Testing Motorola's Moto G third-gen mobe: Is it still king of the hill?

Re: Your phone works on electricity

Worth mentioning you can now get the far superior LG G Flex 2 with 32GB sotrage for £230 on ebay (new). Yes, the SD810 chip does have some aggressive throttling when it gets hot but it's a LOT of phone for £230...

Dunno about other banks...

But Natwest and Halifax at least have WP apps. The Halifax one sucks, but apparently to the same degree that the other platforms' apps also suck. The Natwest one is brilliantly designed.

As an aside: FNB in South Africa, my other bank, also has a good WP app.

Inflation

Exactly how much below £200 was the original Moto G? Because £200 in 2013 (when it was released) is equivalent to about £209 in 2015. While the psychology of being above or below a nice round number might be important, the actual cost probably isn't significantly different.

Cardboard

Without the Compass chip, cardboard (the Google cheapo VR headset) apps won't work with the little magnetic switch thingy.

I believe it's used to stabilize the gyro too as the old Moto G 2 was really jittery on Cardboard and didn't have the compass, but the Nexus 4 (with a compass) is nice and steady.

The nice thing about my older G

is that it came without all the add-ons and other crap; just the bare Google applications. I don't use most of those, and have only added one application: Navigator maps.

The missus is looking for a phone and I think she will want something similar, so this is a possibility (neither of us do much with a phone beyond, well, using it as a phone: phone and texts. No social media stuff, no browsing or 'meedja consumption'. Certainly no money transactions.).

[As an aside, when I turn on location services, it politely asks me every time whether I would like google to know all my movements. It also includes a tickbox for 'remember this answer'. Trouble is, whenever (every time) I tell it 'no' the tick box disappears...]

I like the verdict comparing it up against other phones in the market.

Guess a differentiator other than specs vs others in the market at a similar price-points is things like screen size (5.5" is too large for some) and support (CS and software updates).

Moto's one of the best at keeping phones updated.

Or the G3 ?

When I wanted something better than my excellent original Moto G last year, I got a LG G3. These can now be had new for around £250 (and probably less) and the spec easily beats the new G. Removable battery but does sometimes get a bit hot. The large size (due to screen) is a feature or an issue (delete as appropriate).

The cheap Lumias are excellent phones - work supplies me with one but you look like a luddite.

Nonsense

"but the platform turned out to be much less demanding than thirsty Android"

I found my lunia 625 a laggy battery hog, chock full of bugs and a half day battery life.

My xperia z3c has nearly 3 days between charges and is better on every count.

Bought one a few days ago for £140 (+ £1 SIM and £10 top-up) unlocked from 3. Nice phone at that price, good replacement for the original G I just broke.

SD Card

1) The media never seemed to pick up on it, but the SD slot on the previous generation has serious issues, with cards not being recognized or behaving inconstantly. They improved it somewhat with software updates and guidelines to avoid the fastest classes of cards, but it still not perfect. My 4G occasionally drops the card or won't see it on start-up. Hopefully this has been fixed this time...

2) The SD card slot isn't limited to 32GB by hardware. Format a larger card to FAT32 and it'll work. I have a 64GB card in my 4G.

2nd Gen owner

I've just picked up a 2nd gen model for the princely sum of £126 brand new from Amazon (not via warehouse deals).

Typically I only change my phone every 3-4yrs... when they either break or become so obsolete that they become pointless using anymore. My old HTC Desire HD... had served me well for 4yrs and was still in good shape, works perfectly. But simply couldn't keep up with progress. I lost count of the number of times I couldn't install an app because it was still Android 2.3.5.

Now I couldn't give a shit about owning the latest phone... it's a tool that I need and use for day to day things... but it's not a 'must have latest/greatest' type of product... so I tend to regard those who must have the latest and greatest as 'tools' too. :)

I did want a Nexus device... but the price point was ridiculous for a phone. and I did my research and settled on the 2nd Gen Moto G because it was simply the best phone on the market in that price range... and at £126 there simply isn't anything out there to beat it.

I'm not fussed that some reviewer thinks the camera isn't up to scratch... it's frickin phone, you take opportunist snaps with it and nothing else. If you're trying to take serious amateur photographs with a phone... well, get your head examined. Buy a camera designed for the task instead of complaining that your phone camera isn't good enough.

Any hoo.... The phone is great, voice recognition is excellent, calls are clear and crisp (and I don't live in the best reception area), the screen is bright and clear... It does everything I need it too excellently and at a price point far below that of your average sheeple.

Is it the best phone around... No, is it the best phone you can buy for less than £150... Absofrickinloutely

SIM free?

So did they drop the SIM option? My Moto G was in fact my first SIM phone.

Smarter choice...

... might be the new Vodafone Smart Ultra 6. £125 of unlockable 5.5in loveliness. You do need big pockets though!

Stock Android the way to go

I recently bought a HTC Desire 620 for my old mum in Hong Kong ahead of a trip back to the UK. Wow - I sure learned a lot, first the device didn't understand what UK English was, second it was riddled with apps that could not be uninstalled such as Facebook (I think those were paid for to be placed on the device think time limited Antivirus apps on branded laptops/PC's) and finally in the 'running services section' had heaps of odd apps such as sino weibo monitoring apps that I presumed were sharing data with mainland China.

Had I had the option to wipe and place Cyanogen on it I would have but there is no build for the 620, so I returned it to the shop and when in the UK bought the 2nd gen Moto G which is almost stock Android and I'm pleased I did that.

Lesson learned here is don't buy Android phones with vendor bling or apps that you can't uninstall.

Craig.

The only things I've not liked about my Moto G...

...are the awful camera, and the even worse sound quality when playing music. In all other aspects it's a fantastic phone. After reading this article I still don't know if the sound quality and camera have been improved.

1st Gen Moto G Owner

I've been waiting for the 3rd gen release, and the only version I want is the 2GB/16GB edition, except apart from it appearing on Amazon France for about £160ish I can't find a UK version since everybody seems to be selling the 8GB one, let alone cheap when sellers are advertising over the £200 mark (namely Motorola on Amazon).

In the ukhotdeals forum mentioning the France deal, someone had mentioned the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 at £125 as a great alternative and much higher specced than the Moto: 2GB RAM, 16GB Storage, MicroSD expansion, 3000mah battery, 5.5" Full HD IPS screen, Snapdragon 615, 13MP back/5MP front camera. After reading the reviews I've ordered one, although I don't know when it'll arrive since there are stock issues but I'm willing to wait. Pity the Moto G seems to be pricing itself out of the budget section but at least they gave it a needed shot in the arm in the first place. My 1st gen is still my main phone and was a brilliant purchase when it came out, and when the Ultra arrives, it will happily find a new home replacing my Mums dying Galaxy Ace.

Is it still king of the hill?

Not for reading TheRegister on, it isn't.