Review: Moto E3 Power; Surely a Batteryful Phone; But not a Powerful one!

When Motorola announced its comeback to the Indian market back in 2014, Moto E, a budget-friendly phone played a major role in its success. The company received a massive response to the first Moto E launch, even leading Flipkart servers to crash and units to go out of stock within minutes.

Well, Motorola did try the same strategy with its second-generation Moto E but didn't quite achieve the same level of success. And now here's the third generation of its budget-friendly smartphone and the first one post takeover. Lenovo has launched the third-generation Moto E dubbed as the Moto E3 Power, thanks to its bigger battery. But is it worth your money? Let's check it out.

In The Box

Motorola Moto E3 Power comes packed in a very neat and sober looking box with the Motorola logo in the top center and the Lenovo branding at the bottom right. Inside the box, the first thing you'll notice is the handset itself. Further down there's the 10W Charger, microUSB Cable, standard in-ear headphones, the star of the party a 3500 mAh Battery and interestingly a screen guard.

Look and Feel

The ridged plastic design of the Moto E3 Power adds a personality to the smartphone. It's distinctly Moto, but it won't feel like every other phone out there. Also, the back and battery are removable, which is quite rare in the world of non-removable batteries. 

It's flat, mostly, and has curves around the edges, just so it's comfortable. It sits well in the hands and it stays there, without slipping away. The back panel, as I mentioned is removable, has this very fine textured finish that gives the phone a sophisticated look, and improves grip. This is a phone that you would love to hold in your hands and the five-inch form factor means it's also very comfortable to operate with one hand. Just like the Moto E of Motorola's culmination period, the Moto dimple on the back stays on, but the camera module now rests behind an oblong piece of glass-like plastic that is surrounded by a fine chrome lining.

At 153.5 gram and 9.5 mm, the Moto E3 Power retains the chunkiness of past Moto Es, which also means that it is still heavier and thicker than rival phones in the market. It also has those wide chunky bezels I had been missing after using the OnePlus 3.

Moreover, the Moto E3 Power also has a water-repellent nanocoating that protects the phone from accidental spills, splashes or light rain. Keep in mind, it is not exactly waterproof but it kind of helps.

The volume and power buttons are on the right, while the left is blank. The 3.5mm audio jack is on top, and the Micro-USB charging port is on the bottom.

The Moto E3 Power comes with a 5-inch HD IPS LCD display with a 720x1280 pixel resolution that roughly translates to 294ppi pixel density. Brightness levels are just about adequate and adaptive brightness works as it should. Viewing angles are just about adequate as well, with just a hint of discoloration when you tilt the screen sideways. The colors look rich and vibrant, and the display also is smudge-resistant so it is not very prone to smudges and fingerprints.

Specifications

The Moto E3 Power is powered by a 1GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor coupled with Mali T720 GPU and 2GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 32GB via a microSD card slot. The dual-SIM phone supports 4G LTE (VoLTE-ready) and USB OTG. The phone comes with separate slots for two SIM cards and one microSD.

To not disappoint you further, the Moto E3 Power in no way is as powerful as Lenovo would want you to believe considering its name. The phone is in no way meant to be bought if you plan on gaming with it. Even basic games like Subway Surfers are receptive to a few lags, particularly during long periods of gameplay. 

But the main USP of the phone is its battery life, and it's living up to it. The phone is backed by a 3,500mAh removable battery. Battery life is phenomenal. Lenovo had claimed it to last a day on this one. But some of my tests have shown it could last even longer using the phone's inbuilt battery saving option. Of course, Android Marshmallow's Doze functionality is to be appreciated for it.

The included fast charger is estimated to deliver up to 5 hours of power in just 15 minutes of charging, according to Lenovo. And the company sort off delivers its promise by delivering up to 5 hours of power in around 20 minutes of charging.

The front-firing mono speaker on the Moto E3 Power is fantastic. It gets really loud with little or no distortion at peak volume. Voice quality during calls made with the Moto E3 Power was also excellent.

The Moto E3 Power runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with very minimal tweaks from the company. The unit that we played with had the Google Now launcher which was set as the default. 

There are not many third-party apps installed on, the phone which is good for users as they get the most out of the 16GB of onboard storage. The phone supports storage expansion via a microSD card up to only 32GB. Additionally, Lenovo is also offering two years of free photo storage on the Google Photos app.

Camera

Well, the camera is a feature you always consider while buying a smartphone, right? The Moto E3 Power comes with an 8-megapixel camera on the rear with f/2.2 aperture, autofocus and LED flash. On the front, you get a 5-megapixel snapper.

Although focus and shutter speed are fairly respectable, quality of photos snapped with the Moto E3 Power's rear shooter is average at best. Photos clicked in good light come out well, with a decent amount of detail and mostly accurate colors.

