While you qualified the recommendation of a Windows Phone, I still think there was perhaps little reason to mention it.

Windows Phone has a smooth UI for sure, but the wording implies the Moto G doesn't. It does. In fact, as a phone it's just fine.

The camera on the Moto G is weak, but the 625 only has a 5MP camera too. There's no fancy PureView tech, so I'm not sure why you say it has a better camera?

Expandable memory; no argument there. But it's always pointed out that this is a limitation on the Moto G. However, unless you want to store films for offline viewing, or download huge games, even the 8GB model is probably enough. The 16GB model should be more than ample.

One or more of many reasons probably. For me personally there are three things putting me off WP.

1 - App availability. There are still a lot of apps that are not on WP.
2 - Crippled apps. For example iPlayer, which doesn't allow downloading on WP.
3 - My current investment in the Android marketplace (having spent money on quite a lot of apps I'd rather not buy the same apps again!).

Extra money? It's well over 100% higher. What features do you get which are worth £164?

Better performance from a higher specced processor - if you're someone who plays big games or other processor intensive activities, that may be important.

A larger screen, better quality camera, and the guarantee of ongoing updates to the newest Android OS for the next few years are other things worth considering. With Motorola Mobile having been sold to Lenovo, there's no guarantee of ongoing updates now.

But we're talking about phones on a budget. Yes, a Nexus 5 or the OnePlus One are great products with a much better spec (and I'm sure you could pick up a LG G2 or Xperia Z for a good price) but let's not lose sight of that fact.

The Moto G is around £100 and exceptional value for what it is. It isn't trying to be a Nexus 5 killer.

Considering the Moto G has had a couple of minor updates (including yet another new loading animation), I hope Lenovo will be continuing to do updates. In fact, if it wants to maintain the market share that the Moto G gave Motorola, it won't do anything stupid. Timely updates of this, and other Motorola/Lenovo devices, will be vital.

Motorola had a terrible reputation for supporting things before Google came along, and going back to that would mean undoing all of that work.

Bear in mind that as we speak, Motorola is updating a number of old phones once considered life expired. This sudden U-turn is bound to restore faith in a lot of customers, which is ideal as it now sets them up as potential customers for future devices.

I'm fully aware of their prior reputation, which is why I mentioned that it could be a possible issue.

I know that the OP has a low budget, but the point I was trying to make was that if they are able to stretch their budget, they can get a high-end phone for considerably less than the £500+ that a Samsung S5 or HTC One might cost sim free.

The Moto G is a great phone in the £100-150 bracket, but there are better phones, like the Nexus 5 which, considering their feature set and specifications, should also be considered a bit of a bargain.

Personally, if I was in his position and I could stump up the extra cash, I'd go for the Nexus.

Are you serious, really?

It isnt about "stumping up", i dont have £400 spare, and if i did it would be going on a phone, my budget was £150.

Anyway, i got the phone this morning, £138 for 16BG version unlocked.

Updated to kitkat straight away, played a few games, skyped my dad, very nippy, easy to use, and looks great, im well happy with it for the money.

Looks like the OP is sorted now but surprised no one mentioned this Galaxy Siii mini which is now around the same price as the Moto g

The question was "Is the Moto G the best budget phone?". So suggesting the Lumia 520 or the 625 is a fair suggestion.

On the camera, I'm talking about experience of the two - a few colleagues have the Moto G, and the camera seems to get mixed results. Whereas the 625 seems to be surprisingly good (better than I expected). Nothing to do with resolution (I often had my 808 in 2mp mode, and the 1020 only gives you 5mp).

Everyones requirements will vary; no way is 8gb enough for an Android device that is going to be properly used. It'll run out of storage in no time. My son has an Xperia SP, great phone, but 8gb on board is just not enough (while it has SD, there is no apps2sd option).

Personally found 32gb to a sweet spot for on-board storage. The old iPhone 4S I have here felt restricted with 16gb on board, the 1020 is fine with 32gb. I found the Xperia SP (with 8gb + SD) was continually running low on storage.

Everyone will have different experiences, requirements, etc. So whilst its generally true that the G offers damn good VFM, its not always true that it is the definitive best budget phone.

I only have the 8GB Moto G and I haven't run out of space yet, despite having most of the apps installed that I do on my other devices.

What I don't have is Asphalt 8 and the like as there's no room for the game data, which is the killer. But most apps are relatively tiny. Plus, take photos and have them backed up, and you can clear those out easily too.

