The year of 2019 has marked a new breed of wide-angle cameras, the segment gained a lot of popularity among people who wanted to capture a ton of action within a single frame. This necessity was adequately fulfilled by the action camera like go-pro which provided a handy platform for an action-packed occasion.
Motorola questioned this ideology of, “Why use a separate action camera when you can have an action camera smartphone?”, through its latest 117-degree action camera smartphone called the Motorola One Action. This affordable midrange hopes to rival an outright segment through its capability to capture high-octane activities under all scenes. So, does it deliver or fails miserably? Let’s take a deep dive!
Design & Display
The design of Motorola One Action is one that serves a purpose for what it is. Though built with a plastic frame, the smartphone feels rugged, grippy and ergonomic to hold. The choice of materials is accurate as the device never slips out of your hand as the glass body counterparts do. Despite its humongous 6.3-inch display the smartphone is easy to wrap your hand around, thanks to its 21:9 aspect ratio. It has an IPX2 rating for accidental splashes of liquid through its ingress protection around the frame.
Coming to the display, the Motorola One Action packs in a 6.3-inch screen is an LCD panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2520. This provides a sharp pixel density of 435 PPI, which renders some clean visuals. The screen tends to warp a bit around the front-facing camera which was a bit disappointing. Watching movies and a bit of youtube was fine if you have never been too accustomed to an AMOLED display. Overall the display does not look pleasant but does its job nonetheless.
Camera
The main feature of the smartphone comes through its 16 MP (117-degree) action video camera. This camera is extremely well though and well made, as it comes with a sensor that is mounted horizontally to help you capture landscape (16:9) videos while holding the device in a portrait mode. The added benefit of the camera stabilization system lends a level of sturdiness in the shots taken.
The video quality is splendid with good colour accuracy, solid dynamic range, and auto exposure working its way across a shot. This setup, however, cannot record 4K and is capable of only shooting full HD (1920 x 1080) videos in 30 FPS or 60 FPS. There is no doubt that this camera can pose a serious threat to the budget or entry-level action cameras out there.
The primary camera unit of 12 MP and 5 MP is also worth noting as it also takes some pretty good shots. However, the HDR overblows the lights to buffer its way by darkening the shadows, overexposing the lights and taming some real-life colours.
Night photography is still poor as the lens fails to ascertain the objects in the shot and tries to narrow the dynamics to get tepid details.
The 12MP Front-facing camera is good under sufficient light, it provides selfies that are colour accurate and toned down to prevent overexposure. However, it goes without saying that the front-facing camera to lacks the low light photography we were looking for. The overall experience was alright for the price amount we were willing to pay for this device.
Processor and OS
The Motorola One Action is powered by an Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9609 processor that is clocked at 2.2 GHz. This 10nm processor is powerful yet power efficient at the same time. The phone delivers a solid performance as the apps load up quickly. The availability of stock Android 9.0 Pie also provides a clean bloatware-free experience that is beautiful and flawless. Gaming was a bit satisfactory until we ran some pretty extensive titles like PUBG and Real Racing 3 on it.
Moto has also added some cool gestures such as twist twice to start camera, chop to activate the flashlight, etc. These nifty little features add a sense of fun to the overall package. The One Action offers generous storage of 128 GB with the extension of a microSD card slot that can accept cards of up to 512 GB.
Battery
The One Action comes with a 3,500 mAh battery unit which is optimized to deliver extended use time. The device lasted for over 10 hours in our battery life test. This test included a mix of gaming, social media apps, and phone calls through its speaker.
Gizmo Verdict
The Motorola One Action is a solid smartphone and a testament to the statement that smartphone cameras can be as good if not better than a dedicated action camera. This device offers a GoPro like a camera with better stabilization, good sound recording and on top of it, a better overall smartphone. The downside of using this smartphone is a slightly less premium feel exuberating from its plastic build quality. Nevertheless, every smartphone has its own sets of quirks, if you can live with that, the Motorola One Action is the best bank for your hard-earned buck!
