For Motorola Moto E6 Plus (6.1"), Leather Case, Magnetic Closure Full Protection Book Design Wallet Cover with [Card Slots] and [Kickstand] For Moto E6 Plus Phone Case + Screen Protector - Black

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You can see the grid of pixels in some lower-end LCDs, and low-res OLEDs tend to look fuzzy. But here? A perfectly satisfying image. But for the basics – and more besides – the Motorola Moto E6 Plus is a charmer, and one of the better Moto E series phones to date. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus doesn’t yet support the Vulkan graphics API, so certain titles such as Ark: Survival Evolved simply won’t work as they should. The game runs, but none of the 3D elements appear. Interestingly, as well as the rear plate of the handset being swappable, it also hides the battery, which is removable. As well as being a blast from the past, this makes ‘hot-swapping’ of charged spare batteries possible, a real boon for frequent travelers.

On the design front, Motorola goes to great pains to emphasize the ‘ultra-wide’ display on the front of the Moto E6 Plus. It has a small notch hiding the selfie camera, but despite this the panel is certainly expansive, reaching 6.1 inches on the diagonal. As smartphones go, the Moto E6 Plus doesn’t really stand out when it comes to looks. In this case, I think that’s a good thing, though. At a glance there’s precious little difference between this and a handset two or three times the price. This is a basic camera array that can take some nice-looking photos during the day, thanks to Auto HDR, dynamic range enhancement. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is no master of colour, or at avoiding blown highlights regardless of the light contrast in a scene. However, on a bright day it can take some pleasant shots.

There are better smartphones than the Moto E6 Plus, but not without spending a fair bit more

Of course, the real challenge comes from indoors when light is at a premium, and you often get lots of nasty visual noise when phones try to compensate for camera deficiencies with heavy-handed processing. Again, it’s not too bad here, even if post-processing aggressively softens the edges of objects – it’s especially prominent around the teddy bear’s ears, for instance. No matter how comfortable it is to hold, every smartphone lives and dies by the prowess of its screen. Focusing purely on the resolution, this may seem like a compromise, and on a larger panel remaining at 720p certainly would be. At its relatively svelte size however, pixelation is just not an issue. Only those holding the device an inch from their nose will find cause to complain. It’s an octa-core CPU with Cortex-A53 cores and a PowerVR graphics chipset. That’s an ageing core and one of the least common brands of mobile GPUs.

The E6 Plus loses more maintenance points for its ultra-slow charger, mentioned earlier in this review. It’s an extremely slow 5W charger, which is far less powerful than the 15W Turbopower charger included with most of the G-series Motorolas. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has a 6.1in screen. A number of Motorola’s “Plus” phones over the years have been a bit of a handful; they’ve been unsuitable for children and those who find bigger displays a bit of a stretch. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has two cameras on its rear, giving it an advantage over the slightly more expensive Moto G7 Play.

Super cheap, but at what cost?

I switched to the Motorola Moto E6 Plus from the Google Pixel 3A XL, an “affordable” phone that’s almost five times the price of the Moto. Sure, the plastics used in the Moto are cheaper, but it didn’t seem like a major stylistic downgrade. The panel on the Moto E6 Plus is 6.1 inches across, and is roughly the standard resolution for the price point, that being 720 x 1560. Even the colour reproduction is sound. Sure, the deep red of the YouTube logo doesn’t have the pop of a higher-end phone, but this is the kind of colour you might see when using the “accurate” mode of a more expensive mobile.

On the other hand, a sealed in unit is often accomplished in concert with some basic weather-sealing techniques, which give a phone a degree of water-resistance – even if officially has none. Other Motos use a “nano coating” to achieve this effect. However, elsewhere it doesn’t look old-school at all; it’s absolutely a handset that belongs in 2019/2020. It has a tall aspect screen, a neat little display notch and a shiny finish. The rear of the phone is plastic, but it has some of the visual impact of treated glass or buffed metal. Gamers are the only group that would be wise to look elsewhere. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus loads titles slowly, can’t play many of them, and doesn’t run them as well as the Moto G7 phones. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus also has more recent Android features for those who might use those “basics” too often. Google’s Digital Wellness suite is present, allowing you tomonitor and control how much you use certain apps. Disclaimer: some willpower is still required. Asphalt 9 runs but its frame rate is slow enough to seem slightly juddery. PUBG is pretty smooth but will only run at the lower graphics settings, missing out on anti-aliasing and some higher-end textures.There are two shortcomings that show up in day-to-day use. The first is that the Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s screen doesn’t look hugely bright on a sunny day. The second, at times the Auto Brightness mode isn’t good at judging the level required for indoors lighting. Neither should put you off, given the price. Like most Motos, it’s fine. Moderate use might see it hold onto around 20-30% by bed, but I’ve drained it further most days. This is because use has included a lot of streamed audio, a fair amount of YouTube and some public transport navigation by CityMapper.

It’s a similar story when it comes to graphics processing. The E6 Plus ranks significantly ahead of last year’s Moto E, and within touching distance of the Moto G7 Power. At a glance, it seems to be well ahead of the Vodafone Smart X9, but resolution is important here: while the Redmi 7A and Moto E6 Plus have 720p screens, the Vodafone handset has a 1080p panel – hence the numbers are levelled when the tests are done offscreen. The situation isn’t quite so rosy when it comes to the issue of color reproduction, however. Typical to those displays using LCD tech, this screen tends more to the blue than we would like. In terms of what this camera doesn’t handle so well, low-light performance is poor. Images become super-soft and colour takes on the usual crude look you’ll see from other low-end cameras. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has the MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 processor, a lower mid-range CPU that can be seen in the Nokia 3.1 Plus. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is an excellent buy for anyone looking to spend as little as possible on a phone. It may be affordable, but it doesn’t present in that way: it looks good and has a large, fairly high-quality screen that makes movies and casual games look nearly as good as though would on a phone costing five times the price.Space isn’t limitless, then, but for the kind of person who wants a cheap phone for the basics it will do the job.