I remember showing a visual of the new Moto E to a seven year old a week back and asking, ‘What will be the first thing you do to this smartphone?’
‘Dunk it in a bucket of water,’ he said without taking that customary break to first think and then answer. And then he just went on with a list of really diabolic actions. He wanted to slide the phone on the floor and challenge his equally maverick dog to fetch it for him. He wanted to place it under his grandmother who is nothing less than 120 kilos. He wanted to stand on the phone. He wanted to see if he could electrocute a smartphone and added, ‘After all, they’re supposed to be smart, right?’
Frankly, even the sweat on my brow had evaporated by the time he had gleefully listed the actions he would #ChooseToStart with and I looked at my friend, his father, who shook his head in that I-told-you-so way and murmured, ‘I hope your research is complete.’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘and my first conclusion is that I will not hand the phone over to your son.’ Well, seven year olds don’t need smartphones, do they… they are already floating on a smartness high making adults realise what it means to have brain development stop at around the age of that smart kid.
Well, I did want to tell that kid about the water-repellent coating and Corning Gorilla Glass protection that comes with this 2nd Gen Moto E… not that it would allow him to dunk the phone in a bucket of cold water. But the glass with its anti-smudge coating on the screen will be enough to keep his messed-up fingerprints away. The sturdy built just might use the bounce in the mattress to counter the disadvantage of a 120 kilo grandmother squatting on it… but I wouldn’t really go to this extreme. I would lovingly protect this phone that comes with a dual SIM (both GSM and UMTS), has a 1.2 GHz Quad Core Processor, and an 8 GB phone storage expandable up to 32 GB.
The newest Moto E has a reasonably decent 4.5 inch TFT LCD Touchscreen and comes loaded with Android v5.0… though some people would tend to believe that this lollipop fades when we talk about its 5MP primary camera and a seemingly insignificant 0.3 secondary camera. But then this is precisely what I’d #ChooseToStart with. Both the primary and the secondary camera are all that you generally need if you’re going to do what you love to do most… send across your heartfelt words on Whatsapp!
Have you ever thought about what most of us ever do with our smartphones? We make the usual calls that actually need smart responses and not smartphones, keep connected through whatsapp, get on the social media platforms, share pictures… and maybe listen to music and play videos. Some of us do play games as well. So if my phone camera allows me to click reasonably fine pictures and short videos to be shared on Instagram and social media as well as messaging platforms, I’m happy. If the call doesn’t drop, I’m happy. If the screen doesn’t smudge, I’m more than happy. And if I’m able to stand in a drizzle, click a picture and rush back with water droplets just gliding off the water repellent corning glass, I’m thoroughly happy! And listen, I generally do not click shots in semi-darkness… so the absence of the LED flash just doesn’t bother me.
By the way, this smartphone has a curved design that makes holding it while talking for hours so much easier and pleasurable, multi-tasking is well within its performance zone, and the battery is a charming 2390 mAh. Before I forget, let me add that I will #ChooseToStart with clicking pictures AND editing them as well. Obviously, I can download apps because the phone lets me use 3G as well as connect to wifi… and photo-editing apps aren’t elusive to me. I make illustrations and drawings and installing a couple of relevant drawing apps isn’t impossible.
Come on now, if the phone has such a lovely ergonomic exterior that helps me hold it without getting fed up of holding it for long, and does all that I really want a smartphone to do, what stops me from considering it? If price is what bother me, then I must admit that the Moto E (2nd Gen with 3G) with its sub-7000 tag sounds good enough.
.
.
.
#ChooseToStart with the new Moto E
.
.
.
Arvind Passey
20 March 2015
2 comments
Nandhini says:
Mar 29, 2015
Lol! I wonder what kind if technology these kids would bring in when they grow up?!
Arvind Passey says:
Mar 30, 2015
Technology has the strange habit of walking faster than the fastest human and so all that I know is that we will always be at a risk of a ‘future shock’ as Alvin Toffler put is more than thirty years ago, kids included. Nice to have you on my blog… do visit again. 🙂