The front camera, meanwhile, clicks average selfies. They would be just about sufficient for posting on Facebook and Instagram and nothing else. The rear shooter can record 720p videos but slow-motion and time-lapse videos are not supported.

Didn't read it all? Don't worry here's the verdict.

At Rs. 7,999, Lenovo's Moto E3 Power seems like a decent buy. But if you're planning on playing games on it, I'd advise you to add Rs. 1000 more to your budget and go buy the Moto G4 Play (even though it has a smaller battery).

The sole reason to buy the Moto E3 Power is its battery life. Though the Moto E3 Power doesn't provide the experience that Motorola promises and isn’t a worthy purchase, it does what it says to be doing and that's providing you a great battery with top-ups such as great display and a fairly excellent call quality.

Buy the Moto E3 Power: Moto E3 Power (Black, 16 GB)
Buy the Moto G4 Play: Moto G Play, 4th Gen (Black)

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Wearable Tech has Evolved! Review: Vufine+

Google Glass was an evolution in the wearable display industry, but due to its faults it never really was considered as an option. But Vufine of Kickstarter fame hopes to reignite the interest in what Google Glass had pretty much killed off, the head-mounted display with its newest detachable wearable display, the Vufine+ . Will it be a success, that's for you to decide?

The Vufine+, launched on Kickstarter last week, doesn’t attempt to do all of the social networking, notification flagging, and voice-controlled interactions which Google tried to persuade us in its Glass. Instead, it brings video from your phone, laptop, drone, or pretty much anything that has the relevant ports closer to your eyes.

Remember it's a wearable display and not a standalone wearable tech similar to your smartwatches.

In the Box

The box which I received was not in any condition I could even click pictures of it. So here's a picture of the box as appeared on Pokde.net. Luckily my box contained all the contents as specified.

So, The Vufine+ comes along with a number of accessories such as a Headband Mount which is rather useful if you do not wear glasses and do not want to wear one. Then it includes a standard HDMI cable and a micro-USB charging cable. The package also included an HDMI-to-lightning port adapter that may allow you to connect the Vufine+ to an Apple device.

The package also included some mounting docks. For the best experience, I would recommend the magnetic dock that allows you to pivot the Vufine+ to your comfort. If you wear thin metal band glasses, there is another accessory i.e. a metal clip. This metal clip elegantly slides on to your metal frame glasses and mounts the Vufine+ magnetically to it.

Moving on there are also a pair of non-prescription glasses and are the best to mount the Vufine+ as it's designed to fit the Vufine+ perfectly. You could take these glasses to your optician and get a custom prescription lens cut out to its size as an option. These glasses are very lightweight, making them rather comfortable to wear.

And finally, it included the L-shaped gadget i.e. the Vufine+ itself that has an LCD at one end and two ports at the other: the first, microUSB, is used to charge up the battery, which is good for around 90 minutes of solid use. The other, a mini HDMI, hooks up the Vufine+ to an external video source, and on the back is the power button. It weighs about 26g and has a dimension of 96mm (W) x 20mm (H) x 14mm (D) making it very lightweight and portable. There is a power button at the back of the unit, a round magnet in the center and a 21mm diagonal display that churns out the video output projection to the viewer.

My Experience

So before you start, the first and most important thing that you need to identify, is whether your device supports HDMI output or not. If you are using a GoPro or an iPhone, there will be no problems connecting to the Vufine+. I plugged it onto my laptop, powered it up and BOOM! An additional extended screen is now projected to my glasses! I used it to watch some videos while chilling on my couch! And I have to mention, I was pretty impressed with the picture quality. Moving on to gaming on you PC, it's definitely a no-go!  With that being said I struggled to find things on my laptop to use the Vufine with.

It's definitely something to be considered by the drone enthusiasts and extreme sports athletes like having your drone's video feed being streamed to your eye or having a GoPro plugged into it to show you what's behind you if you're a cyclist. It could also be useful for skilled trades workers such as mechanics, carpenters, exterminators, and other jobs that require you to see some inaccessible places.

With that being said the Vufine+ is not heavy and it's easy to use for long hours. At first, you might find it a little awkward to have a device hooked to your head/near your eyes, but it gets normal eventually. Once you have mounted it, you can extend the display to the center to find the best viewing position, after which you can pivot it to the top or bottom of the glasses where you will find it the most comfortable. The battery lasted me for well over an hour of continuous usage – which is rather noteworthy!

It's surely not an accessory for everyone, but if you've ever wanted a way to keep an eye on drone footage, remotely see your camera's viewfinder, or interact with your gadgets more discretely, it's an effective way of doing that. I’d love to see the company add wireless streaming options for better portability in its coming versions. Until then, the Vufine+ is well worth the purchase but not for everyone!

