Best budget Android smartphone there is? Must be the Moto G Regular readers of my phone reviews for El Reg will be well aware that I like cheap devices. On these very pages I have sung the praises of handsets such as Huawei’s Ascend G310 and ZTE’s Skate – aka the Orange Monte Carlo – after being impressed by the quality they offered for the money demanded. Motorola Moto G Moto G: …
> So you can expect a few GB at most. 3GB or so.
If you had read the article instead of leaping into unfounded speculation, you would had learnt:
"""8GB or 16GB – around 5.5GB and 13.5GB, respectively, after the system has had its share."""
Also:
"""Thankfully, the Moto G supports USB On-The-Go hosting out of the box."""
Just carry a 32Gb USB stick or seven, or a several terabyte USB 3.5inch disk.
@Big_Ted - "Why is 8GB not enough unless you want to load several boated games or thousands of tunes at the same time."
Why the hell do you care? It's not enough for the guy, and unless you get a choice with a replaceable batter and an sd-card slot, it's just another freaking Android landfill phone.
I love Android. Can't stand the completely unnecessary pollution.
@AC 17:27 - from the article:
you are stuck with either 8GB or 16GB – around 5.5GB and 13.5GB, respectively, after the system has had its share.
Not 3...
@Andy Prough - if fuzz had actually said the 8Gb version was not enough for them then fair enough. Given that the actual comment was:
Also the 8GB version should be ignored, for almost anyone that is going to be too little storage
(emphasis mine) then I'd say the responses have been entirely appropriate.
@ Andy Prough
Boy whats eating you ?
Do you feel insulted or something or are you just a troll with nothing better o do, get over yourself and let people post for themselves. Oh and I can have an opinion myself without prattish posts like yours you know, so please feel free to head back under your bridge....
Not everyone can afford the luxury of an unlimited connection for cloud storage. Also, not everyone in the world is fortunate to be always in a mobile signal area, much less a 'WiFi point'. For those, they may quite want a smartphone for watching their film collection or listening to their music collection, especially if it is their only owned computing device. Many in the third world, do not have a internet connected PC at home, relying on internet cafes for email & downloads, so a cheap smartphone aimed at Third World countries (which I read elsewhere the likes of Moto G is aimed at) with sufficient storage to hold their total collection of personal data, films, pics, music, is WHAT THEY WANT. Had Google not imposed the 'no expandable memory' rule on Moto, 8GB would have been acceptable, but as it is, I think many on PAYG, will end up burdened with unintended download charges from their carrier, which was probably part of the design.
>not enough to store half a days worth of music in flac.
If your FLACs come from losslessly compressed CDs, you're looking at around 350 MB per 74 minutes... if you're FLACs are from vinyl rips, Blu-Ray HD audio tracks or High Quality downlaods, you really should be looking at the LG G2 to get the most out of them, since it can decode 24bit 192Khz FLAC files natively.
Personally, most environments aren't conducive to listening to all the details in the music. If CD quality is enough for you, then I find a Sansa Clip (which takes microSD cards) adds little to the bulk of good headphones, and is a convenient size to wind earbuds around.
I had a Sansa Clip (well actually I bought it for my sister) it broke within 6 months. I thought it was a great little unit until that happened.
I've ordered the Moto G. It has some downsides over my current handset in that it's bigger with less storage but hopefully I'll get the benefit of a better screen and CPU, possibly better battery life. I can't pay even £25 for an extra 8GB of flash I just won't let myself overpay for flash storage by such an insane degree. When was an 8GB USB stick £25? Maybe in 2002.
Cloud? Then you'll be constantly eating data usage charges for swapping out various media files for others unless you stick to using wi-fi for that. I like to have 32 Gig of micro-SD card storage attached along with having teh luxury of on-the-go USB...
My next phone will be a Galaxy S4 in April (or S5 if that's out) unless the S3 mini in SIM-free form has a massive price reduction in the next few months
8GB is fine for most people.
Not everyone wants to try and store their entire digital life on their phone.
Embrace the cloud Luke....
Use something like Google Music, and you can have everything you have ever owned, hosted in the cloud, for free, all available for streaming whenever. For those foreign trips where 3G might now be around, you can "pin" a subset of music, typically playlists to be stored on the phone.
