Motorola recently launched the One Vision smartphone and now it has launched yet another 21:9 aspect ratio smartphone — Motorola One Action. Both the devices looks pretty much the same with the major difference being the introduction of an ‘action’ camera on this one.
This Android One smartphone is priced at ₹13,999, lower than the One Vision which seemed a bit overpriced to many for a price of ₹19,999. This brings the Motorola One Action closer to its Chinese competitors. Let’s find out if the phone can stand on its own in this cut-throat price segment.
In the box
- Motorola One Action
- Silicone Case
- 10W Wall Adapter
- Type-C Cable
- SIM Ejector Tool
- User Manuals
Design & Display
Motorola One Action is very similar to the recently launched Motorola One Vision in terms of design as well as specifications. However, the major difference comes in the form of build and the addition of a wide-angle lens.
To keep the phone’s pricing on the lower side, the company has cut corners by opting for the glossy plastic instead of the glass back panel. Our unit has a Denim Blue color but the phone also comes in Pearl White color option in India.
The back panel of the smartphone has curved corners, which merges with the polycarbonate frame and offers a comfortable grip. There’s also a fingerprint sensor with the Motorola logo positioned at the ideal resting spot for either index finger.
It comes with a triple-camera setup where the module is placed in the top left corner. It bulges out which makes the phone wobble when it is lying on a flat surface. The phone’s back panel attracts scuff marks and smudges quickly so you might want to use the silicon cover provided in the box.
The smartphone comes with a 6.3-inch LCD display with the unique 21:9 aspect ratio which makes it taller than other smartphones. It comes with 2520 x 1080 pixels screen resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 432ppi. The screen offers good viewing angles and sunlight legibility along with producing sharp visuals and decent color reproduction as well as contrast.
Motorola continues with the punch-hole cut-out in the display for the front-facing camera and we have the same complaint as we had with the One Vision. The size of the circular opening for the camera is massive which doesn’t look good. However, the company is justifying this by claiming that this design eliminates the fear of screen cracking under pressure.
Performance & Software
The Motorola One Action is powered by the Samsung Exynos 9609 chipset, which is the same one found in the One Vision smartphone. The processor is paired with 4 GB of RAM which is enough to handle day-to-day usage.
During our usage, we did not experience any stutters even when multitasking with several applications running in the background. The phone was also able to handle heavy games like PUBG Mobile without any lags or heating issues.
In the benchmark tests, the smartphone recorded a score of 341 in the single-core test on Geekbench 5 while the multi-core score comes out at 1,327. The single core test score is better than the score of 314 of Mi A3 but lacks in the multi-core test where Mi A3 scored 1,348 points.
The smartphone is running stock Android 9 Pie operating system and it seems that the company optimised the same for the chipset for a smooth experience. Even though its an Android One phone, Motorola has introduced a few customisation to offer a better user experience.
For instance, the company has added features like One-Button Gesture navigation and Moto Display which is a form of Always-On display.
Camera
The highlight of the Motorola One Action is the camera and the company has been marketing the Action camera on the device. The Action camera, which is a 16-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, only records videos and Motorola has mounted it off-axis by 90 degrees.
This allows you to record ultra-wide footage in the landscape mode even when you are holding the phone in portrait mode and this is the first time ever that a smartphone is capable of doing this, making it much easier to record a video. It would have been great if the company also allowed taking images in the same way.
Primary camera sensor of 48-megapixel as well as another 12-megapixel sensors are used to capture images and the performance is okay. While there’s nothing extraordinary about the image quality, the autofocus works great. Sometimes the images captured seems a bit washed-out. Also, the performance in the low-light conditions isn’t impressive.
However, the camera’s performance in the daylight is good, consisting a good amount of details, good contrast and brightness. The portrait mode does a fine job of separating subject from the background and blurring it.
One Action doesn’t come with OIS but has an EIS which does a decent job of eliminating hand movements for smoother videos. As for the 4K videos, it produced good dynamic range and details but the video seemed bit jerky.
The front-facing camera of 12-megapixel is quite impressive and produces vibrant and sharp images even during day and night containing lots of details and with proper exposure.
Camera Samples
Battery
The phone is powered by a 3500 mAh battery which is barely enough to last through a full day of regular usage. It usually provided almost full day of usage during our review with several social media apps, web browsing, and streaming music and videos for a couple of hours.
Also, the company is supplying a 10W charger in the box which is quite slow. It takes around half an hour just to charge the battery up to 30 percent and easily takes over two and a half hour to fully charge the battery.
Verdict
The phone offers pretty good performance with a unique aspect ratio display and is quite smooth in its performance. While the camera performance is not great, it’s not bad either. And if you like recording videos, this might be the phone for you. The major downside of the phone is the battery life and the slow charging speed.
The smartphone manager to offer good performance and a smooth experience, thanks to the stock Android 9 Pie OS out-of-the-box. Overall, the phone seems worth spending ₹13,999. If you feel this is not the one for you, then check out the Xiaomi Mi A3, Redmi Note 7 Pro, and Realme 5 Pro as well.
You can purchase the Motorola One Action from here.
Strength
- Unique Design
- Good Performance
- Smooth Experience
Weakness
- Battery Life
