Motorola Moto E5 Play and Motorola E-4 Plus Review

Big, affordable Android phablets aren't for everyone, but they frequently prove popular when paired with a low toll. T he six-inch Motorola Moto E5 Plus offers solid overall performance, fantastic battery life, and a minimal Android skin. Unfortunately, its $288 cost on Dart makes information technology less desirable than the $199.99 unlocked Moto G6 Play, which still has a sizable battery and works on all the major US carriers.

Design, Features, and Display

The Moto E5 Plus is a hefty slab of drinking glass and metallic that follows the same design language every bit the Moto G6 and G6 Play, though obviously it'southward bigger to accommodate its massive five,000mAh battery. With dimensions of half-dozen.four past 3.0 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and a weight of vii.0 ounces, information technology's noticeably larger and heavier than the sleek G6 (6.1 by 2.8 past 0.iii inches, 5.ix ounces) . It tin can be difficult to use with i paw despite the eighteen:9 aspect ratio, though the large brandish makes information technology ideal for multimedia content.

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Port and button placement is the aforementioned equally the G6 Play. A clicky volume rocker and ability button are on the right side, a micro USB charging port is on the bottom, and a three.5mm headphone jack is on top. The left side has a SIM/microSD card slot that recognized a 256GB card. The back of the phone has a fingerprint sensor.

The big selling point is the large half dozen-inch, 1,440-by-720-pixel IPS display. It has an 18:9 attribute ratio to minimize bezel on the sides, but it still has a sizable bottom lip with Motorola branding. The resolution works out to 268 pixels per inch, which is similar to what nosotros've seen on other phablets in this price range. Viewing angles are fairly good and colors are authentic. The screen gets bright enough that you can use it outdoors.

Network Performance and Connectivity

The E5 Plus is available on Sprint. Unlike the residue of the phones in Motorola's East and Chiliad series, y'all can't get it unlocked. It has network bands 1/2/3/4/five/seven/eight/12/13/14/17/25/26/29/30/38/41/66, which should theoretically allow information technology to work on carriers similar AT&T and T-Mobile, but nosotros couldn't get it to actuate when nosotros tried different SIM cards. The Sprint model didn't even work on Heave, fifty-fifty though they utilize the aforementioned towers. We saw boilerplate network operation where we tested on Sprint in midtown Manhattan.

Boosted connectivity protocols include Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5Ghz bands, as well as Bluetooth 4.2 for audio. In that location'southward no NFC, which isn't unusual for phones in this toll range.

Call quality is fine. The earpiece doubles equally the speaker, making for good telephone call volume. Transmissions are clear aside from the occasional pop, and noise cancellation does a decent job of blotting out most background noise.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

Under the hood, the E5 Plus has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor clocked at 1.4GHz. With 3GB of RAM, it'due south capable of a fair amount of multitasking and can run apps like Facebook, Google Maps, and Uber without issue. In the PCMark benchmark, which measures overall system operation, information technology scored 3,701, slightly higher than the Moto E5 Play (three,368), only quite a bit lower than the Snapdragon 450-powered G6 (four,583). Don't count on beingness able to play any loftier-cease games.

The main reason to purchase this phone is bombardment life. The 5,000mAh cell had no trouble outlasting our 12-hr battery test video played over LTE at maximum brightness, with 30 percentage charge left to spare. That's better than 4,000mAh G6 Play (which played the unabridged video, but had little power left), and far superior to the E5 Play (which only lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes). The E5 Plus can easily continue going for over 2 days of average use, and in standby fashion information technology can last well over a week. The just downside to the massive battery is that it can accept hours to accuse to total, though included 15W adapter supports Motorola'south proprietary TurboPower fast charging .

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Camera quality is slightly below average. The 12MP rear sensor isn't as practiced as the 13MP shooter on the G6 Play, permit solitary the dual-sensor setup on the standard G6, but it takes clearer shots than the 8MP E5 Play. On bright days, information technology takes reasonably color-accurate photos with minimal dissonance, but it lacks the finer details y'all become on higher-end phones. Taking photos indoors and in lower light doesn't get quite as well. It locks onto subjects fine thanks to both phase detection and light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-assisted autofocus, but shots manage to look both noisy and muddy at the aforementioned fourth dimension.

There are transmission controls to let you bump up certain settings like ISO, but doing so adds a lot of artifacts, so information technology'southward improve to go out things fix to default. The 8MP front sensor is fine for taking selfies, though it's unsurprisingly blurry in low lite.

Software

Like other Motorola phones nosotros've tested, the E5 Plus has a very minimal skin running on top of Android 8.0 Oreo . There is piffling in the way of visual changes, however, because this is a Dart phone you become a bit of carrier bloatware. Preloaded you'll find an Amazon shopping app, Amazon Prime number Video, Facebook, Lookout, and a Sprint account, Caller ID, and Voicemail app. There's as well a Motorola app that lets you enable gestures like chopping the phone twice to turn on the flashlight, or twisting it to launch the camera.

None of the preinstalled apps are removable, and out of 32GB storage, you accept 23.73GB available for use. That'due south a decent amount of space for more apps and photos, and every bit with all the other recent Motorola phones we've tested, you can use a microSD card if you need more storage.

Conclusions

The Moto E5 Plus has a lot going for it. It has a large bright screen, a massive battery, and generally solid functioning. It'southward but priced too high for what y'all go. For $200, we'd probably give this phone our Editors' Selection on Sprint. For well-nigh $300, even so, y'all're better off buying our unlocked Editors' Choice, the Moto G6 Play, which has similar specs at a much more reasonable price.

Motorola Moto E5 Plus

Cons

The Bottom Line

The Motorola Moto E5 Plus is a hefty Sprint phablet with a massive five,000mAh battery that can keep it going for days, but it'southward too expensive for the specs it offers.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/motorola-moto-e5-plus

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