Another 4G LTE version to be launched soon.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: After Motorola announced the second generation of Moto E device at the Mobile World Congress last month, it was just a matter of time before the Lenovo acquired company launched the same in India.
Motorola today announced the launch of the new Moto E priced at Rs. 6,999 ($111) in India and the device will be available through Flipkart, the official e-commerce partner of Motorola in India.
According to the e-retailer, the new smartphone will be available in stores starting from the midnight of March 11. Adding to this, one of the most discussed 4G LTE versions of the new Moto E is also making its entry into the Indian market “soon” but, the company is yet to reveal the exact date of the launch. Also, the pricing of 4G LTE Moto E is also not revealed.
After a steep decline in the smartphone sales that lasted till 2012, Motorola became popular once again after the company went into the hands of Google and later Lenovo. The company’s revamped strategies that targeted emerging markets such as India – the second biggest smartphone market in the world. Moto E was the first device that the company experimented in India and it proved to be a great success. Subsequently, Motorola launched Moto G, Moto X and Moto Turbo, to target different economic sections of smartphone users.
Currently, the biggest competition that Moto face in India is from Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and OnePlus, and also from home-grown Micromax and Karbonn. The company had not updated the Moto E smartphone after it was launched almost a year back. The first major update for Moto E makes the device on par with the hardware standards of its competitors, increasing the chances of the buyers picking up the phone.
Motorola had earlier sent invitations for an event scheduled for today. The second generation of Moto E device was launched globally last week in two variants – one with 4G LTE support and the other with 3G connectivity.
The new Moto E features a bigger 4.5 inch touchscreen display with corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and sports the same 540 x 960 qHD resolution with 256 ppi pixel density. It has an improved 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 Processor compared to the 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 in the earlier version of Moto E.
The new Moto also has a .0MP front camera, a new addition to the smartphone. Also, the company has updated the rear camera with autofocus feature.
The smartphone runs on Android Lollipop 5.0.2 OS out-of-the-box and is backed by a 2,390 mAh battery; another upgrade from the earlier 2,080 mAh.
When Motorola launch 4G LTE version of Moto E in India, it will join the group of 4G enabled handsets in the budget segment, which include Lenovo’s A6000, Yu Yureka, Xiaomi Redmi Note and Microsoft Lumia 638.
Motorola had earlier slashed the price of the first generation Moto E device by Rs.1,000, bringing the price down to Rs. 5,999.