Quick look at Moto E3 – first impressions, camera, performance

A while a go we received a new smartphone for testing – Moto E3. As you may guess, we are currently working on a detailed review but before that we would like to share this short article with our first impressions for the more impatient of you.

If you happen to show interest in the Moto E3, you can check its price and availability here: http://amzn.to/2eWxCf5

We are again presented with the familiar shape and all plastic construction but that’s more than normal for this price range. The back panel is easily removable, just as the battery is, and its surface is pleasantly rough which does not retain fingerprints and reduces the chances of you dropping the device. Other than that, the phone’s profile thickness is 8.5 mm and its weight – 141 grams. We find the operation with the hardware buttons as comfortable, and the Power button has an uneven finish which helps you distinguish it.

This time we are dealing with a 5-inch display whose resolution has been increased over the previous generation. It is HD (1280 x 720p) and this ensures higher image detail of 294 ppi. As for the colors, they are saturated enough thanks to the IPS panel. Additionally, Gorilla Glass 3 protection shields the screen.

Moto E3 uses a MediaTek mobile processor – the quad-core MT6735P which is accompanied by the Mali-T720 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Also, the phone has 8GB of internal storage, 4.5GB of which are available to the user because the rest are occupied by system files and pre-installed apps. We’ve already conducted some of our performance tests and you can find the results in the two screenshots below – Geekbench 3 (left) and 3DMark Ice Unlimited (right).

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Moving on, we have high expectations as regards battery life because its capacity is 2800 mAh and the available hardware is not at all demanding. What’s more, the software has been optimized and this should result in long battery life.

As far as the software side is concerned, there are no great surprises – Moto E3 comes with stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow without any UI and many additional apps. In this way the device offers much faster operation. If you want to learn more about this OS version, you can read our review.

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Moto E3 has an 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash. Its menu is not that rich in modes and settings but you still have HDR and Panorama along with some additional effects. You can also record HD video. We have included a couple of test shots so that you can evaluate the image quality.

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Specs sheet


OSAndroid v6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
CPUMediatek MT6735P (4-core, 1.00GHz, Cortex-A53)
RAM1GB RAM
Storage8GB
GPUMali-T720
Display5.0-inch IPS LCD, 1280×720 p, capacitive
ConnectivityBluetooth v4.0, LE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS
Rear camera8MP with with autofocus and LED flash
Front camera5MP
Features
  • Micro-SIM card slot
  • MicroSD card slot (supports up to 32GB)
  • MicroUSB v2.0, USB Host
  • Integrated loudspeaker
  • 3.5 mm audio jack
  • FM radio, RDS
  • Accelerometer
  • Proximity sensor
Battery2800 mAh
Dimensions (W/H/D)71.6 x 143.8 x 8.5 mm
Weight140 grams

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