Motorola One Macro review

Software

The Motorola One Macro comes with Android 9 out of the box. Our review unit was running the September 2019 security patch. However, at this point we really expect new phones to ship with Android 10 out of the box, especially if they are running stock Android, and this phone was a disappointment on that front.

The software itself should be very familiar to anyone who has used a stock Android phone before. Motorola's customizations are largely limited to gestures, of which this phone has a lot. This includes classics such as twist to start the camera or two karate chop motions to turn on the flashlight. These might sound silly but they are extremely useful and intuitive gestures and somehow Motorola is still the only company who uses them.

Stock Android launcher and settings

Other gestures include flipping the phone to enable DND, picking it up to silence the ringing, lifting the phone to unlock, pressing and holding the volume buttons while the phone is locked to switch tracks, and more.

Moto Actions and Moto Display

Motorola also has its own gesture-based navigation system, which is a bit different from most other Android phones. The bar at the bottom has to be tapped to go back home, although you can swipe up and hold on it to open the app switcher. To go back, you just slide the entire bar left or right to go back to the previous app. It's not very convenient as sliding the bar left to go back feels a bit awkward, but your mileage may vary and a lot of people prefer Motorola's solution.

Apart from the gestures, the One Macro also comes with the Moto Display, which is sort of like an always-on display screen but it's not always on. Instead, it will light up even if it detects the slightest of movements to the device. Moreover, you can press and hold on the notification icons to see additional information without unlocking or even waking up the phone.

Apart from that, the rest of the UI is pretty much stock Android. Depending upon your preferences, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. It certainly doesn't have as many built-in features as MIUI or One UI. But it's also very clean and easy to use and for a lot of people, that may just be what they're looking for, especially if the device is intended for less technically inclined person.

Performance

The Motorola One Macro runs on a MediaTek P70 chipset with 4GB of memory and 64GB of expandable storage.

The overall performance of the phone is quite decent for its class. The P70 is one of the faster chipsets around in the budget category so the device never really feels sluggish. Gaming performance was good too; the 720p resolution of the display actually helps out a lot and the phone was able to run PUBG even at high settings at a near constant 30fps.

The multimedia performance is a bit underwhelming, mostly thanks to the low-resolution display. While it's not an issue in games, videos do look quite soft. Thankfully, the phone does have a standard headphone jack, so it's perfectly fine as a music player (there's even an FM radio on board). Also, the loudspeaker actually sounds pretty decent, despite there only being one of them on the bottom.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  6620
• Realme XT
  6102
• Vivo Z1 Pro
  6001
• Motorola One Macro
  5763
• Realme 5
  5707
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  5686
• Xiaomi Redmi Y3
  4292
• LG W30
  3534

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  2404
• Vivo Z1 Pro
  1917
• Realme XT
  1899
• Realme 5
  1537
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  1531
• Motorola One Macro
  1393
• Xiaomi Redmi Y3
  1242
• LG W30
  688

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Realme XT
  185193
• Vivo Z1 Pro
  184517
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  180754
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  140633
• Motorola One Macro
  139869
• Realme 5
  139516
• Nokia 5.1 Plus
  119428
• Xiaomi Redmi Y3
  103259
• LG W30
  76697

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme XT
  26
• Vivo Z1 Pro
  26
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  17
• Motorola One Macro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  13
• Realme 5
  13
• Nokia 5.1 Plus
  9.6
• Xiaomi Redmi Y3
  6.9
• LG W30
  6.2

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola One Macro
  29
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  27
• Realme 5
  26
• Vivo Z1 Pro
  24
• Realme XT
  23
• Nokia 5.1 Plus
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Y3
  14
• LG W30
  11

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Realme XT
  2284
• Vivo Z1 Pro
  2245
• Motorola One Macro
  1257
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro
  1220
• Realme 5
  1136
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  1131
• Xiaomi Redmi Y3
  565
• LG W30
  514