When Motorola first released the Moto E back in 2014, the company set the bar for what it possible in the world of budget-minded Android smartphones. Fast forward two years, and Lenovo, Motorola’s newest owner, is likely working on this year’s follow-up to the Moto E.
GFXBench, a benchmark test for phones and tablets alike, reveals many things about their processors and the rest of their guts. It’s also how we came across the Lenovo XT1700 and XT1706, which might as well be mirror images of each other. Both handsets are powered by the 1GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735P processor with 2GB of RAM. Continuing our tour of their insides reveals 16GB of built-in storage, which will likely be expandable, given Motorola’s trend of including Micro SD card slots in their recent releases.
On the front, you’ll find a 5-megapixel camera sitting above the 5-inch, 1,280 x 720p resolution display, with an 8MP camera sitting around back. Android 6.0 Marshmallow runs the show, which, given Motorola’s general propensity to have its phones updated to the latest and greatest, isn’t all that shocking, even when considering the low-end hardware. Finally, the XT1700 and XT1706 includes your typical array of sensors and radios, though NFC looks to be absent. That isn’t of much consequence, however, seeing how both handsets seem to be gunning for the budget market due to their internals.
What tips us off to the XT1700 and XT1706 being the follow-up to last year’s Moto E isn’t just the low-end hardware, but the model numbers, specifically the “XT.” Normally, such letters have indicated a Motorola handset in the past. In addition, seeing how then-Motorola president Rick Osterloh confirmed that the Moto G and Moto E lines will continue in the foreseeable future, we have a strong suspicion that these two handsets are the third-generation Moto E.
Lenovo hasn’t confirmed as much, though, and we have reached out to the company for a possible comment on the matter.