The same works for pictures in the Android gallery.
that really is a shit trick. so this is better than my phone in every way except it doesn't have a micro SD card slot. so instead of paying fuck all for as many 32gb cards as I want, I have to pay an extra £50 for a one off "upgrade" to a piddly 16gb not enough to store half a days worth of music in flac.
goes to show they couldn't afford to make it a budget phone with feature parity to their other phones. after all what kind of loser would spend a months pay cheque on a high end phone when the low end phone is demonstrably the same thing but without an sd card slot?
@Truth4u it's only a £25 differential, not £50, and with the 16Gb version being so cheap you could consider it a saving of £25 for people like my mum, who don't need the extra space.
You can get a USB OTG cable for a few quid and a micro SD-to-USB adaptor for not much more. So if you want to carry a load of songs or videos you can do it.
@Truth4u
You can thank Microsoft for this. Seriously.
The Nexus devices do not come with SD card slots NOT because Google wants everyone to use their cloud, although that's obviously somewhere in the mix, it's because they would have to include the dreaded FAT32 filesystem onboard and hence cough up to the losers who leech. If you notice, whenever you connect a Nexus device to a PC or whatever, its external software which does the file decoding - hence no extortion tax on that front, at least.
Replaceable battery is not a straightforward way to a week's worth of going outdoor with a dozen of pre-charged spare batteries in a backpack.
I used to think so and bought one extra battery (for my Milestone 2). What I got is (a) nonsensical charge percentage reporting, with numbers tending to drop, say, 40 to 20 in an instant, and importantly, (b) inability to attain a full charge, as I strongly suspect.
An external, separate powerful charger is probably the way to go.
The 8GB in and out of stock on Tesco Direct, just £99 for the 8GB version, costs just £2.04 to get unlock code from ebay......
I must say I agree with the article in all ways and would say this is a great phone for the money, especially as I had a code for £15 from Tesco so the price dropped to £84 ........
Same here. I've lost count now of the number of people I know buying this for Christmas. The rest are Nexus 5's.
Starting to have trouble remembering what other phones there are apart from Android these days. Surely after the Christmas sales figures are out we'll just see the dregs scrapping around for what Google would consider the floor noise of their market share.
I got a 16GB from my local Tesco on the 5th for £129.00. It was showing as out of stock on the website, but I was in the vicinity of our local store, so gave it a shot. (Amazon wanted £160 for an out of stock 16GB)
The guy behind the counter insisted it would ONLY work on Tesco's network, but as stated above, I can confirm that 2 minutes and £2.04 spent on Fleabay gets it unlocked. Less than half an hour for the code by email. (Thanks again Simon :o) )
Lovely screen, battery life seems good, very nippy, and sounds OK plugged into my hi-fi and my car stereo. No bloatware! It's rootable, and other firmware is already available. I will be holding off, waiting to see what Cyanogen come up with. I might even wait 'til January for the KitKat upgrade...
Very happy with it so far.
Have to say I'm impressed, its certainly more of a functional phone than a pretty phone with the default black back - but that's what I want. It feels solid and its perfectly fast enough for anything I need. My old Galaxy S had some flex, and the odd squeak from the case - this doesn't, its hard to quantify but physically it feels reassuringly solid.
The battery might not be "removable" but I've read a couple of teardown reports and its certainly replaceable - the inner cover comes off with a few screws and there is only light glue holding it in place. I don't need to swap batteries during the day, but I do object to throwing away a device if the only fault is that the battery isn't holding charge.
Yes an SD slot would be nice, but with the 16GB model I cant honestly say I feel stuck for space (although I personally would find the 8GB model hard to live with)
The Motorola migrate app also worked pretty well, so for an average user the migration should be pretty painless.
Having used CM 9/10.1 for the last year stock android is what I'm used to - and frankly seems a lot nicer than the bloat overlays that other manufacturers put in. The oddest sensation I've got therefore is that it looks almost the same as my old phone, just fractionally bigger, a little heavier and a lot faster.
All in all it seems a really good handset.
I haven't used Motorolla since I had a brick with a pull out areial and keypad flap back in the late 1990s. This may tempt me back.
This is serious tech for them money, which means either the others are selling at crazy inflated prices or the margins ont he moto are razor (RAZR?) thin/ it's a loss leader.
Either way, that's another for the list of potentials for replacements for my rapidly approcahing upgrade.
Perhaps worth mentioning that it doesn't come with any charger, just a USB cable.
