Motorola One Power review: An Android One phone with extra long battery life

Motorola One Power features and specifications: 6.2-inch (2,246 x 1,080) display | Android Oreo | Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC | 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (expandable up to 256GB) | 16MP + 5MP dual camera with PDAF, LED flash | 12MP front camera with LED flash | 5,000mAh battery | Connectivity options: 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm audio jack

Motorola One Power price in India

Motorola One Power comes for a price of Rs 15,999 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage model.

Also Read: Motorola One Power with notch display, 5,000mAh battery launched: Price in India, specifications

Motorola One Power review: What’s good?

Motorola One Power is the first handset from the company’s smartphone shelf to offer a notch display in the Indian market. From the front side, the phone has a striking resemblance to the iPhone X that house a large notch at the top of the front panel. Even at the back, Moto One Power sports vertically stacked dual camera sensors.

The phone is made out of metal with a plastic frame surrounding the corners. The power button and volume keys are placed on the right side. While on the left you will find the dedicated microSD slot to insert two SIM cards and a microSD card simultaneously. At the top sits the 3.5mm audio jack, while the speakers and a USB Type-C port are drilled at the base of the device.

While in most Moto smartphones the fingerprint sensor is embedded on the home button, this time around the fingerprint reader has been placed on the rear panel. The Moto batwing logo is inscribed on the circular shaped fingerprint sensor itself.

Motorola One Power bears a USB Type-C port which is located at the bottom part

Talking about the build quality, the phone feels sturdy in the hand, but unlike a few mid-range smartphones, it does not have a compact form factor. Motorola One Power measures 8.4mm in thickness and weighs 198g. It is P2i rated and is splash resistant, which is good to see on a budget phone.

The matte finish saves the device from smudges and fingerprint, which is a common problem with glass cased devices. The dual rear cameras are slightly protruded other Moto devices. Overall, the design on the Motorola One Power is quite generic with thin side bezels, but the device quality does feel solid to hold and use.

Motorola One Power comes with an LCD Max Vision full HD+ screen that measures in at 6.2-inches. The display has a 19:9 aspect ratio resulting in a resolution of 2246 x 1080 pixels. During our usage, we did not have any complaints with the screen.

The colours are quite pleasant and the viewing angles are nice as well. We did not face any issue while reading content under harsh sunlight. The reds and blue are slightly inclined to cooler tone, however; the display does not produce deep blacks as an AMOLED screen, but then one rarely finds AMOLED in this price bracket.  Overall, we did not have any qualms with the screen on the new Motorola smartphone.

Motorola One Power features a 6.2-inch Max Vision full HD+ 19:9 display with a notch on top

Motorola One Power runs Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, the chipset that debuted on Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro. The phone comes with 4GB of RAM for multitasking and running apps. With day-to-day activities, the new Moto One Power performed well with barely any stutter or lag. The phone managed to handle multitasking smoothly and apps were quick to launch. Even with the graphically demanding games like Real Racing 3, Modern Combat 5, we did not face any hiccups while playing it for a good half an hour run-time.

As for the synthetic benchmarks, Motorola One Power managed to score 1,16,260 points on AnTuTu. As for Geekbench, the phone earned 1,327 points in the single-core score test and 4,744 points in multi-core score test.

Motorola One Power managed to score 1,16,260 points on AnTuTu benchmark test

Motorola One Power houses bottom-firing speakers with mono speaker grille placed on both side and USB Type-C port at the centre. The new Moto device delivers good audio quality courtesy of the Dolby Audio that enhances the audio experience. Even with volume pitched at the highest level, the phone did not produce shrill sound.

Motorola is known for offering clean software experience with least bloatware, but the software update is one area where the company has not so very good history especially with the affordable and mid-range devices. However, the all-new Motorola One Power is part of Google’s Android One initiative, which means users will receive timely software updates for two years.

