Last week, Lenovo launched its new smartphone, the Lenovo P2 at a price of Rs 17,999. The smartphone looks decent on the spec sheet and can give serious competition to some of the other options around this price range. However, we are changing the game this time around. Instead of picking up a smartphone from a different company, we chose Lenovo’s Moto M. Now, in case you were unaware, after Motorola’s acquisition by Lenovo, all the Moto branded smartphones are sole by the Lenovo. Moto M was launched last month in December 2016 and didn’t see much traction. However, when we compare prices , things certainly become interesting. So let’s see if Motorola’s Moto M can still holdout against its sibling, Lenovo P2.
Design and Display
As always, we start with design. Both the P2 and Moto M share a lot in terms of design. A metal unibody design with flat edges and similar finish, no capacitive touch buttons, a single bottom firing speaker, and the much needed 3.5 mm Headphone jack up top. The Moto M is slightly more curved on the sides and corners as well. Surprisingly, the Lenovo P2 sports a fingerprint scanner at the front while Moto M sports it as the back. The aesthetics surrounding the primary camera is also different on both these phones. For the dimensions, the Lenovo P2 measures at 153 x 76 x 8.3 mm and weighs at 177g while the Moto M measures at 151.4 x 75.4 x 7.9 mm and weighs slightly less at 163g. To sum up, in terms of design, you will find little to choose between the two.
Moving to the display, things continue to be similar in terms of the display size and resolution. Both the smartphones feature a 5.5-inch Full HD (1080 x 1920 pixels) display. However, the one on the Lenovo P2 is a Super AMOLED so you would get more vibrant and saturated colours on Lenovo’s P2 display. If given a choice, we would any day pick a Super AMOLED Display over the IPS LCD, though there are some who think otherwise.
Performance and Memory
Exteriors done, the insides of the two phones are quite different. Starting with the Lenovo P2, the device comes with a 2 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 625 Chipset coupled with Adreno 506 GPU for graphics. It comes in two variants, a 3GB RAM + 32GB of internal storage and 4GB RAM + 32GB of internal storage. Fortunately, in both the cases, the internal storage is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. 
On the other hand, the Moto M comes with a 2.2 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P15 chipset with Mali-T860MP2 GPU. For the storage, the smartphone also comes in two variants, a 3GB RAM + 32GB of internal storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB of internal storage. The internal storage is expandable here as well via a microSD card up to 128GB. However, the memory expansion is possible with a hybrid SIM slot. In other words, you either put in two SIM card or a SIM + micro SD.
Talking about the performance, we expect both the smartphones to be pretty good in day-to-day performance. Concentrating more on the 4GB RAM variants of both, multi-tasking should not be a problem as well. Both the smartphones run on Android Marshmallow OS but given Motorola’s skin is very close to stock Android, the experience on the Moto M would be very similar to those of Nexus device. Further, MediaTek’s Helio P15 is a minor upgrade from the Helio P10 so you won’t see much of difference in terms of performance. On the other hand, Snapdragon 625 though a little less powerful is extremely battery friendly. Nevertheless, both the smartphones look pretty powerful on paper and should be good for all kinds of users.
Camera
Be it a budget smartphone, or a high-end flagship, a camera generally defines a decision of a buyer in favour of a particular smartphone. Starting with the Moto M this time, the device features a 16-megapixel rear-camera with f/2.0, phase detection Autofocus (PDAF) and LED flash. At the front, there is an 8-megapixel camera. Sadly, the maximum you can record with both the cameras is 1080p.
While, the Lenovo P2 comes with a 13-megapixel phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash. Over on the front side, we have a 5-megapixel shooter. However, here as well we only get the ability to record up to 1080p.
While Moto M does outgun the Lenovo P2 in terms of megapixels, we would never recommend you to choose a camera based on megapixels. Don’t get us wrong, megapixels does play a deciding role in terms of detail and sharpness but the actual performance of a camera depends a lot on the sensor and image processing. So we would advise you to wait for our detailed camera comparison if we happen to get both the devices in near future.
Battery and Connectivity
This is where Lenovo’s P2 takes a significant lead. When we come to battery, Lenovo P2 absolutely demolishes Moto M with its 5100 mAh battery as compared to the 3050 mAh cell present on the Moto M. While, the Snapdragon 625 will surely help extract a little more juice from the battery pack in the Moto M, Lenovo P2 is surely the winner and a 2 day battery life with heavy usage must be easy for this guy.
In terms of connectivity, both the smartphones come with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS with A-GPS etc. While the Lenovo’s P2 come with NFC, Moto M comes with a USB Type-C port for charging and data syncing. Also, even though both devices come with a single bottom firing speaker, Moto M boasts Dolby Atmos audio enhancements inside.
Wrapping Up
Comparing specifications is the easiest way you can choose between the two devices but it hardly comes with a decent degree of reliability. Both the smartphones are available for the same price tag of Rs 17,999 via Flipkart. However, the best of both the smartphones is not exactly the same. While the P2 comes with a huge 5100 mAh battery and an AMOLED display, the Moto M comes with Stock Android experience, more internal storage.The camera performance is yet to be tested, however. To make a call between these two, we would go for the Lenovo P2 because it will manage to attract more people with its massive battery pack. However, if you desperately want the stock android experience, Moto M is no way a bad choice.