Computer Shopper - UK (2020-05)

41

IFTHEMOTOE6Plus(opposite)isthe
souped-upinstalmentinMotorola’slatest
budget range,the MotoE6 Playisthe
‘standard’version, if onlybydefault.
This is£10less than the MotorE6 Plus,
andatfirst the design differences are
noticeable but notterriblydrastic.TheMoto
E6Playhas fullertopand bottom bezels,so
there’s nonotch,althoughthis doesmean a
smaller displaysizeof5.5in diagonally.Onthe
back,adiscretesinglecamera andflashsit
in thetop left, whileacircularfingerprint
reader withMotorola’s‘M’ logo sits slightly
indented near thetop.
The back coverisashinyblack plastic,
though curiously it can’tberemoved likethe
one on the MotoE6 Plus.That’sapity: while
most phonesdon’t haveit, it’sadefinite
advantageoftheE6Plus, as it letsyou
change thebattery atwill withoutgetting
professionals involved.
Luckily,youcan still addamicroSDcard
–upto256GB–andthere’s dual SIMsupport
andaheadphonejack as well.

ADARK FUTURE
Asfarasscreensgo,the1,440x720 IPS panel
doesn’t provide muchtoshoutabout. While
contrast isgood at 1,444:1, its sRGBgamut
coverageof82% is lower than thatofthe
MotoE6Plus, asispeak brightness: 369cd/m^2
is underwhelmingforasmartphone.
It’s still adequateenoughtobeused
outsideofdirect sunlight, butyou canget a
muchbetter displayfor notmuch extramoney.
It’s performance where things really start
to fall apart. Likethe
MotoE6Plus,theE6
Playmakes do with 2GB
ofRAM,but the weaker
MediaTek MT6739
makes it nowhere near
as pleasanttouse.
This phoneisslowand
laggyright outofthe
box:thekeyboardtakes
asecondtopopup,and
letters trail onthe
screen ataclear lag
after you tapthem.
Geekbench 4
confirmsthe MotoE6
Play’sinferiority: its
scoresof605 inthe
single-core and 1,570 in
the multicoretestput it
well behind the barely

MOTOROLA MotoE6Play

★★★★★

£90•From http://www.motorola.co.uk

VERDICT

With slow performance,arubbish camera andamuch better
phone looming over it, the MotoE6Playshould be ignored

ANDROID9.0SMARTPHONE

pricierMotoE6Plus, not

tomention similarlycheap

handsetssuch asXiaomi’s

Redmi 7A (Shopper383).

Eventhe dreadfulAlcatel

1X isfaster.

Graphical performance

iseven worse,withthe

MotoE6Playaveraging a

lowly 5fpsinGFXBench’s

Manhattanonscreentest,

as well as just 2fps inthe

onscreentest.Evenbasic

2D games willstruggleto

run consistently.

Completingthe

hat-trickofdisappointing

benchmarks, the MotoE6

Playonly madeittoadire

10h 9m inourlooped

videotest before running

outofbattery.That’sfive

hours less than the Moto

E6 Plus, despiteboth

phones having thesame

3,000mAh battery.

CLEAN SLATE

Besides elementsofthedesign and display,

the only positive here is thattheMotoE6Play

at least sticks withMotorola’s traditionof

keepingAndroid asclean as possible.Thisis

basicallyacleaninstallofAndroid9.0, andit’s

all the betterfor it.Althoughgivenhowslow it

is, we canonlyshudderatthethoughtofit

weighed downwith bloatwareand an intensive

Androidoverlay.

Therear camera on

the MotoE6Playisa

13-megapixel unit with

anapertureoff/2.2.

That meansit’s slightly

weakerthan the E6

Plus’s 13-megapixel

camera, whichnotonly

has anapertureoff/2.0

but isalso accompanied

bya2-megapixel

depth sensor.

It’sadequatein

practice,butno better.

Inwell-lit outdoor

conditions,picturesare

fine,withadecent

amountofdetaileven

onanovercast day.

Zoom in, however,and

it’sapparentjusthow

softthings can get:

details suchasbrickwork

appearoverly smoothed.

As withallphones,

the real challenge is

low-lightphotography,

and heretheMotoE6

Playstrugglesto

mitigateblurry

smoothness.Wetook

severalphotostotryto

correct this, andevery

time the results weren’t

great. It narrowlybeats

theAlcatel1X, but that’s

hardly anendorsement.

Videocaptureis

generally pooras well.It

canrecord upto 10 80p

–ahigher resolution

thanthe phone’sown

screen–butonlyat

30fps, andfootage

appears soft, blurryand

lackingin detail anyway.Evenwith electronic

image stabilisation (EIS)enabled–which is

bizarrelyswitchedoffbydefault–our

recorded clips weredistinctly jumpy.

The front-facingselfiecameraisalso

substandard. If there’s any kindoflight source

behindyou, thingsjustwashouttoapointof

unusability.Even without, thingsareboth

blurry and lacking in detail.

SLOWBURN

There’snocompelling reasontoput up with

these issues whentheMotoE6 Plus is only

£10 more,yetisabetter smartphone injust

aboutevery way.The MotoE6Playis

underpowered,hasaweak camera and loses

fivehoursofbattery lifeonitsslightlymore

expensivesibling, so trytostretchtothe

lattereven if your budget is very tight.

AlanMartin

Battery life

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

See page 88 forperformancedetails

PROCESSORQuad-core 1.5GHzMediaTekMT6 (^739) • SCREEN
SIZE5.5in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,4 40 x7 (^20) • REAR
CAMERA 13 megapixels•STORAGE 32 GB•WIRELESSDATA
4G•NFCNo•DIMENSIONS 14 7x 71 x8.3mm•WEIGHT 14 0g

• OPERATINGSYSTEMAndroid9.0•WARRANTYOneyear
  RTB•DETAILSwww.motorola.co.uk•PART CODEXT 2029

SPECIFICATIONS

10 h9m