That's the idea behind the EU standardisation on microUSB for charging. You don't need to supply a charger with every phone since people will almost certainly already have one or if not can always by one seperately. Not needing to package a charger is also meant to reduce the size and weight of packaging which is meant to gain green brownie points for reduced transportation costs + saving resources/energy by not making another half dozen chargers for people who already have more than enough of them!
Standardisation is a good idea but aside from the petty inconvenience of it taking forever to charge e.g. a Galaxy S4 with a charger or computer that outputs 0.5A, there's one nagging doubt in the back of my mind... given a certain battery capacity is there an optimum current to charge it with? If I use a non-optimum current would the battery's overall life be reduced? Are we filling landfill with batteries (and mobiles, given how most people throw them away when the battery goes) that should have lasted longer?
In case it's not obvious, I am a software guy.
The battery charging wizardry is supposed to negotiate with the charger to decide on what is the best current to charge at. In general though ALL modern smartphones charge better and happier at a minimum of 1A you will find that most Smartphones while happy enough to charge at 0.5A can't actually charge and be used at the same time because the battery is being drained quicker than it can be charged when the screen is on. The nice thing about the negotiation wizardry is that I can provide my phone with access to more than it requires but it will only ever draw as much current as it requires. For instance I can quite happily plug my phone in to a 2A charger but it will generally sit drawing between 1.2 and 1.5A
"This is exactly why the EU mandated that all 'phones have the same USB connection."
It certainly is. And one day, the EU or the market (or maybe even the vendors) will pick up on the fact that Power over Ethernet can work the same miracle on powering routers switches etc as microUSB has for powering phones tablets etc.
But until then, let's have a different and incompatible wallwart for every little LANthing you buy, and in the UK, a 13A socket for each of them.
Power over Ethernet can work the same miracle on powering routers switches
Only in a very limited way. It is VERY UNWISE to have serious power dripping along your Ethernet cable. Not to mention inefficient (i.e. you are heating the cable). And you need a bigger power supply in the rack. And are limited as to the cabling length. And no plugging of random swicthes.
Meanwhile
Regulation making sense
Hell yeah for once.
If I didn't like my phone so much (and I couldn't do without Here Maps and their downloadable maps) I'd definitely give this a whirl, sounds great for the price. My favourite dumb phone was the tiny Motorola Pebble, so only have good memories of the company - missed out on the "bad" phones ;-)
How (honest question)?
Google maps did have the feature, but then it was removed - I don't know if it's been re-added.
Also the implementation was terrible - you could only select a few city-sized areas, which was limited to an arbitrary number, even if you had GBs of free space. On Nokia maps you can download countries or continents at a time. This is more useful if you might be travelling about in another country, as well as being easier than faffing about resizing and trying to select the largest square you can to download.
How incredibly stupid to glue the battery into the back, and not to allow a micro-SD card slot. I'm sure for $5 extra, this phone could have had all that.
What a waste. Millions of these will be trashed by this time next year when something cheaper comes along.
Shame on Google for contributing/building this design, and for continuing to glue its stupid batteries into the backs of phones.
In some ways I agree with non-removable batteries:
* It greatly reduces failure with the interface between a movable (eg re-movable) device. It's the moving parts that tend to fail and a re-movable interface counts on this point.
* The design can be optimised for a more awkward shape or profile battery that doesn't require to be removed. The battery container can be of a different material to a removable battery thereby saving on weight and cost.
* No removable batteries largely prevents the usage of 3rd party batteries of unknown safety and quality. This greatly affects the reputation of a device.
* Having a fixed battery allows all of the battery control (charging) circuitry to be embedded in one place rather than spread between the battery and the separate power circuitry. This is another cost saver.
On the other hand, while I quite like having the option of a removable battery (my current phone has one), I'd rather a more efficient overall system (chipset, os, applications) that doesn't murder a battery than have to safely carry a replacement battery around somehow. The reality is that these devices will be EoL within a few years and these batteries, if they're good enough quality and the charging circuitry is good enough, will easily last that long.
> The glued in battery is guaranteed built in obsolescence;
Sorry to disappoint you, but the battery is not glued in.
I don't know where you got that from, just made it up probably. The battery is replaceable but needs screws removed and the connector disconnected.
http://www.areamobile.de/b/2267-teardown-das-moto-g-und-die-speicher-frage-update
@Richard Plinston - "Sorry to disappoint you, but the battery is not glued in."
