Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy J1

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy J1

Samsung might be most well-known for its flagship Galaxy S line but you don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds to get a smartphone from the South Korean company.

In fact it’s just launched a new handset dubbed the Samsung Galaxy J1, which at around £80 SIM-free is about as cheap as a smartphone gets.

But can you really get much for under £100 or are you better off spending a little more? Read on to find out.

Design

While the Samsung Galaxy J1 doesn’t have a premium design it’s actually a pretty nice looking phone for the money. It’s compact for one, at 129 x 68.2 x 8.9mm and light too at 122g, so you can easily fit it into the smallest of bags and pockets and use it for hours on end with getting wrist ache.

The phone has a plastic build, but with an unmistakeably Samsung style, including a physical home button and slightly curved edges which make it comfortable to hold. There’s no metal or glass here (other than the screen) but it looks like a phone which could have easily cost twice as much, which is pretty impressive.

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy J1 has a 4.3-inch 480 x 800 display with a pixel density of 217 pixels per inch. That’s a fairly small size, making this a distinctly compact phone. As such it’s not the best canvas for watching movies, but it does make it all the more portable and it’s not exactly tiny, topping the 4.0-inch iPhone 5S for example.

While its fairly low resolution the small size also means that’s not such an issue, with its pixel density almost matching the slightly more expensive Moto E (2nd gen).

Put it side by side with a higher resolution phone and you’ll notice the relative lack of clarity, but taken on its own it’s not bad at all, especially for the money.

Power

There’s a 1.2GHz dual-core processor humming away inside the Samsung Galaxy J1 and it’s paired with 512MB of RAM.

Those are some fairly low end specs. The processor is a match for the original Moto E, which is likely to be one of its main competitors, but it has half the RAM of that phone.

Still, there’s enough power here to run Android comfortably and while it’s not up to demanding games you can smoothly use it for apps, media, calls and web browsing, so it has the smartphone basics covered, which is all you can really hope for at this price.

One slight disappointment is that it runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat, rather than Android Lollipop. That’s only one major release behind, but it’s still a shame that a new phone isn’t running the latest software.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy J1 has a pretty good camera for the money with a 5 megapixel snapper on the back and a 2 megapixel one on the front. They’re fairly basic offerings sure and video is capped at 720p and 30fps, but there’s a flash so you can shoot in darker environments and some low cost phones don’t even have front-facing cameras. The original Moto E for example doesn’t and even the Moto E (2ndgen) only has a VGA one.

Pictures won’t impress if blown up to anything much bigger than the J1’s screen, but if that’s where you plan to show your photos off that won’t be a problem.

Battery life, memory and connectivity

The Samsung Galaxy J1 has an 1850 mAh battery, which might sound on the small side, but then this is a small, low power phone, so that’s all it really needs.

Indeed battery life is actually pretty good, lasting for up to 10 hours of talk time or 40 hours of music playback, while if you run low you can always enable Ultra Power Saving mode to eke out even more life.

There’s only 4GB of built in storage which is an absolutely tiny amount, but again it matches the original Moto E so it’s competitive for the price and it also has a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 128GB, so you can easily expand it to the point where you’ll have more storage than you know what to do with.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth 4.0. There’s no 4G here but it does support HSPA+, for the fastest 3G speeds around.

Check out the Samsung Galaxy J1 in-store

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy J1’s main selling point is its price. At around £80 SIM-free, even less on pay as you and for nothing upfront on very low cost contracts it’s cheaper than a smartphone has any right to be.

Yet it is a smartphone, with full access to apps from Google Play, as well as a reasonable camera, a decent design, good battery life and a respectable screen.

It’s a little lacking in RAM even for the money and the fact that it’s on an older version of Android is disappointing too, though it’s only slightly outdated, but those are the only major marks against it, so if you can live with that then the Samsung Galaxy J1 is a great value purchase.

