Motorola Launches the New Moto G
by Joshua Ho on September 5, 2014 2:18 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola
- Mobile
- Moto G
The new Moto G effectively is a minor refresh as the SoC, battery, RAM, WiFi, and most other features. However, the display is now larger at 5" size but is still a 720p resolution. The camera is now an 8 megapixel sensor, and the Moto G also gets dual front facing stereo speakers.There's also TV support for Brazil and a microSD card slot. We also see a new flip case designed for the front facing speakers but the design is mostly unchanged.
While this is a mostly incremental release, Motorola revealed some surprising data in comparisons between the Moto G and flagship Android phones. In practice, the light skin on the Moto G makes the phone noticeably faster than some flagship smartphones at some standard smartphone tasks. This is far from a small difference either, as we're looking at differences as great as .8 seconds, as seen below.
Motorola also emphasized features designed specifically for developing markets, which include Motorola Alert, Motorola Assist, and Dual SIM intelligent calling. The new Moto G is available today for 179.99 USD unlocked on Motorola's website. It will also be available in India, France, UK, Brazil, Spain, and on Motorola Germany's website. It will be available in more than a dozen countries and through several carrier partners by the end of the year.
Source: Motorola
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Anonymous Blowhard - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
"In short, Chinese market products become junk in my opinion a year after you buy them because of outdated software that can't be feasibly updated."You're then supposed to buy the next-generation of outdated dreck they release in order to replace it.
Don't forget the subpar battery life, lousy cameras, lack of build quality, no inspection/certification so you're rolling the dice on whether or not it will decide to stop charging entirely or just melt, no 3rd-party ROM support, noncompliance with OSS/GPL ...
Bob Todd - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
And what version of Android are those phones running? MediaTek has been a complete _joke_ on the software side. Many devices are still stuck on 4.2 because of their SOC choice. The Moto G gets updates almost as fast as my Nexus 5. MediaTek literally isn't even an option for any company that wants their phone to stay current with updates.rocketbuddha - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Another thing. In India Google has teamed up with Indian companies like Micromax (#1), Karbonn and Spice to launch low cost android Android phoneshttp://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/03/google-in...
Moto G was a lifesaver for Motorola in India. Micromax recently outsold SMSG in July and August. Would not be surprised if MM would do what Xiomi did in China to SMSG.
All the above 3 are heavy MediaTek clients. With Google One blessing, the various MediaTek SOCs will definitely be priced to be far more economical than Moto G. Not the same smooth sailing this time...
rocketbuddha - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Yeah! If they have just the "3G" + HSPA model why not go with SOC manufacturers other than Qualcomm?The good news from IFA2014 is that finally QCOM is getting LTE baseband competition with both Mediatek as well as Huawei.
avinashK - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
This is complete disappointment ,,Over large screen ,, same battery ,,, same soc ,,same ram,, same old 720p ,, atleast they would have gone for 1080p and slightly priced to 200$ ,,,,,,
hojnikb - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
So basicly killing their higher end moto X ?Yeah i think not.
Dribble - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Really liked original. Didn't want a larger screen/phone. Did want newer faster hardware. Shows motorola don't have a clue what made the moto g so successful.hojnikb - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Price made the thing successful. No smaller screen.piroroadkill - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Wrong. I wouldn't buy a phone with a 5" screen, but would normally have recommended the G.hojnikb - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Do you really think motorola just went ahead and upped the screen size just because they can ?No. They did their homework and upgraded the stuff, that people requested.
And even though it has a bigger screen, the device itself isn't actually all that bigger than the old model (~1cm taller and .5cm wider).