The phone runs stock build version of Android 8.1 Oreo, however, it does include Moto’s suite of software tweak, for instance, ambient display, Moto Actions that offer gestures to turn or the flashlight and launch the camera. The phone comes with a simple user interface with swipe-up option on the home button opening the app-drawer.

For the display, Motorola One Power offers certain colour modes like Standard and Vibrant. The Color mode allows you to choose between Warm, Neutral and Cool temperature. In addition, Moto One Power also includes Smart Lock feature that keeps the device unlocked when it is in a trusted place like home etc.

The Android One-powered Motorola One Power runs Android Oreo right out-of-the-box

Coming to the battery performance, Motorola One Power packs a huge 5,000mAh which is another key highlight of the smartphone besides the notch display. The phone offers nearly two days-worth of backup with casual usage. During our heavy usage that included surfing multiple tabs on Chrome or Firefox browser, streaming Netflix, using social media apps simultaneously along with resource-intensive apps running in the background, the phone could last a day and a few hours on single charge.

As for photography, the new Motorola One Power offers dual camera setup comprising of a 16MP primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture and a 5MP secondary sensor with f/2.2 aperture. The dual camera sensors support LED flash and come with phase detection autofocus.

The smartphone managed to render decent output in well-lit condition. The colour reproduction in most photos turned out to be decent with a slight shift to cooler tone. Another perk of the Motorola One Power is its front LED flash that helps to capture bright selfies with the 12MP camera sensor in low-light condition. Further, the front-camera offers Portrait mode as well to add a bokeh effect to the selfies.

Motorola One Power review: Camera samples

Motorola One Power daylight sample Motorola One Power indoor sample (Image resized for web) Motorola One Power indoor sample (Image resized for web) Motorola One Power portrait shot (Image resized for web) Motorola One Power outdoor sample (Image resized for web) Motorola One Power low-light sample (Image resized for web) Motorola One Power low-light sample (Image resized for web)

Motorola One Power review: What’s bad?

Although Motorola One Power comes with a tall notch-style display and big battery backup, the phone feels bulky. And although your thumb can comfortably reach the power button, it is difficult to operate with a single hand, especially for those who prefer more compact devices.

During the initial PUBG run-time, the app crashed more than twice and we had to reboot it to play the game.  However, after the two attempts, the phone managed to run the game smoothly for a duration of 30 minutes, so there was some solace.  

Another disappointment that we had with the Motorola One Power was the focus accuracy of the dual rear camera sensors. Even though the phone bears dual cameras at the back, the imaging sensors could not retain details even in bright lighting condition, and in most scenarios, the cameras failed to lock focus on the subject accurately.

The dual rear camera sensors fail to lock focus accurately on the subject even bright lighting condition

With the HDR mode on, the colours on a few images still appeared to be a bit dull, although the mode did add a tint of artistic effect to the images. The portrait mode rendered average result and in a few instances, it blurred the hairline detail.

During low light situation, we observed a fair amount of noise creeping into the images and loss of detail on the subject. Considering camera performance, Moto G6 plays a better role in this regard.

Motorola One Power dual camera failed to render good detail images even in bright lighting condition

Motorola One Power review: Conclusion

Motorola One Power is clearly targeted for those users who prefer a phone with a large display and huge battery. At a price of Rs 15,999 for the 4GB RAM/64GB storage model, the new Moto phone will set a tough competition against Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro and Nokia 6.1 Plus.

The all-new Motorola One Power offers a sharp display, clean and uncluttered UI and durable battery backup that adds up to the overall experience.  For those users, who want a device that can survive for more than a day even with heavy usage, Motorola One Power will surely deliver a great experience. The fast software updates and clean UI are other benefits of picking this device. Even with heavy duty tasks, the phone managed to render smooth output with barely any lag.

However, the phone falters in the camera department and its bulkiness might not appeal to some.  For those who want a compact smartphone with elegant design and near similar aspects to that of the new Moto Android One-powered smartphone, Nokia 6.1 Plus can be a viable alternative.