Samsung Galaxy J1 Review Scoring

• Style and Handling
• User Friendliness
• Feature set
• Performance
• Battery
• Overall Score

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Moto G 3rd gen vs Moto G 2nd gen

But just how much has changed since last year? Read on for all the similarities and differences between the Moto G 3rdgen and the Moto G 2nd gen.Motorola has had a lot of success with its ‘G’ range of phones. The first model really shook up the low end market, packing in better specs than rivals for a similar price. Then the Moto G 2nd gen arrived and repeated the trick and it looks like the Moto G 3rd gen has done it all over again.

Build

Motorola Moto G 3rd gen (142.1 x 72.4 x 11.6mm 155g plastic) vs Motorola Moto G 2nd gen (141.5 x 70.7 x 11mm 149g plastic)

The Moto G 3rd gen has a plastic build, but its gently curved back leaves it looking aesthetically pleasing and makes it comfortable to hold. It’s also hugely customisable, as you can use Moto Maker to choose a front, back, trim and even an engraving. It’s water resistant too, so not only does it look fairly good but it can survive a splash.

The Moto G 2nd gen is not water resistant sadly but it does have a similar curved plastic design, which is similarly attractive and comfortable to hold. However unlike the Moto G 3rd gen it’s not customisable, with the whole phone coming in just black or white, so it’s far less distinctive.

Display

Motorola Moto G 3rd gen (5.0-inch 720*1280 294ppi) vs Motorola Moto G 2nd gen (5.0-inch 720*1280 294ppi)

The Moto G 3rd gen and Moto G 2nd gen have essentially identical displays, with both packing 5.0-inch 720 x 1280 screens for a pixel density of 294 pixels per inch. It’s a shame that the screen wasn’t improved for the 3rd gen model but that’s still a reasonable size and resolution for a budget handset, so it’s one of the areas which was least in need of an overhaul.

Power

Motorola Moto G 3rd gen (1.4GHz quad-core 1/2GB RAM) vs Motorola Moto G 2nd gen (1.2GHz quad-core 1GB RAM)

Although both generations of the Moto G have quad-core processors the Moto G 3rd gen is the more powerful of the two, with a 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 64-bit processor compared to the 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 32-bit processor in the Moto G 2nd gen.

In other words the chip in the Moto G 3rd gen both has a higher clock speed and is 64-bit, further aiding its performance, especially when it comes to multitasking.

The Moto G 3rd gen also wins out on RAM, with 2GB if you opt for the 16GB model, though the 8GB version only has 1GB of RAM, the same as the Moto G 2nd gen.

The two phones run a similar version of Android, with the Moto G 3rd gen on Android 5.1.1 and the Moto G 2nd gen on Android 5.0.

Camera

Motorola Moto G 3rd gen (13MP rear 5MP front-facing) vs Motorola Moto G 2nd gen (8MP rear 2MP front-facing)

The Moto G 3rd gen’s camera is a huge improvement on the 2nd gen model. It has a 13 megapixel snapper on the back with a dual-LED flash, while on the front there’s a 5 megapixel lens. The Moto G 2nd gen on the other hand has just an 8 megapixel camera on the back with a single LED flash and a 2 megapixel one on the front, so both snappers are inferior to those on the 3rd gen model.

That said they’re still pretty good for the money, it’s just that the Moto G 3rd gen really excels at photography given its price.

Battery life, memory and connectivity

Motorola Moto G 3rd gen (2,470 mAh 8/16GB 4G) vs Motorola Moto G 2nd gen (2,070 mAh 8GB 4G)

The Motorola Moto G 3rd gen has a 2,470 mAh battery designed to give all day battery life, even with fairly heavy use. However it’s still one you’ll tend to have to plug in before bed.

The Moto G 2nd gen has a smaller 2,070 mAh juice pack and while it should still see you through a day it won’t do so quite as comfortably as the 3rd gen model.

It also has less storage, with just 8GB, while the Moto G 3rd gen has a choice of 8 or 16GB built in, though both also have microSD card slots with support for cards of up to 32GB.

The two phones have similar connectivity options. Both support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and 3G and both also have 4G, though there’s also a 3G-only model of the Moto G 2nd gen.

