Fance something new - Andriod phones

robrooo

Stand out from the crowd and get a Lumigon T2
Well, its just over your budget at £399 but its probably the best designed phone (Danish designer).

System

Moto G is good for a bottom end phone but Nexus 5 is a £300 phone that is competing with the top end market.

If I was considering a Nexus 5, the Moto G would not make my list of alternatives and would most probably be no where near the list.

Motorola may be owned by Google but that was a strategic move for Google to obtain various patents. Google isn't interested in running Motorola. If it were looking at actually controlling what Motorola does or how it updates it's phones then the Nexus 5 would have been a Motorola and not from LG.

Motorola in the smartphone market have been quite underwhelming. They have a tradition of making quality handsets so hardware has been great but they have failed spectacularly in various software updates.

Those saying that Moto G will receive updates on the back of Google ownership are mistaken. People need to remember that what Google do is pure Android (e.g. Nexus 4, 5, 7 and 10) and that is all. Moto G does not run pure android so Motorola will have to do the updates themselves.

AlecEiffel

Harald wrote: »

Be very careful with Motorola phones.
First: unlike Nexus phones which can receive updates for at least 18 months, support window for Motorola phones is quite short. Not as ridiculously short as Sony, but can be painful.
Second: all Motorola phones have locked bootloaders. It means the access to 3rd party updates is very limited ad much more tricky than in other phones.

There's more: Nexus is provider-independent. No mobile network crapware, so no need to wait for update. Most of the Motorola phones are network branded. And so on..

Last but not leas: last year Nexus 4 is still much better phone than Moto G. Better camera, better screen, better pretty much everything. And you can find it in roughly same price.

Motorola have already announced that KitKat will be along early in the new year.

Reviews have stated that the phone doesn't include bloatware. Apart from a Moto splash screen on boot and a different camera app it is stock android.

A locked bootloader is no issue unless you wish to root your phone and not everyone does.

I can't find a new Nexus 4 for less than twice the price of the Moto G.

Harald

AlecEiffel wrote: »

I can't find a new Nexus 4 for less than twice the price of the Moto G.

Just two weeks ago:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nexus-4-8-gb-devices-159-google-play-1654082
It's slightly more than Moto G, but phone is better. And the deal for 99 quid is expired too :-)

AlecEiffel

Harald wrote: »

Just two weeks ago:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nexus-4-8-gb-devices-159-google-play-1654082
It's slightly more than Moto G, but phone is better. And the deal for 99 quid is expired too :-)

Nah, that deal links to the Play Store and is expired with the Nexus 4 no longer available on it - was two months and two weeks ago ;-)

MillicentBystander

The 8GB version back in stock for £99 at tesco, plus unlock code available for £2.04 here

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorola-Moto-G-Mobile-Phone-Unlock-Code-/111223239973?clk_rvr_id=553364284764

Google not interested in Motorola going forward? Pull the other one! They are effectively Google's manufacturing arm now and the phones they launch will be like the Moto G, designed to keep the other major Android phone manufacturers on their toes (Samsung have in the past mooted launching their own competing OS for their phones for instance).

PS The Xperia Z is better on spec?? No **** Sherlock, it's also 3 times the price and won't receive anything like the support the Moto G will.

Cisco001

Sony Xperia Z on amazon black friday deal this afternoon. Keep an eye on it.

System

MillicentBystander wrote: »

The 8GB version back in stock for £99 at tesco, plus unlock code available for £2.04 here

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorola-Moto-G-Mobile-Phone-Unlock-Code-/111223239973?clk_rvr_id=553364284764

Google not interested in Motorola going forward? Pull the other one! They are effectively Google's manufacturing arm now and the phones they launch will be like the Moto G, designed to keep the other major Android phone manufacturers on their toes (Samsung have in the past mooted launching their own competing OS for their phones for instance).

PS The Xperia Z is better on spec?? No **** Sherlock, it's also 3 times the price and won't receive anything like the support the Moto G will.

I know you are a huge fan of the Moto G but I am sorry, what you are saying is not correct.

Motorola isn't the manufacturing arm of Google. If you look at Motorola's flagship Moto X, it comes with bloatware and is not pure android. The Moto G is not pure android but very close only due to the fact it is a budget phone.

Motorola is independent of Google in the way it operates and will most probably continue to do so. The original comment was in relation to the software update. I very much doubt Google will be releasing any updates for the Moto G or supporting this device. In fact it would more or less go against what Google thinks Android stands for if it actually intervened in any non Nexus device.

PS: Have you tried one yet? I'm quite tempted at the price.

MillicentBystander

Walcott wrote: »

I know you are a huge fan of the Moto G but I am sorry, what you are saying is not correct.

Motorola isn't the manufacturing arm of Google. If you look at Motorola's flagship Moto X, it comes with bloatware and is not pure android. The Moto G is not pure android but very close only due to the fact it is a budget phone.

Motorola is independent of Google in the way it operates and will most probably continue to do so. The original comment was in relation to the software update. I very much doubt Google will be releasing any updates for the Moto G or supporting this device. In fact it would more or less go against what Google thinks Android stands for if it actually intervened in any non Nexus device.

PS: Have you tried one yet? I'm quite tempted at the price.

Yes, I'm sure it's just co-incidence that the Moto G sports specs that would cost twice as much on Android phones from mainstream competitors lol (they've never had a rep for producing incredibly good value phones previously). And it's only 'almost pure android because it's a budget phone?? Only time will tell who is right and who is wrong here but if you were Google and you had the biggest maker of Android phones suggesting they want to start their own competing OS for their range of phones, would you just sit back and let it happen? The big problem for a company like Samsung taking on Google is Google aren't particularly interesting in profiting from hardware.

Even Apple may have to take notice here - their similarly specced smartphone is a frankly ludicrous £340 more than the equivalent Moto G.

System

None of that supports what you are saying.

Simple fact is the Google Hardware = Nexus devices.

Motorola do not produce Nexus devices despite being owned by Google. Why? Because Google aren't interested in the manufacture of the actual phone. They are purely interested in being the first to showcase their own platform on a device that they selected, at a heavily discounted price to reach its hardcore user base in limited numbers.

What you are saying just doesn't make sense. It would be a conflict of interest for Google to use Motorola as its manufacturing arm. It would then be sending its pure android devices to market to compete against Motorola's very own bloatware android devices.

Again, not sure why you are questioning that Moto G is near pure android due to being a budget phone. Look at the Moto X and then look at the Moto G UI and then tell me which one cut costs by not adding the additional software on top.