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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semo - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Source? Those figures don't sound right (especially considering the new G now has front facing speakers)129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm Moto G
141.5 x 70.7 x 11.0 mm Moto G 2014
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5831...
semo - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Never mind. Was thinking about something elsemkozakewich - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Sure. ~1 cm taller, and .5cm wider?141.5mm - 129.9mm = 1.16 cm taller
70.7mm - 65.9mm = 0.48 cm wider.
So... I don't get what you're saying by asking for sources and then supplying the exact data they quoted.
nitram_tpr - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
This is a bit disappointing, I'm after a new phone and had been ready to get the Moto G 4G but thought I'd wait for this to be announced. I'll go for the 4G over this as the screen size is better for me.semo - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
"The new Moto G effectively is a minor refresh""While this is a mostly incremental release"
Don't think so. The original Moto G was a smartphone and this new handset is now a phablet. 5" is too big for one handed use. They should have just updated the SoC to Snapdragon 410 and made the battery removable (Qi would have been nice as well).
Ah well, fingers crossed that Samsung come to their senses and price the S5 mini appropriately (SoC slower than Snapdragon 400, yet 2.5x the cost of a midrange phone)
hojnikb - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
If you have really tiny hands, then yes, it coul be an issues. But then again, original motog wasn't small either (don't let the small screen foul you). Its all about overall size of the phone, not just the screen size. You can have a big screen with a very tiny benzel and the thing won't look gigantic and vise versa.semo - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
The new Moto G is bigger apart from thickness (I prefer thicker phones as I think it helps get a better grip)129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm Moto G
141.5 x 70.7 x 11.0 mm Moto G 2014
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5831...
The Moto X was supposed to be the big phone.
hojnikb - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Its bigger, but then again, if you're after smaller phones, there is always moto g LTE, which i pretty sure its gonna stay, until its replacement arrivesjjj - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Even 5.5 inch is not a phablet anymore. A device has to be too big to be called a phone to become a phablet. 5 to 5.5 inch is normal, sizes have been going up for years now and it's normal for Moto to keep up.The device is targeted at developing markets where fewer users buy both a phone and a tablet so the phone gets heavy usage for internet and video and bigger the better.
That's not to say that there shouldn't be smaller phones but they only have a handful of handsets and they are addressing the mainstream market not a niche.
The first one was small to keep costs low ,screens are the most costly part in a phone, that's the only reason the first one was 4.5 not bigger.At 5 inch they'll sell a hell of a lot more. Coupled with the better cam and the microSD they are likely to get at least 30% higher volume , before more people start looking for a better SoC..
Moto did well here , except the SoC and the price is great for the an old guard phone maker. Sure in China you can get the specs for under 100$ ( like the Huawei Honor 3c Play) but few are used to buy phones from China ,nobody tells them about it , tech sites got left behind and they are stuck covering 15 models form a handful of dieing phone makers.
semo - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Just 5 years ago there were no phones that big. Human hands have not evolved in that space of time. 5" is a phablet still (this is the grey area between a phone and a tablet). What has changed is users' acceptance of using phablets instead of smartphones.I don't have a problem with big phones but it is bothering me that big phones are squeezing out the regular size handsets. Last month we saw the LG G3 Beat (mini) come in at 5". Now it is the Moto G. The Galaxy S minis have also been growing in size as well. Soon there will be no choice other than to buy phones from a year ago or older if you want something below 5".