The Play is capable of recording 1080p video at 30fps, but footage is jittery when panning around and frames drop in darker areas. The 5MP front camera is on the soft side outdoors, but does have a front-facing LED flash for better indoor shots and video. Software The Moto E5 Play is protected from splashes and light rain by a water-repellent coating, like many of Motorola’s other phones. But don’t confuse this with waterproof. It’s not a very water-resistant phone. The entire handset measures 151 x 74 x 8.85mm and weighs a light 150 grams.

In the PCMark benchmark, which measures a variety of tasks including web browsing and photo and video editing, the E5 Play scored 3,477, much better than the MediaTek MT6739-powered Alcatel 1X (2,842). It can handle a reasonable amount of multitasking, but there's definitely some sluggishness when switching between apps, and I experienced some crashes. High-end gaming is also out of the question. That said, for average daily use (calls, texts, web, social networking, etc.) the E5 Play works just fine. Despite the limited hardware performance, we managed to get some gaming in. The Moto E5 Play is fast enough for even PUBG Mobile. The graphics aren’t great, and we struggled to spot enemies, but at the lowest settings, the gameplay was smooth enough most of the time for an acceptable experience (i.e., we won, handedly). For typical use, the screen is good enough. The lower resolution won’t be too noticeable watching shows or movies, and though the viewing angles aren’t great and lose a bit of contrast, they’re not the worst we’ve seen. Despite the plastic housing, the Moto E5 doesn’t have a removable battery and nor does the model we were sent have provision for dual-SIM operation. You can, however, add up to 256GB of extra storage to the phone’s internal 16GB via a microSD card via a space on the E5’s SIM tray.As you’ll see from the graph above, the phone looks on-par with other budget phones, but in practice it’s a different story. Motorola’s decision to pair the 1.4GHz quad-core processor with only 1GB of RAM is regrettable. By comparison, the regular E5 has 2GB, while the Vodafone Smart N8 has 1.5GB. That extra bit of RAM goes a long way; it allows for a more fluid experience, and especially when you’re switching between apps. Sensors - Fingerprint Reader†, Proximity, Accelerometer, Ambient Light, Magnetometer (e-Compass), Sensor Hub

The UK variant of the Moto E5 Play is a 5.34in phone with a 960 x 480 FWVGA+ (18:9) TN display. It runs Android Oreo out-the-box; has a quad-core Snapdragon 425 processor with 1GB of RAM; and has 16GB of internal storage space that can be expanded with up to 128GB of additional space through a microSD card. On the plus side, the display’s peak brightness of 340cd/m² is bright enough to remain legible under normal ambient light. Take it out in the sunshine, however, and you’ll struggle to see the phone’s display.

We did experience some sluggishness with Google Maps, but it’s still smooth enough to do the job. More demanding apps, like photo and video editing apps, can be slow on this phone, but those uses aren’t really what someone should be looking to do with the Moto E5 Play. If you like taking selfies, you’ll be pleased to know that the 5-megapixel front-facing camera is very impressive. The E5 Play is able to capture plenty of detail, and colours and skin tones look natural. It copes well in low light, too, as the phone has a forward-facing flash. The E5 Play has a 5.34in 960 x 480 FWVGA+ (18:9) TN display. The phone’s resolution is rather poor for a modern-day phone, and given that the Vodafone Smart N8 has been out for over a year and sports a 720P display, it’s rather disappointing to see Motorola hasn’t upped the pixel count. READ NEXT: Alcatel 1 review: Android Go can’t save this bargain bin handset Motorola Moto E5 Play review: Performance You don’t get a dual camera on the Motorola E5 like you do with the Moto G6 phones and so there’s no portrait mode. In fact, the camera offers a pretty basic roster of facilities, with very few extra modes beyond panorama.

Like the Moto G6, the Moto E5 comes in three different flavours: the regular Moto E5 which is on review here, the Moto E5 Plus, which comes with a ridiculously large 5,000mAh battery, and the E5 Play, which is the baby and cheapest of the bunch.

The Moto E5 has a great screen, superb camera and amazing battery life — it's a whole lot of phone for not much money

With flash enabled, image noise is suppressed on the E5 Play, but there’s still a discrepancy in colour accuracy and the flash makes colours look a tad warmer.

The E5 Play supports LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/14/17/25/26/29/30/38/41/66, allowing it to work well on several different carriers. We tested network performance primarily on Boost Mobile, which uses Sprint's network, and saw average network performance in midtown Manhattan.Make no mistake, the E5 Play looks like a budget phone. The all-plastic build and uninspiring looks aren’t going to win any design awards, but the phone feels robust and the removable plastic rear cover allows you to easily replace the phone’s 2,100mAh battery, access the 128GB microSD card expansion, or swap out the nano-SIM. There’s one big compensation for this, however, and that’s battery life. In our test, the Motorola Moto E5 lasted a stonking 19hrs 39mins, which is four hours longer than its nearest rival in this category, the Moto G6 Play, and miles better than the rest of the competition. Significantly, the Honor 7A lasted 11hrs 39 in this test, a full eight hours short of the Moto E5. The E5 Play's display is better than we typically see in this price range. It has a 5.2-inch 1,280-by-720 IPS panel that works out to 282 pixels per inch (ppi). That's much sharper than the grainy 480p panel on the Alcatel 1X (208ppi). Viewing angles are good and colors are bright and accurate, though the screen can be reflective outdoors. Network Performance and Connectivity