Clean software; tasteful hardware design
Honor, Nokia and, yes, Motorola alternatives offer more aggressive value
Motorola likes to think of itself as an innovator. Moto Mods add odd extras to some of its phones. It did its best to make an “indestructible” mobile in the Moto X Force. However, most people today appreciate the brand for its simple reliability.
Buy a Moto G and you’re guaranteed good value, and none of the affronts to good taste seen in some Honor alternatives.
The Motorola Moto One is not a Moto G. It’s an experiment of sorts. This is Motorola’s first notched phone and its first to use Android One, Google’s software purity project that has just recently become a mainstream option for us western buyers.
The One is the most Google-Influenced Motorola phone since the Pixel precursor Google Nexus 6, made by Motorola.
This is all part of the appeal. The Motorola Moto One is tasteful at every juncture, and at £269 won’t offend budgets like so many other new phones with notches. However, it does also lack some of the sheer value of the more “own brand” Moto G and E models, and is rather shown up by the lower-cost Honor 8X.
Read the WIRED Recommends guide to the best Android phones for our top picks
The good
Phones arrive in waves. The Moto One washed up alongside the Honor 8X and Nokia 7.1. They are all phones with notches, and cost as little as a third the price of the most famous notched models.
The Moto One is the most neutral of the trio. It’s glass on the back and front, aluminium on the sides.
Borders are slim, the phone itself is an accessible size and it is black all-round. Even those who find the Nokia 7.1 a bit too shiny, or the Honor 8X a bit too, well, Honor, won’t find much to complain about there.
The pleasantly plain design is a perfect fit for Android One. It’s an almost-unmodified version of the system. Only minor tweaks are allowed.
This version of Android has been around since 2014. But until 2018 few people in the UK had a chance to even hold a phone that used it. Android One was originally for developing markets, but has since morphed into a vanilla alternative to a custom interface for mid-range phones and up.
It’s clean, there’s no bloat and the Moto One feels fast. It has the Snapdragon 625, an ageing processor but one perfectly capable of handling Android and higher-end games at this phone’s display resolution.
A few Motorola staples remain, too. There’s Active Display, which shows the time and notifications on the standby screen as they arrive, or when the phone is moved. And standard Moto gesture staples let you turn the torch on and off, and access the camera, with various flicks of the wrist.
This is plain Android, with just enough flavour hints of “Moto” to make it feel like a Motorola phone, one distinct from the Nokia 7.1.
All the right hardware side plates are in place, too. There’s a headphone jack, a generous 64GB storage, a secondary camera on the back for background blur shots and a fast rear fingerprint scanner. Fast USB-C charging also gives you around 50 per cent charge within a half-hour.
The Motorola Moto One may not be a phone for the tech cognoscenti, but it is one of the best choices for those liable to faint at the idea that the “affordable” iPhone XR costs £799.
A vanilla approach makes it seem an alternative not just to the Pixel phones, but iPhones, too.
The bad
The Moto One also has some problems, mostly related to the fierce competition lurking around every corner. But seen in isolation there’s almost nothing to seriously dislike about this phone. It is, the most damning compliment of all, nice.
Moto G and E series phones thrive as some of the most visible budget phones around, and demonstrably excellent value. Whether down to a shift in priorities or because this is more of a Google partnership than other Moto devices, some of Motorola’s value aggression has evaporated.
The Honor 8X is significantly cheaper, but also has a bigger display and is more powerful. None of the Moto One’s slight hardware shortfalls are glaring. But they do exist.
First, the Moto One has an elongated 720p screen, of 1520 x 720 pixels, rather than a Full HD one. Before ultra-long screens like this arrived, you wouldn’t have seen a less-than-Full HD Moto phone sold at this price in 2018.
A shift in tech, altering screen shapes, has actually given phone makers an excuse to downgrade certain elements. Pixellation is minor, not obvious, but side-by-side with the Full HD Nokia 7.1 the difference is noticeable.
The Moto One does not have a highly competitive camera, either. Motorola’s custom camera app is easy to use, and image quality is fair. However, its bokeh mode struggles with more complicated scenes because the secondary “depth” camera uses a rudimentary 2-megapixel sensor.
The Nokia 7.1 and Honor 8X can also shoot better images during the day. They simply have better sensors, and offer better dynamic range. The Moto One has a serviceable 13-megapixel rear camera. It can produce pleasing photos, but is not the best available at the price.
Read more: These are the best smartphones for any budget in 2021
Motorola’s own Moto G6 Plus shows up the One in this respect, too, with both better primary and secondary rear cameras. The Motorola Moto One is a cousin to the Moto G phones, not a sibling.
There’s nothing wrong with the Moto One. It’s a competent phone that doesn’t ask too much of you pocket, your fingers or your patience. And it lets you try out the new style of extra-long notched display that was until recently restricted to much more expensive models.
Those after the most phone for their money have other options to consider, though. The Nokia 7.1 is just slightly more expensive and has a shapelier screen, better camera and newer processor. Honor’s 8X is significantly cheaper, and also has a newer CPU, sharper screen and, again, more accomplished camera. It’s larger too, though, so less well suited to those after a compact phone.
The Verdict
Moto G phones tend to instantly become top choices for those looking for an affordable SIM-free mobile. The Moto One doesn’t quite manage that feat.
It has all the design hallmarks of a brand new phone including a notch, mixed glass and metal build and slim screen borders. However, the Honor 8X and Nokia 7.1 have slightly more advanced processors, screens and cameras at similar prices.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
