Motorola’s new Moto One 5G looks familiar (Update: US price, availability)
by Hadlee Simons
Credit: Supplied by Motorola
Update, September 14, 2020 (01:45 PM ET): Today, Motorola announced the pricing and availability of its new Moto One 5G smartphone. As promised, the 5G-powered mid-ranger comes in at under $500 — specifically $444.99.
Unfortunately, it appears the phone will be locked to AT&T, at least at first. The phone will land at the nation’s second-largest carrier on September 18. If you buy the device on an installment plan and add a new line of unlimited service, you’ll pay only $5 per month for it. That totals out to a 50% discount on the already low price.
Eventually, the Moto One 5G will likely be available at other carriers as well as in an unlocked state. For now, though, it looks like AT&T customers will have exclusive access to it on September 18.
Original article, August 31, 2020 (09:00 AM ET): Motorola has already released a couple of 5G phones this year, and it’s now adding another device to its stable with the Moto One 5G. However, it looks like the new phone is actually a rebranded Moto G 5G Plus, released last month.
The manufacturer seems to be following Realme and Xiaomi’s formula of rebranding devices with the Moto One 5G. That means you’ve got the same chipset, refresh rate, cameras, and battery size as last month’s device.
Moto One 5G specs and features
Nevertheless, the new phone is the first 5G-enabled device in the value-focused Moto One range, enabled by a Snapdragon 765 processor. Toss in 4GB of RAM and you have a phone that isn’t the most powerful device on paper (even compared to other mid-range 5G devices), but it should get the job done for the most part.
Aside from 5G connectivity, the Moto One 5G also has two other notable features. First up is a 6.7-inch LCD screen (FHD+) that packs a 90Hz refresh rate. Sure, it’s not OLED, but it should deliver smoother performance when scrolling, swiping through system menus, and while playing supported games.
Credit: Supplied by Motorola
The second standout feature is the 5,000mAh battery, which should deliver good endurance, though the high refresh rate and 5G connectivity will drain the battery at a faster rate than normal. But this is still a notably larger battery than the likes of the OnePlus Nord and Samsung Galaxy A51 5G. It’s unclear if Motorola is offering 15W or 20W charging here (we’ve got conflicting information from the firm), but you should still expect to wait a while for full top-ups.
Switching to the all-important camera arena, the Moto One 5G offers your typical budget-focused quad rear camera setup for the most part. We have a 48MP main shooter, 8MP ultra-wide camera (118-degree field of view), 5MP macro camera with ring light, and 2MP depth lens. Much like the OnePlus Nord we’ve also got a dual-lens setup up-front, featuring a 16MP main shooter and an 8MP ultra-wide camera.
Rounding out the spec sheet is a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, water-repellent design, 3.5mm port, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC.
Moto One 5G: Software updates, price, more
Motorola is also shipping Android 10 on the device but, unlike Samsung, it’s only promising one OS upgrade. If there’s any consolation, buyers will get two years of security upgrades, though again this isn’t much to write home about when others are offering up to three years of support.
Pricing and availability details haven’t been revealed by Motorola as of writing, bar saying that it will be under $500. We’ll update the article as soon as we hear more information in this regard, but given that the Moto G 5G Plus costs €349 (~$417), we’d expect similar pricing for the new device.