Moto E3 – Battery Life

The 2,750mAh removable battery is another of the better parts of the Moto E3. That’s a huge size for a phone that runs a small, 720p display and fairly basic CPU.

Over the span of a week I finished up the day with between 15-20% of juice left, which is enough of a buffer for me. Of course, the fact that intensive apps and games don’t run well on this phone might contribute to that number.

An hour of Netflix ate through less than 10%, while a similar amount of time spent streaming Spotify with the screen consumed around 7%.

Standby time, too, is very impressive – vital for a budget phone that might often end up thrown into a drawer for weeks at a time. A fully charged Moto E3 lost only 9% of its charge.

Annoyingly, there’s no quick-charge facility here; it actually takes around two hours to fully charge the battery via the micro-USB cable. Again, it’s hardly surprising to see such “luxury” features missing from a handset costing only £89.

Should I buy the Moto E3?

At first glance the Moto E3 looks like an excellent budget phone. For £89 you get a 720p screen, a decent-sized battery and a clean build of Android. But delve a bit deeper and it doesn’t appear to be such a great deal.

I’m struggling to look past the poor performance, and feel that one corner too far has been cut. Once you’ve installed a few apps, the phone becomes increasingly frustrating to use – even taking into account its price.

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 is much faster, although you’ll have to import it. I’d recommend paying a little more and picking up the Moto G4 Play, the Moto G4 or the Wileyfox Swift 2. For the extra initial outlay you’ll get more RAM, a smoother phone and one that will last longer.

Verdict

The Moto E3 isn’t a bad phone, but it’s hamstrung by terrible performance, a frustrating Android experience, and the proposed lack of future software updates. A shame, since it has a decent screen and offers great standby time.

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