Benchmarks and Battery Life
A stack of Moto devices ready to benchmark
CPU Benchmarks
I currently have access to a 2014 Moto X as well as the Motorola Nexus 6, so I used these more expensive devices ($499 and $649 respectively) for some benchmarking comparisons. Of course the Moto E stands to lose next to these faster devices, but it is still interesting to see how a budget device stacks up against its bigger siblings. The Moto E’s Snapdragon 410 is a quad-core part, though only clocked up to 1.2 GHz on its Cortex-A53 cores. Additionally, the Moto E only has 1GB of RAM at its disposal compared to 2GB with the Moto X and a whopping 3GB with the Nexus 6.
While the 2015 Moto E lags far behind the leaders here, the results aren't bad. We can easily see how the SoC's scale with higher clocks, as the 2.4 GHz Snapdragon 801 basically double the performance of the 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 410. Next we see the results from Basemark OS II, and again performance scales as expected.
To give you an idea of what these speed differences might represent in a real-world scenario, here are results from a couple of browser benchmarks. First we have Google's Octane benchmark and then SunSpider, both run on the Chrome browser on each phone.
Faster SoC's do indeed equal faster web browsing. Nothing to see here. Now we move on to graphics.
GPU Benchmarks
3DMark's Ice Storm benchmark gives us another look at the significant drop in performance the Moto E's Snapdragon 410 suffers when compared to the high-end 801 and 805 parts. The results here scale normally, but things look different with the next benchmark:
Here the Snapdragon 801 in the Moto X actually wins out, and I can only speculate as to why. The Nexus 6 might have the faster SoC with the Snapdragon 805, but the phone's default full-system encyption (which can not be disabled on a stock image) might have affected the results in some of the benchmarks. This was the one example I found from the few I chose for this review, but it seems inevitable that some performance aspects of the Nexus 6 are hampered by the encryption (which was disabled by default on the other two phones here).
Battery Life
A vital component of any smartphone, battery life was very good with the Moto E, easily lasting a full day for me with normal use. The 2015 Moto E features a larger battery than last year's device (or the 2014 Moto X, for that matter), and at 7.6 hrs in our demanding PCPer Battery Test the new Moto E was able to outlast both the Nexus 6 and Moto X 2014 which managed 6.5 hours apiece.
Another aspect of battery is of course charging time, and here all three of the Moto devices I tested are outstanding thanks to Qualcomm is Quick Charge 2.0 implementation. The Moto E 2015 will fully charge from 1% is about 2 hours – when using a Quick Charge 2.0 adapter, that is. Unfortunately the Moto E 2015 doesn’t come with one of these (in this group only the Nexus 6 does), so a full charge took around 4.5 hours instead. I have found Quick Charge to be the biggest advancement to the way I use a smartphone in the last year, and I would hesitate to use a device without it now.
Next we'll look at my favorite aspect of the Moto E (and all Moto phones, for that matter): Stock Android 5 Lollipop.
Slight typo on page
Slight typo on page 2
Essentially 540×960 offers the usable space of a sharper 1080×1920 panel, but with only half of the pixels the scaling looks at best soft on the Moto E
It’s a quarter of the pixels, half in each direction.
These budget phones look pretty decent, honestly. If Verizon would let me bring my own phone at a discount (which I don’t think they do currently) I’d buy my own phone and use it at the lower price. As it is, I decided to get one of those fancy flagships on Edge, which does give the per-line discount. Paying more than I’d like, but where I live Sprint and T-Mobile aren’t great. 🙁
Thanks – fixed the typo. I
Thanks – fixed the typo. I wish everyone had the option to BYOD, and while Verizon has such a good reputation for coverage the lack of device freedom is why I stick with AT&T.
I’m pretty sure verizon
I’m pretty sure verizon knocks the line fee down to $15 if you are not under a 2-year contract. I think they change that fairly recently.
I’m done with subsidized
I’m done with subsidized phones, we have 2 OnePlus One’s and a Moto G in this house.
Have 2 moto e 2 nd gens and 3
Have 2 moto e 2 nd gens and 3 HTC 510’s on Cricket. $100 month no contract. No plan to ever be gouged by Verizon again. Love it.
Just installed CM12.1
Just installed CM12.1 (Android 5.1) on my Galaxy S3 last night. It’s like getting a new phone!
Who cares, that has nothing
Who cares, that has nothing to do with the article or what anyone is talking about.
You LL want the motog first
You LL want the motog first gen without LTE ,gpe!1280x720p is the sweet spot for smartphone,size can change but the rest as to be 1280x720p .hspa+is also a sweet spot.LTE is a battery hog.the Asus zen2 has all a user need (the 1280x720p version,hopefully the max combo can be outfitted with a 1280x720p.sadly I don’t think zen 2 is gpe !tho Intel does promise update close to same time as android.if true?(usually Intel deliver on their promise)zen 2 will be best bang for $ for a while
I’ve used a SIM-only deal
I’ve used a SIM-only deal here in the UK, for years, with a preSmartphone Nokia, an HTC Desire and now the impressive Moto G
Cannot see the point of essentially leasing or hiring a phone, unless u just HAVE to have the latest flash kit. I pay c£9 (c$13) for 1000 mins ago of calls, unltd texts and a gig of data, plus cellphone companies here are will always haggle to keep u as a customer. Buy the Moto model that appeals – or even cheaper, buy one in India – the rupee is worth £.01 – a UK penny!
Thanks for the review. This
Thanks for the review. This will be in the short list of phones I will consider when and if I finally break down and get my first smartphone.
I currently own a first gen
I currently own a first gen moto G but a model with LTE(I suppose that model only launched in certain parts of the world like the EU). I like the smaller screen better than the new G, it has a higher resolution screen than the new E and an SD card slot. Still waiting for my Lollipop upgrade though…
I got one in the US, so it’s
I got one in the US, so it’s not just an international version. I’m quite happy with it. I got it for the uSD slot not the LTE. I do with they would hurry up with 5.1, though. You did hear the news that they were skipping 5.0.2 and going right to 5.1, right? Downside: it’ll take even longer to get here. But, better late and right than early and broken.