Motorola One Macro review: A very focused budget phone

The Motorola One Macro provides reasonable performance and good battery life, but it is let down by rather cheap construction.

Dependable battery life
Clutter-free Android
Macro lens can deliver pleasant shots

Macro lens can be very temperamental
Mediatek processor is a little low-end
Plastic body loves fingerprints
Regular camera delivers ordinary results

Alex Kidman

Last Updated Nov 22, 2019

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Display

Display Size

6.2 inches

Resolution

720 x 1520px

Pixels per inch (PPI)

270 ppi

Camera

Rear camera megapixels

13MP + 2MP + 2MP

Rear camera aperture size

f/2.0 + f/2.2 + f/2.2

Video recording

1080p

Front camera megapixels

8MP

Front camera aperture size

f/2.2

Physical Dimensions

Dimensions

157.6mm x 75.41mm x 8.99mm

Weight

186g

Connectivity

NFC

Wi-Fi

802.11 b/g/n

Network category speed

N/A

Power, storage and battery

Processor

MediaTek Helio P70

RAM

4GB

Operating system

Android 9

Internal storage

64GB

External storage support

Up to 512GB

Battery capacity

4,000mAh

Device features

Headphone jack

Yes

Fingerprint sensor

Yes

Water resistance rating

IPX2

Wireless charging

Launch price (RRP)	$299
Launch date	2019-10

Go to Motorola's site More info

Where to buy

2019 is a year where we've seen an explosion in the budget and mid-range phone spaces. Not in the bad, exploding batteries way, but in the features and performance that a phone that sits in either category should include.

It's a space that Motorola has occupied very well for many years with its G-series phones, many of which have gone through our labs and significantly impressed us. But with a plethora of competitors from the likes of TCL, Oppo, realme, Mintt and more, Motorola clearly saw that it needed to do a little bit more.

That's been the focus behind its Motorola One series. They're phones with a different value skew, and the Motorola One Macro certainly fits that bill. It's the equivalent of a DSLR shooter opting to take an additional lens with them when they go out shooting, except in this case, it's in phone form.

Design

6.2-inch display
Preinstalled case
Teardrop notch
Headphone jack

You wouldn't pick the Motorola One Macro as being anything special in design terms, mind you. It features a 6.2-inch LCD display, but with a resolution of only 720 x 1,520, it's not the sharpest screen you'll see in this category. There's a small teardrop notch at the top of the display and only small bezels at the front, while the rear houses its cameras and a fingerprint sensor around the familiar Motorola "batwing" logo.
One point of distinction that I do like with many of Motorola's phones is that you get a simple plastic protective case in the box. In the case of the Motorola One Macro, it's even pre-installed, and that's largely how I used it for much of my testing time. Taking it off to photograph the Motorola One Macro did reveal why Motorola is pre-installing the case on this phone.
While the rear of the phone model supplied for review has a pleasing dark blue tone, it's rather hollow plastic, and it's also an absolute fingerprint magnet par excellence. Within seconds of taking the case off, the back of the Motorola One Macro looked like an absolute crime scene, with fingerprints everywhere.
Fans of wired audio will find the inclusion of a headphone jack, becoming something of a rarity in more expensive phones, a welcome addition. The volume and power buttons sit high on the right-hand side of the Motorola One Macro, but on a phone that measures in at 157.6mm high, they're not hard to reach.

Camera

Primary 13MP lens is OK, but that's all
Macro lens is annoyingly inconsistent

Clearly nobody is buying a phone called the Motorola One Macro without an interest in macro photography, but it's not as though this is a single-lens camera phone. Beside the 2MP macro lens there's also a primary 13MP f/2.0 sensor and a 2MP f/2.2 depth sensor. A triple lens camera at this price point is, on paper pretty decent, even if that depth sensor isn't one you shoot with directly.
However, the performance of the Motorola One Macro in regular shooting terms can only be described as average. Focus tends to shift a lot before settling, and there were instances of shutter lag that led to more blurry shots than I'd really expect to see, even for a cheaper phone like this. Like so many budget to mid-range phones, it's entirely feasible to get decent shots from the Motorola One Macro, but you've got to work for them a little more than I'd like.
The macro lens on the Motorola One Macro is a fascinating idea to bring to market, and I'll give Motorola credit for doing something genuinely different in the affordable space. The idea here is that you can get as close as 2cm away from your target to capture really fine detail in your shots.
The reality is a little more mixed. The fact that the macro lens is only 2MP does limit its capture potential, and it also limits your ability to satisfactorily crop in on an image for better framing, too. Against any kind of light source you're likely to get blown out highlights, and if the light is lower the detail level does drop quite alarmingly.
I applaud Motorola for giving the macro idea a go, and I'd love to see a slightly more capable lens in a future model, but for now, if you're keen on macro shots, you're arguably better off buying a more generally capable camera and cropping carefully to get that effect than relying on the Motorola One Macro for that purpose.
Motorola One Macro sample photos

