Friends+Design
- Glossy gradient back - looks nice, though not quite as eye-popping as the colour options on Redmi smartphones
- Decent build quality and tactile buttons
- Like other glossy back phones, it will be a tough job to keep the phone clean and free of scratches - you will be better off using the bundled case
Display
- Good 6.1-inch HD+ display - produces bright and vivid colours, making it great for watching videos on YouTube
- The resolution could have been better - there are 1080p competitors available
Software
- True to Motorola style, you get clean and simple stock Android (+ a guaranteed update to Android 10) - mind you it's not an Android One series phone though despite the 'One' moniker
- The minor Motorola additions to stock Android are those that make the user experience even better - there are the Moto navigation gestures as well as the Moto Display, both of which make it easier to live with when compared to any other stock Android phone
Performance
- Very good performance for the price bracket with a solid MediaTek Helio P70 chipset (similar to Snapdragon 660) - both day-to-day use, and gaming is smooth
Camera
- Laser autofocus is super fast
- One of the key highlights of the One Macro of course is it's unique (for the price range) 2MP macro camera that gives you some very interesting close-up photography options (the macro mode is available for both the still and video mode)
- It's very impressive in actual performance too, in fact surprisingly so - whether its daylight or under artificial light, the macro camera on the One Macro takes quite detailed photos - the colours are vibrant with good contrast levels and high brightness, and there isn't a lot of post-processing with the colours which means you mostly get what you see - and the lower 2cm focal length means that you can go quite close to your subject to get the photo you wanted
- The portrait mode uses the 2MP depth camera and it impresses too with good levels of edge detection
- Decent 8MP front camera
- The main 13MP rear camera is more average though - in daylight, the photos wear a warmer tone and most of the details are softened - the dynamic range is also average - it's not quite a match to the other top camera phones in this price range
- As light levels fall, the main camera starts struggling with exposures and sharpness (and there is no 'Night mode')
Audio
- While the One Macro only has to make do with a single loudspeaker but with the Dolby Atmos tuning, it is fairly good
Battery
- Very good battery life with a combination of a 4000mAh cell, stock Android, and an HD+ display - you can comfortably stretch this up to 2 days on a single charge, with moderate use
- Fast charging support (though the included 10W fast charger isn't the most powerful)
Verdict
- On the whole, the One Macro looks like an excellent stock Android option in the under 10k price bracket, that will please the Android purists - it's worth buying not just for its unique macro camera, but also as a great all-round budget phone
