Hey

I have a S4. My callers have told me that it echos when they are on the phone to me.

Been looking at the Motorola G (LTE Sim free) from Argos.

Now i know it isnt as powerful at the S4. But how old is the Moto G? Do motorola plan on updating this to 4.4 and up?

Also, are these phone "pure Google" or not?

A story on GSMArena today showed the Moto G running Android L and I think Motorola said they would update it. (Edit - It's not really L - just a theme.)

Do you mean the original G or the 2014 G? Most people call them vanilla Android because there's hardly extra bloatware.

Wish I knew what the 4G update will have, not keen on a bigger phone but a better camera would be nice.

Tesco are cheaper than Argos btw.

Motorola have said the moto G will get L

Moto G is ace. Mine does everything I need to, quickly, no lagging, and for a bargain price.

I thought about a nexus, but at 3 times the price and missing an FM radio I'm glad I didn't.

The Galaxy S4 should really be more future proof, the Moto 4G would seem a little endangered with its 1GB of RAM in an Android world where the new high end releases are arriving with 3GB RAM as standard. With 1GB RAM the Moto could find it not getting updates for performance reasons in the not to distant future.

Also, according to the forums resident fandroid, phones are absolutely useless if they only have 1GB RAM .

First generation Moto (s) devices will survive the next round of updates to Android L.

What puzzles me is when you say it seems a little endangered with just 1GB of RAM? Might I ask what you base that one, Google with Android L is in the process of amalgamating 3 key changes in Android L, Project Butter, Project Svelte and Project Volta. The first of which was increasing the smoothness of its GUI. The 2nd is reducing the footprint of the OS allowing it run on devices with as little as 512 Meg of RAM and the latter is better power management.

If anything Google has actually future proofed lower end devices as a result of their "projects".

Now I am curious do you have a Moto G? As I and my family uses them and have no trouble with it at all, the phone has specs comparable to an upper mid range device for a low end price. The battery life is the best of its class even better than some of the more expensive Samsungs (like the S4).

But back to the OP both Generations of Moto devices will get the Android L update, I also believe Motorola hasd committed to support the handsets and software for 2 years from initial release.

Ask Alan to explain


I bought one of each generation when they launched, they were OK for their price, I suppose, but for Android I prefer a phone with a better spec. Android needs all the performance it can get to run properly IMO, I sold both on fairly quickly.

My current Android phone is a Note 3.

They are good... For the price.

I really like them but they cannot complete across the board. It would be misleading to say so.

I use a Moto G as my work phone, brilliant battery life, perfect clutter free Android. It just works.

However, my personal phone is a Nexus 5. If I take a photo or do any heavy web browsing the Moto G is a fairly poor experience. It easily gets slow and lags. The Nexus doesn't and photos are far superior (in terms of focus, exposure, clarity etc). It takes a lot more effort to get a clear photo on the G.

The moto G is definitely the best cheap phone I've used. That does not mean it beats all phones in all areas.

Your usage may not suit it's capabilities. If you compare it to an S5, it will be worse in many ways (not battery life though).

Thank you for all your opinions.

I decided to pay a bit more and go for the Nexus 5. You say Samsung S4 is future proof, but they take soooo long to release new versions (even unbranded phones).

Some may say its a downgrade, but i am looking forward to the pure Google experience over the flashy features Samsung have.

Well if you don't mind giant paving slab style phones, you could wait for the Nexus 6 (aka Shamu) made by Motorola and running Android L.

I would say for the price they are excellent rather than "good".

I've got a Moto G 4G LTE and for what I need a phone for it does the job perfectly.

In terms of value for money it is pretty hard to beat. I paid @ £10 for mine, I could have just as easily purchased a £300 phone but I doubt I could justify to myself that for the extra £150 I would be getting a phone that was worth double the price in terms of performance for what I need.

It will depend where you are.

Other phones would likely echo with noise reduction in the same scenario.
So would it not be far simpler to just turn off the 'noise reduction' in settings ?

Fluff in your mic hole does similar too and might be connected with that noise reduction.

Have just switched from a Nexus 4 to a Moto G 4G, and I love it. Problem with the N4 was dropped calls due to inability to lock onto a network signal correctly - The Moto G handles it all with ease.

I struggle with GPRS data on Tesco/O2 but I think that is down to the network rather than the handset. Once I'm in a 3G or 4G area then things pick up dramatically.

Ugh....no it doesn't.

What needs the grunt is those horrid launchers filled with guff Samsung etc put on phone. Stick a vanilla version on any android phone and it will run superbly.

A launcher is NOT android.

Where is the like post option!

err, you might just find that some slimmer launchers load and unload more thus killing battery life.

No they don't.

Also we are taking about performance. Not battery power.

Stiggles is right. Most people think they can get rid of "Touchwiz" simply by installing Google Now Launcher / Nova Launcher / Whatever Launcher, but you can't.

And a Nexus 5 is in no way a downgrade from a Galaxy S4 (apart from lack of MicroSD on the Nexus).

I've had a Moto G for about 9 months now, and I'm very happy with it. Okay, the browser software's a bit fiddly to use, but as far as I'm concerned it's for emergency use only. I can't really think of any facilities it lacks which I might need.

One thing I'm finding confusing on this thread : what's the relationship between Android L and KitKat 4.4?

Do you mean the Chrome browser? If you don't get on with it, you could always try the Firefox or Opera browsers.

The relationship is L stands for Lollipop announced today, Android version 5.0, and 4.4 KitKat was one of the previous versions named after sweetmeats.

Yes it's future-proof as Lollipop is officially coming to all versions of the Moto E, G and X. When it's coming is yet to be answered.

Well what I can say about the launchers available is that 'they are all different'.

And like a lot of Linux variants, they do come with 'go fast stripes'.

Kitkat was named after the chocolate wafer biscuit...

Thanks. If someone had referred to it as Lollipop I might have sussed it earlier. I hadn't realised until now that the versions are in alphabetical order!