Even after acquisition by Lenovo, Motorola continues to offer its customers a slew of budget smartphones under the Moto brand.
The latest addition to this series is the Moto M that is slated for an only Asia release in early November. Various leaks have been hitting the headlines giving us a fairly good insight to what you can expect from the Motorola Moto M. Given the fact that it will be an affordable offering, the smartphone has some really impressive specs tucked under its bonnet. Bearing the nickname Kung Fu and the Lenovo logo, the gadget will soon be showcased at an event in Guanzhou, China. Yet, a TechDroider statement mentions that the handset is being manufactured by Motorola and not the parent company Lenovo. There is also the possibility of a bigger model that will be called the Moto M Plus although no specs have been discussed.
Likely to come in gold and silver options, the Moto M is slated to come in a compact size of 151 x 75 x 8 mm. Although no mention has been made about the weight, the leaked images do not portray the handset to be very bulky. An off the record declaration puts the possible weight at 163g. One of the major highlights is that the entire device has a fully metallic construction and a curved back. With this combination of metal body and curved back, the gadget is bound to receive a good rating in the looks department. Also, if the rumors are trustworthy, it will be the first of the manufacturer’s many offerings to place the fingerprint sensor on the rear.
Stipulated to arrive with a 5.5-inch HD screen that accounts for 73.6 percent screen-to-body ratio, the Motorola smartphone will make use of an IPS LCD display. Unofficial reports indicate a normal 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and a very good pixel density of 401ppi. Added to this, the Motorola Moto M will feature a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 that protects the screen from scratches. With the IPS LCD, the handset will display wide viewing angles making reading, browsing, gaming and other activities for extended hours more enjoyable.
In the optics section, the manufacturer is believed to have rendered justice with a 16MP primary back facing camera and an 8MP snapper on the front. However, there are a couple of reports which mention the selfie shooter to have a 5MP value. The rear shutterbug will as expected incorporate an LED flash and record 1080p videos at 30 fps. The video recording details of the front camera are yet to be made known.
According to a GSM Arena report, there are plans for two key variations of the Moto M depending on the area of launch. The Chinese market will offer a smartphone with 4GB RAM and 64GB or 128GB ROM for native storage. Customers from the rest of Asia can either choose a 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM combination or a handset with 4GB RAM and 128GB ROM. Both China and rest of Asia models will allow you to insert a memory card for external storage. Irrespective of the model, the device will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, a 2GHz octa core Cortex A-53 central processor and an Adreno 506 graphics processor.
The smartphone will run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. No information is available about an upgrade to Nougat being possible. There is also no mention about this device in the recent list of devices announced by Motorola that will get the upgrade shortly. Interestingly, this smartphone will come with some Microsoft apps preinstalled.
The Moto M will support various connectivity modes like a 3.5mm audio jack, Wi-Fi (hotspot, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual band and direct), GPS with GLONASS and A-GPS, microUSB 2.0 and Bluetooth 4.1 with LE and A2DP. As for sensors, the smartphone is expected to be loaded with a compass, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer and a fingerprint sensor. The Motorola device is claimed to draw power from a non-removable Li-ion 3,000 mAh battery.
One thing that is known for certain is that the Motorola Moto M has successfully received the TENAA certification making it eligible for a Chinese launch. This certification is reported to have been awarded a couple of months back.