You must not read German. The battery is glued AND hidden behind a soldered-in sheet metal box. And you need Torx screwdriver heads to access any of it. And if you try to remove the soldered box, you are likely to ruin some of the chips with the heat.
I would say approximately ZERO of the 5 million losers who buy this are ever going to replace their batteries. They are going to chuck them into landfills as highly-toxic pollutants - probably mostly within 12 months or less, as cheaper, faster replacements come online.
Once again - shame on you Google.
> The battery is glued AND hidden behind a soldered-in sheet metal box.
You are confused. It is the micro SD card that is 'hidden behind a soldered-in sheet metal box', not the battery.
While there is some adhesive to prevent the battery shifting, it is not "glued in" to make it irremovable as you imply.
"""Step 5: Now carefully remove the battery. He is stuck with gentle force and we got but going on him a knife."""
Anyone with two clues could change the battery (which puts you out), but it is more likely that any competent service company could do it in a couple of minutes, with _no_ risk, when they sell the battery.
@Richard
First of all, I would never buy a piece of garbage like this in the first place.
However, for the several million folks who DO buy one, how many are going to have a set of Torx lying around to open the back, are going to scrape the glue out with a knife, and (even if you are correct about the soldered sheet metal) pry the battery out to replace it?
None.
My point exactly. This phone is nothing but worthless pollution that won't last 12 months on average, and Google should have to pay relevant environmental costs.
> However, for the several million folks who DO buy one, how many are going to have a set of Torx lying around ...
> None
Irrelevant - the service agent/ battery seller will have Torx screw drivers. Anyway, for those determined to open the back, Torx screws can be easily unscrewed by the point of an appropriate knife blade.
> and (even if you are correct about the soldered sheet metal)
I am right, you are wrong. It is obvious from the photos that there is no box of any sort over the battery, nor any mention in the article of one in connection with the battery.
the battery will be good for at least two years, and replacement looks pretty straightforward (a few screws, some light prying and one plug). Yes there will be some - but if that becomes a common failure there will be plenty of people able to refurb them for £20-£30.
@Andy Prough "I don't give a shit about how "popular" they are - there's absolutely no reason under the sun not to allow the user to easily replace a battery or increase storage."
And that's your honest opinion as a user, and not as a corporate exec who has to decide whether the extra cash to produce a phone with a removable battery – and maybe some slight extra bulk, which might mean smaller sales – affects the bottom line. The preceding comment that the great majority of users never replace their battery is correct. They throw that thing away before (or when) the battery fails to hold a charge. You would obviously not buy this phone; based on the review, I'm willing to bet that many others will.
I did replace the battery on a Motorola V3c some years ago.... with a larger capacity one, but the battery was in effect the back of the phone. Smartphones look and feel different from the "feature" phones of ten years ago.
No wonder Samsung's executives have all been summoned for a global discussion... with phones like this that for many users (e.g. the majority of Joe Public) do just what they need with the performance of the Galaxy S3 at a very very good price.
The Galaxy S3 has more features, and from one point of view I like Samsung's approach of throwing features until they see what sticks in the real world, and possibly for willy-waving tech-heads as well, producing a simple, clean but capable device like this should concern them. A lot. Apple should be concerned as well because this device does everything and more of the iPhone 4, just a lot cheaper.
It'll be very interesting to see one of the reputable teardown sites take on this device and their projected BoM.
Interesting: http://i1.areamobile.de/img/00/00/74/75/02-motorola-moto-g-teardown-22.jpg
It looks like a fairly standard SD card, just embedded in the device. While this seems odd, it might make a lot of sense and may be cheaper than embedding flash chips directly. It'll certainly be considerably easier for Motorola to provide different storage capacities without having to potentially go through expensive redesign and certification processes - just swap the "removable" storage and that's it.
"Why you’d buy an iPhone instead, unless you are indissolubly linked to the iOS ecosystem, or suffer from advanced Googlephobia, is beyond my reckoning."
Unless of course you don't want a vast plank of a phone, and would prefer something smaller. Why the fuck do you people find it so hard to grasp the fact that some of us like our phones a bit smaller? For that matter, why can't the damn manufacturers grasp that, and start making smaller versions of their top-line phones that aren't crippled? I'm convinced that if Samsung or HTC did that, Apple's market would shrink by 1/3 overnight. I tried switching to Android, but I'm going back to iPhone next year because the best 4 inch phone I could find was still laggy as hell.
