Motorola Moto E6 Plus review: the budget phone

The Moto E6 Plus (Check on Amazon.com) is the new basic smartphone from Motorola and positioned below the Moto G7 line, but priced above the most basic model of that lineup.

It has a new and more modern design and now comes with a secondary rear camera; it also adopts the notch and looks a lot like a G7 device.

The thing that differentiates it from most other cell phones is that it sports a removable back cover and thus a removable battery!

Motorola Moto E6 Plus – Design

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus features a modern design with thin edges and a notch, similar to the G7 family models. This makes it thinner and more compact than before and lighter too due to the smaller battery.

Despite its plastic finish, the company uses elegant and flamboyant colors to appeal to the younger crowd.

The removable back cover gives you access to the two SIM slots, one nano, and one micro. There is also a dedicated microSD slot.

Always on the back, you will find a fingerprint reader. It is fast and precise and works almost always on the first try. There is also Face Unlock, and the difference in unlocking speed is minimal. We prefer the “traditional” method but you can use both without much hassle.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus – Display

The screen is IPS LCD and gained some resolution (720×1560 pixels). Using the Motorola Moto E6 Plus’ 6.1 inches display makes for a pleasant experience as long as you avoid brightly lit places. The maximum brightness is not that high but that is to be expected from a budget device.

There is only one speaker, placed at the bottom, that delivers good sound.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus – Performance

Motorola traded Qualcomm for MediaTek and the previous quad-core processor for the eight-core Helio P22. We expected to see a considerable jump in performance, but we didn’t. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is a tad faster than the Moto E5, and part of the blame is to be attributed to just 2GB of RAM [there is also a 4GB version (Check on Amazon.com)].

The bottom line is that the Moto E6 Plus is slower than the Moto G7 Play (Check on Amazon.com) and similarly priced rivals.

In games, the Moto E6 Plus struggles to deliver a smooth experience. Even older titles like Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 don’t run at a constant pace of 30 fps.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus – Camera

The main camera now features a 13 megapixels main camera and a 2 megapixels depth sensor responsible for the bokeh effects.

The photo quality is just basic. You can snap solid pictures in good lighting conditions but the device doesn’t always regulate the exposure as it should resulting in imbalances between brightness and contrast.

The secondary camera has the sole purpose of blurring the background. The results are scarce and Motorola could seriously be better without it.

Forget about night photography, but at least that was to be expected from a cheap device.

The front-facing camera, on the other hand, works wonders (considering what we have seen so far) and produces selfies that are highly shareable online. It even has a bokeh mode (software only) that produces better results than the rear camera.

While the Moto E6 Plus can record videos the quality is decent by day and unwatchable at night. The autofocus is a bit slow and gets worse at night, and there is no stabilization whatsoever so the videos are super shaky. Better forget about it.

Battery

The E5 Plus (Check on Amazon.com) came with a huge 5,000mAh battery, which was one of the reasons to buy it. Its successor cuts it down to just 3,000mAh.

The Moto E6 Plus’ autonomy is good, lasting for a full day. The problem is the recharge time. The device comes with a 10W charger which takes almost 4 hours to reach 100%!

Motorola Moto E6 Plus – Software

Like other budget phones, the Motorola Moto E6 Plus comes with stock Android, and this version is even cleaner than the one on the Moto G7 line.

The company has removed its Moto applications that tried to enhance the user experience by providing extra features like gestures.

Be aware that this is not an Android One device as there is no guarantee that the Moto E6 Plus will be updated to future versions.

Verdict

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is a mixed bag. Since it is the brand’s newest and more basic phone it should cost less than the Moto G7 Play (Check on Amazon.com), which delivers better performance, autonomy, and camera.

Read more: Moto G7 Play review: amazingly fast

Still, if you want a newer device, for basic use, and want to spend the least money possible, then the Motorola Moto E6 Plus (Check on Amazon.com) is your best option.