Performance

Mediatek P70 isn't particularly powerful
Motorola's Android approach is light
Moto actions onboard are still fun

The Motorola One Macro runs on a Mediatek Helio P70 processor with 4GB of RAM, which is very much a budget phone recipe. That's very much what you get out of the Motorola One Macro in performance terms, too, even relative to other budget handsets.
Here's how the Motorola One Macro compares against similarly priced handsets using Geekbench 5's CPU test:
And here's how it stacks up for 3D app performance using 3DMark:
The Motorola Moto One Macro isn't a fast phone within its class, but its overall performance is generally acceptable. That's helped by the fact that Motorola has for a very long time taken a very light approach to modifying Android on its handsets. The Motorola One Macro is running on Android 9 (Android 10 would have been nicer but it's not surprising at this price point to see older Android at launch) with just a few Motorola tweaks to the overall UI and experience.
I'm still a big fan of Motorola's "Moto Actions", which use physical gestures and the phone's own accelerometer and gyroscope to fire up phone actions. They're present on the Motorola One Macro, so you can chop the phone fast to fire up the flashlight, or twist it rapidly to engage the camera quickly. They're hardly vital, but they are fun.

Battery life

4,000mAh battery is good at this price point
USB C charging with 10W supplied charger

Motorola very much set the benchmark for excellent mobile battery performance in the budget space with the exceptional Motorola Moto G7 Power earlier this year. The Motorola One Macro can't quite live up to its astonishingly good 5,000mAh battery, but its own 4,000mAh powerpack is nothing to sneer at either.
Running the Motorola One Macro through our standard video streaming test, running a full screen YouTube video for an hour at maximum brightness and moderate volume, it performed quite well. Here's how it compares:
The everyday battery life of a phone is, of course, related to your general usage patterns, but what I usually find with phones that run down around the level of the Motorola One Macro is that they're good for at least a day's battery life. That's certainly been my experience with the Motorola One Macro, and I could see a lighter user getting decently into that second day before reaching for the charger.
The Motorola One Macro charges via USB C, and relatively quickly at that, with a 10W charger in the box to quickly top up its battery if it's running out of power.

Verdict

Motorola needs to work on its macro tech
Doesn't compare well to other budget to mid-range models

Excluding the macro lens, the Motorola One Macro almost feels like Motorola is doing what it's been doing for years. It's an acceptable budget device, but not one with a killer "feature" or benefit that would make it stand out. In years gone by, that would well and truly have been enough, because budget phones were always about compromises.

In 2019, we've seen a big change in this space, with plenty of mid to high end features creeping in on other handsets. At that level, the Motorola One Macro comes across as a decent phone, but far from best in class.

That's where the macro lens should save the day, presuming you're keen on macro photography specifically. I love the fact that Motorola is doing something truly different here, but I'm ultimately a little underwhelmed by the actual camera results you can get out of that primary macro lens. I'd love to see an updated model with more macro ability built in, but for now, there are better alternatives at this price point.

Pricing and availability

Price: RRP $299
Where to buy: Amazon | The Good Guys | Catch

Alternatives

At the same price point, if you wanted to stay within the Motorola family, it's well worth considering the Motorola Moto G7 Power, a phone with truly astonishing battery performance.

If you want some photographic flexibility, it's well worth considering the realme 5 Pro. You could also consider the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 in that price range.

Specifications

Display

Display Size

6.2 inches

Resolution

720 x 1520px

Pixels per inch (PPI)

270 ppi

Camera

Rear camera megapixels

13MP + 2MP + 2MP

Rear camera aperture size

f/2.0 + f/2.2 + f/2.2

Video recording

1080p

Front camera megapixels

8MP

Front camera aperture size

f/2.2

Physical Dimensions

Dimensions

157.6mm x 75.41mm x 8.99mm

Weight

186g

Connectivity

NFC

Wi-Fi

802.11 b/g/n

Network category speed

N/A

Power, storage and battery

Processor

MediaTek Helio P70

RAM

4GB

Operating system

Android 9

Internal storage

64GB

External storage support

Up to 512GB

Battery capacity

4,000mAh

Device features

Headphone jack

Yes

Fingerprint sensor

Yes

Water resistance rating

IPX2

Wireless charging

Latest mobile reviews

Alex Kidman

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A multi-award winning journalist, Alex has written about consumer technology for over 20 years. He has written and edited for virtually every Australian tech publication including Gizmodo, CNET, PC Magazine, Kotaku and more. He has also been the Editor of Gizmodo Australia, PC Mag Australia, CNET.com.au and the Tech and Telco section at Finder. Alex has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a serious passion for retro gaming.

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Motorola One Macro review: A very focused budget phone