Moto E40 Review: Safest Bet For Stock Android Enthusiasts

Moto E40 Design- Sturdy Design (IP52-Rated)

The E40 has a very sturdy and functional design. The fit and finish are a notch above than most budget handsets from Xiaomi, Realme, and even Samsung. Only Nokia handsets seem to match the durability standards of the Moto E40. The back panel has a hard plastic shell that doesn't flex or make any creaking sounds, something quite common with most budget devices. Moreover, the textured back offers a good in-hand grip.

The rear also houses a physical fingerprint scanner with the signature Moto logo. The biometric scanner is snappy and unlocks the device with a good accuracy rate. You will also be glad to know that the phone's body is IP52 rated to protect the device from spills and splashes. The water-repellent design can give some degree of protection to the phone's internals in case of any possible water damage.

At 198g, the E40 feels slightly bulky but that's something unavoidable with handsets packing big battery cells such as 5,000 mAh.

Doesn’t Compromise On Basics

The sturdier design is also very functional. You get a big display for media consumption along with a 3.5mm audio jack to use the good old wired earphones. The phone has a tiny notification LED at the front and a dedicated physical key to invoke Google Assistant for some added convenience. The E40 comes equipped with a dual-SIM card slot and a dedicated microSD card housing to expand the built-in 64GB storage.

Lastly, the phone isn't stuck with the dated micro USB port and ships with a Type-C USB charging port. It is available in two color options- Carbon Gray and Pink Clay.

6.5-inch HD Display- Average 720P Resolution But Modern 90Hz Refresh Rate

Like most budget handsets, the Moto E40 also boasts a big display with some good-to-have features and some compromises. It's a 6.5-inch LCD with a modest 720p resolution and a fluid 90Hz refresh rate. Multimedia streaming might not be at its best due to the lack of those extra pixels but the high refresh rate does make a difference in stepping up the overall user experience. The UI navigation and scrolling feel buttery fluid.

The LCD offers decent color reproduction but average outdoor visibility. Overall, the Moto E40 offers a decent display at the phone's asking price. The 90Hz refresh rate is a good trade-off for a 1080p screen and should be considered as a key factor while buying a phone in 2021 even if you have a limited budget.

Moto E40 Performance

For an asking price of Rs. 9,499, the Moto E40 is a snappy handset. It smoothly sails through most day-to-day tasks and doesn't give any major reasons to complain. The well-optimized software coupled with a 90Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and fluid UI navigation. The octa-core Unisoc T700 SoC doesn't break a sweat with social media apps, video calls, multitasking, and can even handle some heavy games at lower settings.

For instance, you can enjoy smooth gameplay of heavy games like BGMI on this sub-10k handset with graphics set to run at HD and high FPS. The graphics felt a bit choppy at medium settings with high fps. But overall, the handset won't disappoint you with most day-to-day tasks. The phone is best used with earphones/headphones as the mono speaker sounds shrill and spoils the fun.

Ad-Free Clean Software Experience

One major reason to consider buying the Moto E40 is the near-stock Android software. It is one of the very few budget devices to run bloatware and ad-free Stock Android skin. Moto's smart software utilities are coded in the software to enhance the user experience.

These include- Fast flashlight (Chop down twice to turn on the flashlight), a Three-finger screenshot, etc. As far as the updates are concerned, the handset will get two major OS updates and security patches for three years.

Moto E40 Camera Hardware

The Moto E40's camera system features a 48MP PDAF enabled primary sensor (f/1.79) with Quad Pixel technology. The main sensor is accompanied by a 2MP (f/2.4) depth sensor and a 2MP (f/2.4) macro sensor. The rear camera can record 1080p/720p 30fps videos and supports several camera modes including Portrait mode, Photo, Video, Panorama, Face Beauty, HDR, Night Vision, Macro Vision, Pro mode, and High-res zoom.

For selfies, the Moto E40 has an 8MP (f/2.0) camera with support for Portrait, Photo, Video, Face Beauty, Pro, and HDR modes. The front-facing camera is also capable of recording videos in 1080p/720p 30fps. Here's how the E40's camera system performed in our testing.

Moto E40 Camera Performance

• The E40's main camera captures clean and natural-looking shots. Unlike most budget handsets, the E40's camera software doesn't spike contrast and saturation and maintains realistic colors.
• However, the camera struggles to capture a wide dynamic range and ends up offering dull images.
• The 12MP pixel binned shots look clean and natural. You can also enable the 48MP mode for some extra clarity and details.

Not A Good HDR Camera

• The HDR mode could have been better at handling uneven lighting in difficult scenes. Shadow areas are represented well but skies are mostly left overexposed in daylight shots. The budget camera cannot handle uneven exposure.
• The camera is quick to focus in the standard photo mode but fails to offer the same level of consistency when the portrait mode is enabled.

Inconsistent Portraits

• The portrait mode is pretty average and fails to impress with the clarity, edge detection, and bokeh effect.

Good Macro Results

• The most impressive results camera out with the meager 2MP macro sensor. Unlike most budget and some mid-range handsets, the E40's 2MP macro sensor maintained crisp details and realistic colors.
• The phone has a dedicated night mode but the results are fairly average and nothing to excite for. The same can be said for the selfies as skin textures often look soft and a bit unrealistic.
• The 1080p 30fps videos are pretty basic and lack dynamic range.
• The phone comes sans a wide-angle sensor which means you cannot take those wide landscape shots during weekend getaways.

Battery Life & Connectivity

The Moto E40 can easily last a day and a half even with heavy usage. The 5,000 mAh battery holds pretty well with long music/video playback, gameplay, and multitasking. For instance, 30-minute gameplay or 40-min video playback consumes 8-10 battery life depending upon the screen brightness opted and display interactions. You can extend the battery life to a slight extend by keeping the refresh rate set to auto mode.

While the battery lasts long, the charging speed tests your patience. The phone ships with a 10W charger in the box that takes more than two hours to refuel the battery from flat to 100%. This just feels dated in 2021 and is one of the deal-breaker features of the Moto E40. The second such feature is the lack of faster 5GHz Wi-Fi band support. The phone can only latch to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connections thus affecting some internet speeds.

Moving on, the Moto E40 supports Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, expandable storage (Up to 1TB), and two SIM cards with VoLTE connectivity.

Verdict

Like most sub-10K handsets, the Moto E40 isn't perfect but it gets the basics right. The handset offers a sturdy design (IP52-rated), big and fluid 90Hz display, long-lasting battery life, and above all clean and well-optimized stock Android user experience, which is a rare thing to find in the budget price category. Some compromises come in the form of average camera performance and slow charging speeds.

If you can compromise with these two performance aspects, the E40 is worth considering. The smartphone is selling at Rs. 9,499 and is our top recommendation for consumers looking for a stock Android handset with long-lasting battery life.