Moto E4 Plus Review: Big-Time Battery Boost for Your Buck

Our Verdict

The 5.v-inch Moto E4 Plus tackles ane of the biggest issues with the smaller Moto E4 past delivering all-twenty-four hour period battery life in an affordable device.

For

Ballsy bombardment life
Solid rear camera
Attractive price
Decent display

Against

No USB-C
Heftier than other Moto models
16GB base of operations capacity is too minor

Tom's Guide Verdict

The five.5-inch Moto E4 Plus tackles one of the biggest problems with the smaller Moto E4 by delivering all-day battery life in an affordable device.

Pros

+
Ballsy bombardment life
+
Solid rear camera
+
Attractive cost
+
Decent brandish

Cons

-
No USB-C
-
Heftier than other Moto models
-
16GB base of operations capacity is too small

Motorola'due south East lineup targets people who want a dependable smartphone for a depression price. While this year's new edition, the Moto E4, had some entreatment equally a budget telephone, I couldn't go past its poor bombardment life.

The Moto E4 Plus, another low-priced sibling to the E4, fixes that flaw in a big way. For less than $200, the Moto E4 Plus packs in the biggest battery around, lasting longer than simply near every other smartphone on the market place.

Bombardment life: Beyond Words

The 5,000 mAh bombardment in the E4 Plus is the star of the show, so permit's starting time there. With a bombardment that size, we'd wait this Moto to clock in some serious overtime, and, boy, does it ever.

The E4 Plus lands close to the tiptop of our list of longest-lasting smartphones, powering through 14 hours and 48 minutes on the Tom's Guide Battery Test of continuous web surfing over AT&T's LTE network. That'due south bananas: Only the ZenFone iii Zoom has lasted longer on a accuse, at sixteen:46. (And Asus' telephone costs $150 more than the E4 Plus.) The average smartphone conks out at ix:40, then the Moto E4 Plus gives you an actress 5 hours of battery life. For a phone at this cost, there's just no competition.

More than: Smartphones with the Longest Bombardment Life

The only problem is that Motorola chose to go micro USB for charging instead of the new standard, USB-C, which limits the chargers you lot can use with the device and doesn't time to come-proof information technology for tech developments downwardly the line.

Moto E4 Plus Specs

Screen Size (Resolution)	5.v inches (1280 x 720)
Size	6.10 x 3.05 10 0.38 inches
Weight	6.38 ounces
CPU	Snapdragon 427
RAM	2GB
Storage	16GB/32GB
micro SD?	Yes
Rear Photographic camera	13-MP
Forepart Camera	five-MP
Battery Life (Hrs:Mins)	14:48

The Moto E4 Plus looks like every budget Moto device: thick black bezels, Moto logo at the top, fingerprint sensor on the bottom, Motorola logo emblazoned on the back and a circular black cutout for the rear photographic camera lens. Motorola has established its design linguistic communication, which is fine, even if it'southward not peculiarly thrilling.

Other budget phones, such as ZTE's Blade Z Max and LG'southward K20 Plus, cut costs by using plastic. The E4 Plus has a metal dorsum that makes the phone feel more like a premium device, though information technology also adds some heft. The K20 Plus feels lightweight at less than v ounces, while the E4 Plus packs another ounce and a half in its large frame.

Performance: Not the Fastest Phone in Boondocks

I didn't expect much out of the E4 Plus's Qualcomm Snapdragon 427 processor, which scored a middling 1,891 on the GeekBench 4 examination of overall system operation. Just the device handled the graphics-intensive race car game Existent Racing 3 with ease; in that location wasn't even a hint of lag as I controlled the steering wheel by tilting the telephone left and correct. Subsequently xx minutes of gameplay I threw the E4 Plus down in anger — not because of the phone's performance, only considering I placed 8th in a key race.

MORE: All-time Inexpensive Unlocked Smartphones

The Plus model'south functioning is particularly impressive considering that'south where the Moto E4 faltered. When I played games on that phone, which has a comparable GeekBench score (ane,711) to its larger sibling, it ran hot — uncomfortably and then. The E4 Plus doesn't take that problem.

The E4 Plus isn't peculiarly fast when it comes to loading web pages in Chrome, but switching between tabs is quick enough, and running multiple apps at once doesn't accept a noticeable effect on the phone's speed.

The E4 Plus handled the graphics-intensive race motorcar game Real Racing 3 with ease.

