The Moto G often feels like the culmination of everything that Motorola has learned in the course of making its other phones. Yes, it’s a stripped-down version of Motorola’s so-called flagship, the Moto X, but it’s by no means an afterthought. It’s reason to question what a “flagship” really is. If a flagship is literally the standard-bearer, then it’s worth remembering that the Moto G is the Motorola phone that most people are going to use – it’s the phone that’s going to define Motorola. When you consider that the Moto G is Motorola’s “best selling smartphone ever,” Motorola’s top-of-the-line phones start to seem more like testing grounds than devices designed to take over the market. Given how impressive and popular the Moto G is, it’s hard to see it as anything but Motorola’s actual flagship.
I wouldn’t only call the Moto G the culmination of everything Motorola has learned, but also what Android has learned. I just can’t get over the fact that they managed to pack so much quality and smartphone into this cheap device.
I don’t have a 2015 model, but I have the 2nd generation from 2014 and had the first generation before that. The first gen had some problems, but the second gen combined with Android 5.0 took care of those. Aside from the lack of LTE, which I knew going in and which the 2015 model has addressed, it has almost everything I want in a phone. It runs well for the tasks I do on it, holds up for more than a full day if it has to on the battery, has a micro SD slot, and runs a mostly vanilla version of Android at the user-facing level aside from the replacement of a few things like the camera app. I do wish it had 5ghz-band Wifi, and I wish Motorola would get their update act together like they promised (still no 5.1 for us). They also gave it dual front-facing speakers which, though I thought it a pointless addition when I read about it, I’ve really come to value. I’d actually rather have the G over the X, because of the micro SD slot. I don’t need gamer power. I don’t need a phone that can play 4k video while re-encoding the next blockbuster movie (ok, I’m exaggerating a little). I need a phone that decent storage, decent battery, and reliability. The 2nd gen G has been all of those and more for me and, when I need a new phone again which is hopefully a few years away, the current generation of G at that time (if it still exists) is one of the first phones I’ll look at.
I’ve owned both the Moto X and the Moto G and agree completely. In every regard, the Moto G is completely decent. The camera takes good enough photos to post on Facebook without looking horrible. The battery life is totally acceptable for the size of the phone. The screen is as large as it could be without being difficult to fit in a pocket. While I do miss the finer features in the Moto X, it simply isn’t worth the price difference.
I have a Moto X 2014, but I am still considering wether to switch to the G 2015. Sure, it’s a downgrade in the SoC and somewhat in the screen. But it’s an upgrade in some really nice respects: it’s waterproof and it has an SD card slot.
As an owner of the same device, I can only confirm this
I had the 2014 Moto G for a while too, and apart from some lagging when launching apps and switching screens it was probably the best phone for the money, period (and that includes Windows Phone devices, which I’m admittedly partial to). I ultimately ended up with an iPhone 6, since that platform has finally reached the realm of “usable” for me, and I wanted the speed and stability the platform offers. But based on my experience with its predecessor, if I ever go back to Android the 2015 Moto G will be at the top of my list.
I also have the 2014 model. It is very good with two exceptions: First, multi-tasking kills one of tasks more often than I would like. The example of this is that I play podcasts through Bluetooth while showing traffic info through Waze. If I get an email, the notification is usually enough to shut down my podcast.
Second: After a few days of running, it gets laggy until a reboot. There is not a reboot option, so I have to do a power off and then hold the button to turn it back on.
Both of these would be fixed by better memory management, which is supposed to come in 5.1.1, but if I were buying one today, I would spend the extra for the 2GB of RAM.
I’ve never had a problem with it killing anything active, including my podcast player, but that could depend on a lot of factors. I’m using Pocketcasts, btw. Sometimes it has killed tasks but, so far, it’s never been an active task that has been killed for me. And as for the reboot option, I’ve yet to see any stock rom with that one. Come to think of it, the iPhone doesn’t offer a reboot option either. Suppose if you want it you could install Cyanogen or another custom rom though, and it’d give you 5.1 faster too. So far I’ve not had enough issues for the headache of doing that to be worth it.
Now can we have a Windows phone like this? (Waits till November)
It is already available – Lumia 640 LTE.
https://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phone/lumia640-lte/
Felt great in the hand, very good battery life, screen acceptable, camera not so great, loved the ability to add a micro SD card and a clean Android experience. The biggest issue for me was it was just too slow. 3-5 second app launches, app switching, etc. If this year’s model performs faster then I just couldn’t justify spending more on a different phone.
Edited 2015-08-07 02:06 UTC
Interesting that OSNews is hyping a phone which was tested on several sites with a slightly above average result. The predecessor’s price-performance-ratio was better for the release date.
I am not dissing the moto G because I simply have never held it. It seems to be a phone “for the people”…which is exactly the opposite meaning of flagship.
This article is like saying “McDonalds is the real flagship of restaurants”.
I just hate it when people redefine a word to mean something entirely different. Interesting article though although I would normally recommend to buy high-end equipment 1 or 2 years later or second hand if you want to get great value for money AND be a bit more on the eco-friendly side of the fence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship
Exactly.
The oneplus 2 doesn’t have NFC, wireless charging, or even fast charging… does this one?
Not sure about fast charging, no to the other two (though my 2014 charges pretty dang fast). But hey, at least you can actually buy it without going through an idiotic invite system.
No fast charging either, but the price:
oneplustwo $329
moto g $200
moto x style $400 => includes NFC & quickcharge
I’m still trying to understand the “fast charge” bit. My 2014 G charged from 20% to 100% in 43 minutes and 31 seconds. I timed it, because the talk about fast charging got me curious. Now, that’s the fastest phone charge I’ve ever had, and that was with the included wall adapter (figured it wouldn’t be a fair test otherwise). Given that, I don’t see it worth paying extra to get “fast charging” when I’m more than content now. Plus, if you charge too fast it’ll have negative effects on the battery long term.
Everything else makes sense, and yes this is something that qualacom and Motorola had to take into consideration when designing it. But rest assured, its not just fast, its smart. Ordinary charging takes place at the same voltage and current for the entire duration. Quickcharge has a communication layer built into it, so It can send more power when the battery is close to empty, then reduces it as it fills up and/or gets too hot.
The article says $179 for Moto G.
Missed that, I think I got the $200 from another article. My bad.
Probably from the cost of the first gen. The 16 gb model of that was $199.
I have used the Moto G and it’s probably the best experience I have had with Android devices. I like the phone’s relatively compact form (it fits nicely in a pocket), it’s light, the battery lasts a couple of days even with heavy use and the interface is usually responsive. Plus it’s a lot more stable than most of the other Android phones I have encountered – I only had to reboot once during seven months of usage.
Sure, the Moto G isn’t high end, it’s not a gamer/movie watching phone. But for people who call, text, play small games, maybe check e-mail or visit OSNews, it’s a very good device for the price.