With all the holidays, festivals and starts to those Gap years away, there are more and more people losing their Smartphones. At least once a week, I see a Facebook status asking for someone to be contacted there as they have lost their phone.
So for the sake of protecting the one thing most of us cannot live without, why not consider a travel handset?
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Lenovo Moto C Plus
This might sound like too much of an expense for many, given our everyday handsets can cost upwards of £500+. Yet there is an alternative from Lenovo, who now own the iconic Motorola brand, the Moto C Plus.
The C Plus does not compete with any of the major market leading handsets when it comes to specifications, but what it does deliver, is a tick in nearly every box and a price so low, I thought it was a mistake!!
Features
I’ll point out there is an entry C model (lower res. screen, smaller battery, less power), but for the difference in specs and price difference you should opt for the Plus.
Released in June 2017, this handset will do everything your day-to-day phone does – just with a little less ‘oomph’.
The main (rear) camera, arguably the most used function of our phones when travelling, is a respectable 8MP, not a huge loss on the 12MP we see on flagship handsets! Recording video can be captured in 720p at 30 frames per second (fps) which is slight drop in quality as I tend to say 1080p should be a minimum for those taking lots of video. If Selfies are your thing then the 2MP front camera is more than enough for your social media sharing.
Amazingly, it has a removable battery, which at the price point, I wouldn’t expect anyone to purchase an additional battery for it! The supplied 4,000 battery should easily see you through a heavy usage day with a quoted 30 hours of battery life. Get it on charge each night and you will be fine the next day.
The C Plus even comes in a choice of three colours, Starry Black, Fine Gold and Metallic Cherry.
The big Plus (pun intended) of the Plus is the dual sim option. If abroad, you can pick up a local sim and switch between the two, therefore avoiding those hefty roaming charges.
All of this is wrapped up with the Android 7.0 operating system. Which means you will have all the software functionality of the major handsets and access to the full suite of apps from the Google Play Store.
Whats the Catch?
Personally, I’d say none, as entry-level handsets go the C Plus is great, but if you want to understand what has been removed to reduce the price then that would be the screen and storage.
The 5 inch display is far from perfect at 1280×720, when compared to the flagship Moto Z which has a 5.5” AMOLED 1440p Quad HD (2560 x 1440) 535 ppi, but this should not be an issue. The C Plus shows you what you need to see and that is all that matters.
Smartphones with expandable memory (most on the market apart from Apple) can take up to a 2TB Micro SD card which is a huge amount of storage for a handset. The Moto C Plus can only expand to 32GB, when added to the 16GB that is onboard should be enough for a summer vacation.
Price
If you are sitting down, I will continue….. All of the above for a sim free handset is £99 from Argos or £140 from Amazon and is Prime eligible.
That is an incredible price for an entry level handset with very reasonable specs and good enough to travel with you while your main phone remains at home.
Some phone insurance excesses are £100!