Motorola has launched an 89 device as the firm look to continue dominating the entry-level market with its cheapest handset to-date.
The Moto E will ship with high-end specifications, including a 4.3in Gorilla Glass display with a 960 x 540 resolution (256ppi). It'll be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core 1.2GHz processor together with 1GB of RAM.
Motorola will include 4GB of storage but crucially this can be increased using the micro SD card slot (up to 32GB).
Moto G refreshed
Motorola has updated its Moto G handset too. The 2nd generation model will include 4G and a micro-SD card slot and be priced at 149.
The original Moto G will continue to be sold for for 119.
The Moto E will ship with Android KitKat 4.4.2 and ithe smartphone maker is guaranteeing at least one software update. Motorola claims that this helps it to differentiate it from other devices in the low-end as they usually do not have the specifications to support any upgrades.
Value isn't just about the upfront cost of a device, according to Steve Horowitz, SVP Software engineering Motorola.
"We continue to enhance [devices] ... No-one wants a phone that's outdated in 6 months," he told attendees during the launch in London.
Horowitz noted that Motorola was able to roll out the Android KitKat update to its devices after 19 days, compared to HTC (92 days) and Samsung (106 days). This is because Motorola uses the stock Android OS and only adds in apps - instead of skinning the whole operating system.
The Moto E is scheduled to start rolling out this week. It will be launched in over 40 countries and be available for 89 SIM-free.