Streaming YouTube videos, including Stranger Things clips and the Blade Runner: 2049 trailer, was a breeze.

If you have an extra $100, you lot can snag the better-performing Moto G5 Plus, which is made of more than luxe materials and blows away the E4 Plus when information technology comes to graphics, thanks to an extra 2GB of RAM. On the Jetstream 1.1 JavaScript test, the E4 Plus scored 18.9 compared with the G5 Plus score of xxx.3, but the lower-terminate device trumped the comparably priced LG K20 Plus' score of 17.9. The E4 Plus also scored college than the K20 Plus when information technology comes to graphics functioning at 6,646 versus 5,187 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test.

Camera: Decent Budget Shooter

The E4 Plus sports a 13-megapixel rear photographic camera that takes some pretty good shots. I photographed some flowers at a nearby farmers market, and though I couldn't really frame the shots because the sunlight was and so vivid, the resulting images weren't terrible.

The E4 Plus has a built-in professional mode if you want to take command over settings such as the ISO and white residual, but most people will probably rely on the telephone's automobile style. To that end, the E4 Plus does a serviceable task without any manual settings enabled. I zoomed in on a butterfly that landed on the ground a few anxiety from me, and the camera perfectly captured the dissimilarity of orangish wings against the rock ground without adding any fuzziness or pixelation.

The phone'southward v-megapixel front-facing photographic camera is better than the Moto E4's, which packs in the same lens. Motorola seems to accept improved its prototype-processing software — while the E4 added a strange splotchiness to my forehead that I swear isn't in that location in real life, the E4 Plus captured my pare as it actually is (freckled, FYI, not splotchy).

Display: Perfectly Fine

The E4 Plus' 5.5-inch Hard disk drive brandish covers 119 percentage of the sRGB gamut, which is better than the G5 Plus, K20 Plus and many other phones at this price and higher. Information technology also beat those devices in colour accuracy with a Delta-Eastward rating of 0.27. (Numbers closer to 0 are better).

In that location'south little difference in these examination results betwixt the E4 Plus and the v-inch E4, which is all right since the display was 1 the E4's meliorate features. The E4 showed off 125 percentage of the sRGB colour gamut while tallying a Delta-East score of 0.26.

Using a lite meter, we found the E4 Plus reaches a peak brightness of 408 nits, just below the smartphone average of 433 nits, but perfectly usable.

The E4 Plus' stats translate to the real world with videos and games that come in clear, bright and saturated with colour. It's not the greatest screen we've e'er seen, but for an LCD console, it's pretty expert.

Toll, Carriers and Storage: Just Say No to Ads

You can buy the Moto E4 Plus unlocked to utilize on whatsoever U.Due south. carrier. It comes in ii storage options: 16GB for $179 and 32GB for $199.

In an era when we're storing more on our phones, the 16GB base chapters on the Moto E4 Plus just isn't plenty.

I tested some other version, an Amazon Prime Exclusive edition of the Moto E4 Plus, which comes with home screen ads for products on Amazon'south site and literally every app Amazon makes — nine apps full. Some are fine, similar Prime Video and Kindle, but others, such every bit Prime Photo and Amazon Music, are a waste of space. Don't even get me started on those abrasive ads, though they practise bring the price of the phone down to $139 (a $40 discount).

More than: A Guide to No Contract and Prepaid Phone Plans

In an era when we're storing more on our phones, 16GB of capacity simply isn't enough. My Amazon Prime version of the E4 Plus had less than 10GB of usable space after Amazon and Google's apps had taken it over. The storage is expandable, thanks to a microSD slot, but manufacturers shouldn't be eating up all the room you pay for.

The Moto E4 Plus ships with Android 7.one. And you had better similar Nougat, because this phone isn't included on the list of Moto devices in line to get Oreo this year. That'due south a merchandise-off you'll have to have in exchange for an cheap phone that goes forever on a accuse.

Bottom Line

If you demand a phone that rarely sleeps, the Moto E4 Plus's incredible battery life is difficult to refuse, particularly for less than $200. The device's display, camera and performance aren't the best yous tin get, not even in a budget phone, merely they're proficient enough if a lower price tag is more important to you than cutting edge-features.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom'southward Guide

Caitlin is a Senior editor for Gizmodo. She has also worked on Tom's Guide, Macworld, PCWorld and the Las Vegas Review-Periodical. When she's not testing out the latest devices, you can find her running effectually the streets of Los Angeles, putting in morning miles or searching for the best tacos.