Motorola has of late seemed laser-focused on improving photography with their devices at various price points, and this new Moto One Fusion+ is proof of just that.
The first thing you'll be greeted by with the Fusion+ is a large 6.5-inch FHD+ display that sports a 1080x2340 resolution. You'll notice there's no notch--that's because this phone has a pop- up selfie camera. It's a good way to save on-screen space, and there's virtually no competitor at this price point that's offering a notch-free display. Colours are a bit flat when the screen mode is set to natural, but you can always boost them by changing the mode in settings. Once you do that, the display experience is fairly good for an IPS LCD panel.
Motorola's main focus when it comes to the One Fusion+ is the quad-camera system on the back of the phone, with the 8MP ultra-wide sensor in a separate hole at the top. Below that is the main 64MP sensor, a 5MP macro vision camera and a 2MP depth sensor. It's quite a bulky system, so if you set the phone down on the table, it does tend to rock a bit, but only when pressing down on the lower right half of the phone. Pictures with the main sensor are quite good, with crisp colours and a whole lot of detail. Some competitors have a tendency to boost saturation, but the Fusion+ keeps them quite natural. On the whole though, pictures from the main camera are adequately sharp and accurate. The ultra-wide lens produces some nice shots as well, but edges do get quite distorted when dealing with structures. However, image processing is surprisingly good, and pictures taken with this sensor don't look a whole lot different as compared to the main one. The Macro sensor didn't always deliver--focusing wasn't entirely consistent, and colours seem a bit washed out. It did get it right at times though, and took a few nice shots. The depth sensor is really good, with strong edge detection. It even manages to crop out the edges of just random daily objects quite well.
Low light picture quality is slightly hit and miss with this phone. Even with the Night Vision technology Motorola has packed in, there's a fair bit of grain in some pictures, and in a few, you can notice colour bleeding towards the darker areas. However, at times there's no trouble at all, and the phone takes really nice dramatic shots even in near-pitch darkness.
The 16MP front selfie camera is in a pop-up mechanism, and it seems as sturdy as the rest of the phone, despite the entire unit being made of plastic. Pictures taken with the selfie camera are sharp, and produce good results even in lower lighting situations. Portrait selfies with the front camera are nice too, with good edge detection.
A good thing about the Fusion+ is the plethora of camera modes packed in. There's everything from Spot Color, to Cinemagraph and Live filter, and there's some extra stuff for video too, like a macro mode. There's also the option to shoot pictures in Manual Mode, which unlocks a hidden feature--RAW image capture. On a mid-range device that costs this much, that's quite good, and it means you can take even more advantage of the high-res 64MP sensor in case you don't like the image processing Motorola's used. There's also Google Lens integration at hand, so it's certainly a very feature rich camera app.
Another strong aspect of the Fusion+ is the chipset. Motorola have bundled in the Snapdragon 730G processor, which coupled with the Adreno 618 GPU and 6GB of RAM gives very respectable results whether it's while gaming on graphic intensive titles, or just everyday multitasking. There's no lag when just scrolling around or even gaming, and the dedicated Gametime mode helps block incoming notifications.
The operating system on the Moto One Fusion+ is completely no-nonsense. It's the classic near-stock Android that we've come to expect from Motorola devices, and the experience is further enhanced by the presence of Android 10. It brings features like a Dark Mode and navigational gestures, which are snappy with the hardware provided on this device. There's also Moto Gestures, like a three-finger swipe up for screenshots, a quick shake for the flashlight and a flick of the wrist to launch the camera.
On the utility front, Motorola has offered a single speaker setup, USB Type-C charging, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's a dedicated Google Assistant key as well, which isn't a feature that's common at all, whether at this price point or even higher.
Meanwhile, on the backside, you'll find a fingerprint scanner with the Motorola logo embedded into it. Unfortunately, it's not the most accurate reader, and tends to give a few incorrect readings from time to time. Luckily, the 5,000 mAh battery more than makes up for it and should last you more than a day even with heavy usage, and two days if you're frugal. There's support for 18W Turbo Power charging which isn't the quickest when it comes to fast charging speeds, but it's not a deal-breaker considering the price and the huge battery. Motorola also includes a plastic case in the box that's quite necessary considering the plastic build quality, that's susceptible to scratches.
Lastly, let's talk about the design. We received the Twilight Blue colour, that's got a nice gradient on the back. It's simple enough, but if you're one for something flashy, there's a Moonlight White colour option too. The phone is quite bulky, which is probably due to the pop-up camera system, but it does have a nice weight to it, which lends a slightly premium feel to the device.
So who is this phone for? Well, if you're a bit of a camera buff on a budget, and you like a
lot of punch in your performance, the Moto One Fusion+ won't disappoint. Its 64MP quad camera takes good pictures in most lighting scenarios, and the Snapdragon 730G will handle anything you throw at it. Add to that a near-stock Android experience without any bloatware, and you've got yourself a solid daily driver.