The battle of the flagship devices from top companies is reigning the first quarter of the 2014. But a major share of revenue is derived from the budget devices sector. So it’s not for the mobile users to raise their budget, it is time for companies to launch quality budget devices. There were some spectacular budget devices in the android market. Today we compare the Moto E and Nokia X which fall under the sub $130 category.
After the great success of the Moto G, Motorola has launched its smaller brother Moto E recently. Moto E was launched by the company with decent features at a remarkable price tag. This little smartphone running KitKat OS launched at a mind-blowing $129 price tag. This surely depicts that Motorola is striving hard to offer its users, quality devices at affordable prices for all ranges. And looking at the sales of these devices, it is sure that this plan is working for Motorola.
Nokia X on the other hand, is the first android device from the Nokia company. The company has entered the android market lately and planned to launch three android devices this year. Nokia X is the first of the three devices and it is priced $122.
BUILD QUALITY
Moto E
The Moto E’s rear panel is curved and is made of a soft polycarbonate shell, which is comfortable to hold. The front panel sports two speaker grilles on top and bottom with a chrome tone. Moto E comes with curvy edges and chunky looks. The phone with the dimensions 124.8 x 64.8 x 12.3 mm weighs 142 gms and feels comfortable in hand. The device is a bit thick in this era of slim phones though. However for the sub $130 device, the thickness and size are never the biggest concerns.
Nokia X
The Nokia X comes with the same design and looks of the Lumia series devices. The device is rectangular built and mostly no curves and looks flat in the design but is pretty solid to hold in the hands. The device has the dimensions 115.5 x 63 x 10.4 mm and weighs 129 gms. The device looks pretty much like Asha series phone with cheap plastic which is not eye catching. The single back button at the bottom of the screen takes some time to get used to.
Moto E offers a high quality poly carbonate shell which is quite preferable to the Nokia X’s plastic body and Moto E offers good grip with its curvy edges. Nokia X is a bit slimmer and lighter than the Moto E, but it is a bit smaller than the Moto E. The design of both the devices is good for price range but the Nokia X has some different design than the usual android devices. The back button at the bottom of the screen will definitely make an impact on the usage of the device. So Moto E takes this round for its superior quality and brilliant looks.
Winner: Moto E
DISPLAY
Moto E
The Moto E sports a 4.3 inch Capacitive touch screen with a 540 x 960 pixel resolution which brings the pixel density to 256 ppi which is great for a budget device. The display offers fairly well saturated colors and good contrast. Motorola has used Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the new Moto E, which protects it from scratches. This feature gives an edge to Moto E over other devices in its range. The viewing angles are great for normal usage and display is bright enough for daily usage.
Nokia X
Nokia X features a 4-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 800×480 pixel resolution which brings the pixel density to 233 ppi. The viewing angles are great on the device and the display produces well saturated pictures. There is no protection for the screen, so it is advisable to buy a Screen protector to avoid damages to the display. The brightness levels of the device is pretty good and can watch the screen in sunlight as well.
Moto E comes with a qHD display and a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection is definitely the best display you’ll get on an $129 device. Moto E has definitely an edge over Nokia X in terms of screen and protection. So Moto E takes over the Nokia X in the Display section.
Winner: Moto E
CAMERA
Moto E
Moto E packs a 5.0 MP camera, but lacks LED flash support as well as front camera. The camera is good for capturing few pics every now and then but it is not great for serious camera junkies. It will suffice the purpose of regularly posting pictures on social networking sites though. The camera cannot be used in low light conditions and HDR option is also not available on Moto E. Camera is one of the few downsides of this device, but is an inevitable strategy the company should take for cost cutting.
Nokia X
Nokia is best know for providing good cameras to their devices but it is not the case with Nokia X. It comes with a 3.15 MP camera that captures pictures at 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution. The camera is not that great and the pictures shot from the device suffer from noise. The camera is not backed up with a LED flash, so low light photography is better to avoid. The device can offer some decent pics in daylight but it may not meet your expectations.
The Camera section is the Achilles heel for both the devices. Nokia X with its 3.15 MP is severely outdated in present smartphone world. Moto E’s 5 MP camera works decent in most occasions but the lack of LED flash in both the devices limits its functionality to well lit conditions. This is a setback but one of the ways to cut the cost and most budget users can live without the flash. With a better camera, Moto E takes the Camera segment in this fight.