Oh, and the moron up there who doesn't se why anyone would need more than 8Gb, and keeps his music in the cloud? Hope you don't want to listen to your music in a tunnel, or in a concrete building with lousy reception, or the wrong side of hill, or, if you're on 3, anywhere at all. And I hope you weren't planning to charge your phone less than 4 times a day, or buy an inexpensive contract with limited data. In short, I hope you weren't planning to actually listen to any of your music.
apart from the cost of buying for "friends and family", I don't think a phone is an appropriate gift - just too personal a choice.
I would be really miffed if a friend of mine bought me an iPhone for Xmas, and I don't think an iPhone user would appreciate being given a Moto G.
Stick to giving socks - much easier to hide the ones you don't like without giving offence.
"apart from the cost of buying for "friends and family", I don't think a phone is an appropriate gift - just too personal a choice."
You obviously don't have kids. I can happily afford to buy my two eldest one of these each for Christmas. iPhones and S4's... not so much. Screw them having a personal choice, they'll get what they're given and they'll be grateful I didn't give them socks ;-)
I agree with you to a degree. Personally I prefer a larger phone. I currently have a Note 3 which I think is a bit too big and a Nexus 5 which is the optimum size for a smartphone but in trying to get a half decent phone for my brother if you wanted a decent spec it would be a bigger phone but he didn't want a big phone. In the end went with Huawei Y300 with a 4" screen which while isn't the fastest phone is excellent value for money and not too bad. If I was buying him one now would probably get this for him though.
I've played with various mfg's BS apps for managing phone content and found it to be a nightmare to use or configure.
Their stupid insistence on configuring the media with their "special" folder names p**ses me off no end.
I'm not a huge music fan but even I maxed out an 8GB card fairly easily.
Fixed batteries? WTF. I want to dump a phone when I'm good and ready, not when the battery ages too far thank you very much.
Don't get me wrong. The build quality and performance sound fine and otherwise it appears very sound.
Seems really good except for no micro SD slot and its hard to beat the Nokia Here maps for SAT NAV. In my book that just keeps the Lumia 520 ahead.
I am of course assuming the never version of Android has been cleaned up and users have been protected from ruining their phones by loading them up with slow, poor apps; Androids weakest point on low end hardware.
Out of interest, how much do chips cost in the vicinity of Reg HQ? Round here £1.50 gets me more chips than I can eat.
£100 may be good value for a reasonably specked droid device, but cheap as chips implies to me that folk with ordinary income levels wouldn't bat an eyelid if it were lost. I for one would be a bit annoyed (to say the least) if I lost that much money.
Whilst I think of it, why has nobody picked up on the assualt [sic] in the caption?
"The G crushes the Windows Phone 8 competition and shows Apple bosses to be as greedy as I’ve always suspected them to be."
... and yet nobody calls out "Shill!", as would probably happen if a similar claim had been made in an iPhone review, and almost certainly had it been a Windows Phone.
Since when did so many sell their souls too Google?
Between Orlowski and Taylor I no longer know which side of the argument The Register is on. I thought cheap phones were all rubbish? AO always seems to make this claim (despite my having not owned a single Android phone that cost more than £200, and without having to throw any of them in the bin as he suggests) and now AT says this! Confusion reigns.
That's probably because El Reg itself doesn't particularly take a side. I quite enjoy the fact that Orlowski and Taylor have such opposing viewpoints, and are (it appears) not only allowed but encouraged to air them.
A bit of editorial freedom is no bad thing, imo.
AO likes supporting the underdog, but he didn't half do a demolition job on Symbian in the last year or two then lost interest in explaining to the masses how Symbian Belle rectified most usability problems, and in fact even after not being updated in any meaningful sense for two years is still more logically thought out than Android 4, which has for example a new-style top-left back button on the screen, an old-style bottom-left back button, a new-style top-right menu, and an old-style bottom-right menu which might not give any indication to the user that it exists.
I therefore hold him responsible for Landfill Android.
