Motorola is known for cheap and good smartphones. A current model of the E series is now available from Aldi – at a temptingly low price.
From Thursday, March 31, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd will be offering the Motorola Moto E20 for EUR 89.99. The smartphone is only available in branches, not in the online shop. TECHBOOK reveals whether the purchase is worthwhile.
Checking out the Motorola Moto E20 at Aldi
The Moto E20 was released in mid-September 2021 and expands Motorola’s E series of affordable smartphones. It shares the same design language as the manufacturer’s more expensive devices, with a central waterdrop notch for the front-facing camera and an elongated rectangle for the rear cameras. The 6.5-inch display is surrounded by thin display edges on three sides. Only the “chin” is a bit thicker. Unfortunately, the resolution is a bit low for a screen of this size with 720 x 1600 pixels (HD+). Individual pixels may be recognizable as a result. The case is mostly made of plastic, both the frame and the back are made of the same material. It doesn’t feel as high-quality, but it also withstands falls better. Only the display cover is made of glass.
dual camera
As is now common for smartphones, the Moto E20 comes with more than one camera on the back. In addition to the 13 MP main sensor, there is a 2 MP macro camera. However, this is more of a gimmick and hardly suitable for usable photos. However, there is no ultra-wide or telephoto camera. The main sensor has a relatively small aperture of f/2.2 and therefore cannot let in much light – no exception in this price segment. After all, the camera supports phase detection autofocus (PDAF) for fast and accurate focusing. A 5 MP selfie camera sits in the waterdrop notch on the display.
Unusual chip inside
A system-on-chip (SoC) from the Chinese manufacturer Unisoc provides the drive in the Moto E20. Unisoc is practically unknown in this country, but is already a household name in China. The manufacturer ranks third there and thus ahead of Huawei. Powering the Moto E20 is a Unisoc Tiger T606, which offers quite a lot of performance for the money. The chip is manufactured using TSMC’s 12 nm process and features two Cortex-A75 performance cores and six Cortex-A55 energy-efficiency cores. All eight cores are clocked at 1.8 GHz. The GPU, a Mali G57 MC2, is also quite powerful for this price range. Overall, the Moto E20 should also be suitable for light gaming with this hardware. The only limitation is the working memory, which is very tight at 2 gigabytes.
The battery has a capacity of 4000 mAh. Unfortunately, there is no quick charge function, the power is limited to 10 watts – so it can take a while to fill up. After all, it is charged via USB-C.
| Motorola Moto E20 | |
|---|---|
| screen | 6.5 inch IPS LCD 720 x 1600 pixels (270 PPI) |
| SoC | CPU: Unisoc T606, octa core (2 x 1.6 GHz Cortex A75, 6 x 1.6 GHz Cortex A55) GPU: Mali-G57 MC2 |
| Storage | 2GB RAM 32 GB internal memory, expandable via MicroSD |
| main camera | 13 MP (wide angle, f/2.2, PDAF 2 MP (macro), f/2.4 |
| front camera | 5MP, f/2.2 |
| battery pack | 4000mAh Charging at 10 watts |
| software | Android 11 (Go Edition) |
| connectivity | WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 4G LTE bluetooth 5 GPS USB-C (USB 2.0) |
| Dimensions | 164.8×75.5×8.5mm 184 grams |
Current Android version
Motorola relies on the still quite current Android 11 Go edition for the operating system. That’s a smart move, because the Go edition handles less RAM just fine. Multitasking, for example, is limited to four recently opened apps and functions such as picture-in-picture are disabled.
Also interesting: Android 12 is here! The most useful functions at a glance
Is the offer at Aldi worth it?
In itself, the Moto E20 offers a lot for little money. Sure, you have to make compromises with the display, housing and camera. But the smartphone stands out with good performance for this price range and a current Android version. Extras such as a fingerprint sensor on the back, the 3.5 mm jack and the slot for microSD cards speak for the device. In the ranks of smartphones under 100 euros, the E20 is almost unrivaled. Only devices like the Nokia 1.4 and the Xiaomi Redmi 9C can be mentioned here, but they are much worse equipped all around.
The offer at Aldi north and Aldi south it’s definitely worth it. Because the Moto E20 costs around 10 euros more at many other dealers. At the same time, buyers only get the Aldi Talk starter set free of charge from Aldi. At the purchase price of only 89.99 euros, it is definitely a worthwhile bonus.
Information about Aldi Talk
Aldi Talk is a prepaid provider that works in the O2 network. The starter package comes with a credit of 10 euros and allows various options to be booked on the SIM card. There is a choice of pure internet flat rates, but also complete offers consisting of all-network and SMS flat rates from EUR 7.99 per 28 days. Without a booked option, connections to other Aldi-Talk customers cost 3 cents per minute and SMS and 11 cents to all other networks.