Review:
Motorola One Vision – one upmanship

Motorola One Vision is at worst an experiment and at best a remarkable mass-market phone with features that found on a much more expensive one.

I say Motorola One Vision is an experiment because it already has its safe, dependable, reliable, typically Motorola pedigree g7-series paddling in the same mass-market pool. These have become the darling of enterprise fleet phones and sell very well online and via Officeworks and Good Guys. But as good as the g-series are there are now solid challengers offering better specs and sexy colours.

The Motorola One Vision is an experiment as it uses a Samsung Exynos 9609 processor (good choice) instead of Qualcomm SD; 6.3-inch 21:9 screen (huge screen real-estate for this category); a massive 48MP, OIS, quad-pixel/5MP depth camera and a 25MP selfie; Wi-Fi AC, BT 5.0, NFC, USB-C quick charge; and a 4/128GB/microSD to 256GB. It is also exclusive to JB Hi-Fi (Bronze colour) or via Motorola’s online store.

And it is an experiment because it Motorola/Lenovo do not make it in their factory (as the g and z-series are) but shopped to an ODM to get the maximum economy of scale. Motorola wanted to challenge what a mass-market phone could offer.

We have analysed the Motorola One Vision, poked and prodded from top to toe and for the price it is superb.

Our opinion – it is helped to redefine the <$500 mass-market category – like Nokia, OPPO and Samsung have all done lately.

Spoiler alert – Motorola One Vision is everything you need for your daily drive.

How we rate smartphones

We develop paradigms – what they need to do – and slot them into market segments.

We review against different paradigms for each category.

1. Foldable $2500+
2. Premium Flagship $1600-2499 (usually a flagship with more memory/storage, additional camera lens and now 5G)
3. Flagship $1000-1599 (account for about 10% of sales)
4. Premium mid-market $800-999 (10% and often last year’s flagship at run-out price)
5. Mid-market $500-799 (about 25% of the market)
6. Mass-market $200-499 (about 25% of the market)
7. Value pre-paid <A$199 (about 30% of the market – good for pre-paid and children)

For example, a mass-market phone typically has micro-USB, 12MP ‘social media’ cameras, older/slower processors, etc.

Buy here – or you will regret it

We issue the standard warning that you must buy the genuine Motorola One Vision model XT-1970-1 with Australian firmware as it works on all Australian Telco carrier LTE bands and can make a 000-emergency call (not 911) without a SIM. These also have Google Pay that works with Australian PayWave readers.

Buying genuine is pretty simple – the AU version is in Bronze Gradient and only available from JB Hi-Fi or Motorola on-line.

International models with a suffix other than -1 are not for Australia. Nor is the P50 China-only model. Also the Blue colour is not for here.

DO NOT SHOP ELSEWHERE AS INTERNATIONAL MODELS OFTEN LACK THE ALL-IMPORTANT LTE BAND 28!

Motorola One Vision Model XT-1970-1 4/128GB, Dual Sim, AU version firmware

Australian Website here.

In the box

• Handset
• Australian pin charger 5V/3A, 9V/2A and 12V/1.5A (18W) – Motorola calls this 15W TurboPower.
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• 3.5 mm/USB earbuds and mic
• Clear plastic bumper case

The first impression

Tall 21:9, slender (8.7mm); big 7mm O-hole on the left; bright, flat 2.5D screen with reasonably sized bezels; do not mind the Bronze Gradient (chocolate brown) colour; 3.5mm jack; Batwing logo fingerprint reader; and dual camera bump on the back.