> Between Orlowski and Taylor I no longer know which side of the argument The Register is on. I thought cheap phones were all rubbish? AO always seems to make this claim
AO is certainly positive about the Moto G:
"Two weeks ago Motorola launched a cheap-as-chips Android phone that by common consent, isn't actually nasty. Quite rightly, the new Motorola Moto G has shot to the top of the picks of smartphones in the sub-£150 price point. In fact, you can pick one up without contract from Amazon for £135.
Android has been this cheap before. In fact, in China, Android handsets can be bought for $30 - but Android has never really been cheap and not nasty."
--> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/27/googles_loss_leader_wants_to_bury_landfill_android/
Indeed, it's just a confusing viewpoint. I've been using a quad-core, IPS-screened, Gorilla-Glassed, 2GB of RAM Huawei phone for about a year. It cost me just over £180 new. Excellent and cheap Android phones have been around for a while as AT points out. Some of the ZTE Orange-branded stuff was actually really rather decent.
@AC
http://reg.cx/28WN
Yes, I was very impressed, it's a bit of real quality and the best bargain out there for £130. It doesn't come gummed up with cruft like TouchWiz either - which makes a big difference. Moto cut all the right things. The profit margin is thin to non-existent, but Motorola needs to make a splash and this will do as a loss leader.
I've a ThL W7+ myself, which is currently about 130£. The GPS chipsets on the W7+ and W8S are the same, and it works like a charm for me. If you have a data connection, you automatically download some "Quick GPS Fix" data (it's an option in the GPS settings) that helps you get a fix in under a minute. For what it's worth, my Samsung Galaxy Ace had horrible GPS reception, as does my mum's S3. The reception on this phone is the best I've seen on an Android handset.
I know there are plenty that want removable storage but I'm not one of them. I could probably live with 8GB if that was 8GB free and not 8GB total with about 5 - 5.5GB free. I'm sure it's easier and cheaper to just do 8, 16, 32GB runs but if you're going to be taking up 2GB+ for OS, apps and updates then you really need to start making it 16GB minimum if you can't have 8GB free any other way.
I don't play a lot of games and I rarely listen to music but I've run into a lot of "insufficient space" messages on my 8GB Nexus 4. What uses all my space? For the most part it's apps, app data, some music (<1GB) and photos. It adds up fast and surprised me when I got those messages. The other surprise was that Google makes the phone reserve 500MB for cache purposes that you can't use which I suppose it smart but the phone still shows, for example, 574MB and you can't only use about 70MB of that.
I'm wary, too. Got a Galaxy Ace for my Mum, and it was complaining about a lack of storage from the get-go. Killing off all the Samsung crud would probably leave her with a nice phone, but why should we be jumping through hoops?
I like the look of this Moto, though - a practically naked Android should mean that 8GB will be enough for my nearest and dearest, so I know where I'll be pointing them when they want new handsets.
Why critcicise an 8Gb option when their is a 16Gb if that is what you feel you need? Kinda like damning Rover for the Landrover being too spartan...when they have a RangeRover sitting alongide it. Buy their option that works for you - and not the one that does not.Simples.
Truthfuly,the first smart phone I bought had 16gb and just filled up with a shed load of stuff I never used.
First time I did an OS upgrade with compete reset...I intended reinstall a load of music, some video and the legion gimmicky apps I first thought so great (but never used). I never did and never missed them.
A vast number of peope do not feel need to carry gigabytes of music on their smartphone. Importantly, Fewer still though claiming such a requirement actually possess anything like that many mp3s as legal purchases. If you love music think of the musicians - carry less - but paid for!
Not everyone feels need to take a legion selfies and pictures with their freinds... not everyone gives a damn about posting every second of their lives on FB or G+! For more serious photography - many shun all phonecams for a decent proper camera.
In short 8GB (5.something and actual) is plenty for me and I don't think I am that unusual as a smartphone user... over the age of 25 or so.
Incorrect, at least officially. The reasoning given was manufacturers releasing great devices with limited space for apps and such. The biggest and most popular example I can think of here is the HTC Desire which lacked storage for apps and even updates. Having internal only means the phones has access to one pool of storage.
The point this stops making sense is when you remember they have most input on Nexus devices whereas third party manufacturers have avoided the earlier mistakes largely. I still have suspicions that there is some licensing issue with MS and their various FAT crap.
@Alun You wrote: "I’ve spent the last week trying to find something that the Moto G can’t do as well as the Sony Xperia Z1 or LG G2 handsets that I also currently have on my desk.... But I’ve yet to find anything."
