Motorola has been busy this year as it has already unveiled a handful of smartphones ranging from the Moto Z flagships to the low-end Moto G series.
There is even better news for those who love to get affordable handsets that still carry some of the best specs you can find on a smartphone. With the Moto E series popular for this feat, the 2016 version did not fall short of this expectation. In fact, the Moto E 2016, also known as the Moto E3 (third generation), is a major upgrade over the Moto E 2015. But is this enough to make you jump from the already proven 2nd generation Moto E to the new Moto E 2016? Let’s take a closer look at these two handsets.
Design and display
If you have familiarized yourself with the newly launched Moto G4, well, you will see almost the same design language on the Moto E 2016. The phone is slim with a stylish design that sees the bottom pack the front-facing speakers while the rear has a camera lens alongside an LED flash. You will notice the signature “M” logo just below the snapper. The phone measures 143.8 by 71.6 by 8.6mm and weighs 141g as compared to the 129.9 by 66.8 by 12.3mm of the Moto E 2015, which is also heavier at 145g. You don’t get a LED flash on the back, but the camera lens is quite large. The logo is also visible from the same position as on the Moto E3, with the speaker located at the top as opposed to the bottom.
As you can see the exterior dimensions of the Moto E 2016 are larger than the Moto E 2015, something that also results in a larger display screen for the former. Lenovo stepped into the large screen craze by upping the size of the display screen from 4.5 inches used on the Moto E 2015 to a 5-inch unit on the Moto E 2016. In addition to the increment in size, the Moto E 2016 also gets a better resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels as compared to the 960 by 540 pixels you get on the Moto E 2015. This also means that you get a better pixel density of 294ppi as opposed to the 245ppi you get on its predecessor.
Despite the differences in display quality and size, the Moto E3 kept faith in the IPS LCD screen as well as Gorilla Glass 3 technology used on the Moto E2.
Hardware and software
Coming down to hardware and software, you will also realize some massive changes on the newer handset. There is an improved quad-core MediaTek SoC with a clock speed of 1GHz and a RAM of 1GB on the Moto E3. You also get 8GB of onboard storage with room for expanding it via a microSD card.
On the other hand, the Moto E 2015 has a quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC that tops a clock speed of 1.2GHz and has the same RAM of 1GB. The storage options remain unchanged as the newer model.
Moto E 2016 comes in at a time when Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is the order of the day, and in fact, you get an almost stock experience thanks to the reduced bloatware it comes with. With Android 7.0 Nougat just around the corner, the Moto E 2016 will, without a doubt, be on the list of devices to be updated with this new OS.
The Moto E 2015 came out with Android Lollipop on board, however, the phone is eligible for a Marshmallow update that will put it on level terms with the new model.
Camera and battery capacity
The new Moto E 2016 has an 8MP snapper on the back that is supported by a LED flash, burst mode, panorama and HDR while the front has a 5MP snapper, which is great for selfies and video calls. As for the Moto E 2015, you get a 5MP snapper on the back and there is no LED flash. It gets even worse for the front camera as it only manages a VGA snapper, which is outshone by its counterpart by far.
The story is the same when it comes to battery capacity, where the newer Moto E 2016 has a sizeable 2800mAh unit as compared to the 2390mAh available on the 2015 model. This should translate to a longer battery life for the Moto E3, even though it has a large screen and more pixels to power than the Moto E2.