Motorola Moto E has been one of the top recommendations for a smartphone under Rs 10,000. Motorola’s entry did stir a storm amongst the handset makers taking it easy on the sub Rs 10,000 segment. And now, we see every handset maker trying to give a jab to Moto E with a new device.
Motorola Moto E brings a great value for money package offering all day battery life, scratch resistant as well as splash proof display and couples latest software update for the hardware. Now Xolo has decided to compete with Motorola Moto E by introducing Xolo Q600s smartphone. A clear successor of last year’s Xolo Q600, this smartphone packs decent set of features.
Xolo has currently listed the Q600s at an exclusive price of Rs 7499 with SnapDeal website and will be sold later for Rs 8499.
Design
Xolo Q600s is a major design improvement over its predecessor offering rounded corners and curved chin. The Q600s has a monoblock design bearing uni-body like chassis. The front has thick bezel areas on the top and bottom. Sides of this phone are decently curved while the top and the bottom remain flat. Overall, it would provide a decent grip but would not be that comfortable to use.
Motorola Moto E has been smartly designed and has a slight arch at its back which makes it tad bit comfortable on the palm. Offering naturally aesthetical grip, the front side of the smartphone has a special coating material which makes it splash resistant. However, the back panel comprising covers did have an attraction towards fingerprint. The intern-changeable back covers can make the Moto E look slightly different. In terms of design, the slight arch at the back gives a natural gripping comfort to the palms. Though the Moto E carry some plastic material it is not creaky or shows lack of finish like other handsets in similar price range.
Motorola Moto E is 12.3 mm thick and weighs 140 grams approximately. On the other hand, the Xolo measures 7.9 mm thick and weighs 115 grams. In physical terms, the Xolo is lighter and slimmer but does not offer an attractive handful design.
Software
Xolo Q600s is the company’s first device to feature Android 4.4.2 KitKat support out of the box. While the company continues to keep rest of the user interface untouched, there are couple of interesting apps. Xolo Care helps the user to remotely connect with customer service. Whereas the Xolo Power App offers more quantified data on power usage and power management options.
Motorola has loaded the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat update on the Moto E smartphone. While the Motorola’s custom user interface is hardly obstructive or noticeable, there are couple of new features such as Motorola Migrate for transferring contacts and Alerts for sharing location with closed group of individuals. Other than that, it is mostly Google’s Apps and services taking the centre stage.
On software front, the Moto E and Xolo Q600s are almost same however the cosmetic benchmark results would show clear difference in the performance delivered between these two devices.
Hardware
Xolo has packed a quad-core 1.2 Ghz Broadcom BCM 23550 mobile Chipset tagging the Videocore IV GPU for graphics along. This barely know mobile chipset is bundled with 1 GB RAM to work fine. The Q600s offers a 4.5-inch IPS display with 960×540 pixel resolution and made using One Glass Solution. The display supports multi-touch for up to five fingers. The phone offers only 4 GB on-board storage but there is a memory slot to accommodate up to 64 GB Memory card slot. Unlike other handset makers, Xolo does not bundle micro-SD cards.
Motorola Moto E on the other hand features a 4.3-inch touchscreen display with 960×540 pixel resolution. The Moto E’s display has been constructed using Corning Gorilla Glass 3 technology to save it from usual scratches and also bears a special coating which saves it from splashes. Motorola has powered it with a dual-core 1.2 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 mobile chipset paired with 1 GB RAM. Also, the Moto E offers 4 GB internal storage and a memory slot to support up to 32 GB micro SD card.
Both are Dual-SIM configuration supporting devices. Most other things remain common and same such as Wi-Fi support, GPS and 3G Network support. Motorola has packed Bluetooth 4.0 LE inside.
Camera
Motorola Moto E lacks LED Flash at the back and thus makes them close to unusable in low light or dark conditions. Meanwhile Xolo Q600s features a single LED Flash at the back to aid the camera. Xolo has placed a Sony Exmor R image sensor to deliver better quality shots with minimal possible noise.
Meanwhile the Moto E offers a fixed focus just like other devices in same price range. The 5 Megapixel camera at the back can click sharp photos but might not be impressive with fine details. The camera app has typical Motorola implementations but one can always download the Google Camera app from the Play Store.
While both smartphones offer decent camera, it is the real-world testing through images which can show which one trumps the other. In past, we have noticed that the LED Flash can barely save the grace of a poor image sensor. With Q600s, we will hold on to our horses for a complete camera test.
Battery
Xolo has packed a 2000 mAh battery to promise Talk time of about 11 hours on a 3G network. However, the dual-SIM devices offering companies seldom mention if that talk time is in dual-SIM or single SIM model. On the other hand, Motorola claims to offer all day battery life with 1980 mAh battery packed inside. Marginal difference between the battery muscle makes both the devices interesting. However, at the end of the day, it is the entire user experience that will consume the battery from these devices.
Quick Thoughts
Motorola Moto E and Xolo Q600s enable similar kind of close to vanilla kind of Google Android experience to the consumers. The Motorola Moto E felt great in hands and showed decent performance, at least during our first interaction with this smartphone. Meanwhile the Xolo Q600s appears to be a fresh batch of biscuit from the oven. We are yet to get our hands on one device.
The difference of dual-core and quad-core is barely marginal and apart from that, the only visible differences are LED flash as well as up to 64 GB card storage. Motorola Moto E is being sold at Flipkart for Rs 6999 where it keeps going Out of Stock for couple of days. Meanwhile, the Xolo Q600s is available for Rs 7,499 at a special price from Snapdeal website. Later it will be sold for Rs 8,499.