Did you not think of TV-out ? I want a top-spec not overpriced phone small enough to easily fit in a pants pocket, between 4.3 and4.5" with THIN side-bezel (the N5 is too big for that), but when at my or another home, can easily connect to a big screen for watching films etc. Like microSD, wired TV-out has become a standard feature in most SMARTphones.
Moto G spec and reviews, so far do not cover this. Did you try it ?
Also, remembering its a phone, is the Ring and Speech volume upto the excellent Ring 78dB, Voice 71dB of the N4 ? (the N5 is 13dB down on the N4 so not a reliable alarm-clock)
Everthing else, especially the FM Radio for information when there is no mobile signal, suits me well, which leads me to:
Another aspect to reviews is Customer Support. I twice emailed Moto Customer Support to ask if it has USB TV-out or at least Miracast. The first time, the reply said will contact you when we have the answer, but a day later I got automated email saying as I have not got back to them, they have marked the issue solved ! I then replied to the previous reply pointing out there is a flaw in their customer support system in that unanswered customer questions not are automatically marked 'solved', so can they answer my pre-sale enquiry ? I then get a reply to that asking me to remind them of my question, despite my question being in the email Subject line ! I reply. That is followed by receipt of an apology email saying they will get back to me shortly, followed by another of the automated "as I have not got back to them, they have marked the issue as solved ! What a way to run a pre-sale enquiry service !
I've seen a side by side comparison with the Nexus 5 and the Moto-G doesn't support TV-Out. Nor Miracast, nor DLNA nor MHL over USB. I would be flabbergasted if it didn't support Chromecast but of course you'll need the dongle for that and support is app specific (I believe).
Thanks for that info. I am curious as to why they left it out, as unlike mSD, mirroring to a big screen does not negate their advertising revenue, probably would increase it due to better UX. When I first read about Chromecast as a replacement for other TV-boxes for $35 I was very interested, but it doesnt have a separate Audio-out 3.5mm socket, which I would like to use at least at home so I could benefit from a separate H-Fi system that has analog ip only. Secondly, the initial reviews of Cromecast said the initial firmware was limited to streaming just TouTube & a couple of US commercial sites, but could be easily expanded to stream your own local offline media by installing 3rd party Apps, as indeed it shortly did; but within a week or so I read Google did a automatic OTA 'update' to kill off, what for I suspect for many, was the most useful functionality of all. After the uproar, I read Google 'may' allow 3rd party installs sometime in the future, but that is now over 2 months ago and Chromecast news seems to have since gone quiet.
In a word no, the microUSB port does not output AV. And yes, I should have mentioned that in my write up.
The Skifta app should do the trick if you want to throw audio and video to a DLNA/UPnP network-attached stereo or telly.. And there is always Chromecast (when it gets an official UK release).
As for ring and speech volume, they are no worse, or better, than any of the other handsets that have landed on my desk of late. Can't say that I recall the Nexus 4 being unusually loud..
A vast number of people feel no need to carry gigabytes of music on their smartphone. Fewer still possess anything like that ...legally. If you love music think of the musicians - carry less - but paid for!
Why critcicise an 8Gb option? If you want more - buy the 16GB
Kinda like damning Rover for the Landrover being too spartan...when they have a RangeRover sitting alongide it. Buy their option that works for you - and not the one that does not.
The first smart phone I bought had 16gb and just filled up with a shed load of stuff I never used.
First time I did an OS upgrade/reset...I intended reinstall a load of music, some video and the legion gimmicky apps I first thought so great (but never used). I never did and never missed them.
Not everyone feels need to take a legion selfies and pictures with their freinds... not everyone gives a damn about posting every second of their lives on FB or G+! For more serious photography - many shun all phonecams for a decent proper camera.
In short 8GB (5.something and actual) is plenty for me and I don't think I am that unusual as a smartphone user... over the age of 25 or so.
OK - I got it to fill my own Xmas stocking and gave it myself before Christmas but for anyone wanting a Droid on a budget this can't be argued with
Yes, there are limitations but they are easy to live with
You can have a large game on it without issues - you just cant have lots of them at once. Performance is extremely good as is battery life.
