Motorola One Action review

Clean Android One with a couple of Moto features

Since it's part of the Android One family, the One Action runs a clean version of Android - the latest Pie. It's not without a few Moto touches, however, most prominently its own take on navigation.

They call it One Button Nav and it's a single elongated button in the center - tapping it once takes you to the home screen, a swipe up brings out the recent apps menu, swiping to the left acts as a back button while swiping to the right quickly switches back to the last opened app. The quick switch works pretty well which is not always the case with Android implementations. If, on the other hand, you want to have the Android default navigation with a small pill and a back button, you can switch One Button Nav off.

One Button Nav is part of the Moto actions set of custom gestures in the Moto app. A karate chop action turns on and off the flashlight while the twist motion launches the camera app and both work even when the screen is off. There's also a three-finger screenshot gesture - pretty self-explanatory. Not all Moto Actions have made the cut, however, compared to non-Android One Moto phones like the G series.

One Button Nav • Moto actions • Peek Display

Moto Display consists of just two options on the Moto One Actions and the more important one is Peek Display - the not-always-on display. It'll display notifications and let you interact with them right there on the lockscreen plus it'll wake up when you pick up your phone. Another feature, Attentive display, will keep the screen on as long as you are looking at it.

All of these aside, the rest is pretty much Android 9.0 Pie as Google intended it to be - well, there's also the greenish hue of the quick toggles.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher • Quick toggles

As you'd expect, the Security & location menu contains the available biometrics - fingerprint and face unlock. Both seem to work pretty well but keep in mind that the face unlock feature works only with the front-facing camera without any additional 3D scanning tech so the fingerprint remains the more secure biometric unlock method.

Biometrics

For better or worse, there's not much to talk about One Action's software. It's straight up barebones Android with the Motorola features we mentioned on top. Stock Android fans will surely like it, while those after more customization may find the Moto add-ons too basic and not enough.

As was the case with the One Vision, there's a few words to be said here about the hole in the upper left corner. The size and position of the camera cutout mandate an oversized status bar, which inevitably eats away a ton of screen estate. There has to be a better way.

Exynos-powered One Action

The Motorola One Action has the Samsung Exynos 9609 chipset inside, the same one you'd find in the One Vision. It's essentially the same SoC Samsung fitted in the Galaxy A50, albeit with its CPU marginally downclocked. That means the high-performance cluster of 4xCortex-A73 cores ticks at up to 2.2GHz (2.3GHz on the E9610) while the 4xCortex-A53s are limited to 1.6GHz (1.7GHz on the E9610). All else is the same, to the best of our knowledge.

With that said, we weren't exactly surprised when the benchmark scores came in. Indeed, the Motorola One Action posted very similar numbers to the ones we got out of the One Vision, in turn quite close to the Galaxy A50's. The Galaxy has a minor advantage under single-core CPU loads, but the difference isn't significant and fades in multi-core applications. The Huawei P30 lite with its Kirin 710 is ever so slightly behind the One Action in single-core, only to pull ahead in multi-core - again by a little. That's not to say there aren't more powerful offerings for the Moto's money - the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE with a Snapdragon 712 inside for example.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A70
  6584
• Oppo F11 Pro
  6020
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Realme X
  5915
• Realme 3 Pro
  5881
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  5686
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  5549
• Huawei P30 Lite
  5523
• Motorola One Vision
  5425
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  5396
• Motorola One Action
  5271
• Realme 3
  4936
• Samsung Galaxy M30
  4188
• Samsung Galaxy A40
  4112

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A70
  2391
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  1715
• Motorola One Vision
  1609
• Motorola One Action
  1604
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  1576
• Oppo F11 Pro
  1560
• Huawei P30 Lite
  1534
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  1531
• Realme 3
  1482
• Realme X
  1475
• Realme 3 Pro
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy A40
  1325
• Samsung Galaxy M30
  1311

The Mi 9 SE has an even greater advantage in gaming where its Adreno 616 GPU proves more powerful than the One Action's Mali-G72 MP3 - to the tune of being able to push twice as many fps as the Moto. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A50 and the Huawei P30 lite post virtually the same numbers as the One Action.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  26
• Realme 3 Pro
  23
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  15
• Motorola One Vision
  14
• Motorola One Action
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  14
• Huawei P30 Lite
  14
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  14
• Oppo F11 Pro
  14
• Realme 3
  13
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A40
  8.1
• Samsung Galaxy M30
  8.1

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A3
  27
• Realme 3
  26
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24
• Realme 3 Pro
  20
• Motorola One Vision
  13
• Motorola One Action
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  13
• Huawei P30 Lite
  13
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  13
• Oppo F11 Pro
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A40
  7.4
• Samsung Galaxy M30
  7.3

Over in Antutu, there's little to split the One Action, Galaxy A30, and P30 lite, though the Moto does inch ahead.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  167750
• Realme 3 Pro
  155647
• Oppo F11 Pro
  150218
• Motorola One Action
  148748
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  144574
• Motorola One Vision
  143124
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  141600
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  140633
• Realme 3
  132764
• Huawei P30 Lite
  129887
• Samsung Galaxy A40
  106388
• Samsung Galaxy M30
  101651

Overall, the Motorola One Action offers okay performance for a midrange phone, on par with key rivals. That said, there still are more powerful phones you can get in this price range - particularly if you're looking for more GPU oomph, a Snapdragon 710/712 headset like the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE or Realme 3 Pro would be a better bet.