The brand new, dirt-cheap Moto E smartphone is ready to hit the UK this week, launching this Friday, May 16, for £94.98 including taxes.

The new Moto E comes as the successor to the widely popular Moto G, which turned out to be Motorola's best-selling device ever. The Moto G combined decent specifications with a very affordable price tag, appealing to budget-conscious smartphone shoppers.

Motorola wants to continue offering good value for a low price, and with its latest Moto E the company aims to put the feature phone to rest once and for all. The Moto E is definitely not a high-end smartphone, but it comes at a really low price point and is targeted at first-time smartphone buyers or budget shoppers.

Consumers in the UK who are interested in the new Moto E will be able to get one this week, as the folks over at Unlocked Mobiles said they will have the smartphone in stock this Friday.

The Moto E will be available unlocked and SIM-free for £94.98 including taxes (£79.15 without VAT) and is already available for pre-order. When it comes to color options, however, the Moto E will only be available in black.

In terms of specifications, the Moto E sports a 4.3-inch qHD display with a modest resolution of 540 x 960 pixels and has Gorilla Glass protection for extra scratch resistance. Under the hood, the smartphone packs a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM. The handset comes with only 4GB of internal storage capacity, but it has a microSD card slot for additional memory of up to 32GB.

Other specs include a 5-megapixel rear camera with no flash, and no front camera. Connectivity options consist of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and microUSB. On the software side, the Moto E runs Google's latest Android 4.4 KitKat, which is quite impressive for such a cheap smartphone. Moreover, the handset also has a water-repellent front panel, which means it can take a splash or two without breaking.

If the Moto G's success is anything to go by, the even cheaper Moto E could soon become Motorola's top seller and could dismiss feature phones for good.