I got this to supplement my little pile of BlackBerry devices (which admittedly were zero cost) and the obligatory iOS stuff
Extremely happy - zero complaints
Earphones with asymmetric cables always have the cable coming down from the left side, so the natural pocket for a phone is the front left pocket. With the headphone socket at the top, and giving protection for the screen, the optimal position within the pocket is upright, with the screen facing inwards. This leaves Moto G's volume buttons on the crotch side of the device.
My old phone had volume buttons on the left, so when I was walking and listening to music I could change the volume with a tap on the outside of my pocket. My current phone is a fragile affair which needs a case, so the volume buttons are less accessible and a shuffle inside the pocket is required. But at least I'm fiddling on the outside of my leg! With Moto G I'd be tapping or fiddling on the inside, which might be off-putting for any ladies in the vicinity. So volume buttons should always be on the left. This is particularly important in winter when a gent may have to lift up a heavy coat before accessing the pocket.
Or can Sennheiser put a volume slider on their CX300IIs?
This actually competes well with the no-name handsets. I should know, I got one, costing 105€, a couple of months ago. It compares well to the Moto G in most aspects except this particular MediaTek SoC has a shot GPS unit (which I thought was fixable at the time) and no GorillaGlass (but it's not too shabbily built either). The only thing that's missing on the Moto G is the storage expansion option (and being dual SIM, which my Chinese, naturally, is), which is such a simple thing that it really makes me think that it was deliberate. I'd still be pondering the 16GB version, though, for the build quality and not having to send it back to China if I needed it fixed under warranty.
My iPhone 4 is still on iOS 6, and I have seen them struggling with iOS 7, and given that the new look and features would take some getting used to, I have held off updating because I know I will end up wanting a new iPhone - 500 quid.
I am seriously considering the Moto G with its big screen and fast processor, and learning Android's way of doing things instead, because it will be interesting and offers a bit more freedom than iOS - 150 quid.
I might just keep the iPhone 4 for another year or two, because it is still fine on iOS 6. - 0 quid
Hmmm -not trolling, just sayin'
.... no matter how much you want to trash Apple, the 5c is an LTE device. Don't know if that's not a selling point in the UK, but here in the States, you can't really sell much else and call it a "smartphone." All the carriers have or rent well built out 4G LTE networks now. Worth the difference in price? (Note that "no contract" is not that big a deal here.) No idea. The buyers will decide.
Another thing I didn't see mentioned was the case material. Having two kids who've dropped and mangled their phones, I appreciate that the 5c case material (polycarbonate) is decidedly more durable than some plastics I've had the misfortune deal with after dropping older phones. I can't find anything online that says what the case and optional shells for the G are made of – can you?
Fair comment about LTE. Personally I fail to see the point of 4G at the moment, and if I did take the plunge I'd go for a 4G wireless router and a stand-alone. But each to his/her own. And again, something has to give to keep the price down. You just don't 100% of a £400 device for £135. As for build quality, the body of the G doesn't appear to be made out of anything fancy, but it feels every bit as robust and sturdy as the iPhone 5C I've got at the moment,
Curiously, when I put the one I've just got from Tesco on top of my cheap Chinese QI charger, the little led does start flashing like it does with my 2013 Nexus 7. But the battery indicator doesn't say there's any charging going on. I assume the charger must just be detecting metal bits in the phone.
Woe is me.
Having broken 2 phones in 4 months and passed weeks without one I've just bought an HTC Desire C ( as presumed natural upgrade to my Wildfire S) on special offer of €90 as an interim and future backup phone hoping to afford a Nexus 5 or maybe 2nd hand Nexus 4 later.
Now to read about this a week later is painful.
It's got everything I need until 4G is commonplace, affordable and PAYG.
It's even got an FM radio which the Nexuses don't have so is arguably better for me than either Nexus.
Woe!
And I like it.
It was cheap, available online unlocked, didn't come with a ton of extra shit, didn't have NFC or wireless charging, and El Reg had a positive review. I shattered my Nexus 4 because the damn glass back slid off a counter. It would've probably not been so bad had I not tried to catch it.
The first positive is the power & volume controls are FAR FAR better. You don't hit the volume control every single damn time you pick it up like you do with the Nexus 4 (possibly because I'm a lefty?)
I have not noticed a speed difference, but the camera sure is crap.
And as a bonus, I'm "helping to undermine Android"
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/13/does-googles-moto-g-undermine-android.aspx
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