The new Motorola Moto E proves affordable phones can be fun too

[MUSIC] Hey, I'm Nate with CNET. Today we are checking out the Motorola Moto E. Now this budget smartphone isn't too exciting in a world filled with tablets and speedy flagship phones from Samsung and LG. But it doesn't really need to be. At $150 bucks an LTE model and about $120 for a 3G model it's cheap, but delivers in all the right ways. So, you can get a pretty great phone for folks on a tight budget. The Moto E is an unassuming little device. It's a little on the chunky side, but comfortable to hold. Its display is a 960 by 540 pixel resolution. That's, well disappointing especially with all the 1080p and higher phones you see every day. But it gets the job done on the 4.5 inch screen. Text is sharp and easy to read. Photos look good too. Colors are accurate and don't look. Faded or washed out, as you may expect from a budget phone. the rest of the body is plain, but functional, just a round white shell. But, the plastic band around the border pops off really easily, and you can pick up extra color packs from Motorola for 20 bucks. The sim card and micro-sd slots live under that plastic strip, but the battery isn't removable. Things get a little more interesting inside. There's a quad-core one point two gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and one gig of RAM. Not stellar. But the phone is nice and [UNKNOWN] and will get you through web browsing, video streaming and gaming with a minimum of fuss. It's also running Android Lollipop and best of all Motorola hasn't bogged the phone down with lots of extra apps or custom [UNKNOWN], just pure Android. Well, nearly pure Android. I say mainly because there are a few Motorola adjustments built right in. This is my favorite. Twist your wrist twice and no matter what your doing, the phone will open up a 5 megapixel camera. And, be ready to start shooting. Its a pretty deliberate action, so you wont have to worry to much about triggering it accidentally. Twist your wrist twice again while the camera's open and it'll switch to the front facing camera. I'm sure some folks will appreciate that. The cameras aren't exactly stellar and my shots in the rear camera tended to look a little washed out but details were otherwise clear. And that's the Moto E. It isn't flashy. There are no screens on the side and it doesn't bend or flex. But it's cheap and it isn't a pain to use, and that's important. Too many inexpensive phones sacrifice just about everything to hit that low price point. And Motorola has shown us that you can get decent hardware without spending all that much. You're gonna want to read the full review for all of my thoughts on www.cnet.com. I'm Nick Roth. Thanks for watching. [MUSIC]