Moto E 2nd Gen (3G) vs Obi Hornbill: New making things tougher for old

Motorola has made a great come back as a global smartphone player. However, the competition in the smartphone industry only gets tougher by every passing day. Obi Mobiles, co-founded by ex-CEO of Apple and Pepsi, John Sculley, that launched its first range of smartphones less than a year ago, is attracting attention and may potentially become a challenger. Therefore, we decided to have a spec to spec analysis of products of these two players, i.e. Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen (3G) and ObiHornbill S551, to see how the new player living up to the standards set by an older player.

Look and Feel: 

In spite of having different overall dimensions, Moto E (137.9x 69.2x 8.6mm) and Obi Hornbill (146.8x73.3x 8.2mm) weigh the same 145gm. That makes Moto E a bit smaller and thicker looking device than Obi’ Hornbill which has greater length and breadth but is thinner. Moto has a very compact look with curved edges and a dull back-panel finish, where as Hornbill has a rather extended and posh look with sharp edges and metallic finish on the left and right side-panel. Moreover, while Moto E has a colour choice of black or white, Hornbill is available only in white. 

Display: 

The display screen size in Moto E is 4.5 inch, one inch lesser than Hornbill’s 5.5 inch, which means larger images and more comfortable viewing experience with Hornbill. At the resolution front too, Moto E with 960x540 Pixels is slightly behind Hornbill that has 1280x720 Pixels. In terms of display technology, Moto comes with IPS LCD display that allows wide angle viewing without any light hindrances but at the expense of extra power, where as Hornbill TFT IPS screen with capacitative touch HD. 

Under the Hood:

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2GHz Quad-Core processor, Moto E is relatively behind compared to Hornbill’s Mediatek MT6582 1.3GHz Quad-Core processor. In terms of RAM and Storage both smartphones have a 1GB RAM, internal memory of 8GB that is expandable memory up to 32GB through microSD. However, Moto E has a significant advantage when looking at the operating platform, as it runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop where as Hornbill runs on 4.4.2 Kitkat.

Battery & Cameras: 

Battery capacity and cameras are two two key features that customers are often concerned about. At the battery front, the difference is rather minor, where Moto E takes lead with 2390 mAh battery capacity, where as Hornbill follows closely behind with 2200mAh battery. However, on the front of cameras, Hornbill takes a big leap forward with its 13MP primary camera in comparison to Moto E’s 5MP. On the secondary camera front, Moto E with its outdated VGA cameras falls way behind Hornbill that comes with 5MP secondary camera, offering the possibility of much higher quality selfless. 

Other Features: 

Both Moto E and Hornbill have Wi-Fi capabilities (802.11 a/g/b/n), Bluetooth v4.0 and single SIM slot. Hornbill supports both Regular and Micro SIM cards while Moto E supports only Micro SIM cards.

Key Indicator	Obi Hornbill S551	Moto E (2ndGen) (3G)	Comparative Advantage
Dimensions	146.8x73.3x8.2mm	137.9x69.2x8.6mm	Customer choice
Screen Size	5.5 inches	4.5 inches	Advantage Hornbill
Resolution	1280x720	960x540	Advantage Hornbill
Camera (P)	13 megapixels	5 megapixels	Advantage Hornbill
Camera (S)	5 megapixels	VGA	Advantage Hornbill
OS	Android 4.4.2	Android 5.0	Advantage Moto E
Battery Cap	2200 mAH	2390 mAH	Advantage Moto E

Bottom line: 

Both the smartphones have the same RAM and storage capacity, but there are key differences. Moto E has an upgraded Operating platform and a relatively better battery capacity, where as Hornbill has larger dimensions, larger screen size, bigger processor, superior primary and secondary cameras. To get a sense of costs, we looked at the prices of the two devices in the Indian market, where Moto E costs around INR7000 where as Hornbill at around INR9000. Customers preferring an upgraded OS may like Moto E while those more interested in viewing experience, cameras and processor may prefer Hornbill.