All these other models are part of Google’s Android One program and are guaranteed to receive major Android OS updates and security updates regularly. However, the Motorola One Macro is not an Android One smartphone. The main feature of this smartphone under Rs 10,000 is the macro camera sensor in the handset. Is the Motorola One Macro a good smartphone? To find out, we have tested it, let’s find out…
Design of the Motorola One Macro
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The design of the Motorola One Macro is similar to the recently launched Motorola One Vision and Motorola One Action. However, it does not come with a display with a 21: 9 aspect ratio. The Motorola One Macro has a 6.2-inch HD+ (720×1520 pixels) display and a 19: 9 aspect ratio.
Motorola One Macro has bezels all around and a border at the bottom. The phone comes with a waterdrop notch and the selfie camera is placed in the notch. Motorola has placed the earpiece in the frame to give more space to the display. Motorola has placed all the buttons on the right side of the phone.
The power button has a slightly different finish, let us tell you that there is a hybrid dual-SIM tray on the left side of the device. The Motorola One Macro has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and secondary microphone at the top and the primary microphone, USB Type-C port and speaker at the bottom of the phone. There are three rear cameras at the back of the Motorola One Macro.
One sensor is placed at the top, let us tell you that this is a macro sensor and this is the specialty of the phone. Other camera sensors are placed in the camera module below along with the laser autofocus emitter. The fingerprint sensor will also be found in the back of the phone, which is placed correctly. The sensor has been placed in Motorola’s iconic Batwing logo on the back panel.
The back panel of this Motorola brand phone is made of glossy plastic, it easily gets fingerprints on it. The company has also provided a case in the retail box to avoid this problem. We found that Motorola One Macro felt a bit heavy compared to Samsung Galaxy M30s (Review). Motorola has provided a 10 watt charger in the retail box.
Motorola One Macro specifications and software
Motorola has given HD + display in One Macro but it is worth noting that most smartphones available around this price segment come with full-HD + display. This panel offers 270 pixels per inch which is not ideal. In Motorola One Macro, the company has used the octa-core MediaTek Helio P70 processor.
For graphics, it has Mali-G72 GPU with a speed of 900mHz. Motorola One Macro has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, it is possible to increase storage using a hybrid SIM slot. Motorola One Macro has only one color variant, Space Blue. Talking about Motorola One Macro Price in India, its price has been fixed at Rs 9,999.
The smartphone is powered by a 4,000mAh battery. The Motorola One Macro is claimed to have a water repellent design. It has received an IPX2 rating. The handset comes with dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2 and Android 6 navigation system support. Talking about the software, the smartphone runs on stock Android 9 Pie with September security patch.
Surprisingly, the Motorola One Macro is not part of the Android One program. Motorola has told Gadgets 360 that the device will get one major OS update, i.e. Android 10, and security updates for two years. To recall, Android One phones get software updates for two years and security updates for three years.
The UI is similar to stock Android with a custom icon pack. You get an app drawer on the handset and swiping right from the home screen opens Google Assistant. There are only a few Google apps installed on the device along with Moto and Device Help apps.
Motorola has also changed the gesture navigation and you get Android 10 style navigation. We did not face any problem while navigating and multitasking on the device. Android Pie’s Digital Wellbeing feature and parental controls are also built-in.
Motorola One Macro performance and battery life
We previously tested the MediaTek Helio P70 processor while testing the Realme 3 (Review). The device has 4GB of RAM, so we did not feel any slowdown in the phone. The phone easily manages multitasking between multiple apps. The fingerprint sensor and face unlock feature unlock the phone quickly.
The viewing angle of Motorola One Macro is good. We tried playing PUBG Mobile on Motorola One Macro, the game was set to medium preset by default and graphics balanced and frame rate medium. We did not face any problem while gaming on these settings. After playing for 15 minutes, four percent battery was consumed and the phone got slightly warm.
The Motorola One Macro is capable of running games at high frame rates but we did find the phone to be a little warm on the back panel. The Motorola One Macro is powered by a 4,000mAh battery. In our HD video loop test, the smartphone lasted for 17 hours and 30 minutes.
During our usage, we had an active WhatsApp account, used Google Maps for navigation for over an hour and played PUBG Mobile, yet the phone lasted the whole day. The charger that comes with the handset charges the phone up to 28 percent in 30 minutes and up to 51 percent in an hour. The device takes over two hours to fully charge.
Motorola One Macro Camera
Motorola One Macro has a triple camera setup at the back. At the top is a 2-megapixel macro sensor which is the specialty of this phone, its aperture is f / 2.2. The primary camera is 13 megapixels. Its aperture is f / 2.0. It is accompanied by a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It has a separate laser autofocus module for fast focusing.
The Motorola One Macro has an 8-megapixel front camera with f/2.2 aperture. The camera app is well laid out. Swiping right from the viewfinder reveals all the other shooting modes. Apart from Portrait, Panorama, Slow Motion and Timelapse, there are Cutout, Spot Colour, Cinemagraph and Macro modes. We found these modes very interesting.
Photos taken with the Motorola One Macro were average and details were lacking when we zoomed in on a larger image of a distant object. During the day, the phone was quick to focus and HDR was automatically enabled and helped capture bright scenes well. The camera UI suggested that we should switch to the macro camera if we were too close to a subject.
The macro camera captures shots of only 2 megapixel resolution. It is worth noting that the macro shots capture more details than the shots taken with the primary camera sensor. Motorola One Macro gives you the option to set the level of blur before taking a shot in portrait mode. The details are acceptable considering the price.
Low-light camera performance was below average and the phone took a little long to capture each shot. Landscape shots lacked sharpness and grain was also visible. The smartphone keeps noise under control in most situations. Selfies taken with the handset turned out well, but details were average in selfies taken in low-light.
Once again we found that the camera performance of this phone was a bit weak compared to other handsets in this price segment. The primary and selfie camera are capable of recording videos at 1080p resolution. The smartphone can also record videos using the macro camera.
Our verdict
Motorola has named this smartphone One Macro to highlight the macro camera in the handset, so let’s talk about it first. The macro camera gives good close-up shots. The smartphone comes with clean stock Android, powerful MediaTek Helio P70 processor, RAM and storage.
We wish the One Macro was a part of Google’s Android One program to ensure that the handset gets better software and security updates. The camera performance in low light needs some improvement. Other than that, we have no complaints about the phone. It is worth noting that the Realme 5 is also a good option and this handset also comes with a macro lens and a wide-angle camera sensor. Apart from this, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7S (Review) is also an option, let us tell you that this handset from Xiaomi comes with a full-HD+ display.
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