Motorola One vs Samsung Galaxy M30: Battle of mid-range smartphones

Motorola One offers the latest and near-stock Android experience along with a premium glass body. How does it compare with Samsung’s Galaxy M30?

Motorola One with Android Pie launched in India. (Motorola)

Motorola's latest Android One smartphone, Motorola One launched in India earlier this week. Motorola One was launched alongside the Moto G7, another budget mid-range smartphone.

We recently compared Motorola One with Xiaomi's Redmi Note 7 Pro. Here, we take a look at how Motorola One competes with Samsung Galaxy M30. The most premium member of Samsung's new Galaxy M series, the Galaxy M30 starts at ₹14,990. Motorola One carries a slightly lower price tag of ₹13,990.

Here's a detailed comparison between Motorola One and Samsung Galaxy M30.

Design

Motorola One comes wrapped in 2.5D Gorilla Glass on the front and back. The smartphone offers a premium look with its glass body but houses the older boat-shaped notch. In the same price range, smartphones have experimented with smaller shaped notch designs. Motorola One houses a 5.9-inch HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 19:9.

Samsung Galaxy M30 doesn't have a glass body but it offers a glossy back finish in two colours of blue and black. Galaxy M30 offers better and bigger 6.4-inch Full HD+ display and with a Super AMOLED panel. It also has a smaller waterdrop styled notch which Samsung calls 'Infinity-U'.

Performance

Motorola One is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of in-built storage. The smartphone runs the latest Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box. As part of Google's Android One programme, Motorola One will receive regular security updates and OS upgrades, and also offer near-stock Android experience. It is fuelled by a 3,000mAh battery with 15W 'TurboPower' charging.

Samsung uses in-house Exynos 7904 octa-core processor on the Galaxy M30. The smartphone also offers the same storage configuration. There's also a 6GB+128GB variant of Galaxy M30 but at a higher price of ₹17,990. Galaxy M30 has a bigger 5,000mAh battery along with a 15W Type-C fast charger. On the software front, Galaxy M30 runs Samsung Experience v9.5 which is based on the older Android Oreo.

Camera

Motorola One sports dual cameras at the rear featuring a 13-megapixel camera and 2-megapixel secondary camera. There's an 8-megapixel front camera with single flash for selfies. Motorola One comes with features like cinemagraphs, portrait mode, timelapse, slow motion videos and Google Lens built-in.

Samsung Galaxy M30 offers a triple-camera setup of 13-megapixel, 5-megapixel and 5-megapixel ultra-wide lens. The smartphone houses a 16-megapixel selfie camera. On the Galaxy M30 users can get 123-degree ultra-wide angle shots, adjust blur background with 'Live Focus'.

Summing up,

Motorola One does have advantages with a premium glass body and latest Android OS. The smartphone however feels dated as it uses an older processor and notch design as well. In comparison, Galaxy M30 offers better cameras and display, and a bigger battery.