Motorola One Zoom hands-on review

Squeaky clean Android Pie with some Motorola-tailored features

Traditionally, Motorola smartphones have always been running stock Android and the Motorola One Zoom makes no exception to the rule. The handset rocks Android 9.0 Pie out of the box without any skins on top. Having said that, the software does come with some additional features, nonetheless.

Most of them are well familiar from the previous Motorola releases and are tucked away in the Moto sub-menu in Settings. The nifty Moto Actions are here once more so you can toggle on and off the flashlight with karate chop movements or quick launch the camera app with a twist in the wrist even when the screen is off.

Home screen, lock screen and notification shade

The Peek Display option would be the second-best alternative to the Always-on Display. Even though the One Zoom has an OLED screen, the latter isn't available so the Peek Display should do for now, until Motorola decides to introduce Always-on. In any case, when enabled, you can choose when the screen lights up to see the notifications, clock and the fingerprint scanner area. The presented options are double-tap-to-wake and approach-to-wake. The last one appears to be pretty sensitive because when we placed the phone on the desk, the screen was almost always lit as it sensed movement around it. Even if that movement was typing on a keyboard.

Moto Actions and Moto Display

On the other hand, the feature does seem pretty cool as it would always turn on the screen just when you are reaching for the handset. Picking it up would also turn on the screen.

Stock Android enthusiasts will appreciate the subtle touches from Motorola as the One Zoom provides clutter-free Android experience with a couple of smart features on the side. We will delve deeper as we publish our full review.

Early verdict

It's apparent that Motorola is trying something new with its One lineup. It wants to create a niche of its own in an attempt to differentiate itself from the mass of midrangers out there. The One Action and One Vision are kind of unique phones in their respective segment but what about the One Zoom?

Well, as the name implies, the handset strongly relies on its 3x optical zoom capabilities, which appear to be scarce in this price range. The only phone that comes close is the ZTE nubia Z20, which in turn is an exotic phone and it's considerably more expensive too. So if you are strictly looking for a relatively affordable phone with 3x telephoto camera, the Motorola One Zoom is the only way to go.

In addition, the phone sports a good OLED screen (one of the few from the company), fast under-display fingerprint reader and impeccable build quality. Quite honestly, one of the best designs we've seen from Motorola so far. The looks and the glass sandwich build just exude quality.

And even with all these advantages in mind, would you spend about €400 for a phone with Snapdragon 675 chipset? We guess that's the price you've got to pay if you are looking for something specific to fit your budget. Then again, the Snapdragon 675 isn't too far off from its similarly-priced alternatives, performance-wise, so it might not be a big trade-off after all - especially if the image quality by the main camera makes it worthwhile. we'll see about that in our full review.