Conclusion

The Moto G 3rd gen is a clear improvement on the Moto G 2nd gen in a number of ways. The camera is vastly improved, the build is far more customisable and more durable too thanks to its water resistance. It’s also quite a bit more powerful, has more storage and a longer battery life than the Moto G 2nd gen.

Really the only thing that hasn’t changed is the screen and while that’s a shame it’s still got a pretty good display.

Of course there’s one negative change in the new model and that’s the price, because with a starting price of £179 it’s a little more expensive than the 2nd gen, which can now be picked up from around £135 SIM free. But with all the upgrades it more than justifies the price hike.

Full Review and Specification for the Moto G 3rd gen Review

Full Review and Specification for the Moto G 3rd gen Review

Motorola has made a name for itself in recent years as a purveyor of fine affordable handsets, undercutting most of the competition without sacrificing on quality, whether we’re talking about the entry level Moto E, the flagship Moto X or the middle ground of the Moto G.

It’s a new Moto G that we’ve got here, the Moto G 3rd gen to give it its full and not particularly catchy title, and with a starting price of £179 it’s not quite as affordable as past handsets in the range, but then it feels like a higher end phone too. So is it worth the money? Read on to find out.

Design

The great thing about the Moto G 3rd gen is that you can customise it with Moto Maker and while it doesn’t have the same premium selection of materials available to choose from as the Moto X, it does have over 1000 different combinations available in all, so you can really make it your own.

The front, trim and back can all be customised, plus you can pick a wallpaper and even add an engraving if you want.

It’s only colours that you’re choosing, this is a plastic handset no matter what you do, but with a nicely textured back and the ability to have up to three different colours in use it can still look pretty good. It’s on the thick side at 11.6mm, but it’s also slightly curved which helps make it comfortable to hold.

Screen

One thing which hasn’t changed much this year is the screen, as the Moto G 3rd gen has a 5.0-inch 720 x 1280 IPS LCD display, just like the Moto G 2nd gen.

That’s okay though, because 5 inches is still a good size and while a boost to 1080p would have been nice 720p still more than cuts it and presumably helps keep the price down. The colours are vivid, viewing angles are pretty good and it’s reasonably sharp, so you really can’t complain given that it’s under £200.

Power

How powerful the Moto G 3rd gen is will depend in part on which version you opt for. You’re guaranteed to get a 64-bit 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, but while the 16GB model comes with a generous 2GB of RAM the 8GB one has just 1GB.

Unfortunately that makes the 8GB version a bit of a weak option, as not only is that very little storage but it’s actually less powerful and the 16GB model is only £30 more, making it far better value, though also pushing the price up to £209.

The processor seems a little lacking on paper too in comparison to the rest of the specs of the phone, though it’s in line with what we’d expect at this price and coupled with a near stock version of Android 5.1.1 performance is fairly smooth.

Camera

The Moto G 3rd gen has a very impressive camera considering how cheap it is, as there’s a 13 megapixel sensor on the back complete with a dual-LED flash, while there’s also a 5 megapixel snapper on the front, ideal for selfies. Plus the phone can shoot 1080p video at 30fps.

Such high spec shooters are almost unheard of at such a low price and they ensure you get sharp, detailed images, with great colour reproduction even when using the flash.

It also has a handful of shooting modes such as panorama and burst mode, plus you can launch the camera with a twist of your wrist, making it quick and easy to get to.

Interface and features

The Moto G 3rd gen runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and it’s very close to the stock version, meaning the interface is clean, intuitive and uncluttered. It’s also likely to get software updates quite promptly.

Surprisingly the Moto G is also water resistant. This is always nice to see, especially in cheaper phones which often lack extra features like that. Along with a fairly durable design this is one phone you won’t need to worry about too much and if the worst does happen at least it didn’t have a flagship price attached.

Battery Life, Memory and Connectivity

There’s a 2470 mAh battery in the Moto G 3rd gen, which can comfortably last you all day, even if you’re using it well into the late evening. It won’t see you through two days unless you’re a very light user but it’s pretty decent, especially in comparison to recent phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6, which have taken a backwards step in battery life.

