Motorola One Vision review

Introduction

Even though Motorola is not the dominant maker it once was it was never afraid to innovate and push the envelope. The company is even looking to release a foldable phone, reviving the RAZR series, but that doesn't mean it's overlooking its midrange lineup. The company wants to stay up to date with the current trends and offer a rare set of features for the asking price and it delivered the Motorola One Vision.

The One Vision brings a lot of firsts to the Motorola lineup. 21:9 aspect ratio, punch-hole selfie camera and a Samsung-made chipset - the Exynos 9609 - are all new to Moto phones. And it's all wrapped inside a stylish package without departing too far from the typical Motorola design. You can easily tell from afar that this is a Motorola-made handset and that's certainly not a bad thing.

Much like the recently released Sony Xperia smartphones, Motorola puts emphasis on the tall 21:9 screen, which we found to be particularly useful for scrolling through social media feeds and multi-tasking. Oh, and of course, when watching 21:9 content on Netflix and YouTube.

The 48MP rear main camera is another big selling point of the One Vision. Naturally, the sensor employs a Quad-Bayer filter combining four pixels into one outputting a 12MP image but with native HDR and boosted low-light performance.

Here's the Motorola One Vision cheat sheet:

Motorola One Vision specs

• Body: 160.1 x 71.2 x 8.7 mm, 180 grams, front and back glass panels, plastic frame.
• Screen: 6.3" FHD+, 1080 x 2520 px resolution; 21:9 aspect ratio; ~432 ppi.
• Chipset: Exynos 9609 (10 nm): Octa-core (4x2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A53), Mali-G72 MP3 GPU.
• Memory: 4GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage, microSD slot support (up to 512GB).
• OS: Android One based on Android 9.0 Pie.
• Rear camera: 48MP, f/1.7, OIS, Quad Pixel 1.6μm, PDAF + 5MP depth sensor; 1080p@30fps video recording, 2160p@30fps.
• Front camera: 25 MP, f/2.0; Quad Pixel 0.9μm; 1080@30fps video recording.
• Battery: 3,500mAh, TurboPower 15W fast charging.
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM hybrid slot; LTE; USB 2.0 Type-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS + GLONASS + BDS; Bluetooth 5.0; NFC.
• Misc: Punch-hole front-facing camera

Unboxing the Motorola One Vision

The smartphone comes in a standard package, rather small at first sight, but contains pretty much everything you'd expect and even more.

In addition to the handset itself, the charging brick and USB-A to USB-C cable and the usual user manuals, the box also hosts a transparent silicone protective case and a pair of Motorola-branded earbuds. However, we've been told that the buds will only be available in Brazil.