Moto E vs Lumia 630 : Which One You Should Buy ?

If you are already about to send out some shouts that it’s wrong to compare these two because there is a price difference of 35% between the phones, then hold your horses for a while.

It’s more of an experiment to find out what really matters. Low Price or Better Experience. While you might not be ready to pay 4K more for any phone if you only have 7K in your pocket, in coming months, if price of 630 drops 2K, will 630 be a better choice ? Here is why I am doing this:

Is 512 MB RAM enough ? (630)
Is 4 GB Internal Storage is Enough ? Does SD Card help in long term ? ( Moto E)

Is user replaceable battery still a charming factor? (630)
Is Smart Dual SIM Feature here to make call management better ? (630)
Is Windows Phone mature enough to compete with Android ?

Note: If you are interested in a video, check out this link

Design & Build

Lumia 630 is a clear winner here. Not only its sleek but it also feels good to use and hold. Moto E on the other hand is very close to traditional Android phone design at this cost, honestly its very close to Samsung devices and quite boring.

When it comes to build quality, I would agree with Moto E build is very good if you compare it to similar range android devices but the form factor is not appealing, specially if I have to consider the weight of the phone. Apart from being Sleek, 630 is light as well.

Camera

You really need to skip Moto E if camera is your priority. While both 630 and Moto E don’t have flash but the similar camera i.e 5MP, thanks to Nokia’s Software and Hardware tech, you will be very happy looking at 630 results. Moto E camera not only has lot of blur in low light, even the daylight pictures don’t look pretty.

Lumia 630 does a much better job, thanks to the lens and it’s software technology built in the Nokia Camera App. It processes the images to make it look better and delivers the result.

Applications and Storage : How much of help is the SD Card

Moto E low internal storage is a major annoyance for anybody who want to have more apps installed on their phone. Specially Games. Out of 4 GB, 2 Gb is completely taken away by the OS with more updates to follow as you start using the phone. To my experience I had barely 1.5 GB left after using it for ten days.

The problem started next when I installed Asphalt 8 : Airborne which took another GB. The next thing I did was moving apps to SD card, also supported in 630, but over time that did not help either. I had barely 200 MB space on primary storage.

The problem is that all application download takes place in the primary storage and not on SD card. Which means if you don’t have space there, you wont be install anything. What good is a phone where you run out of space all the time ?

630 has it’s advantage here because of 8 GB primary storage space. No matter what you will have 2-3 GB space always with you to download apps ad updates. Combine it with Move to SD card option, you can have smooth experience in long term.

Battery :

First thing first, Lumia 630 battery is user removable giving you an option to skip visit to service center if you would want to replace it. Also if ever it happens, you can quickly restart the phone when it hangs up on you. Both of these is not possible in Moto E

Moto E comes with 1980mAh battery which lasts for 10 to 11 hrs. while 630 E packs in 1830mAh and it lasted for 14 to 15 hrs. on an average use of 3G, Wi-Fi.

Display:

The display on both of the phones look equally good. However, 630 still wins because of one simple reason-the clear black display-which makes it possible for users to have readable screen in bright light. Marginally 630 is bigger than Moto E 4.5 inch vs. 4.3. So, if you are kind of person who stay out a lot most of the time and need to read things, grab 630

Application and Gaming Performance

Both the phones deliver equal performance for gamers. Even though 630 has only 512 MB ram compared to 1Gig on Moto E,the performance isn’t a problem. In the recent update, Windows Phone 8.1, the apps are not 30% faster and hence the result.

However, I did not find any major difference from performance perspective though the graphics rendering was much better on 630 compared to Moto E where it look little washed away. However the difference is not substantial to regular user but if you are serious gamer, you may want to know this.

Check out Moto E Gaming Performance and Lumia 630 Gaming Performance Videos.

Smart Dual SIM:

Thanks to Windows Phone 8.1, Lumia 630 comes with Smart Dual SIM Feature which lets you manage your calls better by remembering which SIM to use for which number, forward incoming calls to your first number when somebody tried to get in touch on second number. Your life gets lot simpler with it. Do read about it here.

Nothing of this sort is in Moto E, Yet.

Missing Sensors:

Nokia decided to pull off Ambient and Proximity sensors from the phone and it’s something that will draw attention.

With Ambient sensor missing, the automatic brightness setting is absent which means the OS cannot do anything to save battery life. Though it is possible to change the brightness level manually and switch to different level of brightness, but it doesn’t get you the same experience.

Proximity sensor used to turn of display and touch when you make a call to avoid any accidental disconnection or app launch when it touches your face. 630 is missing this and even though it tries to solve the issue using this alternate way, its funny to see screen going on and off all the time.

Windows Phone vs. Android

If you go through the features listed in Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Phone is now squared up Android, at least by 90%. You have the notification center, Official File Manager, Official Apps from companies like Instagram, WhatsApp, Games like Temple Run 2, Asphalt 8 Airborne had made their way to the platform and more in the queue.

However Android does have its benefit of getting more things because you can install what you want, their API’s are more open than Windows Phone, Custom ROMs and so on. However the low end phones, including the Moto E slows down as you use it and this is where 630 gets in lead.

Conclusion:

Moto E might be punched with hardware that sounds good but the overall experience of Lumia 630 is definitely better. The major issue is the internal storage which made it impossible to do anything else other than uninstalling the apps if I wanted more. Not to forget camera is for name sake.

However Price Matters:

You are paying Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 more for it. The one to one comparison doesn’t matter as of now because 7K is a price which is attractive for Indian market by large.

So here is my question to you, will you buy a Lumia 630 or a Moto E if there is only a difference of 2000 INR between them? The price has already started falling, 630 is already Rs 1000 less in retails, it would be worth knowing the difference when it narrows down further.