You can get the Moto G 3rd gen with either 8 or 16GB of built in storage and either way there’s a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 32GB. A microSD card will be pretty much vital if you opt for the 8GB version but even with 16GB you’ll quite possibly feel the need for one after a while.

Connectivity options include 3G, 4G and Bluetooth 4.0, however there’s no NFC, so you won’t be able to make the most of Android Pay when it launches.

Conclusion

Motorola has done it again with the Moto G 3rd gen. It’s not quite as affordable as the previous versions were but with a much improved camera, more power, a water resistant build and a customisable design it more than justifies the price hike and it’s still a bargain for what you get.

The only caveat to that is that the 8GB model doesn’t seem such great value for money, as not only is storage severely limited but it also has half the RAM of the 16GB model, yet it’s only £30 cheaper, so we’d strongly recommend you opt for the larger storage size, but that aside the Moto G 3rd gen is an affordable winner.

Full Review and Specification for the LG G4c

Full Review and Specification for the LG G4c

The LG G4 is big and powerful, but it’s also expensive, so if you like the look of it but want something a little cheaper (or a little smaller) the LG G4c could be for you, as it includes many of the G4’s features, but in a smaller form factor and for a fraction of the price.

Sound good? Well, it is, but there’s also plenty of room for improvement.

Design

The LG G4c looks a lot like the LG G4, or at least the plastic version of the LG G4. Like that phone it has a plastic back with a slightly metallic look and a chequered pattern. That pattern helps it stand out from many other affordable phones, which tend to have very plain backs, so that’s definitely a plus.

It’s not a complete win though, as at 10.2mm thick it’s quite chunky and it also has fairly sizeable bezels surrounding the screen, hinting at its relatively low price.

Then there’s the rear keys, which will have as many lovers as haters. They arguably make the back of the phone look worse, but they do mean there aren’t any buttons spoiling the lines on the side of the handset.

Looks aside they’re designed to be easier to hit than side-mounted buttons and to an extent that seems to be the case, but they take some getting used to if you’ve not come from another LG handset.

Screen

There’s a 5.0-inch 720 x 1280 IPS LCD screen on the LG G4c, giving it a pixel density of 294 pixels per inch. There are far sharper screens around than that but it’s a match for the Motorola Moto G 3rd gen, which is likely to be one of its main competitors.

Resolution aside it’s not a bad screen at all, with good viewing angles, as you’d expect from an IPS LCD display. It’s not the brightest or richest of screens, but it feels good for the money.

It’s worth noting also that at 5.0 inches it’s smaller than the 5.5-inch screen on the LG G4, so if you’re looking for a smaller take on LG’s flagship that could work in its favour. Then again if you’re just looking for a cheaper one the smaller size might be an issue.

Power

The LG G4c feels a little underpowered with its 1.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor and 1GB of RAM. At this sort of price the Snapdragon 410 is just about still acceptable (the Moto G 3rd gen has it after all), but it is an entry level chip really.

Just 1GB of RAM is a shame too, especially as the Moto G 3rd gen can be grabbed with 2GB. In practice that lack of power needn’t be a deal breaker as performance generally isn’t too bad, but opening apps can be a little slow and there can be significant lag when lots of apps are open, especially when jumping between them.

Camera

Things improve when you come to the camera, as its 8 megapixel rear snapper and 5 megapixel front-facing sensor are both fairly capable.

There aren’t a huge number of modes and settings to play with, but you can use the physical buttons to activate the shutter, so you don’t have to tap (and in the process shake) the screen.

You can even go hands free and use ‘Gesture Shot’ to take photos by making a fist. This also means you can set the camera up at a distance, so for example you can take a group photo with you in it.

Similarly you can use your voice to snap a shot, by simply saying “cheese” or one of several other key words.

