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Earlier today, T-Mobile officially launched the Motorola Moto E4, a budget-friendly small-sized smartphone aimed at price-conscious customers. Those looking to finance the product can do so at just $7 per month over a 24-month period, or pay $175 outright and own the device from the get-go. The Moto E4 features a 5-inch HD (1280 X 720) IPS display, a 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 42X-series SoC (likely the Snapdragon 427), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage (expandable up to 128GB via MicroSD), an 8-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 4G LTE connectivity, water-repellent coating, a 2,800mAh battery, and ships with Android 7.1 Nougat. The phone is currently available only in a gold-colored offering. It should be noted that the variant T-Mobile is selling lacks a fingerprint sensor, which makes it comparable to that which is sold by Boost Mobile.
Lenovo, which purchased Motorola several years ago, originally launched the Moto E4 last summer. This particular device was the lower-end variant of the also-launched Moto E4 Plus, which featured a larger display and slightly more refined design. Moto E-series devices are synonymous with a low-cost/satisfactory performance dynamic, and for being on the more trusted-end of the budget-phone spectrum given the notoriety of the OEM. Due to both the cost and age, however, several caveats are clearly present, namely the presence of Android 7.1 Nougat, the lack of a fingerprint sensor (despite some regional variants having it) and the phone’s overall bezel-focused design. With respect to the former in particular, Lenovo has been relatively good with updating its 2017 higher-end phones to Android 8.0 Oreo, however, this product may very well remain on 7.1 permanently. T-Mobile’s pricing is also rather curious given that Motorola sells the phone directly for $129.99, with a fingerprint sensor included.
Given the recent reports of Lenovo laying off a significant percentage of its US-based workforce, it is likely the company will be making cuts to its smartphone line-up for 2018. The Moto X5 is already believed to have been axed, along with the Z-series, however, Lenovo has gone on record to state the latter has in fact, not been discontinued. As the Motorola brand is often associated with fantastic value-for-money devices, it is unlikely that the E-series would be shuttered, although it would remain to be seen as to just how well a Moto E5 will potentially do in 2018 given the onslaught of bezel-less phones coming out of China these days.