Winner: Moto E
USER INTERFACE
Moto E
Moto E comes with the latest version of android i.e KitKat 4.4.2. The android interface is pretty much close to stock and user can experience pure vanilla flavor in their hands. The device comes with a few preloaded apps though like Motorola Assist for intelligent control options and Motorola Migrate that makes moving from older device easier. It also comes with Motorola Alert, an app that is designed to share your location with your friends and family.
Nokia X
Nokia X offers the Nokia’s custom build Operating system named Nokia X Platform 1.0 UI. This custom-built OS runs atop of the Android OS which is basically a 4.1.2 Jellybean OS. The customization is so heavy that it doesn’t fell android at all, it’s just Android dressed in Windows. Google Play was missing on the Nokia X, but most of the apps are available on Nokia store and you can also sideload other apps from various app stores.
Moto E offers the pure Vanilla flavor of the android and also provides the latest KitKat OS while the Nokia X comes with the custom-built OS and runs on Android 4.1.2 Jellybean which is outdated. The heavy customization almost wiped the true android interface and the device more or less looks like a Windows phone. It is a bit tedious to install apps without the Playstore on the Nokia X. So most Android lovers won’t get used to the Nokia’s special android platform and Moto E beats Nokia X with the latest and Pure Android interface.
Winner: Moto E
PERFORMANCE
Moto E
The Moto E features a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, clocked at 1.2 GHz, and is backed up by the Adreno 302 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. The device offers a decent hardware for a low cost device. The device can perform all basic tasks like web browsing, Video streaming etc.., but understandably it struggles with processor intensive apps and multitasking. But it isn’t that bad, you can even play Asphalt 8 with minor frame drops.
Nokia X
Nokia X offers a dual core Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play chipset, clocked at 1 GHz, and is backed up by the Adreno 203 GPU and 512 MB RAM. The CPU is outdated with the Cortex A5 cores and the GPU, RAM are also little low on the specs sheet. But the Nokia X performs smoothly with most of the apps and games but performance degrades with the Graphic intensive apps. The device is suitable for optimal usage in the everyday life.
Clearly the Moto E beats the Nokia X with its much latest hardware and better performance. Nokia X fails to impress in the hardware section as it carries the outdated Cortex A5 architecture and outdated GPU while the Moto E comes with Cortex A7 cores and much better GPU. The RAM of Moto E is also twice that of Nokia X’s. So the winner in performance section is Moto E.
Winner: Moto E
STORAGE
Moto E
Moto E comes with a 4GB internal storage onboard, out of which just 2.2 GB is available to the user and the rest is occupied by the Operating System and apps. But Moto E is provided with a Micro SD slot through which you can expand your storage up to 32GB. You can transfer most of the apps and multimedia files to the SD card to free up your device.
Nokia X
Nokia X comes with a 4GB internal storage onboard, out of which 2.3 GB is available to the user and the rest is occupied by the Operating System and apps. Nokia X is provided with a Micro SD slot through which you can expand your storage up to 32GB. OTG is not supported by the Nokia X which is a downside to the device.
Storage wise both the devices have similar specs, but the OTG function is missing in the Nokia X which is a downside but most users doesn’t depend on OTG for the storage purpose, so we call it even in this section. So it’s a tie.
Winner: It’s a tie.
BATTERY
Moto E
Moto E comes with a non-removable Li-Ion 1980 mAh battery which can easily last for a day at normal usage, considering the specs of the device. So no need of carrying the charger wherever you go.
Nokia X
Nokia X comes with a removable Li-Ion 1500 mAh battery which is tiny for a Smartphone. The battery life is not that great on the Nokia X which lasts less than a day on normal usage. But you can always carry an external battery.
The battery of the Moto E is better compared to the battery of Nokia X. But Moto E has an inbuilt battery while Nokia X has the option to switch batteries in case of a battery drain, but it is always not possible to carry an extra battery and most users won’t like to carry an external battery around. So we are considering only the onboard battery power, Moto E emerges as the Winner. But if you like carrying a spare battery prefer Nokia X.
Winner: Moto E
FINAL VERDICT
Looking at the in depth review of both the devices, it is pretty much obvious that Moto E beats Nokia X in almost all sections. Moto E emerges the best smartphone in the budget category and clearly dominates the Nokia X. Going by the reputation, Motorola provides android updates more often while there is no word or promise on the update of Nokia’s hybrid platform and the update to KitKat OS. So it is not much confusing to choose between these two devices. Moto E is the best choice if your budget is limited to $129.
Overall Winner: Moto E
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