Motorola Moto E vs Nokia Lumia 630

The best budget smartphones in town duke it out in a head to head.

The Moto E and Lumia 630 are two of the newest budget smarties. The Moto E is the successor to the Moto G, and is even more wallet-friendly, costing just £90.
The Lumia 630 was expected to cost the same, but it turns out it’ll cost a few pounds extra, at £99. Unless you snap it up SIM-free directly from Nokia, that is, in which case you're looking at an outlay of £129.
Still, they’re both extremely easy on the wallet, and both boast some very impressive specs for the price. But which should you go for? Read on to find out who’s king of the bargain bin.

First impressions

The Moto E gives you a lot of phone for £90. It runs Android KitKat – the latest build of Google’s mobile OS – has interchangeable back plates, and a microSD card slot.
The screen has a resolution of 960x540 pixels, which is impressive, considering we’ve seen the same resolution on much bigger and more expensive handsets.

Not to be outdone, Nokia’s Lumia 630 also packs plenty of punch. It too rocks interchangeable backs, runs the latest version of its operating system and has a pretty decent screen.
On paper, both seem absolute steals. But at a glance, with its bigger screen, the Lumia 630 takes it.
Motorola Moto E: 8/10
Nokia Lumia 630: 9/10

Design

If you’ve seen the well reviewed Moto G before, you know what to expect. The Moto E looks very similar, with the same slightly portly design and rounded corners.
It even has the same dimple on the back. Not that that’s a bad thing – it’s a handy home for your fingertip, and makes the handset very comfortable to hold.
The Moto E might not rewrite the design rulebook, but it’s perfectly functional, and not bad looking at all for £90.

The Lumia 630 is a little uninspiring in the looks department. We love the brightly-coloured backplates – our test model was radioactive green, which drew a few stares – but it is just a rectangle.
One point in its favour is that the backplate is much easier to prise off than the Moto E’s. If you want to keep swapping colours with the Moto E, your fingernails are going to take a pasting.
Both handsets have matte backs, and both are solidly put together, so we have no complaints there.
For pure user-friendliness on the design front – and for not ripping off our poor fingernails – the Lumia 630 just edges it.
Motorola Moto E: 7/10
Nokia Lumia 630: 8/10

Features

Now we get to the meat of it all, where the compromises become obvious.
Both handsets pack a 5-megapixel camera, but neither has a flash, or a front-facer either. They might be equals on paper, but in our test the Lumia 630’s far outguns the Moto E’s.
The 630’s snaps had more contrast, and the device gives you way more control options for getting creative with your shots.
The Moto E’s lost a lot of detail in low light, and generally left a lot to be desired.

Otherwise, things are pretty even. The Lumia 630 has more internal storage (8GB to the Moto E’s 4GB), but both can be beefed up with a microSD card.
The Lumia 630 has a slightly bigger screen too (4.5 inches to 4.3-inches), though it is a lower resolution (854x480 pixels to the Moto E’s 960x540). Neither screen is fantastic, but the Moto E’s is noticeably less grainy.
Neither handset has 4G, but then we wouldn’t expect it at these prices.
It’s another close round, but for its superior imaging skills, the Lumia 630 just pips it.
Motorola Moto E: 7/10
Nokia Lumia 630: 8/10

Software

Android KitKat comes as standard on the Moto E, so you get all the latest bells and whistles from Google, like Google Now, and the ability to look up local business phone numbers direct from your phone book.
It’s pure Android as well, so there’s no third-party skin laid over the top to complicate matters.
Not only does this make for a less cluttered and confusing experience, it also means the Moto E should be near the front of the queue come update time.
The optimum word there is ‘should’, of course. It depends when Google launches the next build of Android, as sometimes it doesn’t support older phones.
Its higher-end devices are also likely to get priority.
For our money Android is the better operating system, as it has way more apps than Windows Phone.

The Lumia 630’s OS is very clean though, and its Live Tiles do make for great at-a-glance viewing.
They update live, and display information on their icons, so you don’t have to open the weather app to see the forecast, for example.
Windows Phone’s app store is much better stocked than it used to be – it now has most of the big names, though they tend to launch on Android and iOS first.
Windows Phone 8.1 also brings some new features to the table, like a notifications menu that you access by dragging down from the top of the screen.
For choice and ease of use, the Moto E wins the software round.
Motorola Moto E: 9/10
Nokia Lumia 630: 8/10

Ease of use

Both phones are fine for everyday use. If you’re browsing, emailing, making calls and sending texts, you won’t have any problems.
They both boast 1.2GHz processors – the Lumia 630’s is quad-core, while the Moto E’s is dual-core. In use, you can’t tell much difference. They both whip through menus and open apps speedily.
The Lumia 630 is slightly more sluggish, due to the lower RAM.
Neither is going to be on the cutting edge of gaming, but then you know that when you lay your money down.
For the slightly sharper screen, the Moto E wins it.
Overall, the Moto E wins by a nose, for the all-important price, app selection, and ease of use. But they’re both great handsets that any bargain hunter would be more than happy with.
Motorola Moto E: 8/10
Nokia Lumia 630: 7/10

Motorola Moto E

• 4.3-inch, 960x540-pixel, 256ppi screen
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB storage
• microSD card slot
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
• 5-megapixel camera
• 1.2GHz dual-core processor

Nokia Lumia 630

• 4.5-inch, 854x960-pixel, 221ppi screen
• Windows Phone 8.1
• 512MB RAM
• 8GB storage
• microSD card slot
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
• 5-megapixel camera
• 1.2GHz quad-core processor

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