Motorola Moto E4 - Review 2022

Affordable phones often demand some grade of compromise. The Motorola Moto E4 isn't perfect, simply for $129.99 unlocked, you get smooth performance, the latest Android software, and features not oftentimes establish in this price range, like a fingerprint sensor and dual-band Wi-Fi. We take a few quibbles, such as a mediocre camera and some bloatware, but you lot'll be hard-pressed to find a amend phone for the price. That makes the E4 our Editors' Choice.

Pricing and Carriers

The Moto E4 is available unlocked for $129.99 and on Verizon with a prepaid plan for $69.99. Models will likewise be solid on Boost and Dart, though pricing details aren't nonetheless available. The unlocked and Verizon models share the same hardware. The Boost and Sprint models will take a more powerful Snapdragon 427 processor. An Amazon Prime sectional model with a lower price subsidized by ads will too launch at a later engagement. We tested the Verizon model.

Pattern

Unlike Motorola'southward G5 Plus and Z2 Play, the Moto E4 doesn't have a metallic body, and isn't compatible with the company'south Moto Mod accessories. What you lot get instead is a lightweight and fairly compact black plastic phone with a removable back encompass. It feels sturdy and grippy, with no creak or flex to the back.

At 5.7 by 2.8 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and v.three ounces, the Moto E4 is similar in size to the Blu R1 HD (5.6 by 2.8 past 0.iii inches, 5.0 ounces) and the Alcatel A30 (5.6 past 2.8 by 0.iii inches, five.2 ounces). Despite a sizable bezel at the top and lesser of the telephone, I didn't have problem reaching across it with a thumb. If you lot have small hands there'southward a One-Handed mode that can be activated to compress the phone's display, besides as a Split Screen mode so you lot tin run one app on the summit half of the screen and another on the bottom.

back small On the right side you take a potent book rocker and ability button. The top has a iii.5mm sound jack and the lesser has a micro USB charging port. The back cover also peels off from the bottom right to give y'all access to a removable bombardment, a SIM bill of fare slot, and a microSD slot that worked with a 256GB bill of fare.

The telephone is covered in a water-repellent coating, then it should exist able to handle accidental spills and light pelting, but you shouldn't submerge it in water.

Display and Features

The Moto E4 has a pleasantly bright v-inch, 1,280-by-720 brandish. That works out to a well-baked 294 pixels per inch, matching the A30 and R1 HD. Colors are bright and viewing angles are expert, with the screen beingness more than easily visible from the sides than the A30. At maximum brightness it's a bit of a challenge to see under straight sunlight, but it was even so usable outdoors. The phone supports Motorola's Active Display, which prove yous battery status, date, notifications, and time as presently as you option up the telephone.

E4 both

Below the display you lot'll find a fingerprint sensor that's nearly as responsive as the one on the G5 Plus, with similar navigation capabilities. Swiping to the left takes y'all back, swiping right brings up recent apps, touching the sensor once unlocks the telephone, touching it again lets it function as a home push, and holding it down brings up Google Banana.

Network Performance and Connectivity

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The unlocked and Verizon Moto E4 models back up CMDA, GSM, and LTE bands one/2/4/5/7/8/13/17/25/26/38/41/66. The phone showed strong network performance in midtown Manhattan, where nosotros recorded a loftier of 21Mbps down and 7.7Mbps up. This is in line with results we've seen on other Verizon phones in the surface area and our findings in the Fastest Mobile Networks 2022.

Other connectivity options include Bluetooth four.1, and Wi-Fi on both the ii.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Dual-band Wi-Fi is rare to find on a telephone below $200, and something yous don't go on the A30 or R1 HD. There's no NFC, which isn't surprising.

Call quality is decent. Transmissions are a bit muddy, but not overly so. Earpiece book is loud, since like with the G5 Plus, the earpiece doubles as a speaker. Noise cancellation is effective at blotting out virtually background racket aside from wind.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

The E4 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor clocked at i.4GHz, a basic midrange chipset. In the AnTuTu criterion (a measure of overall system performance), it scores 36,394, far exceeding the Snapdragon 210-powered A30 (xvi,720). It's also faster than the R1 Hard disk drive'south MediaTek 6735 (31,847).

The telephone has 2GB of RAM, giving it decent multitasking capabilities. That said, there are times that it tin can hang or stutter when running a lot of apps, only information technology'due south nothing too dramatic. And for the price, information technology'southward far smoother than much of the competition. If it wasn't for its inability to handle loftier-terminate games, I'd accept thought I was using a much more expensive device.

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Bombardment life is solid. The telephone clocked v hours, thirty minutes in our rundown examination, in which we prepare screen effulgence to maximum and stream full-screen video over LTE. That's more an 60 minutes longer than the A30 (4 hours, thirteen minutes), and just shy of the R1 Hard disk (6 hours). And because the battery is removable, yous can swap it out for a new one. Verizon customers get a 10W fast-charging adapter with the phone, letting you fully charge the battery in about ii hours. Unlocked buyers get a 5W charger.

The Moto E4's 8-megapixel rear camera takes decent shots outdoors, but fails to impress in other circumstances. On a sunny twenty-four hour period the camera captured solid images without much dissonance or mistiness, only on a cloudy day pictures weren't nearly equally adept. Autofocus failed to lock on in a number of shots, resulting in mistiness. Indoors pictures were similarly blurry and out of focus. The best shots we took were in the controlled lighting of PCMag's photo studio.

The camera can record 1080p video at 30 frames per second. Information technology'due south articulate, only jittery, and drops frames in lower lighting. In that location's a limited set up of transmission controls that let you adjust focus, white balance, and, ISO, but it doesn't make a significant improvement to overall quality.

Er camera

Software

The Moto E4 ships running Android 7.1.1 Nougat, the aforementioned upwardly-to-engagement version you'll find on the Google Pixel. Even better is that the skin remains very close to stock. Aside from a custom Motorola widget for time, date, and location (which can be removed), everything should be familiar to people who've used vanilla Android.

Because the E4 we tested is a Verizon telephone, at that place is some bloatware, in the grade of five Verizon apps that can't be uninstalled. It's not a heavy load, but combined with the Os itself it takes upwardly half of your storage—8.17GB out of 16GB. Fortunately you can utilise a microSD card if yous need more space.

Conclusions

For $130 unlocked (and $70 on Verizon), the Motorola Moto E4 is solid phone for a reasonable price. The Blu R1 Hard disk drive volition toll you a fleck less, simply it'southward non quite equally fast and runs an old version of Android, non to mention information technology doesn't have dual-ring Wi-Fi or a removable battery. The same goes for the Alcatel A30. Motorola's ain G5 Plus is a good alternative if you want a big performance heave across the board, but it likewise costs more than twice the cost of the Moto E4. For its combination of price and performance, the Moto E4 can't be trounce, and earns our Editors' Option.