Motorola One Action review

Lights, camera, Action

The Motorola One Action has three cameras on its back. The list starts with a rather orthodox 12MP primary module with 1.25µm pixels behind an f/1.8 aperture, 26mm equivalent lens. Then there's a 5MP unit for depth detection, and up until now it's a fairly unremarkable arrangement.

Which is where the 'action' bit comes into play. Instead of just having an ultra wide angle camera like a normal phone, the One Action's ultra wide angle camera sensor is rotated 90 degrees. That way you can record video in landscape orientation (which is how video is meant to be recorded) while holding the phone in portrait (which is how phones are meant to be held).

Motorola cites a 117-degree field of view which translates to around a 13mm equivalent focal length. For comparison, the field of view of the GoPro Hero 7 while shooting in 16:9 is 134 degrees at its widest setting, dropping to 96 degrees with EIS enabled. The sensor Motorola uses is a 16MP one with a 1.0µm pixel pitch, but that's of little significance - you can't take photos with the ultra wide angle cam other than 3MP snaps while recording video. It's one of those arbitrary limitations we don't really understand - the hardware is there, why not make it available for all potential use cases?

The selfie camera on the One Action is 12MP and has a 26mm equivalent focal length, so it's almost like the primary one on the back. It's got a slightly narrower aperture though, at f/2.0, and there's no autofocus on this one. It does record 4K video, which is pretty neat to find on a phone in the One Action's market segment.

The camera app of the One Action is one of the few custom bits on this otherwise Android One phone. You get a swipe action for switching between stills, video, and assorted modes (tapping on the icons works too). Swiping up and down in the viewfinder works for digital zoom as opposed to the fairly common rear/front camera toggle - you'll need to use the button in the bottom left for switching between those.

A set of quick settings is available in the viewfinder for the HDR modes (Auto/On/Off), flash modes (Auto/On/Off), self timer (Off/3s/10s) and Active Photos (Auto/On/Off). There's also a shortcut to the settings menu right in the viewfinder, previously one more step away behind the mode selector - a welcome development.

Camera UI

The Manual mode is accessed from a toggle in the viewfinder - not the extra modes. It lets you dial in your own ISO (100-3200), shutter speed (1/6000s-1/32s), or exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 0.1EV increments), as well as pick a white balance by light temperature (with markings for common light types) and manually adjust focus - all pretty standard. There's also a tiny live histogram.

Manual mode

Image quality

Daylight photos out of the One Action look alright - detail is decent and noise is well controlled. They're not the sharpest of images, but they are okay for the class.

Camera samples, daylight

The colors are a bit muted too, with yellows looking particularly drab. On a positive note, dynamic range is pretty good, especially for a midrange phone without a trendy Quad Bayer sensor.

Camera samples, daylight

In low light the One Action further loses saturation and produces somewhat washed out images. There's a general softness too and noise creeps in, though it's still within reason. Dynamic range isn't as good at night and brightly lit areas in your frame will likely end up clipped. There's no night mode, which is a bummer.

Camera samples, low light

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Motorola One Action stacks up against the competition.

Motorola One Action against the Galaxy A50 and the Huawei P30 lite in our Photo compare tool

Portraits out of the Moto have good subject recognition, though there are occasional imperfections - so pretty much par for the course. You can adjust the strength of the blur effect and add lighting effects too.

Camera samples, portrait mode

You can use the portrait mode on non-human subjects too and get generally believable results, though the building behind the road sign, for example, has been rendered in a particularly artificial way against the sky.

Camera samples, portrait mode, stuff

The One Action takes really nice selfies with great detail and spot on skin tones. We'd have preferred a bit more trigger-happy HDR auto mode, and a stronger bias of exposure towards getting the face just right as backlit scenes could leave your mug a little too dark.

Selfie samples

Portrait selfies are a bit hit and miss and the right combination of subject and background could fool the One Action. That's the case with most single-cam implementations though, so nothing out of the ordinary for the Moto.

Portrait selfie samples

Video recording

Video recording is where the One Action gets its name - it's meant to replace your action cam. To reiterate, the phone's ultra wide angle shooter is mounted at a 90-degree angle so that it captures videos in landscape orientation when you're holding the phone in portrait. This cam can record in 1080p resolution at both 30fps and 60fps, but won't capture 4K even though there's a 16MP sensor behind that 117-degree lens. The regular cam will capture 4K happily, so not all is lost on the 4K front.

EIS is available on both cams in 1080p resolution at both 30fps and 60fps, but the 4K footage of the main cam can't be stabilized. The bit rate of 4K videos is a slightly higher than average 48Mbps, while 1080p gets 12Mbps in both 30fps and 60fps - that's pretty low for 30fps, and very low for 60fps. Audio is recorded in stereo at a rather excessive 512kbps.

Every now and then, a phone arrives with claims for great stabilization (at least implied in the One Action's name), forcing this reviewer to actually go for a run and test it. Indeed the One Action's action cam does a pretty good job in such cases - of course, to a reasonable extent.

In less demanding marching scenarios it'll deliver super smooth footage. The one flaw we spotted was a slight jello effect in the corners which we can speculate is caused by the stabilization processing fighting with the distortion correction. It's not too obvious though, so it's not really a dealbreaker.

The main camera's stabilized 1080p footage is shake free as well, no complaints in that area. 4K clips don't get stabilization though, and you'd better support the One Action properly if you want to shoot high-res video.

Out comes the tripod for our balcony test scene. Despite the high bit rate, 4K footage isn't the sharpest around. It has a distinctly overprocessed look too, particularly visible if you stare at the sharpened leaves in the trees. Colors are good though and so is dynamic range.

As you've probably picked up already from the stabilization samples, 1080p footage isn't looking too great in terms of detail - it's quite coarse. Then there's a further drop in sharpness when you switch to 60fps. It's not the worst, but it's not great either.

The action cam can be used on a tripod as well - you just need to mount the phone vertically, because, once again, vertical videos are plain wrong. You get much higher color saturation out of this cam, slightly overboard, but a fairly typical outcome for the current crop of ultra wides. 1080p/30fps footage is in fact nicely detailed as ultra wide angle smartphone videos go. 60fps does take a toll on per-pixel quality, but it's still decent. Overall, a good showing.

Here's a glimpse of how the Motorola One Action compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Motorola One Action against the Galaxy A50 and the Huawei P30 lite in our Video compare tool