Moto’s Moto E series of the smartphones is for those who need a good but affordable phone. Moto E3 Power is the newest phone in the series and is available for Rs. 7999. This phone is being sold exclusively via Flipkart where you also get good exchange offers. We tested the phone for few weeks and found surprising results. Read this full review to know more about this phone.
Moto E3 Power Review
Build
Like other recent Motorola phones, this one also comes with the solid build. It looks like Moto G4 from back as it adopts same build quality. It has front facing speaker below the display which is good for users who use device primarily for multimedia consumption. But the speaker could be better. I will talk about it later in the multimedia section. Above the display, it has the front camera and notification LED.
At the right edge of the phone, it has the power button and volume rocker keys. Buttons are at easy to reach position and response is also fine. It has 3.5 mm audio port on the top and micro USB at the bottom edge. If you look at the back panel, you see the rear camera and LED flash just below it. Below the camera system, it has Moto dimple. The back panel has textures that provide good grip and feels good.
The back cover is removable and the surprisingly battery is removable as well. You also see two SIM slots and a micro SD card slot.
This phone also features water repellant coating which makes it suitable for use even with wet hands. But this phone is not water-resistant, so do not try to drop it in water.
Overall build quality is solid and pleasant. You will have no complaints on this.
Display
Moto E3 Power has 5-inch HD display. The brightness could be better and color reproduction is also average. The viewing angles are fine, but it could also be better. Outdoor visibility is good.
Overall display is fine, but I was expecting a better experience. Considering the experience we have in other Moto phones, this seems to be a disappointment.
Software
Moto E3 Power runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with pure stock experience. Not a single bloatware was there when I first start the device. The only disappointment is that the phone will never receive Android Nougat update. Most of the people prefer Moto devices just to get timely software updates. But this phone is still running on older version of Marshmallow and it will never receive the Android Nougat update.
Performance
This is another big disappointment. It is packed with 1 GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6735P with Mali-T720 MP2 and 2 GB RAM. This is the first time Motorola used MediaTek chipset but selection became wrong. This device is slow, app opening is slower than expectations and apps switching is also slow.
This device is not for gamers. Well, you can enjoy light gaming with temple run and Subway surfers like games, but these games are also not pretty smooth. Games take too much time to load. Asphalt 8 is not even playable. Modern Combat runs fine on low-end devices, but Moto E3 Power is not able to handle that as well.
Camera
It comes with 8-megapixels rear camera with LED flash and 5-megapixels front camera. The camera app is clean with decent experience.
Moto phones were always liked for camera performance, and this phone also performs quite decent. Well, I want to make it clear that this is not the best camera in this price segment. but phone does not disappoints. It captures good photos with details and close to accurate colors. Sometimes, I found overexposure and colors were also faded. But in good light, it captures good images. There were few issues related to focus as well.
Front camera experience is good and it takes the good selfie. Selfies are good for posting on social media, but it could be better.
In low-light, it performs fine with considerable noise in captured photos. When there is no light, it uses flash to capture light. Well, this also works fine and you get good photos. See the photo samples below.
The rear camera can record only 720p videos. It also doesn’t support slow-motion and time-lapse videos.
Camera performance is fine, but we have the better camera phone in the same price segment. Redmi 3S Prime and Lenovo Vibe K5 are better in the same price range.
Multimedia and call quality
Call quality on this phone is good. The microphone also works well with its good noise cancellation capability.
Front facing speaker is good but it is not as loud as you expect. This phone comes with earphones within the box but I recommend you to get better earphones if you really want to enjoy music.
Network and Battery
This phone comes with 4G with support to VoLTE. This is the good thing when people are crazy for JIO network. Other connectivity features are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and MicroUSB. All these options work fine. It is a dual SIM phone with good network selection.
The battery is the notable thing in this phone. It comes with large 3500 mAh battery that performs really great. If you are not a power user, you will surely get 2 days of usage with 1 charge. I am a power user with all time connected to Wi-Fi or 4G network, multiple calls, emails, social media, web browsing and light gaming. I was able to get more than 30 hours of usage easily.
This large battery takes little less than two and half hours in charging from 0-100%.
Final words
I had good expectations from Moto E3 Power but it disappointed me. Bad performance is the main reason why you should stay away from this phone. While this phone offers good battery performance, performance is primary thing we look for in a phone. This phone is affordable but it disappoints. If you were thinking to buy this phone, you should consider buying Redmi 3S Prime in place of it.
This was the review of Moto E3 Power. If you still have anything to ask, you can comment below and ask your questions.
