Motorola Moto E5 Play UK SIM-Free whatsapp sim 16GB Smartphone, Black

Product Information

The Moto app that handles those features is actually the only add-on software we spotted on the phone. The Moto E5 Play is a great example of how clean Motorola keeps Android on its phones. Everything else pre-installed was the typical Google fare, like Chrome, calculator, maps, and the G Suite. (Different mobile carrier options may come pre-loaded with different apps, though.) Sensors - Fingerprint Reader†, Proximity, Accelerometer, Ambient Light, Magnetometer (e-Compass), Sensor Hub As you’ll see from the graph above, the phone looks on-par with other budget phones, but in practice it’s a different story. Motorola’s decision to pair the 1.4GHz quad-core processor with only 1GB of RAM is regrettable. By comparison, the regular E5 has 2GB, while the Vodafone Smart N8 has 1.5GB. That extra bit of RAM goes a long way; it allows for a more fluid experience, and especially when you’re switching between apps. READ NEXT: Vodafone Smart N9 review: No better than last year’s Smart N8 Motorola Moto E5 Play review: Display Despite its name, this phone isn’t cut out to play games. You can fire up Candy Crush or Temple Run, but don’t expect to play PUBG Mobile on it. And if you’re wondering why the E5 Play outperforms all its rivals in the onscreen tests, there’s a simple answer: its lower resolution screen is less taxing on the hardware.

The quality is good, and the sensor captures plenty of light and detail. However, with no electronic image stabilisation (EIS), videos appear a little jittery, especially if you’re walking around while filming. The Moto E5 Play contains a sizable 5.2-inch LCD display, though you don’t expect a super fancy screen on a smartphone this cheap. Its 720p resolution is considered HD, and it matches the resolution of the 1st-gen Moto G.On the plus side, the display’s peak brightness of 340cd/m² is bright enough to remain legible under normal ambient light. Take it out in the sunshine, however, and you’ll struggle to see the phone’s display. By comparison, the 5.7in E5 and 6in E5 Plus both have an 18:9 720p IPS display. All three phones have the same processor and have the latest iteration of Android Oreo pre-installed. For typical use, the screen is good enough. The lower resolution won’t be too noticeable watching shows or movies, and though the viewing angles aren’t great and lose a bit of contrast, they’re not the worst we’ve seen. The Play is capable of recording 1080p video at 30fps, but footage is jittery when panning around and frames drop in darker areas. The 5MP front camera is on the soft side outdoors, but does have a front-facing LED flash for better indoor shots and video. Software As long as you’re not planning to read lots of full books from the Moto E5 Play, its screen is perfectly adequate. What it's like to use

The Moto E5 Play is protected from splashes and light rain by a water-repellent coating, like many of Motorola’s other phones. But don’t confuse this with waterproof. It’s not a very water-resistant phone. The entire handset measures 151 x 74 x 8.85mm and weighs a light 150 grams.You don’t get a dual camera on the Motorola E5 like you do with the Moto G6 phones and so there’s no portrait mode. In fact, the camera offers a pretty basic roster of facilities, with very few extra modes beyond panorama. Despite the plastic housing, the Moto E5 doesn’t have a removable battery and nor does the model we were sent have provision for dual-SIM operation. You can, however, add up to 256GB of extra storage to the phone’s internal 16GB via a microSD card via a space on the E5’s SIM tray. This, however, is where things begin to go slightly awry and it’s performance that begins the erosion of the Moto E5’s appeal. The culprit is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, a chipset I haven’t come across in a smartphone before. The paltry 2GB of RAM doesn’t help either. The E5 Play supports LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/14/17/25/26/29/30/38/41/66, allowing it to work well on several different carriers. We tested network performance primarily on Boost Mobile, which uses Sprint's network, and saw average network performance in midtown Manhattan.

There’s one big compensation for this, however, and that’s battery life. In our test, the Motorola Moto E5 lasted a stonking 19hrs 39mins, which is four hours longer than its nearest rival in this category, the Moto G6 Play, and miles better than the rest of the competition. Significantly, the Honor 7A lasted 11hrs 39 in this test, a full eight hours short of the Moto E5. Motorola is frequently one of the best manufacturers offering clean Android experiences in quality budget phones. The Moto E5 Play successfully continues that tradition. Release date and price As a Motorola phone, the Moto E5 Play does have some of the Moto actions, but not all of them. There’s no chopping gesture to turn on the flashlight, and twisting the phone twice won't activate the camera. A 3-finger tap can take a screenshot, and flipping the phone over can silence notifications. The features offered are handy, if not game-changing.However, when I started digging into the phone’s features, I was pleasantly surprised: the fingerprint reader is fast, battery life is good, and the replaceable battery is a genuine rarity these days. What’s more, the forward-facing speaker works well for watching content on your phone, the taller 18:9 display gives you more screen to scroll on, and its front- and rear-facing cameras are impressive. is crisp enough on some smaller screens, but for a 5.2-inch display, we could see some of the softness. App icon edges weren’t entirely smooth. Looking from a much sharper display to this one, it can seem blurry. The E5 Play isn’t waterproof, though Motorola claims the phone is ‘water repellent’ due to ‘advanced nano-coating technology’ – so it should survive the odd accidental splash of water. Just don’t take it in the bath.