The Vufine+ launched on Kickstarter last week for $179 in a variety of colors, while the retail price will be $199 soon. So if you're planning on getting them, get them now!

Check out the Kickstarter
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Review: OnePlus 3; Third time's a charm?

Bored of Reading? Check out my Video on the phone:

Third time's a charm, right? Well that's what OnePlus seems to have done with its third-generation flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 3.

True to its 'Never Settle' mantra, OnePlus is pushing forward with its 'flagship specs for half the price' marketing plan, and with the new OnePlus 3 all seems right.

After the initial breakout success of the OnePlus One in 2014, the follow up from the Chinese outfit was a little lackluster, with the OnePlus 2 failing to reach the same heights as its predecessor. And then came the OnePlus X which wasn't bad for its standards.

The company recently announced the end of its highly-criticized invite system, and has now launched the phone that it hopes will take it into a new future of easy availability of its affordable flagships, the Rs. 27,999 OnePlus 3. On paper, this phone is an absolute beast, and appears to have what it takes to challenge the set conventions of flagship pricing.But does the OnePlus 3 have what it takes to succeed? Find out in my review.

In the Box

Opening the box will reveal the OnePlus 3 inside a protective plastic wrap, with some printed details about the phone.Then we have a quick user guide and a SIM ejector, and finally, the powerful new Dash Charger and a USB-C cable for charging and syncing the phone.

The Dash charger is an interesting new addition. It's a super-powerful 20-watt (5 volts, 4 amps) wall charger that is protected against overheating and delivers up to 63% of charge in just half an hour.

Look And Feel

Similar to the OnePlus 2, the design of the OnePlus 3 impressed me! The OnePlus 3 implements one big change that makes all the difference in lending an air of quality to the phone; the plastic rear panel with sandstone finishing is finally gone; though many loved it, it has been replaced by a cold, hard aluminium back. Furthermore, it's a unibody with a dull metallic finish, and reminds me a little bit of the HTC One M9 thanks to its antenna lines and bulging rear camera. It's beautiful, well-built, and finally brings OnePlus into the big leagues of design.

For sandstone finish lovers OnePlus also give you an option to buy five optional plastic cases that you can buy along with different looks and finishes: Karbon, Bamboo, Apricot, Rosewood and Sandstone.

Front-on the OnePlus 3 isn't anything special - it's a relatively standard black slab coated in Gorilla Glass 4, with the main feature being the indented fingerprint scanner-come-home-button oval below the display. The OnePlus 3 has a 5.5-inch 1080p Optic AMOLED display with 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. There is however a polarising layer that assists legibility under bright sunlight. Although it isn't as crisp as the 1440x2560-pixel screens on many flagship phones these days, it's suitably sharp and will give you an excellent picture.

The fingerprint scanner is much quicker at recognizing your digits and unlocking the OnePlus 3 than it was on the OnePlus 2, with a quoted time of just 0.3 seconds. While I can't vouch for the exact speed I can see that it's impressively quick, and I didn't have any issues when using it. OnePlus says it's faster than Apple's Touch ID, and I'm inclined to agree.

Either side of the scanner you'll find touch-sensitive navigation keys which are only visible when tapped, with a single white LED illuminating for a couple of seconds before disappearing into the bezel. This unit I received came with a preinstalled screen protector film, but it doesn't completely cover the front. Fortunately you can remove it pretty easily, and it doesn't leave any nasty residue on the glass - but you're unlikely to get the bubble-free finish if you try to re-apply it, so make sure you really want it gone before peeling it off.

Along the left side of the 7.35mm-thick OnePlus 3 are the volume rocker and notification slider. The latter has three positions: all notifications, priority notifications and silent, enabling you to quickly adjust the setting without waking the screen similar to the OnePlus 2. Then we have the power button and dual-SIM tray on the right, and the speaker, USB type-C port and 3.5mm socket at the bottom - OnePlus certainly isn't ready to ditch the 3.5mm jack just yet

The buttons are well positioned, and as long as your hands are big enough to grapple the OnePlus 3 you'll be able to hit them without issue when using the phone one-handed.

Specifications

The OnePlus 3 is absolutely packed full of power with Qualcomm's top of the range Snapdragon 820 processor, which is also found in the HTC 10, LG G5 and the American variant of the Galaxy S7. Not only does the OnePlus 3 have this SoC clocked at 2.2GHz for two cores and 1.6GHz for the other two cores, but it also sports a enormous 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of internal storage (non-expandable).

