40 MAY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE387
MOTOROLAALREADYMAKESone ofthe
bestbudgetsmartphones,theMotoG7Power
(Shopper376), but now it has acouple ofnew
models forthose who want to spend even less:
the MotoE6Plusand MotoE6Play(opposite).
The slightly pricier MotoE6Plusdoesn’t
really stand out on looks, although that
doesn’t mean it can’t pass foramore
premium handset. The screen bezel maybe
alittle thicker thanmostflagships, but it’s
still thin enough to necessitatealittle
half-notch forthe front-facing camera.
OPENWIDE
Flip it over and you’ll find ashiny and
unapologetically plastic backplate. The
dual-camera arrayisneatly contained in the
topleft-hand corner,and asmall circular
Motorola logo doubles up as afingerprint
reader in the middle.Atthe bottom is a
decidedly old-school MicroUSB port for
charging –noUSB Type-C here –but you
do get aheadphone jack at the top, and the
rear cover is removable,soyou can swap
out the battery yourself.
This removable back also means there’s
no SIM or microSD tray–you have to open
up the phone to put them in. Still, there is
room forboth anano-SIM and amicroSD
card of up to 512GB in size.
The 6.1in screen is an IPS panel with a
resolution of 1,560x720. That’s lower than
the ideal 1080p,but this is agoodscreen
nonetheless: peak brightness hits a
particularly high 511cd/m^2 ,and contrast is an
equally respectable
1,463:1. The sRGB gamut
coverage of 84%makes
foracceptable vibrancy
as well, even if it’s not
particularly high in itself.
Internally,the Moto
E6 Plus is powered by the
MediaTek Helio P22
octa-core processor,with
four cores running at
1.5GHz and four at 2GHz.
This is backed by 2GB of
RAM and 32GB of
internal storage.
This is adeparture
from the Snapdragon
chips of previous budget
Motosmartphones, but
the MotoE6Pluskeeps
pace regardless. Its
Geekbench 4scores of
MOTOROLA MotoE6Plus
★★★★★
£100•Fromwww.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
TherearebettersmartphonesthantheMoto
E6Plus,buttheyallcostafairbitmore
ANDROID9.0SMARTPHONE
822 in the single-core
test and 3,648 in the
multicore test are aclear
step up from the Moto
E5 Plus, and although the
MotoG7Power remains
well in front (as you’d
expect, given the price
difference), this phone
competes well with other
low-cost models such as
the Vodafone Smart X9
(Shopper377)and Xiaomi
Redmi 7A (Shopper383).
It’s also much more
powerful than the Moto
E6 Play, whichisonly
£10 less but scored less
than half of the MotoE6
Plus’ result in the
multitasking test.
It’s asimilar story
when it comes to
graphics processing. In
the GFXBench Manhattan
3benchmark, the Moto
E6 Plus averaged 16fps in
the onscreen test and 10fps in the offscreen
test. This ranks it significantly ahead of the
MotoE6Play, andwithin touchingdistance of
the MotoG7Power.Ataglance,itseems to
be well ahead of the Vodafone Smart X9,but
resolution is important here: while the Redmi
7A and MotoE6Plushave720p screens, the
Vodafone handset has a1080p panel, and
hence the numbers are
level when the tests are
done offscreen.
KEEN EYED
Sadly,inone keymetric,
the MotoE6Plushas
gone backwards on last
year’s model. While the
E5 Plus lasted 23h 2m in
our battery test, the E6
Plus conked out at
15h 3m. That’s still not
aterrible result, but it’s
asizable regression,
owing to the use of a
3,000mAh battery
instead of the older
phone’s 5,000mAh unit.
The MotoE6Plusgets
ahandy upgrade in the
camera department,
however,switching to a
dual-lens array. The main
camera is a13-megapixel
f/2.0 affair,and it’s
supported by a
2-megapixel depth sensor
forbokeh effects.
This arrangement
punches well above its
weight. Outdoors, the
main camera can pick out
plenty of colour and
detail even in heavily
overcast conditions, and
while it doesn’t escape
the common pitfalls of
shooting in low light
indoors, it’s not toobad
in this regard. The worst
that happens is post-
processing aggressively
softening theedges of
objects; throughout
the rest of the image,
there’s alot less visual
noise than we were
worried about seeing.
The front-facing camera is an 8-megapixel,
f/2.0 unit, and is pretty decent too. Shooting
and recording options are simplistic, but
pictures are fine forselfies, even letting you
blur the background forartyshots.
THE PLUS SIDE
While the MotoG7Power remains abetter
smartphone overall, if you absolutely can’t
spend more than £100, then it’s hard to find
toomuchfault with the MotoE6Plus. It’s
good-looking, long-lasting and performs well
enough forthe price.
Should you spend more if you can afford
to?Absolutely.But if you can’t, the Motorola
MotoE6Pluswon’t let you down.
AlanMartin
Batterylife
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 88 forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core2GHzMediaTe kHelioP22•SCREEN
SIZE6.1in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,560x720•REAR
CAMERAS13 megapixels,2megapixels•STORAGE32GB•
WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCNo•DIMENSIONS
156x73x8.6mm•WEIGHT150g•OPERATINGSYSTEM
Android 9.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.
motorola.co.uk•PARTCODEPAGA0000GB
SPECIFICATIONS
15h3m
