The improved specs and same price as the last year's model may make the new Moto E a desirable upgrade, but do these enhancements make it a worthy contender to offerings from rivals in the same price segment?

In comparison to the original model, the new Moto E comes with a slightly improved design. The key highlight here is the swappable band that runs along the phone.

slots for SIM cards and microSD card. The addition of the swappable band element in the new Moto E not only gives the phone a refreshed look but also hints at the company's sincere approach towards its entry-level devices.

You can pull this tag out and push it back inside; the swappable band conceals it too. It's a minor design improvement, but worth a mention.

Another noticeable improvement in the new Moto E is the ribbed pattern beautifying the swappable band that also helps offer a better grip in combination with the curved back.

The phone's rounded edges add to its ergonomics and make it nestle in your palm easily.

 Though the phone comes with a tad bigger display than the predecessor, the difference in their screen sizes appears to be negligible. At 540x960 pixels, the resolution of the screen remains the same as the old model. The touch responsiveness on the display is good and it's smooth to navigate on it, but the colours it produces and the viewing angles it offers are only of acceptable quality.

The placement of the front camera in the upgraded version of the Moto E isn't really the upgrade we had been looking for. The quality of the front VGA camera is poor and the competition can easily score.

The rear camera, on the other hand, manages to capture only satisfactory results in both soft and bright light conditions. Though we are yet to put it to extensive use. Quite like the last year's model, the camera app on the new Moto E offers very basic options to customise settings.

What you would appreciate in the new model is the increased internal storage. The built-in memory in the new Moto E has gone up from 4GB (in the old model) to 8GB (with around 5GB user-accessible). The microSD card slot for additional storage supports a card of up to 32GB.

Priced at Rs 6,999, the new phone comes in two colours - black and white. The black-coloured model appeared better looking to us than the white.
The recently launched Xiaomi Redmi 2 gives the new Moto E a tough competition.