Now Motorola has launched a new Motorola One Power smartphone in the market in partnership with Google. This phone is a part of the Android One program. The price is Rs 15,999 which is aggressive compared to the existing Motorola product. Popular smartphones like Nokia 6.1 Plus, Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro are available in the market at this price. In such a situation, it will not be easy for Motorola One Power to make its place in the hearts of customers. Will this phone be successful in doing so? Let’s find out…
Motorola One Power design
Motorola One Power is the first smartphone from Motorola to come with a notch in India. The phone has a big 6.2-inch display. There is Motorola branding on the bottom bezel. The phone is a bit bulky. It is 9 mm thick and weighs 205 grams. It is uncomfortable to hold the phone for a long time. The back of the phone is made of metal plate, but the edges are made of plastic. In comparison, Nokia 6.1 Plus is made of glass which gives it a premium look. Motorola One Power has a dual camera setup at the back. The camera module houses both the lenses and a dual-tone LED flash.
Motorola has placed the fingerprint sensor on the back, next to the Batwing logo. Its position is excellent. The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side. The SIM tray is on the left. We liked that the power button is easy to reach. But the volume buttons are difficult to reach.
The headphone jack and secondary microphone are on the top. There are two grills at the bottom, the right one of which houses the speaker. It is possible that the speaker gets blocked while using the phone in landscape mode. There is a USB Type-C port at the bottom. The large 5000 mAh battery provided in the phone supports fast charging. Motorola provides a 15-watt turbo charger with this phone.
Motorola One Power specifications and software
The specifications of Motorola One Power are very strong. It seems that Motorola has paid a lot of attention to the handsets of other companies before making this phone. The hardware is the same as that of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro and Nokia 6.1 Plus. The handset uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor. This is an octa-core chipset. There is only one variant of One Power which comes with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. If needed, it is possible to use a microSD card of up to 256 GB.
The 6.2-inch LTPS IPS display has full-HD+ resolution. Its aspect ratio is 19:9. Viewing angles are excellent. There is no problem in reading the display outdoors. Motorola has provided the facility to control the color temperature of the display in this phone. There is support for Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, GPS, FM radio and USB OTG. It comes with dual-SIM support. But it does not have dual 4G support. This means that only one SIM will work on 4G network, the other on 3G network.
Being a part of Google’s Android One program, Motorola One Power has pure stock Android. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo. This phone is guaranteed to get security updates for three years and Android updates for two years. At the time of launch, Motorola had informed that work is going on to bring Android Pie for this phone. The beta version will be released soon. If you have used stock Android or you like it more than a custom UI, then you will like Motorola One Power.
Motorola has also provided Moto Actions in the phone. Users will be able to perform actions in the phone with the help of gestures. Motorola One Power has Moto’s double chop gesture which activates the flashlight. It is possible to activate the camera app by double twisting. The Moto Display feature activates the display when a notification comes and the phone is lifted.
Motorola One Power performance, battery life and cameras
Motorola One Power has a very strong processor. While using the smartphone, we did not feel it slowing down. You can easily do multitasking. It has 4 GB RAM which makes multitasking smooth. However, we found that while using the fingerprint scanner, the smartphone took some time to unlock. The display vibrates after scanning the fingerprint. But it was slow to activate the display. It does not have the face unlock feature which has become a part of almost every smartphone today.
In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted for 16 hours and 8 minutes, which was possible due to the 5000 mAh battery of this phone. The battery life of Motorola One Power is strong. After the battery is completely drained, the 15 watt turbo charger also charges the phone quickly. The phone’s battery got charged 31 percent in 30 minutes and 71 percent in 1 hour. It took about two and a half hours to get fully charged.
There is a dual camera setup on the back. The primary sensor is 16 megapixels. It is equipped with phase detection auto focus. The second is a 5 megapixel depth sensor. A 12 megapixel selfie camera is provided on the front panel. It is equipped with F/2.0 aperture. Motorola’s camera app has modes like photo, video, portrait and expert. In expert mode, you will be able to control white balance, exposure, ISO and shutter. Toggles are provided for HDR, flash, timer and different aspect ratios. The camera app also has Google Lens support, which means you will be able to search about an object by focusing on it and identifying it.
Tap to see full-sized Motorola One Power camera samples
In daylight, the One Power quickly scans the scene and prepares the camera for the shot. We were able to capture well-detailed photos with the One Power’s camera in daylight. In macro shots, it had trouble focusing as per our desire, due to which we had to tap the screen several times. But once focused, the camera took sharp pictures. Camera performance drops in low light. Photos lack sharpness as well as detail. Night mode is available. But the phone does not activate this mode automatically. To use this mode, you have to go into the settings and change it again and again. Photos in night mode come out sharper and with better detail.
The secondary depth sensor comes in handy in portrait mode. You can decide the level of background blur. The edge detection in the portrait shots we took was good and they did not look unnatural at all. The selfie camera took good selfies. The selfie flash proves to be a useful feature in low light. The phone has a beautification toggle. Which smoothens the output. Auto HDR mode is also available for the selfie camera. Motorola has also provided depth effect with the selfie camera. You will be able to decide the level of background blur here too. Photos come out good. But edge detection is average. You will be able to record 4K videos with the primary camera and up to 1080 pixels with the selfie camera. The output is shaky due to lack of video stabilization.
Our verdict
Motorola One Power has been launched at the right time, especially considering its price. Its build quality is good and it will run on pure stock Android. The most important feature of the phone is its large 5000mAh battery. Being a part of the new Android One program, this phone is guaranteed to get security updates for three years and Android updates for two years. But it does not have dual 4G, which is a surprising decision considering the price. Overall, One Power is an all-rounder handset. It will be liked by those who want strong battery life with stock Android in this segment.
However, One Power is up for grabs. The Nokia 6.1 Plus and Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, which come with similar hardware, will pose a strong challenge. You will get better build quality in Nokia’s phone and it is also a part of the Android One program. On the other hand, ZenFone Max Pro M1 has more RAM and it is also the cheapest among the three. For power users, Xiaomi Mi A2 (Review) is made, which is priced slightly higher (Rs 16,999). But it comes with powerful hardware and better camera.
#Motorola #Power #review