The Moto M is the best budget phone for content consumption

This post is brought to you by the Moto M.

Watching videos on your phone is a pretty great. Unlike a massive TV, a tethered desktop or even a laptop, you can bring your smartphone (almost) literally everywhere you go. Walking down the stairs? Phone in hand. Eating? Phone in hand. Relieving yourself at the defecation station? Phone. In. Hand.

It’s uncanny how useful this handheld pocket computer is. But the problem is that a lot of the phones which come with the specs you’d want for a good video viewing experience live at the high end of the market.

Well, until now, that is. Meet the Moto M, probably the best budget phone you can get for content consumption.

So there are three key pillars a phone should fulfill if you want to have an enjoyable video-watching experience on it:

1. A good screen

This is pretty self explanatory. You need a phone with a dense pixel count, preferably one that’s dense enough so your eye can’t identify individual pixels at normal viewing distances. That means looking for a screen that has upwards of 300 pixels per inch. Then, you should also look for one that can reproduce colours nicely, have good viewing angles and one that can get bright enough so that it’s at least visible outdoors.

Here’s where the Moto M shines, especially when you consider that this is a budget handset. This smartphone comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD display (that’s upwards of 400 pixels per inch) so you’re pretty much guaranteed a crisp image. It’s LCD panel also does well enough in your average outdoor daylight situations and has a good colour reproduction and nice viewing angles to boot! In short, it’s a solid smartphone screen.

2. Good audio

There’s no denying that good audio is important, but that’s traditionally where smartphones fall far behind. Ideally, a stereo-speaker setup would be great, however, that often compromises a phone’s design and adds to the phone’s overall cost.

The Moto M, though, has a trick up its sleeve. Yes, it employs a single-speaker setup but it’s probably one of the best (if not the best) single bottom-firing speaker in the market right now. Not only does it get loud enough that it eliminates the hand-cupping people have to do with single speakers, it also doesn’t sound as one-sided as most speakers like these do.

How did they do this? Well, the Moto M actually has Dolby Atmos audio enhancement on its single speaker. This means that the speaker is tuned to allow sound to move in a three-dimensional space, not just in channels.

3. Good, solid construction

This is especially important when it comes to smartphones — which are, by nature — devices that live firmly in our hands. You should be able to get a good grip, it should be ergonomic, and it shouldn’t have dumb button placements for you to accidentally hit when you’re watching a video.

In this respect, the Moto M passes with flying colours. It’s easily one of the best built smartphones at this price point thanks to its sexy anodised aluminium body. The matte finish helps repel fingerprints while its gentle curves help it settle nicely in your hands. Moto also placed this phones buttons on the right side of the smartphone so you can set it down on a flat surface in landscape without worrying about accidentally hitting any of them.

There is one danger with such a well-built phone, though. It really hurts when you, inevitably, drop it on your face. You have been warned!

Conclusion

In any case, the Moto M is a really solid smartphone especially if you’re looking for one that is as easy on the wallet as it is on the eyes. Coming in at just RM1,199, this smartphone is a good bang-for-your-buck mid-range performer with some seriously good features for quality content consumption.

Want to learn more? Head on over to Moto Malaysia’s website or their Facebook Page.