Motorola's ultra-cheap Moto C, Moto C Plus launched: What makes these phones relevant?

The budget smartphone market is getting quite challenging for OEMs to keep up. Consumers demand variety and value for money in the sub-Rs. 10,000 smartphone category more than ever. Fulfilling those needs, brands like Xiaomi, Meizu, Lenovo Motorola and others have launched series of smartphones.

Joining the ever-expanding portfolio of the budget smartphones, Motorola launched the ultra-cheap Moto C and Moto C Plus smartphones targeting the developing markets. The Moto C will be priced at €89 (Rs 6,300 approximately) and the Moto C Plus will cost €119 (Rs 8,400 approximately) at launch. Both handsets are expected to make their way to Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific this spring.

The launch of the two affordable smartphones, which are currently the cheapest models in Motorola's portfolio after Moto E3 Power, comes shortly after a leak revealed all the upcoming Moto smartphones coming this year. Moto C and Moto C Plus were among the others, and also gave away the accurate specs.

Moto C is a 3G smartphone with entry-level features such as a 5-inch FWVGA display, 1.1Ghz MediaTek MT6737M quad-core chipset, 1GB RAM and 8GB/16GB storage options with microSD card support. The handset includes a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front snapper and also has an LED flash for brighter low-light selfies.

Under the hood, it packs a 2,350mAh removable battery. The handset comes in Metallic Cherry, Pearl White, Fine Gold, and Starry Black colour options.

Moto C Plus, on the other hand, is an upgraded version of the Moto C with a better battery, camera, display and performance. It features a 5-inch HD display, a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core MT6737 chipset, 2GB RAM and 16GB onboard storage.

For the camera, there's an 8MP rear-facing shooter with f/2.2 aperture and an LED flash and the front snapper is same as the Moto C. It packs a large 4,000mAh battery, which adds to the extra weight of the phone (162gms vs Moto C's 154gms).

Moto C Plus supports 4G LTE to give an added advantage over Moto C. Both phones run Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box, support dual SIM cards and lack a fingerprint scanner.