Motorola's Moto E series consists of affordable smartphones that - in our experience - offer great value for money. The new Moto E5 (149 euros) seems to continue that tradition and promises as an extra long battery life. In this Motorola Moto E5 review we take a closer look at it.
Motorola Moto E5
Price € 149,-Colors Gray and Gold
OS Android 8.0 (Oreo)
Screen 5.7 inch LCD (1440 x 720)
Processor 1.4GHz quad core (Snapdragon 425)
RAM 2GB
Storage 16 GB (expandable with memory card)
Battery 4000mAh
Camera 13 megapixel (rear), 5 megapixel (front)
Connectivity 4G (LTE), Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, GPS
Format 15.4 x 7.2 x 0.9 cm
Weight 174 grams
Website www.motorola.com 8 Score 80
- Pros
- Nearly stock Android 8.0 (Oreo)
- Long battery life
- Dual SIM and Fingerprint Scanner
- Solid design
- Negatives
- Memory card required
- No Android Pie update
The Moto E5 is very similar in design to its predecessors, although Motorola has made several improvements. For example, the back is no longer made of plastic but of metal and there is a fingerprint scanner in the Moto logo on the back. This makes the Moto E5 look more luxurious and you unlock it faster. The device fits comfortably in the hand due to the rounded design. The large 5.7 inch screen uses an extended 18:9 ratio and the bezels around the display are relatively narrow. Most people can therefore operate the Motorola smartphone just fine with one hand.
Two days battery life
At 175 grams, the Moto E5 is on the heavy side, which is due to the larger screen and the huge 4000 mAh battery. It lasts two days with normal use. If you look less at your phone, you only need to charge the battery a few times a week. Charging is relatively fast via micro USB.
The LCD display of the Moto E5 is sharp enough for a budget smartphone with an HD resolution. When viewing photos and videos, you can distinguish individual pixels, but partly because the color reproduction of the screen is good, it hardly disturbs.
Micro SD and dual SIM
A nice feature of the Motorola Moto E5 is that it accepts two SIM cards and a micro SD card. With most (budget) smartphones you put the micro SD card in the second SIM card slot, so that you have one SIM card and micro SD or dual SIM without a micro SD. The Moto E5 has three card slots, so you don't have to choose.
The performance of the phone is sufficient with a Snapdragon 425 processor and 2GB of RAM, although the storage memory is on the small side. The software takes up half of the 16GB internal storage space, making the micro-SD slot a good fit. This way you can easily and relatively cheaply expand the storage memory (up to 128GB).
The 5 and 13 megapixel cameras on the front and back take great photos for home-garden-and-kitchen use, but don't expect too much from them.
No Android Pie update
The Motorola Moto E5 runs on an almost unmodified version of Android 8.0 (Oreo), with only some apps from Motorola and Microsoft Outlook and LinkedIn. The last two can't be removed, which we don't think is nice. Motorola recently announced that the Moto E5 will not receive an update to the new Android 9.0 (Pie). The phone will receive security updates in the near future, although it is unclear how often and for how long.
Conclusion
The Motorola Moto E5 delivers a solid design, a great display and functions such as dual SIM and a fingerprint scanner for 150 euros. Add to that a long battery life and stock Android 8.0 (Oreo) and you have a complete smartphone for the less demanding user for little money. If you value software updates, it is better to turn to an equally expensive Android One phone from Nokia or Xiaomi.
