Motorola One Action review: smartphone with action camera

Action camera on the phone: stupid or necessary?

The manufacturer called the action camera a separate 16-megapixel module for video. In fact, this is a regular ultra-wide angle lens with a viewing angle of 117 degrees and an aperture of f / 2.2. The only difference from any other device with a width is a special sensor. It allows you to shoot horizontal video when the user holds the smartphone vertically.

This solution has several disadvantages. The ultra-wide angle lens cannot be used to take photographs with a viewing angle of 117 degrees. This module only works for video. In third-party applications, you also can’t turn on the action camera. For example, Stories on Instagram will be recorded on the main module with 12 megapixels.

The video shot on the action camera was pleasantly surprised by electronic stabilization. Even during movement, shaking is not visible, the picture is very smooth. While watching, it feels like the clip is shot on the steadic. High-quality image quality – One Action is notable for its detail and the absence of the so-called jelly effect, which is typical for inexpensive Chinese smartphones.

The maximum video resolution in wide-angle module mode is 1080p at 60 frames per second. If you switch to the main camera, 4K will become available with 30 fps.

Full HD, 60 fps

Cameras

In addition to an ultra-wide-angle lens for video, One Action received a 12-megapixel main unit with f / 1.8 and a 5 MP depth of field sensor. For the front camera, a 12 MP sensor is used.

The developers did not experiment with the now fashionable sensors with a huge number of megapixels. This did not affect the photo capabilities in any way: the gadget’s daily shooting quality is one of the best in its class. There is decent detailing, correct color reproduction, minimal noise.

In One Action, there is no other chip now popular – night mode. Without it, frames in the dark are obtained with a low dynamic range, they lack saturation and clarity. It is still not very clear what prevented Motorola engineers from adding the ability to take wide-angle photos.

1/9

Not like everyone

Motorola One Action is one of the few phones with a 21: 9 aspect ratio. Therefore, the mobile phone turned out to be narrow and elongated. Moreover, in width it is one of the most compact devices on the market – only 71.2 mm.

The front panel was occupied by a 6.3 inch IPS screen with a resolution of 2520 × 1080 pixels. Above is a round neckline under the frontal, it is indecently huge. It is difficult not to pay attention to the “eye”, because because of it, the developers had to increase the status bar several times. It takes up a lot of space in applications.

The picture quality is excellent: this is one of the best IPS matrices on the market. The image is saturated, viewing angles are close to maximum. The brightness level reaches 450 nits – enough for printing under bright sunlight.

Representatives of the vendor claim that the display with a ratio of 21: 9 is convenient when watching movies. In real life, there is not much content for this format, and you often have to watch videos with black stripes on the sides. It’s good that YouTube allows you to stretch the image to the full width of the screen. However, in this case, part of the frame will take away a large cutout for the front-end, which is difficult to get used to.

The smartphone is made of plastic and has not received protection from water. There is only protection against splashes according to the IP52 standard – rather weak for a device that should replace an action camera.

Performance

The phone has an eight-core Samsung chipset – Exynos 9609. This is a 10-nanometer model consisting of 2 clusters of 4 cores. The first half has a clock frequency of 1.7 GHz, the second – 2.2 GHz. One Action received 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory. Internal storage is easy to expand with a microSD card that plugs into the hybrid tray.

The smartphone runs on pure Android 9.0 OS with a number of chips from Motorola. They are associated with gestures and a display. Let’s say it’s convenient to take a screenshot with a three-finger tap or turn on a flashlight with two chopping movements with a hand. If you place your palm over the mobile phone, the screen will display the time and missed notifications. Otherwise, there are no changes, the OS looks like Google intended it – with all the pros and cons.

The disadvantages of the OS include the lack of a normal gallery for viewing photos and inconvenient controls that cannot be adjusted in the options. For example, the back button is on the left – you need to constantly reach it with your finger. Gestures are not configurable either.

But the advantages of the system include high performance. The fact that the Motorola One Action is an average processor in performance is not felt in everyday scenarios. The interface has an instant response, the lists scroll smoothly, applications launch quickly. There are no problems with games. PUBG and World of Tanks run at high graphics settings with stable fps.

Do not forget about the contactless payment module. It functions properly and supports recording trips to the Troika card. The only caveat – NFC is not located on top, but in the middle of the case. Therefore, the phone should be attached to the terminal taking into account this feature, otherwise the payment may not go through.

Autonomy

Motorola again did not follow modern trends and did not increase the battery capacity. One Action equipped with a 3500 mAh battery. The autonomy of the smartphone is not the most outstanding. And this despite the fact that a clean OS is used, which does not cut background processes as aggressively as Chinese shells.

The battery lasts until the end of the working day with an average of 4-5 hours of active screen. We are talking about active use: constant communication in social networks, watching videos and taking pictures. In the looped video playback mode at medium brightness, the gadget worked for nine and a half hours, and in PUBG it lasted about four hours.

There is no support for fast charging. A full-time power supply filled the battery from 0 to 100% in just over two hours.

Specifications

DISPLAY

6.3“, IPS, 2520×1080, 21: 9

CHIPSET

CPU Exynos 9609, GPU Mali-G72 MP3

RAM
AND STORAGE

4 GB
128 GB

BATTERY

3500 mAh

CAMERAS

main: 12 megapixels + 16 megapixels + 5 megapixels
front: 12 megapixels

FEATURES

NFC action camera

Test results

ANTUTU

181 414

GEEKBENCH 5

342 single-core
1328 multi-core

AUTONOMY

up to 9.5 hours of video playback
up to 4 hours of playing PUBG

Summary

Motorola One Action is hardly the best mid-range smartphone. It has a rather weak autonomy, and for taking pictures there is not enough width and night mode. At the same time, the novelty is very different from most other devices. She has an unusual action camera that does a good job of it. The gadget itself does not look like other phones due to the elongated 21: 9 screen and a large cutout for the front. All this together with pure Android can make One Action a welcome purchase for users who want to purchase a non-channel device.