Moto E4

Motorola has made it dead simple to stumble upon not just an affordable Android phone, but a really good one, at that. 

The new Moto E4 is no exception, and at the low cost of $129/£129, it honestly had me fooled that it wasn’t gunning for the mid-range alongside the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus.

It’s easy enough to see why I was mistaken. Loaded with Android Nougat alongside its quad-core processor, the 2.5D glass front covering the E4 gives it an undeniably fresh look and the fingerprint sensor is an unexpected treat at this price point. Finally, add in a few crowd-pleasers like Google Assistant, a removable battery and microSD support and you’ve got the makings for what seems like a robust mid-range option on paper.

Obviously, having all of this in a budget package makes the E4 all the more appealing and once again, Moto has upped its own bar by bringing yet another well-designed budget phone to market that will suit many users perfectly.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Moto E4 isn’t a gaming powerhouse or the premier choice for enjoying your multimedia compared to high-end options. But for the price, there’s surprisingly little compromise here.

Moto E4 release date and price

The latest budget phone from Moto will be available starting today at Verizon on a prepaid basis for $69.99. If you snag that model, it’ll be tied to that network for a year or until you make $75 in payments. Then, it will be unlockable.

If you don’t mind waiting just a small while, there will be an unlocked Moto E4 for $129/£129 on June 30 from Amazon, NewEgg, Best Buy, B&H, Fry’s and official Motorola’s website. Moto tells us that like its previous budget phones, an ad-supported E4 will eventually be available subsidized through Amazon, though we don’t know the official price as of yet. It’s a relatively safe call to say that it will cost around $99.

No matter where you choose to purchase the Moto E4, it will support both CDMA and GSM signal, meaning that carriers like AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and other MVNOs will work out of the box.

Design

Affordable smartphones are better than ever. Not only are the specs fairly respectable on the whole, but design cues from the high-end range of smartphones have seeped in, making cheap phones not look so...cheap.

The Moto E4 impresses off the bat with its slightly curved 2.5D glass panel, melding into the all-plastic chassis almost seamlessly. The small lip at the display’s edge where the glass transitions to glossy plastic breaks the illusion a bit.

On its front, you’ll find the usual suspects, like a front facing camera, an LED flash and an earpiece that doubles as a speaker. More surprising an inclusion is the fingerprint sensor, which looks to be lifted from the Moto G5. The concave sensor is easy to find without looking for and it’s as responsive and secure as one’s your find in phones that cost two to three times as much.

Around the phone’s sides, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microUSB port for charging, and combo of volume rocker and notched power button along its right edge.

The phone’s rear will look different depending on where you live. In the UK, you’ll be treated to an all-metal body, which gives it a more premium look. In the US, it’s made up of lightly textured plastic. Personally, I’m more a fan of the plastic since it gives it a distinct look when sitting next to the G5.

Both feature a circular camera system that sticks out just a bit, which has oddly become somewhat of a signature Moto feature. We’re not sure why it couldn’t have sat flush given that the sensor doesn’t feature any high-end features, but thankfully, the bump doesn’t detract from the experience much given that it’s a near-$100 phone.

Popping off the plastic cover reveals the battery, SIM slot and microSD slot. People, including myself, love having the flexibility of swapping out a battery, so the fact that this phone offers it is a big plus.

Interface and reliability

When you opt for a budget smartphone, there’s bound to be compromise somewhere. But for the E4, you won’t find any when it comes to the Android Nougat operating system and Moto’s clever batch of software tricks. 

Moto is among the best out there in terms of staying up to date with the latest Android software. Not just that, its latest phones keep a clean, Pixel-like interface and if you snag the unlocked versions, it will come with no bloatware whatsoever. However, in the case of our review unit, which arrived courtesy of Verizon, the pre-installed apps consist of My Verizon, VZ Navigator, NFL Mobile, Verizon Cloud and its messaging app. Not too bad, and these can be disabled if you plan on switching carriers.

If you’ve used Nougat before, you’ll find it in full effect here. Visually, it’s not too different from Android Marshmallow, but you’ll reap the benefits of the split window multitasking and enhanced Doze support, which extends battery life intelligently based on your usage patterns.