Interface and features

The LG G4c uses LG’s Optimus UX 4.0 on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Having Android Lollipop on board is a good thing, but LG’s UI is more of a mixed bag. It’s cleaner and simpler than earlier versions but it’s still less intuitive and more bloated than stock Android.

The phone does include some handy features though. There’s Glance View for example, which lets you slide your finger down the screen when it’s off to view the time and any notifications. It only lights up the very top of the screen, so it uses less battery than turning the whole display on and it’s a little faster too.

There’s also Knock Code, which is a two-part feature. For one thing it lets you turn the screen on with a tap, which is often faster and more convenient than hunting for the power button.

But you can also take it a step further and unlock your phone with a series of taps, rather than a PIN, password or pattern. This aspect is a bit less reliable in our experience, seemingly often failing to register some taps, but it’s optional and if it works for you it’s also potentially quite useful.

Battery Life, Memory and Connectivity

The LG G4c has a 2,540 mAh battery, which is about what you’d expect from a phone of this size and price, but it’s actually quite long lasting. There are phones with better battery life but this will get you through a day of moderate to heavy use and could even stretch to lunchtime of a second day.

Sadly its memory isn’t as impressive as there’s just 8GB built in and only around 3GB of that is actually useable, so in other words a microSD card is essential, but at least it supports cards of up to 128GB.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC, so it’s a well-connected little phone.

Conclusion

The LG G4c is a fairly accomplished handset, with a reasonable build, a decent screen, a good camera and solid battery life.

It’s hard to get too excited about it, even for the £225 it retails for, as while it’s reasonable in most areas it doesn’t really excel and the lack of storage is a definite let down.

But with rear keys, Knock Code and Glance View it’s got a selection of features not offered by many other phones, let alone cheap ones and that coupled with a slightly different design should be enough to win it some fans.

But the LG G4c is still a solid all-rounder and if you’re a fan of LG’s features then there are few other options for the money.

Full Review and Specification for the Huawei Honor 7

Full Review and Specification for the Huawei Honor 7

Until very recently only the very brave would take on a phone from a little-known or unknown brand. They were definitely the realm of techie types who really knew their stuff – not for your average phone user, the sort who wanted a decent phone but still needed to rely on recommendations from the chap in the phone shop.

But the tide is turning now, and more and more people are feeling confident enough to shop online and let their fingers do the walking with internet shopping. A few clicks of the mouse or touchpad and you can find out all you need to know about a phone – even if it does look too good to be true at the price.

But there’s no need to feel brave with the latest range of devices from Honor – we fell in love with both the 6+ and the 7, which we’re reviewing here. This online brand gives the most amazing specs for a low price – the Honor 7 has a good-looking metal chassis all for a little under £250. The latest similar phone from one of the big brands comes in at more than £700. Just so you know…

First impressions

Though we loved the 6+ it did feel like a mid-range device and was a tad too large at 5.5ins – fine if you do a lot of work or streaming on your phone but the phablet size is not for everyone.

The Honor 7 boasts a 5.2in screen and a pure metal chassis. The snapper sensor on the back has two flashes, plus there’s a fingerprint sensor there too.

Around the display the bezels are barely there. Three keys sit underneath, offering a lot more screen real estate than if they were below the touchscreen.

The Smart Key sits to the left and there’s a power button on the right, along with the volume toggle. SIM card and microSD card slot are on the left, while the 3.5mm jack sits on the top left. The device is charged using microUSB.

Buyers can choose from fantasy silver or mystery grey colour ways. The body is formed from an aluminium alloy. Its ‘golden ratio’ design prevents it from overheating.

Battery life

The phone holds a 3100mAH battery, which is one of the largest we’ve tested recently (to compare, the Samsung Edge 6+ has a 3,000 mAH and it costs around £749). During average use we found a full charge lasted for a smidgen over two days. There are some useful power-saving options too. We had 8% left on the battery, and the phone suggested we switch to power saving mode when our 44 minutes of life would extend to 1 hour 8 mins – that’s a pretty significant improvement.

