The Motorola One Zoom has four rear cameras and satin glass for $450

The Motorola One Zoom has a smooth finish that helps keep your fingerprints from gunking up your phone.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Director, Commerce & Content Operations

Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).

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Jessica Dolcourt

Sept. 7, 2019 3:18 a.m. PT

2 min read

Motorola Zoom 2 — Forget that glossy backing. Motorola embraces matte.
Chris Monroe/CNET

As much as I love the brilliant, prismatic backings of phones like the Galaxy Note 10 and Huawei P30 Pro , these high-gloss backings pile up the fingerprint grease faster than a stack of pancakes. That's why it's great to see Motorola embrace a matte finish with the One Zoom, a new midprice phone that aims to go high on value and low on price.

The One Zoom will cost you $450 in the US when you buy it unlocked from Motorola.com, and 399 euros when it goes on sale in Europe (about £360 or AU$650). It'll also sell in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Motorola is in an unusual position with its devices. Owned by Google before being sold to Lenovo, the brand has over the years chiseled out a successful niche as a maker of budget phones. The Motorola One Zoom falls right in the middle of the range, offering a package of specs for about half the price of today's most premium $1,000 phones.

Watch this: Motorola Zoom has premium cameras at half the price

02:45

While the satiny-smooth glass backing is one of the more notable things about the new Zoom phone, it's the four cameras on the back (and the one on the front) that really grab our attention.

Main 48-megapixel camera with OIS and a night vision mode
8-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and 10x hybrid zoom (OIS)
16-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera (117-degrees, 4x the usual frame)
5-megapixel depth camera, which applies portrait blur effect more accurately and make adjustments post capture
Front-facing: 25-megapixel

Motorola also wants to attract buyers with its 6.4-inch OLED display, a claim of two days of battery life with its 4,000-mAh battery and 128GB of on-board storage -- all pretty impressive features on paper for the price.