Movies, music and gaming

The Moto E4 is not the best device out there for viewing movies and YouTube videos or playing the latest gaming releases on the Google Play Store. That’s not an opinion, it’s based off the fact that it features a 720p screen and is backed with a chipset that isn’t about 60 frames per second gaming. 

However, it’s totally adequate in most situations and despite its low-end innards, the overall experience is fairly smooth.

The 720p display doesn’t gush with color like we’ve seen with OLED options even at 1080p, though it is suitably vivid for a device in this price range. The screen is well-lit and doesn’t become too tough to read in direct sunlight, an area where low-end displays and even some high-end ones tend to falter. Viewing angles are pretty good, too, so if you and a friend are crowding around the five-inch display, you’ll both be able to see what’s playing easily.

Switching over to music, the 3.5mm headphone jack is your expressway to listening bliss. However, it also supports Bluetooth wireless headphones and can play tunes aloud through the single earpiece speaker. That said, the earpiece speaker doesn’t sound too great. Perfect in a pinch, but if you’re listening for the long haul, you’d best find a set of headphones as they aren’t included in the box.

When it comes to gaming on the E4, your experience will vary depending on the games that you enjoy playing. Personally, I get by with a mix of Alto’s Adventure and Punch Quest, which aren’t the most demanding games. I also enjoy Hearthstone, which runs fairly choppy on this device. Sonic Dash, an endless runner, runs well most of the time, but some stylish animations cause a bit of unsightly stuttering. Gaming performance isn’t a deal-breaker, but it’s not the most future-proof device.

Specs and performance at-a-glance

The Moto E4 sits just below what the Moto G5 contains in terms of specs. Although the G5 isn’t available in the US, the E4 appears to take the place of it with a Snapdragon 425 quad-core chipset. In the UK, the E4 will launch with a Mediatek Helio MT6737 instead.

Launched with a single configuration, this device contains 2GB of RAM that helps to keep things moving at a relatively snappy pace. 

Mhe E4 comes with 16GB of internal storage by default. Thankfully, that meager offering is offset completely thanks to microSD support that allows for up to 128GB of adoptable storage – storage that you can utilize with app installs, not just multimedia files.

We look forward to putting the Moto E4 through the paces in-depth for the full review, including how it performs under pressure with benchmarks. But on the whole, this device operates smoothly not just for a budget device, but as an Android phone in general.

Flagship smartphones tend to come under more scrutiny when it comes to battery performance than budget phones do. That’s because they not only cost more, which raises expectations, but commonly, the battery is fused within the chassis and not accessible by the consumer.

The Moto E4 is the perfect illustration of the polar opposite of that spectrum. It’s priced low, so it’s all the more impressive to see that its 2,800mAh can carry a charge for longer than a day, depending on usage. Not just that, it’s removable so you can theoretically keep things going for a days on end if you have a second battery handy.

In the full review coming soon, we’ll be testing how long the battery can last in standby, the amount of battery drain it endures while playing a 90-minute HD video and importantly, how long it takes the included charger to bring it back up to 100%.

Camera

Stocked with a 8MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP front snapper, it’s competent in specs and the software is the same, reliable setup that we’ve seen recently in other Moto phones like the Moto G5 Plus.

We’re still getting acquainted with the optics in the Moto E4, so we’ll hold off judgment until we can make a fair assessment. But looking at what these sensors are capable of, or rather, not-so capable of, could give a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Both sensors have a f/2.2 aperture, which doesn’t bode too well for low-light shooting. If you’re into shooting video, this phone is capable of 1080p capture at 30 frames per second. It’s a little puzzling that the E4 can capture at a higher resolution than its display can push, but it’s an ideal setting for uploading to social media or what have you.

Early verdict

The Moto E4 looks to continue Motorola’s dominance in the budget range. While other competitors like the BLU R1 Plus are encroaching on its territory, its latest shows that its unwavering focus on value and pushing the design and software capabilities to the max make it a cut above the rest.

We’ll be testing the Moto E4 more before we assign it a final score, but if you’ve been holding out for an unlocked phone available on the cheap, this could be the best phone out there for you.