Stuff - UK (2019-12)

O MOTOROLA ONE ZOOM £380 ++++,

SUPERTEST SMARTPHONES

Moto rules the mid-range

with a high-stamina bargain

Someone at Motorola clearly

doesn’t know when to say

‘when’ – at least when it comes

to camera lenses. The One Zoom,

the latest in a steady stream of

outstanding mid-rangers from

the Moto production line, has

four of the things. It’s a veritable

camera-bag of kit squeezed into

something that fits in your

pocket, along with a whole load of

2019’s must-have extras, like a

notched OLED screen and

in-display fingerprint scanner.

It’s the wild-card bargain in

the Stuff supertest, but with the

minerals to mix it with the best...

and that’s before you realise it

manages to stick the landing with

a sub-£400 asking price. This

is an attractive proposition for

bargain hunters, complete with

a modern design, stellar battery

life and a feature list that borrows

heavily from the flagships.

The only problem is, we know

‘number of camera lenses’ isn’t

a true measure of greatness.

Performance on the One Zoom

is merely OK, screen quality is a

step below rival handsets, and at

this money Google’s Pixel 3a is

arguably still the cameraphone

of choice – even if that does limit

you to a single lens.

Then again, the bezel-toting

Pixel 3a is a little behind the times.

If you want something fresher but

insist on stock Android, Moto’s

latest all-rounder – muscling in on

the mid-range with multipurpose

quad cams, a great battery and a

laundry list of top features –

might be the One to go for.

Google

Pixel 3a

£399 / store.

google.com

While the new

Pixels take the

limelight, the

3a’s simplicity

is refreshing

in a world of

gimmickry. The

design is a tad

dated, but

Android in its

purest form and

an outstanding

single-lens cam

mean you’d be

mad not to

consider it.

Stuff says

++++,

CAMERA

Four to the floor

The main 48MP sensor

is joined by a 16MP ultra-

wide and 8MP telephoto,

while lens number four is

for depth-sensing, so this

is really a triple-lens setup

that’s good for blurry

bokeh. Up front, there’s

25MP selfie-cam.

OOOOOOOOOO

DESIGN

Go your own way

A mid-ranger that hasn’t

ripped off Apple? Moto

has done its own thing and

it works nicely. You get a

huge screen with minimal

bezels and a small notch;

the back is glass, but

with a matt finish hiding

fingerprints.

OOOOOOOOOO

DISPLAY

OLED Zeppelin

By switching from LCD

to AMOLED, the Zoom

elevates itself above the

other One models. It’s

sizeable at 6.4in with

Full HD+ resolution offering

enough detail in text and

images. Viewing angles are

excellent, colours less so.

OOOOOOOOOO

PERFORMANCE

Faux par

Look past the feature

list and the One Zoom

is a faux flagship: the

Snapdragon 675 is an

eight-core chip but it

won’t match the heavy

hitters. You won’t notice

the difference while

web-browsing, though.

OOOOOOOOOO

FOR

A BIT

MORE