach by making the smartphone extremely compact and it was branded as Made in USA.
Continue reading “Motorola slashes price of Moto X 32GB by 100$ in US for a 48 hour sale”
Motorola which has bounced back in the smartphone business with its budget and mid range smartphones is now moving to accessories. The company has launched a bluetooth audio streaming device that connects to your smartphone, tablet, laptop or computer up to 300 feet of “roam range”.
Continue reading “Motorola releases Moto Stream Bluetooth music streaming accessory”
Soon after Google pushed out the Android 4.4.3 factory images, Motorola has announced that the unlocked variants of Moto X (T-Mobile), Moto G (U.S and Brazil) and Moto E (U.S.) would start getting the Android 4.4.3 (KitKat) update starting this week. This minor update would bring improved dialer with a new interface, new colors to enhance consistency and usability and several stability, framework and security fixes in addition to accuracy improvements to the power profile. Continue reading “Motorola Moto X, Moto G and Moto E Android 4.4.3 update rolling out this week”
Motorola Mobility will shut down its smartphone factory at Fort Worth, Texas by the end of this year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the plant which was opened in May 2013 had 3,800 workers, which has now reduced to 700 employees. The factory primarily assembled the Moto X, Motorola’s high-end smartphone.
Continue reading “Motorola Mobility to shut down Texas smartphone factory”
Motorola launched the Moto X, the company’s top-end smartphone in India back in March, exclusively on Flipkart. Later it launched the Walnut and Teak wood back variants are priced at Rs. 25,999. Today, the company has launched the Bamboo back variant of the phone in India on Flipkart. The Bamboo variant of the Moto X was introduced in the U.S. back in December last year. Continue reading “Motorola Moto X with Bamboo finish launched in India, wood back variants get Rs. 1000 off on Flipkart”
After the most successful Moto G that was launched in India earlier this year, Motorola released another budget smartphone called Moto E at a price tag of just Rs. 6,999, even cheaper than the Moto G. Unlike the Moto G, the Moto E was launched in India first and is also cheaper compared to some markets. Looking at the specifications, it is clear that Moto E is worth the price. Did it live up to its expectations? Let us find it out in the complete review. Continue reading “Motorola Moto E Review”