Remember the Arc and the other 2011 Xperia models with just 380MB for apps, plus apps2sd support that not every app would support? I survived with that too. Many people will.

As I said, it depends on your usage needs. If you need storage, it's been made very clear many times over what the limitations are with the phone.

Why would I not be? I'm simply saying that in the OP's position, and if I could increase my budget, I'd go for the Nexus over the Moto G. What's unreasonable about that?

If your budget is set then the Moto G is a great little phone, but if you can stretch what you have to spend, then the Nexus 5 is an excellent high-end specced phone for a bargain price in comparison to other high-end devices.

This comes up every now and then. For people who prefer to have all their music actually on the phone, rather than in the cloud (for those times when you might be out of a steady data signal area), 8GB can be quite limited. It's why I don't have my music on my Nexus 4, because at the time I bought it, I went for the 8GB model. With a music library of 17GB+, I'd always want 32GB+ storage. We're all different though, with different priorities. People who aren't fussed about music or video storage will probably be happy with smaller capacities.

I do think that manufacturers putting in higher megapixel cameras should be ensuring they're adding plenty of on board storage, or expansion slots, otherwise the phone can be filled up with photos very quickly.

16GB will still let you take a lot of photos and video.

The Nexus 5 is obviously without a card slot too. I bought the 32GB model, but that's more expensive again.

If you needed storage for your entire music collection for offline listening (I used to do this, now I sync a relatively small number of Spotify playlists and stream the rest) then you'll need more storage, and possibly a phone with a card slot.

The OP didn't say what the requirements were on storage, but having now bought one, I assume storing an entire music collection wasn't high up on the list (or said collection can fit on the 16GB model!).

Yes, not everyone has a stupidly large music collection like mine.

I have about 4gb of music, which is my main stuff i listen to, i also have spotify for streaming here and there, but with the moto g you get an extra 50gb for 2 years of cloud storage, so in including the free 15gb from google i have 65gb of cloud storage, and i believe that can all stream to the device.

I dont really play many games, but i do have iplayer, bbc news, facebook, opera, etc.

16 gb is fine for me, the only problem i am forweeing is that i just installed tomtom at over 3gb, when you add all that up, i probably only have 7gb free, but then, thats with all my apps on, so even 5gb would be fine for me now to take photos, videos, add an app here and there.

But i think if i had got the 8gb version, id be really struggling, and would be being more selective as to what apps and music were being installed.

Because you're suggesting a phone that's over TWICE the price of what the OP's budget was. Quite a silly thing to suggest, methinks. Not everybody has that much money to spend on just a phone.

Anyway the OP chose the Moto G, which is pretty snappy and does everything that's needed for the price.

Yes, I think the 8GB version is pushing it a bit. I've got 1.5GB free on mine, which isn't a lot of room - but at the same time, I've installed everything I want and need on it.

That's 2.4GB of apps and 0.9GB of cache, then misc/photos/video/downloads taking up the rest.

If you need more (e.g. wanting to access a music collection or videos etc), you can buy one of many USB On-the-Go flash drives (like http://www.meenova.com/ which is what I have) which will get added as an extra drive. Effectively it's the expandable memory that isn't available internally (but without letting you take photos and video to save to the card, until you manually transfer it).

After a couple of month use - I wouldn't recommended the Nexus 5, especially if you use the speaker function for hands free phone calls - The quality is dreadful.

Its a great computer but not so great phone.

The OP said their budget was £150. The Nexus 5 is £299 on Google and can be found for less elsewhere. That's not over twice the budget.

As to not everyone has that much money to spend on just a phone… you don't spend much time on here do you? Plenty of people on this forum regularly spend a hell of a lot more on phones!

The Moto G can be bought for £139 which is less than half of £299.

I read this forum regularly and know a great number of posters buy expensive phones but not everybody does, this site caters for them as well.

You said, and I quote "more than twice the OP's budget". The OP's budget was £150. I'll let you do the maths.

/pedant mode

It's not as good as the Moto G. Inferior screen resolution and smaller screen size. It's not quad core either.

Better camera and SD card slot though. Also very easy to use ( although I've never compared it with the Moto G

Yes, removable battery as well... it depends on what you value more. I think the Moto G has more going on for it, but the S3 Mini has some features that might be important to someone.

I have an S4, so I am familiar with Samsung's interface, but I'd go with the Moto G, even if I do like the idea of a removable battery.