It is also possible to fast-charge the phone. We manage 0-100% in around 40 minutes. There is also a nifty reverse-charging feature that enables you to charge a Sat-Nav or smartwatch.

Taking pictures

The camera is a 20-megapixel model boasting a Sony sensor. Its resulting images are full of life and it offers a number of accessories and filters – we liked the ‘good food’ one – great if you like to Instagram pics of meals out. The lens is rather large but sapphire glass helps to stop it getting scratched. Other features include light-painting, time-lapse and panorama modes.

The Honor 7 also has a front-facing, 8-megapixel snapper, which is perfect for selfies – settings can be adjusted to make you look as good as possible! However, apart from helping you look your best, the 26mm lens and soft white light also offer a clarity and depth of field not usually seen on your average selfie.

Software

The Honor 7 comes complete with Android 5.1, and so far there’s no mention of an upgrade to Android M. Honor has its own skin – Emotion UI 3.1 – which is pretty basic. There are some themes included but otherwise you won’t be bothered by a load of preloaded apps that you don’t want and which just take up valuable storage space.

You will find a folder with some Gameloft choices in but if you don’t want it it’s easily deleted. There’s also a smart controller if you want it, so your phone can become a remote control for your TV and so on.

Apps can be hidden in a folder, which is then password-protected. You can also use the phone one-handed – just pinch the corner of the display and pull it down.

Memory, processor and performance

There is 16GB of onboard memory – which can be expanded using the SIM tray 2 to 128GB. There’s an exceedingly speedy processor included – the HiSilicon Kirin 935 64bit Octa-core 2.2 Ghz Cortex-A53 – which gave us no stuttering or lag. Streaming was smooth, with swift changes to Whatsapp, the browser, emails and so on.

Screen

The display boasts a 72.4 % screen to body ratio and its 1920 X 1080 pixels resolution offers a ppi of 424. The screen is amazingly clear and though a little over-saturated, it didn’t bother us at all.

Cool features

The Honor 7 offers a range of very cool features. For instance on the left side of the phone the Smart Key allows you to configure it for three settings including Ultra snapshot, torch, Voice recording, and screenshot. Press and hold and it will call up your favourite app – ours is Instagram. The Ultra snapshot mode was a bit jittery – however the screenshot mode worked beautifully.

Have trouble getting up in the mornings? You can set this phone to wake you up using voice commands. It will also start ringing when it hears your voice.

Fingerprint recognition

Under the snapper lens sits a square indentation, which is the phone’s fingerprint sensor. Get this set up and you can use the sensor if you want to unlock the device, rather than tapping in a passcode. It’s really handy, especially if you’re on the move. Set the sensor to work with both your index fingers and it will work seamlessly.

Motion Control

You’ll discover some hidden treasures here – we particularly liked the Draw feature If your screen is off, draw a letter and the app fires up – you will still need to unlock the device. You can draw a W for weather, an E for the browser, a C for the camera and so on. Very clever and a neat party trick!

Knock for screenshot

Want to take a quick screenshot? Knock on the phone and it will do it for you. We’re not sure why you would need to take a screenshot but anyway…

Our conclusion

While we love the Honor 6, it did have a few issues – the large size, the plastic body and the old incarnation of Android. The Honor 7 has sorted all this out – and we can see why in China there are 9 million pre-orders. This is a fantastic phone.

Its performance is exemplary – it managed every job we threw at it smoothly and with amazing speed. At just under £250, surely this phone is unbeatable.

It is obvious that Huawei wants to take a big slice of the phone market in the west and it must really want that business to offer this amazing 4G phone at this price. Of course selling it online will have helped with the cost, but other manufactures will need to take notice of what can be produced at this kind of price point.

What more can we say? We just love this phone.

Motorola Moto X

Full Review and Specification for the Motorola Moto X Play

Alongside the flagship Moto X Style and the affordable Moto G 3rd gen, Motorola recently launched the Moto X Play, a mid-range handset with a large screen and a seriously big battery.

The middling price and massive battery is what sets it apart from the rest of Motorola’s line-up, but just what else does it offer? And is it worth the £279 it costs? Read on to find out.

