Motorola’s gone a bit maverick with its mid-size, mid-price One: it’s a step above the familiar Moto range in some ways, but not in others…

Words Andrew Williams

£280 / stuff.tv/motorola1

The One is a bit of an experiment for Motorola. For a start, this isn’t a true big-screen phone: it has a notch, which lets Motorola fit more screen inches into a smaller frame. It also runs Android One rather than the usual Moto version. It has 2.5D glass on front and back, aluminium on the sides and slim iPhone XR-like display borders – and is a couple of millimetres narrower than the ‘accessible’ iPhone.

The rest is a case of pretty healthy mid-price box-ticking: 64GB storage; USB-C charging; a solid fingerprint scanner; and a trusty Snapdragon 625 processor. This is not a powerhouse CPU, mind, and its GPU can struggle with ultra-demanding games in other phones. And while that notched screen brings a 19:9 aspect ratio, the One has just a 1520x720 screen, missing more than a million display pixels compared to the Nokia 7.1, Honor 8X and Motorola’s own Moto G6. Still, mid-range phones excite us. How does this one perform? £280 / stuff.tv/motorola1

1 Wet One

Motorola’s kept the headphone jack, and this phone has P2i splash-proofing. This isn’t your ‘show off by dropping it in the bath’ water-resistance – just a nano coating to keep it safe in the rain – but it’s the right spec for a phone in this class.

2 One to watch

Up close, you can see pixellation not apparent in rival 1080p phones. But day-to-day, there’s very little real difference. And the positive aspects of the display – good contrast, decent colours – will soon nudge that weakness out of your mind.

3 Ready player One

The One has cleaner software than the Honor 8X and, strangely, seems to perform better in normal use than the Nokia 7.1. Just about every game seems to run respectably well here – even the heavy-duty Ark: Survival Evolved.

4 One-upmanship

Motorola’s Android One extras include Ambient Display – a lock screen that shows the time and notification icons when you move the phone or an alert comes in – and Moto Actions, such as the ‘double karate chop’ motion to turn the torch on and off.

5 One for the road

The 3000mAh battery helps the phone last until bedtime if you don’t hammer it. Check out the Honor 8X if you want longer use between charges. At least there’s a fast charger, which gets you a decent juice boost in just 10-15 minutes.

Tech specs

Screen 5.9in, 1520x720 IPS LCD Processor Snapdragon 625 octa-core RAM 4GB OS Android 8.1 Cameras 13MP + 2MP rear, 8MP front Battery 3000mAh Storage 64GB (plus microSD) Dimensions 150x72x7.9mm, 162g

One for the album?

Mid-range phones don’t get the best cameras, and the One is no exception, but there are a few surprises:

One in the eye

The One’s camera is quite fun to use. Shooting speed is faster than on a Moto G6; and while you have to be careful about focusing, take that extra beat to compose and you’re golden. This phone can also shoot video at up to 4K.

One step beyond

The HDR mode is about as plucky as they come, able to make images look much better than they otherwise would. It can be pretty ham-fisted at times, over-boosting things, but it regularly gets things right.

One in the morning

Night shots are either very soft or very grainy. It’s a bit of a gamble as to which you’ll get with each scene. Up-close images lose some lifelike integrity even in good lighting, and the dynamic range isn’t going to wow anyone.

One to forget

The 8MP front camera is typical uninspiring budget fodder, just barely good enough to pass muster considering the price. Here’s one reason you might want to consider an Honor, or one of the Moto G6 models, instead.

The Motorola One is a solid mid-range choice for those after a phone with a modern look and a sensible price. But it has stiff competition from the best of Huawei and Honor, its screen isn’t the sharpest, the cameras are only passable and the battery isn’t made for those who need to fill long commutes. @wwwdotandrew

STUFF SAYS ☆☆☆

Smooth, tasteful and dead easy to live with: find it for less than £200 and it’ll do the job for all but the biggest spec-heads