Motorola produces so many phones that it can be difficult to track them all. The company’s ‘One’ line started with some Android One certified phones, but now includes anything better than a Moto G. The latest entry is the Motorola One 5G Ace, the company’s cheapest 5G capable phone for only US $ 400.
The Motorola One 5G Ace is not a bad phone, but lags behind the competition in many areas, all in pursuit of a goal that doesn’t even have many practical benefits in 2021: 5G connectivity. There are better ways to spend your $ 400 earned with difficulty.
Design, hardware, what’s in the box
Huge smartphones are in fashion today, and the Moto One 5G Ace follows the trend with its 6.7-inch screen. The phone is physically bigger than the Galaxy S21 Ultra and is about the same size as the Galaxy Note20 Ultra (the Note20 Ultra is 1 mm wider). It is almost 10 mm deep (0.38 in.), Making the Ace one of the thickest Android phones in recent history. The huge structure makes it possible for Motorola to use a large 5,000 mAh battery – more on that later.
The 6.7-inch screen carries a resolution of 2400 x 1080, but annoyingly, Motorola opted for a cheaper LCD screen instead of an OLED panel. Most other devices in this price range offer OLED screens, such as the Samsung Galaxy A50 and Google Pixel 4a. This appears to be one of the main aspects that Motorola cut to reduce the Ace to $ 400 and makes the phone more difficult to recommend. If I have to choose between a better screen (which I see every day) or 5G connectivity (which I won’t have every day), I will always choose a better screen. There is also a 16 MP selfie camera in the center cutout.
The sides and back of the 5G Ace are plastic, but the back has a slightly reflective texture that easily attracts fingerprints and smudges. It’s better than the glossy plastic seen on many other budget phones, but a matte finish would probably have been better. There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the back, which was a refreshing change from the sensors on the screen of the most important phones I used – I didn’t have to look at where the sensor was before I put my finger in, and unlocking is lightning fast .
Galaxy S20 (left) next to the Moto One 5G Ace (right)
The on / off and volume buttons are located on the right side and, although they look a little pasty, the on / off button at least has a distinct texture, so you can find it without looking. The right side has only the microSD / SIM card slot and, at the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port and a headset. Motorola also placed a single speaker at the bottom, which is decently loud, but very distorted at higher volumes.
In the box, you get the phone, a 10 W USB wall adapter and a USB Type A to C cable for charging. I tried third-party wall adapters and batteries that support Qualcomm QuickCharge and USB-PD, and I was unable to charge with more than 10-12W with either technology. Motorola says the phone supports up to 15W using the company’s own TurboPower power packs, but the TurboPower is just renamed Qualcomm QuickCharge. It will take a long time to fill that 5,000 mAh battery.
Software, performance, battery life
The One 5G Ace uses Motorola’s usual software stack: Android stock, Google apps and some extra useful features (most of which can be ignored if you don’t want to). In addition to the usual functionality offered in the simple Android 10, you get Moto’s exclusive gestures, such as rotating your wrist to open the camera and cut the phone to turn on the flashlight. My personal favorite is the “slide to split” gesture for multiple windows, as it allows me to activate the split screen mode without interrupting the video playback.
There is a big problem with the 5G Ace software: the updates. Motorola is not very good with software support, even on its most expensive phones (Moto Edge + currently has a 5/10 on our security update tracker), and the company’s plans for the 5G Ace are embarrassing. The phone comes with Android 10, which has been out of date for four months, and Motorola promises only a single update to Android 11 and two years of security fixes. When Google’s Pixel 4a is $ 50 cheaper and will have three years of operating system and security updates, and with Samsung offering the same on many of its cheap phones, only two years of support and a single operating system update it is cutting costs to an unacceptable level.
On the positive side, performance on the 5G Ace is excellent. The Snapdragon 750G chipset ensures that applications open quickly and animations are smooth, and the 4 GB of RAM (or 6 GB on some models) is sufficient to keep some applications in memory. Most people would not be able to tell the difference in performance between this and a typical flagship phone, except when it comes to games, where the 750G is a little behind. If you are interested in benchmarks, the LG K22 won 28.8 in Speedometer 2.0 (in Chrome 87) and 3,994 in the 3DMark Sling Shot test. With the Geekbench 5, the phone scored 659 for single-core performance and 1969 for multi-core performance (full results here). In all tests, a larger number is better.
From left to right: Geekbench 5, Speedometer 2.0, 3DMark
The battery life is also fantastic, but that shouldn’t come as a big surprise – Motorola placed a huge 5,000 mAh cell in the Ace 5G. I ended most days with 50-60% of the battery remaining, so most people should be able to spend two days (or possibly a little longer) between charges and even more if you disable Motorola’s Peek Display feature.
Camera
The Moto One 5G Ace’s main camera is a 48 MP sensor, but as Motorola combines pixels from the raw input, photos are captured at 12 MP (the default) or 8 MP. You also get an 8MP ultra wide-angle lens and a 2MP macro, as well as a 16MP lens on the front (which captures 4MP by default).
The photo quality on the main camera is decent, given that you have a lot of lighting, except that Motorola’s image processing sometimes increases the contrast significantly. Finally, it’s fun to play with the macro camera, but with an even lower resolution of 2MP, it often fails to capture fine details … which is the whole point of a macro lens.
Main camera vs ultra-wide camera
Should you buy?
Only if you get a significant discount. The Motorola One 5G Ace is the latest in a long line of phones, including the Nokia 8 V 5G UW and OnePlus Nord N10 5G, which prioritizes 5G support over the most important features. As much as operators would like you to think otherwise, 5G just this is not important now, and it shouldn’t be the main deciding factor when buying your smartphone.
In addition to 5G, Ace does very little better than other phones in the price range below $ 400. The Google Pixel 4a is still the best option here, with more RAM, twice as much storage, faster loading, a better camera , an AMOLED screen and an MSRP less than $ 350. If you want a screen closer to the One 5G Ace, the Pixel 4a 5G and Galaxy A71 5G are solid options, although they are a little more expensive. If you wait for a sale or if you have something to exchange through Samsung.com, you can even get the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition for almost the same price as Ace.
Motorola’s consistently poor policy on software updates also makes the 5G Ace a more difficult recommendation. Three years of operating system and security updates are now the norm, but Ace is being released with an now outdated version of Android, and Android 11 is the only guaranteed operating system update. The Pixel 4a and Galaxy A71 5G started with three years of promised support, and Motorola needs to start ensuring the same support cycle.
Buy if:
- You can get it at least $ 100 off.
- You really care about 5G.
- You want battery life of several days.
Do not buy if:
- You want to keep the phone for more than two years.
- You want a compact phone.