Design

While the Moto X Style is framed in metal and backed in other premium materials the Motorola Moto X Play is plastic, which is slightly disappointing. It’s also quite chunky at 10.9mm thick, but the design is far from a disaster.

It has a metallic finish to the edge and feels solid and well built, while the back has a textured design which makes it easy to grip.

The Moto X Play also benefits from Moto Maker customisations, allowing you to choose between 14 different back colours, 2 different front colours, 7 accents and even add an engraving.

Plus to top it all off it has a water repellent nano coating. That doesn’t leave it as waterproof as the Sony Xperia Z3+ or even the Moto G 3rd gen, but it does mean it has a good chance of surviving a splash or a spill.

Screen

There’s a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 screen on the Moto X Play with a pixel density of 403 pixels per inch. That’s pretty large, though smaller than the massive 5.7-inch Moto X Style.

The phone is big enough that it could arguably benefit from being QHD, but having a 1080p display instead has surely kept the price down and helped lengthen the battery life, so it’s perhaps a good thing.

It doesn’t seem particularly lacking in quality either. It’s sharp, bright and displays impressively natural colours. We’ve seen better screens from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6, but at this price point the Moto X Play’s display is very strong.

Power

The Moto X Play has an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor with four cores running at 1.7GHz and the other four clocked at 1.0GHz. While the Snapdragon 615 is an octa-core chip it’s a mid-range one and clocked far slower than flagship phones.

Nevertheless it’s enough for generally smooth performance, especially as it’s coupled with 2GB of RAM, although there were instances where apps would take a second or two to open. That’s not a big deal, but it is noticeable, especially when coming from a higher end phone.

Camera

We were expecting to like the Moto X Play’s camera, after all it has a 21 megapixel rear sensor and a 5 megapixel front-facing one, and we weren’t disappointed. The main camera in particular is impressive, taking strong photos in both well and poorly lit environments.

It’s not quite as good at capturing movement though and lacks some of the fancy features found on higher end handsets, such as optical image stabilisation.

You do get a bunch of shooting modes and options though, including the likes of auto HDR, so you don’t have to remember to manually toggle it when it’s required by the scene.

The front-facing camera is a little less exciting, but it’s more than up to the job of taking a decent selfie.

Interface and features

The Moto X Play stays very close to stock Android 5.1 and that can only be a good thing, as the Material Design look is clean, minimalist and intuitive.

However Motorola has added a few things to the mix. There’s Moto Display for example, which will show notifications on the lock screen even if the screen is off, while Moto Voice makes finding your phone easier as you can simply call out to it and if it’s nearby it will make a sound.

The best thing about the interface though is that being so close to stock Android it’s likely to get updates quickly, so with Android Marshmallow right around the corner you should see that on your X Play soon.

Battery Life, Memory and Connectivity

The battery has been given top billing in the Motorola Moto X Play, but while it’s certainly good it’s not quite as great as we’d hoped. The massive 3630 mAh juice pack definitely bodes well, but this is still a battery that you’ll be charging most nights.

You’ll easily get a day out of it, even with quite heavy use, so you’re never likely to be in danger of it dying before you get home. That already gives it an advantage over many phones, but even with lighter use it’s unlikely to stretch to more than a day and a half.

However when you do come to charge it the Moto X Play supports TurboPower charging, which is a form of fast charging, so you can juice it up quickly. Or you can if you have the right charger anyway, but oddly it doesn’t actually come with a compatible one.

There’s a choice of 16 or 32GB of built in storage in the Motorola Moto X Play and you can boost that with a microSD card of up to 128GB, so memory shouldn’t be a problem.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.

Conclusion

The Motorola Moto X Play is a great phone if you need a lot of juice, though sadly it still can’t quite stretch to two days. It’s also got a surprisingly impressive camera, a good screen and a slick interface.

That’s enough to secure it a position as a great mid-range option, especially as it’s only £279, but with a chunky plastic build and slightly disappointing performance it’s not quite perfect.