46 APRIL2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE386
MOTOROLA’SSMARTPHONEOUTPUThas
been unrelenting recently, including multiple
lower-cost handsets such as the One Action
andthe Moto G8 Plus (Shopper385), as well
as thehigh-concept Razrrevamp.
The OneMacro is another budgetoffering,
and in places it certainly shows:the plastic
rear lacks the sturdiness of theglass-backed
One Action, flexes when pressedand collects
plenty of fingerprints.You also can’t remove
the plastic housing to swap out the battery,
though you canadd up to an extra 512GB of
microSDstorage or pop in asecond nano-SIM.
The front side is much better.The 6.2in
screen almostcoversthe entire surface of
the phone, aside from the skinny side bezels
and the circular drop notch eating itsway
intothe topofthe screen.Thishousesan
8-megapixel selfiecamera –with the earpiece
speaker just above it –and it’saprettyneat
setup considering the price.
THINK BIG
The OneMacro’s otherphysicaldetailsare
precisely whereyou expectthem to be.
There’s aUSB Type-C charging port on the
bottom edge,which sadlyonly supports
charging speeds up to 10W, while there’s a
volume rocker and power button sensibly
placed on the right side.You won’tneed to
ditch your wired headphones either, thanks to
the top-mounted 3.5mmheadphone jack.
As forthe screen,the One Macro has
a1,520x720 IPS panel measuring 6.2in
diagonally.Thisisactually oneofthe biggest
displays in Motorola’s smartphone fleet,
surpassed only slightlybythe One Action,
One Vision and G8 Plus.
It’s capable of ahigh
brightness of 577cd/m^2 ,
but underperformson
colour accuracy. Average
delta-E came in at a
terrible 3.02inthe Boosted
displayprofile,with only
81.5%ofthe SRGB gamut
beingcovered. There’s
clearevidenceof
undersaturation in darkred
and light blue tones, along
with heavily saturated light
greens and purples.
There’salso no
protective layerofGorilla
Glass, so not only is the
One Macro’s screen more
pronetoscratches,it’salso
MOTOROLA OneMacro
★★★★★
£158•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Amacro camera lens lets this cheap handset get up
close and personal, but corners have been cut elsewhere
ANDROID9.0SMARTPHONE
–likethe rearpanel –
highly prone to picking
up fingerprints.
Performance moves
things towards amore
positive direction. The
internal specs aren’t
mind-blowing –you get an
octa-core MediaTek Helio
P70 processorwith4GB of
RAM –but it still keeps
pacewiththe more
expensive Moto G8 Plus.
In fact, withGeekbench
single-core and multicore
scores of 1,433and 5,744
respectively,it’s
significantly faster than
one of theverybest
budget smartphones, the
MotoG7Power (Shopper
376). Single-corepower is
slightly behindthat of theOne Action, but
multicoreperformance is atouch higher.
Its standardHDresolution also helps it
playgames moresmoothly –albeitwith less
sharpness–than Full HD alternatives. That’s
accordingtoits GFXBenchonscreen result of
42fps, although itsoffscreenscore of 23fpsis
still competitive forthe price.
Battery life,meanwhile, is astounding.
Thatmassive 4,000mAh battery is clearly
doing its job, with theMotoOne Macro
reachingatotal of 22h37m before the
battery fully drained. That makes it one of
the longest-lasting smartphones we’veever
tested, notfar behind the Moto G7 Power.
The catch is that it takes so long to recharge:
mere 10W support means
it takes 30 minutes to get
from empty to 25%charge.
CLOSEONE
The OneMacro getsits
name from itsphotography
setup: in addition to amain
13-megapixel sensor and a
2-megapixel depth sensor,
the triple-lens camera
includes a2-megapixel
macrolens that supposedly
lets you take quality shots
from as little as 2cmaway.
It’salot of afun to use,
and providedyou have
plenty of light, such
close-up photoslookgreat,
showing off lots of intricate
details that youwouldn’t
normally be abletocapture.
Theexperienceismore
limited when thelight
begins to dim, however,
andthe 2-megapixel
sensor clearly struggles
in darkenvironments.
Imagesare rather blurry,
withunnaturallyblown-
out highlights.It’s a
similarstory with the
other lens, too: the
13-megapixelcamera is
veryadeptatscenery shots
in the sun, but struggles
much moreindoors.
Forvideo,the One
Macro is limitedto1080p
recording at 30fps,albeit
fully stabilised.The footage
looks crispand clear,but ahandfulofextra
shootingmodes would have been appreciated,
especially as the Moto One Action can record
at up to 4K resolution.
FICKLE FORTUNE
Thecamera really sums up the OneMacro:
foreverysuccess, everymoment when you
forget you’re using such acheapsmartphone,
there’s an annoying problem or simply alack
of quality.This is anice-looking device that
feels cheap,withlongbattery lifebut slow
charging,and amacro shooting mode that
can be brilliant one minuteand
underwhelmingthe next.
There’s no denying thenovelty of being
able to shootupclose,but with the One
Action andthe MotoG8Plusalreadystrong
contenders in the budget market –and that’s
just from Motorola’sown line-up –the One
Macro needs alot more than camera tricks.
NathanSpendelow
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 84 forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core2GHzMediaTekHelioP70•SCREEN
SIZE6.2in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,520x720•REAR
CAMERAS13 megapixels,2megapixels,2megapixels•
STORAGE64GB•WIRELESS DATA4G•NFCNo•
DIMENSIONS158x75x9mm•WEIGHT186g•OPERATING
SYSTEMAndroid 9.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•
DETAILSwww.lenovo.com•PART CODEPAGS0015GB
SPECIFICATIONS
22h37m
