Face off: Motorola Moto E vs Nokia XL

Nokia's most expensive Android offering has a price tag of Rs. 11,489. How does it compare with the Moto E?

Nokia has launched the Nokia XL in India at a price tag of Rs. 11,489. At this price point, it is closer in competition to the Moto G than the Moto E. But unfortunately for Nokia, specification-wise the phone will actually be competing with Moto E, a smartphone that costs nearly Rs. 4,500 less than the XL.

Display

The Nokia XL comes with a 5 inch display having a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The Moto E is significantly smaller with its 4.3 inch display running 540 x 960 pixels.

If you prefer a large screen, there is really no competition here. If you are screen size agnostic, then the Moto E’s screen offers a much sharper experience (256 ppi) compared to the one on the Nokia XL (187 ppi).

Performance

Under the hood, the Nokia XL runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play dual-core 1 GHz Cortex A5 processor. The GPU is handled by a an Adreno 303 chipset. Disappointingly, Nokia has given the XL only 768 MB of RAM.

The Moto E is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with a dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex A7 CPU. The Adreno 302 GPU manages the graphics on the device. The Moto E has an impressive 1 GB of RAM that should give it an edge over the Nokia XL.

Both come pretty close in performance, but the Moto E has a slight edge.

Camera

The Nokia XL boasts of a 5 megapixel primary camera along with an LED flash. It also has a 2 MP secondary camera for video calling and selfies.

The Moto E comes with a 5 megapixel camera but lacks LED flash, making it virtually useless in low-light conditions. Motorola has also left out a front camera so all you selfie fanatics need to look somewhere else.

We have a clear winner in the optics department here in the Nokia XL

Software

The Nokia XL runs a forked version of the Android Open Source Project. The software on the device is quite unlike any Android implementation you would have seen. The UI borrows heavily from Windows Phone but with the advantage of the Play Store. Most apps on Play Store are compatible with the Nokia XL.

The Moto E represent Android in its purest form. It runs a nearly Vanilla version of Android which means you should be amongst the first to get updates (till the hardware becomes a bottleneck).

This bout comes down to preference. If you find the Tiles interface intuitive, the Nokia XL is the way to go. If you like your Android untouched, get a Moto E.

Verdict

Although the Nokia XL is a good phone, it is priced a tad too high to be an instant recommendation. Had it been anywhere in the region of Moto E, it would have been easy to choose the Nokia XL among the two.

But if you are okay with the few flaws of Moto E, you can pocket a great phone while saving nearly Rs. 4,500.