Motorola's promise to reveal "an exciting announcement" last week finally came on Feb. 25 when the media received a mystery box that contains the new and improved edition of the Moto E. 

The new Moto E is still the same affordable mid-range smartphone that Motorola released in 2014, but with a lot of added features. One of the most noticeable changes in the 2015 edition is its external features. The old version has a removable plastic back, which has now been replaced with a permanent cover. In its place, the SIM and microSD cards can now be accessed on the side. 

The new Moto E with a bigger 4.5-inch screen is also revamped under the hood. It now has a quad-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, alongside 1 GB of RAM and an Adreno 302 graphics card. Also, Motorola finally decided to upgrade the dual-core Snapdragon 200 SoC to a quad-core variety. Its first version only has a 4.3-inch screen. 

The new Moto E variety now also includes a bigger 2390 mAh non-removable battery, which is a big improvement from the original 1980 mAh battery pack. An additional front-facing VGA secondary camera is also installed in the new device. Moreover, the new Moto E comes with the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system straight from the box. 

The improved Moto E came out from inside a crafty box complete with a stage setting that looks like an actual press conference being held at the Chicago headquarters of the company. The items in the box also include a lanyard, a USB drive loaded with the press announcement, phone images, as well as a reviewer's kit. 

The device is reportedly priced at $150 unlocked, and will be released in over 50 countries simultaneously, including the countries located in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and North America.