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Motorola One Power Review – Massive Battery and embracing Android One

Lakshmi Rajan

Box contents of Motorola One power

Motorola One Power design

The One Power looks solid but also has a heft. It weighs 205 grams and measures 8.4mm in thickness largely due to the big 5000mAh battery inside. It’s a compromise one has to make for the extra battery life. While the side frame is made of plastics the back panel is made of aluminium metal. The rear houses the dual camera set up in a vertical housing with a dual-tone LED flash in between the two lenses, a fingerprint sensor with the famous Moto logo on the scanner area and Android One branding at the bottom. The plastic frame all around also avoids the antenna lines on the design. The top has the audio jack and secondary microphone. The bottom features the speaker grille, type C 1.0 port and mic. The right side has power and volume buttons. Both the buttons are easy to access. The left side houses the dual SIM tray with a dedicated microSD card slot. There is no dual-VoLTE support on this phone. Though the company says they are testing the support and might roll out the update later to enable it.

Display of One Power

It’s the year 2018 and the notorious notch makes an appearance in Moto phones with the One Power, like it or not there is no option either to hide the notch. The 6.2-inch LTPS IPS display features a fullHD+ resolution (1080 x 2246 pixels) stacking 403 pixels per inch on a 18.7:9 aspect ratio. The pixel density is quite impressive. After the Poco F1 fiasco, the tech community suddenly woke up to the Widevine’s L1 certification, the Moto One Power does have it and hence you can stream content in high definition from Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime video. The display offers good viewing angles and outdoor legibility is also decent enough. The display settings can be tweaked for colour temperature and you can choose between standard and vivid output. The brightness level goes up to 536 nits. Overall, the One Power offers a good display.

Moto One Power Android One Experience

The biggest shift the One Power sees is by embracing the Android One. Google certification mandates software security updates for three years and Android version updates for the next two iterations basically guaranteeing Android Pie and Q. This should bring cheers and some respect to the Moto fans and the One Power buyers. Well, that’s theoretical, the reality differs. The last security update I have received on the device was on August 1 and none since then. Hope Motorola addresses this swiftly and changes the perception. There is no bloatware as expected on Android One phones and it runs on clean, vanilla stock Android Oreo. Though Motorola has managed to squeeze in few of their Moto experiences like twist to launch the camera, chop to turn on the flashlight and the always-on display. The interface is smooth, though I did find a bit of lag when too many apps were stacked on the background.

Performance of Moto One Power

In this segment, there are many phones powered by Snapdragon 636 like the Redmi Note 5 Pro, Nokia 6.1 Plus,  Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 and One Power joins the list. It combines the chipset with a 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. Pitched against such mighty competition, the One Power has jumped straight into baptism by fire. The Snapdragon 636 is a workhorse for daily tasks and gaming, though the Snapdragon which has recently crept into this segment enjoys slightly better GPU. The chipset also supports Bluetooth 5.0 and latest Wi-Fi standards along with dual 4G and dual Standby. Can I play PUBG? that’s the most frequent question I face when I talk about a new phone. Yes, you can but it plays on the low setting by default. I have seen other phones on the same chipset playing on mid-graphic setttings so this is a bit of a surprise. Though it does manages to play without much lags. Call quality is good. There is Dolby Audio and with its equalizers and presets. The sound quality is pretty good. FM radio is also found and the phone supports OTG.  The fingerprint sensor is a bit slow to wake up but works well and there is no face unlock feature.

Motorola One Power Camera Review

Like every phone these days, the One Power also features a dual camera at the back. It has a 16MP primary camera with f/1.8 aperture lens and a 5MP secondary camera for depth sensing with a f/2.2 aperture. For the selfies, there is a 12MP sensor with f/2.0 lens. There is portrait mode for both front and back. The front also has a LED flash which can also be used as a torch. The camera app has a Google Lens mode. The rear camera supports video up to 4K but there is no Slo mo or time lapse features. The Expert mode lets you control white balance, exposure, ISO, shutter, and focus before clicking. You can take photos in different aspect ratio including wider 18.7:9 apart from the standard 4:3 and 16:9. The samples below are shot on 18.7:9 aspect ratio. Day light pictures are good and has good detailing and color reproduction. The portrait mode is not very sharp and has a softness to it. Selfies come good for this segment. Overall the One Power has a decent camera though not the best in the segment. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="14195,14196,14197,14198,14199,14200,14201"]

Battery Performance of Motorola One Power

The biggest highlight of the One Power is its massive 5000mAh battery and to sweeten the deal comes with a 15watts turbo charger. So you get practically a bigger battery, better battery life and a quick charging too.  A 30 minutes charge upped the battery from 0% to 30% and 50% was acheived in 50 minutes and 75% in 90 minutes.  As far as the battery life is concerned, it can run on a longer stretch.  In my HD video loop test, it covered almost 16 hours which is pretty impressive. On a normal use, you can manage two days of battery life but real life scenario purely depends on how you put the phone to use but still expect it to do well compared to most of the competition and slighly better than the Max Pro M1 which also has the same 5000mAh battery.

Verdict:

Motorola has given its best shot at the Indian market with the Motorola One Power. They have also finally managed to price it sensibly for this segment. Plus, the shift to Android One might augur well too. Its winning aces include: On a down side, the phone is slightly bulky and has more functional design than being attractive. It’s a trade off one has to make for a reliable, durable battery life on a phone. The One Power is not perfect in every sense but not everyone look for the perfect camera or gaming on a phone. Battery is crucial for many and the One Power races ahead of the rest when it comes to power.    ]]>
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