4040 NOVEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381
MOTOROLA’SMOTOGseries is arguably
the most consistent budget smartphone line
in the business, so the firm could be forgiven
forsticking to what it knows. The One Vision,
however,takes aradically different approach
to cut-price Android design.
The adoption of a21:9 screen aspect ratio
has made it taller,thinner and generally more
modern-looking than any MotoGhandset,
something that’s only aided further by a
contoured glass back that shimmers in the
light. Even with the elongated shape,you
don’t need to pull off any hand gymnastics
to use it: it fits rather snugly.
The leftedge hosts the nano-SIM card slot,
which is also where you pop in your microSD
card if you want to expand the phone’s 128GB
of internal storage.AUSB Type-C charging
port is positioned on the bottom edge,while a
3.5mm headphone jack sits on the top.
BORROWED BRAIN
The 2,520x1,080 displayuses an IPS panel,
not OLED as we’re used to seeing on 21:9
smartphones, but it’s still adecent performer.
When using the Natural displayprofile,it
covered 90.6% of the sRGB colour gamut
and hit ahigh contrast ratio of 1,226:1.
We measured peak brightness at 429cd/m2,
which is lower than that of last year’s
Motorola One,but is still acceptable.
Just as the Samsung Galaxy A70 (page 39)
surprised by forgoing aSamsung Exynos
processor,the One Vision is atypical in that
it does have one.Specifically it’s the
Exynos 9609,anocta-core
chip clocked at a
maximum of 2.2GHz,
which is accompanied
by 4GB of RAM.
Regardless of the
weirdness of using a
competitor’s hardware,
the One Vision is aspeedy
smartphone –much more
so than the original One.
In Geekbench 4, it scored
1,608 in the single-core
test and 5,443 in the
multicore test, putting
itself ahead of the Sony
Xperia 10 Plus (Shopper
377)aswell as the Moto
G7 Plus, which is only
£10 cheaper.
It also doesn’t have
any glaring problems
MOTOROLA OneVision
★★★★★
£270•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
TheOneVisioncomescloseto beingabrilliant
mishmashoftech–shameaboutthecamera
ANDROID 9.0 SMARTPHONE
when running graphically
intensive games. In fact,
it beat the majority of
its similarly priced
competition in the
GFXBench Manhattan
onscreen and offscreen
tests, with scores of 21fps
and 24fps respectively.
Battery lifeisalso on the
longer side,even with the
stretched-out screen.
The One Vision lasted for
14h 26m in our video loop
test, again beating the Moto
G7 Plus by amajor margin.
Unsurprisingly,the
Motorola One Vision is
running the latest version of
Google’s mobile operating
system, Android 9.0.
What’s special is that it’s
the Android One version,
which means you get anear-stock Android
experience and –more importantly –
guaranteed updates fortwo years after the
phone’s release.That includes both monthly
security updates and upgrades to entire
new versions of Android; there’ll be no
meddlesome custom skin getting in the way
of you switching to Android 10 and 11 when
theyeventually launch.
OVERSHOOTING
This is the very first budget smartphone to
include adual-lens rear
camera with a
48-megapixel sensor,
something you’d more
usually see on aluxury
handset such as the
OnePlus 7Pro (Shopper
379). It has a5-megapixel
depth sensor,too.
Unfortunately,italso
copies the OnePlus 7
Pro in failing to leverage
that high pixel count
intogreat-looking
photographs. Aheavy-
handed noise-reduction
algorithm reduces the
overall quality of shots,
and even the MotoG7
Plus captures more detail.
Yetagain like the
OnePlus 7Pro,these
Batterylife
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage94forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core2.2GHzSamsungExynos9609•
SCREENSIZE6.3in•SCREENRESOLUTION2,520x1,080•
REARCAMERAS48megapixels,5megapixels•STORAGE
128GB•WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•DIMENSIONS
160x71x8.7mm•WEIGHT18g•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Android9.0•WARRANTYTwoyearsRTB•DETAILS
http://www.motorola.co.uk•PARTCODEPAFB0013GB
SPECIFICATIONS
14h26m
issues magically disappear
if you drop to alower-
resolution setting, upon
which the One Vision takes
perfectly lovely photos.
It’s ashame that one of the
seemingly standout reasons
to choose this camera is
something that’s better left
disabled. The Night Vision
shooting mode is aletdown,
with even more visual
noise being added to
low-light snaps.
Video recording is much
better,with well-judged
exposures and rock-solid
stabilisation at 60fps at Full
HD resolution, and even the
front-facing camera –which
itself hits arelatively high
25-megapixel count –
performs remarkably well.
It captures oodles of detail, and can add a
nice bokeh effect to portrait shots with no
need foraseparatedepth-sensing lens.
VISION IMPAIRMENT
Nonetheless, the main camera’s problems
continue to linger over the One Vision, and
that’s an enormous disappointment, as
otherwise it’s agreat low-cost smartphone.
It’s Motorola’s most stylishly designed
handset yet, CPU and gaming performance
are both good, and the battery can last well
over aday.
To see it fall at the final hurdle is
saddening enough, and the worst part is it’s
down to afeature that should –along with its
21:9 display–havebeen one of its defining
qualities. We’d therefore recommend holding
off,unless Motorola can fix the 48-megapixel
problems with software updates.
NathanSpendelow