Apart from this, there's also dual-SIM 4G connectivity with support for both FDD-Band 3 and TDD-Band 40, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC. The phone has a 3000mAh non-removable battery, and is the company's first device to feature some kind of fast charging technology. It comes bundled with a 20W Dash Charger, which charges the phone up to 60 percent in 30 minutes. About an hour's charging should fully top up your phone even from near zero.

Time taken by #OnePlus3 to charge from 0-100% using the new #DashCharging feature! #OnePlusLife #TheGud1 pic.twitter.com/Ntp49ETeFz

— Bhavish Shah★ (@iamBhavish) June 26, 2016

The technology shifts power management from the device to the charger, which ensures that the phone doesn't heat up too much while charging. I tried it, and it worked like amazingly. This also means that it's possible to keep using the phone while it's charging without slowing down the charging process too much. Charging and connectivity are through a USB 2.0 Type-C port, and the cable included in the box allows for ordinary connectivity with most computers and chargers thanks to one end being a standard USB Type-A plug.

It's interesting to note that OnePlus will also be selling a Dash Charger for cars, which plugs into a standard 12V car socket. It surely will be a useful accessory to buy if you spend a lot of time on the move.

On the software front, the OnePlus 3 is powered by OxygenOS 3.1.1, based on Android 6.0.1. OxygenOS is visually and functionally very similar to stock Android Marshmallow, with a few useful additions. Despite not being quite as light as stock Android, it still retains the same level of ease and snappiness across the system. Additions come in the form of customization options, while most of Marshmallow's standout features have been maintained. This includes the revamped app permissions system, Now On Tap, and Doze Mode. OxygenOS also lets you quickly unlock the boot-loader, which will then allow you to root your device or flash new firmware if you choose to.

Camera

The camera on the OnePlus 3 is a huge improvement over the previous generation. The 16-megapixel Sony IMX 298 sensor primary camera delivers a good picture quality and features optical image stabilisation, phase detection autofocus and RAW image format support. You can also shoot 4K videos and slow motion at 120 fps. This is pretty much the standard on flagship phones these days.

The image quality is better than what you might find on the previous generation. For selfie lovers the 8-megapixel sensor with 1.4-micron pixels does the job with ease and it can also shoot videos at 1080p @ 30fps.

The camera app is Google's stock app which you'll find on Nexus devices. It's designed around simplicity and maximizing screen space for the viewfinder. Because of this, there's only a single shutter button for capturing stills, and recording video is a two-step process.

The settings menu controls specific settings related to only the mode that you're in, so you will have to switch modes to modify settings such as video resolutions and grid toggles. While shooting stills, you can change the aspect ratio or toggle the self-timer. There are also small controls for the flash, HD shooting, HDR mode and the camera switcher. It's fairly simple and easy to use, but we've seen better apps on other devices which offer more control.

The camera itself is particularly good when shooting outdoors in good light, producing pictures that are sharp and detailed, with very little noise and grain. Colors are vibrant, and pictures are bright and good to look at. Auto-focus can occasionally be a bit slow, but once it locks onto a subject or scene, pictures are generally well composed and properly rendered. Optical and electronic image stabilization both help in producing good stills and videos. The only weakness is low-light shots, which tend to over-saturate whatever light there is and become grainy.

Videos are excellent and detailed even at full-HD resolution, and you always have the option to go up to 4K if you want them sharper. Slow motion and time lapse modes produce interesting results, but more control over both of these, and possibly the inclusion of 240fps shooting, would have been great additions to the camera. The front camera takes surprisingly sharp pictures as well, producing much better results than what we're used to seeing from typical smartphones. On the whole, the camera is more than adequate for ordinary smartphone shooting.

Yes I wrote too much...Didn't read it all? Don't worry here's the verdict...

The OnePlus 3 boasts of some supercool hardware that makes it a steal at the price that it's sold at. The phones has no issues when it comes to the performance and battery back-up. The only downside is the display on the OnePlus 3 and a similar Android Marshmallow experience that you get on the OnePlus 2.

This is a phone which excels in every department, and OnePlus has even fixed the issues we had with reliability and build quality on some of its previous devices. The inclusion of important features such as NFC, an accurate fingerprint sensor, an excellent Amoled screen and fast charging also finally means that this is a phone that checks all of the boxes.

If you are looking to buy a flagship device and are not keen on spending in excess of Rs 30,000 on a phone then the OnePlus 3 is a no-brainer and it's still a flagship killer. OnePlus 3 is all the phone you'll ever need in 2016.

Boldly be a Pop of Color in a Black & White World... 🌍 Thank you @allthatdoodles for this amazing case for my #OnePlus3 ¦¦ Living the #OnePlusLife with #allthatdoodles

A photo posted by Bhavish★ (@bethegud1) on Jul 16, 2016 at 6:00am PDT

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