Motorola Moto E5 Review: The Verdict
The Moto E5 is a budget smartphone that makes surprisingly few compromises. A massive battery life headlines a solid overall package that feels like more phone than you're paying for. You do make some sacrifices in exchange for saving money, but the Moto E5 is currently one of the best cheap smartphones on the market.
What we love
- Two-day-plus battery life
- Excellent value for money
- Elegant design
What could be improved
- Slow camera
- Only 16GB of storage
- Lowish resolution display
The essentials
- Performance: Fast enough for smooth day-to-day usage, but may struggle with more demanding apps and 3D games.
- Battery: Will easily last two full days. Possibly three for more restrained users.
- Screen: Bright enough to be visible in direct sun, but a little low resolution.
- Camera: Can take decent photos, but slow to shoot and inconsistent in challenging light.
80/100
$229
Motorola's Moto E5 outperforms it's budget price tag. It's a far better phone than the $229 RRP would suggest. Yes, camera performance ranges from just okay to crap, and you only get 16GB of storage, but those are our only two meaningful complaints. You might be paying about a fifth of what you'd drop on a high-end device, but you're certainly getting more than a fifth of a high-end phone.
Cheap without too many compromises
- 5.7-inch 720p+ display
- Snapdragon 425
- 16GB storage, 2GB RAM
- 13MP rear-facing camera
- 4,000mAh battery
Let's start with battery. The combination of a modest processor and a huge 4,000mAh means the Moto E5 is a veritable Energizer bunny. You should comfortable get at least two days per charge; I found I typically had a buffer of around 30% at the end of the second day. You might even be able to squeeze in a third depending on how hard you're pushing the Moto E5. That's more than you'll get from almost any other phone.
The Moto E5 really isn't an ideal phone if you want to run high-end apps and games (most 2D games should be fine, but 3D titles can be laggy and unresponsive), but it feels fast enough for day-to-day usage. Talk, text, social media, music and video streaming all a-okay. We didn't run into any significant performance issues, although Twitter did crash on us occasionally. That might just be Twitter though. Animations when opening apps and flicking through home screens could be smoother, but this doesn't at all impact your use of the phone.
One of the best things about 2018 is that cheap phones don't necessarily feel cheap anymore. The Moto E5 has a clean, elegant aesthetic with minimal bezel and a big-but-not-too big 5.7-inch extra-tall display. The screen only runs at 720p which can feel a little stretched out across 5.7-inches, and if you look carefully, you can tell it's not quite as sharp as other screens. However, unless you're using your phone for large amounts of reading in a single session, we wouldn’t call this too big a deal.
A metallic paint job helps hides the Moto E5's plastic build; you probably won’t mistake it for aluminium, but it doesn't immediately feel like plastic. There's no flex, no hollow feeling, and a nice amount of heft. You'll also find a fast and reliable fingerprint reader on the back.
While there's a lot to love about the Moto E5, there's a few minor issues to consider. It only has 16GB of internal storage, and about half of that is used right out of the box; you won't have heaps of space for apps and photos. You can always grab a cheap microSD card if you're worried about running out of capacity, but that does mean setting aside a little bit extra.
One nifty Moto E5 feature is that it simultaneously supports dual SIM and microSD storage expansion. Most dual SIM phones make you choose between a second SIM and more storage, but the Moto E5 lets you have two SIMs and a microSD card inserted at the same time.
Camera quality is the biggest sacrifice you'll make if you pick up a Moto E5, which isn't entirely surprising at $229. While you can still snap okay photos, the camera is slow to open, can be hard to focus, and occasionally takes its sweet time when shooting. Lowlight images drastically vary in sharpness and are quite prone to motion blur, photos taken in bright sun can easily end up either under or overexposed.
Who is the Moto E5 for?
At just $229, the Moto E5 is one of the best truly budget smartphones you can buy. It's not the fanciest phone around, but Motorola has once again impressed with just how much it can pack into a device this affordable. Other than the typical cheap phone issues of subpar camera and low out-of-the-box storage, there's very little to fault the Moto E5 for. It's a hell of a lot of phone with a hell of a lot of battery life for not a lot of money.
Moto E5 camera samples
I don't want a Moto E5, what else can I buy?
Motorola Moto G6
If you want to stick with Motorola and are okay with spending a bit more, you might want to consider the Moto G6. It's got the same size screen running at a higher resolution, twice as more storage, a faster processor, and a glass back. It's another excellent choice for a budget smartphone.
OPPO A73
If you're okay with committing to Optus prepaid, you can grab the OPPO A73 for $259 - $30 more than the Moto E5. It has twice as much storage out of the box, which could save you springing for a microSD card. The A73 runs OPPO's highly customised take on Android, which is more similar to the software you'd find on an iPhone than standard Android.
Nokia 6.1 (2018)
If you've got a little more money to spend, it's worth considering the Nokia 6.1. The $170 premium will get you a faster processor and twice as much internal storage. Notably, the Nokia 6.1 runs Android One, which means you're guaranteed three years of monthly security updates and two major operating system updates.
SIM-only plans to go with your Moto E5
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#1
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Pivotel
25GB Mobile Swift Plan
$11.45/mth
Min. cost $11.45
|
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#2
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SpinTel
Editor's Pick
$23 Mobile Plan
$12.00/mth
Min. cost $12
|
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#3
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Swoop
30GB SIM Only 5G
$14.00/mth
Min. cost $14
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#4
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Boost Mobile
$14 Prepaid
$14.00
Per 7 Day Renewal
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#5
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Kogan Mobile
Small Monthly Plan
$23.00
Per 30 Day Renewal
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#6
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Dodo
Small Mobile Plan
$25.00/mth
Min. cost $25
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Alex Choros
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