Earlier this year, Motorola took the Moto G and enhanced it, making it larger and adding various features depending on the version. Now, the smartphone company is poised to do the same with the announcement of the Moto E3, a beefed-up version of the Moto E.
As the phone has just been announced, Motorola has yet to reveal the details about the Moto E3, but there are a few things we do know about the latest addition to the company's lineup. To start, it sports a five-inch HD 720p display, up from the 4.5-inch panel in the last model, a quad-core CPU and a 2,800 mAh battery, which Motorola says will last a full day before it needs to be recharged.
Furthermore, it's been announced that the phone's rear-end camera has been stepped up to 8 megapixels, while a 5 megapixel front-facing camera sits on the front — a stark contrast to the original Moto E, which had no camera on the front.
Lastly, there is a microSD card slot for storage expansion, along with what parent company Lenovo describes as a "built-in smudge-resistant screen protector." How that differs from something like Gorilla Glass is anyone's guess, but if the company felt it was good enough to be worth mentioning, then it's best to give Lenovo the benefit of the doubt.
Unfortunately, it's unknown how much RAM or storage the device will be packing, but based on the specs of the Moto E3, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that it will have at least 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage.
Running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the Moto E3 is the latest in a string of new phones that Motorola has offered since the introduction of the Moto Z and Moto G families. However, it is poised to go up against some stiff competition in the most price-sensitive section of the market once it arrives later this year. In the UK, the Moto E3 will cost £99 (around $132) off-contract, making it more expensive than the E that came before it, which now costs £68 (about $90).
Despite that, all Motorola and Lenovo have to do is ensure that their latest headset has updated RAM and storage to match other phones within the "affordable new phones that perform like premium devices" market. The Moto E dominated this market before, and there is little reason that the two companies can't repeat that trend with the E3.
The Moto E3 goes on sale in the UK this September, with an expected international release to come soon after.
