Motorola Moto E review: Have a break!

Moto E runs sweet KitKat

Motorola Moto E runs pure Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box. Motorola has started seeding the 4.4.3 bug fix update in early June, so it should be available everywhere by the time you are reading this. Motorola does not provide any custom additions to the vanilla Android, which is one of the reasons the Moto lineup is treated with Nexus-fast Android updates.

There goes our usual demo video to get you started.

The lockscreen is the usual affair - it supports widgets (one per pane), plus there is a shortcut to the camera at the bottom courtesy of Android KitKat. There are a few available default widgets, but you can always get more from the Play Store.

Naturally, you can protect your lockscreen by Face, Pattern, PIN or Password unlock, in ascending order of security.

Android 4.4 lockscreen on Moto E

The Moto E allows for five homescreen panes. You can't change their arrangement nor can you add or remove panes. Adding stuff on the homescreen is easy, as is customizing it. You can set various live and static wallpapers, add widgets and shortcuts.

The Moto E homescreen

The notification center is the usual stock Android one and Quick toggles are available via a shortcut to the right. You can get straight to these by with a two-finger swipe from the top of the screen. From there you get access to key device settings such as brightness, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location, mobile networks and Battery. Some toggles are directly accessible shortcuts to their respected functions in the settings menu.

The Notification area and the Quick toggles

The app drawer is laid out across multiple side-scrollable panes. The apps are sorted alphabetically followed by the available widgets. Moto E doesn't support custom sorting for the app drawer, nor is there an option to remove the widgets panes, which come right after the app ones.

The app drawer • widget panes

The Recent Apps switcher is the same as on any other Android device. It would be nice if Google finally adds a kill all/close all option to this screen.

Recent apps list

Finally, Google Now integrates with your Google account and can access your daily routine, internet searches, email, etc. and give you information relevant to your interests and daily needs.

Google Now

It provides traffic information to your work or home, knows the scores of sports teams you follow and gives you the weather forecast for your location. It's great for at-a-glance info, but can handle voice input as well. It also has a dedicated homescreen/lockscreen widget.