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Not too long ago, Motorola was the champion of cheap Android smartphones. Motorola’s budget phones were well-made, thoughtfully designed, and among the best in their class. I’ve lost track of how many of his Moto phones I’ve recommended to friends and family over the years. of Things to do.
Fast forward to 2024, and Motorola finds itself in exactly the opposite position. Motorola’s low-cost Android phones currently suffer from bad hardware, crappy software support, and an endless amount of bloatware. It’s very different from the Motorola I had a few years ago, and I don’t like it one bit.
The day Motorola changed everything
November 2013. This is when Motorola released the first Moto G. It’s no exaggeration to say that this product has completely changed the way we think about budget smartphones. Until the Moto G, budget smartphones, especially budget Android smartphones, were often many To be desired. Whether it’s a low-quality display, underpowered processor, or messy software that doesn’t count on future Android updates, owning a phone for less than $200 before the Moto G was often a miserable experience. It was an experience.
Surprisingly, these are all issues that the Moto G didn’t have. The 4.5-inch 720p display doesn’t seem like a big deal now, but it was larger and sharper than other displays in the Moto G’s price range. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM combine to deliver surprisingly good performance. Meanwhile, the stock Android 4.3 Jelly Bean software offered a clean and simple interface without any annoying bloatware. It was eventually updated to Android 5.1 Lollipop. For a smartphone that only costs $179, it was an incredibly good package.
The best part? The Moto G was no accident.
Motorola continued to release Moto G devices even after the first model was a huge success, and this worked for a long time. The 2014 Moto G retains the great hardware of the first model, but has been improved with a larger display and better camera. The 2015 model also won.
Motorola has kept the Moto G series going for years, and while none of them have had the same magic as the original 2013 model, they’re generally a safe choice for an affordable smartphone. That is, until recently.
What will happen to Moto G in 2024?
What went wrong? It starts with Motorola’s business strategy for his Moto G. Initially, Motorola released his one Moto G at a time. In Moto G, he could get one a year and that was it. Visit Motorola’s website today, click on the “Moto G” section, and you’ll see the following options:
- Moto G Play (2024)
- Moto G Stylus 5G (2023)
- Moto G (2023)
- Moto G Stylus (2023)
- Moto G Power 5G (2023)
- Moto G Play (2023)
- Moto G Power 5G (2024)
- Moto G 5G (2024)
When you look at these names, do you immediately know what type of phone they are and what makes them different? Probably not. I make a living writing about phones, and even I can’t explain the key differences between the Moto G Play (2024) and Moto G 5G (2024) without combing through spec sheets and product guides. could not.
First, this is very confusing for anyone looking to buy the new Moto G. But more importantly, this strategy clearly has a negative impact on the quality of the Moto G today. Our recent Moto G review proves this.
Last year, the Moto G Power 5G (2023) and Moto G 5G (2023) received review scores of 6 out of 10 and 3 out of 10, respectively. So far this year, we’ve already given Moto G Power 5G (2024) and Moto G 5G (2024) similarly poor reviews (5 out of 10 and 4 out of 10, respectively). For all these mobile phones, the complaints are very similar. Poor display quality, underpowered processors, and poor software, to name a few. If you recall, these are all areas where the original Moto G, a smartphone from more than a decade ago, succeeded. Right now, Motorola is having a hard time getting it right.
why? I think the answer is obvious. Motorola treated the Moto G like a special phone. Time, care, and care went into the first few Moto Gs, and it shows.When Motorola releases 13 The number of Moto G models released in one year is equivalent to the number released across all markets in 2023, but it’s no surprise that the attention to detail suffers.
Software issues
But product line disruption and hardware decline aren’t the only things that have me worried about the future of the Moto G. A big problem for Motorola is the software on its phones.
I’ve had the same basic complaint about Motorola’s budget cell phone software for years. It’s clean and simple, but Motorola doesn’t support it with enough updates. Lack of updates is still a problem (Moto G smartphones are often promised only one major Android update), but now there’s something else: bloatware. I’m participating in that. The latest Moto G 5G (2024) and Moto G Power 5G (2024) are prime examples.
It starts with shopping, entertainment and games folders. So these folders are just an excuse to throw ads in your face. When you open the Entertainment folder, you’ll see ads for NewsBreak, Zedge wallpapers, and more. end When you press the button at the bottom (which looks like it’s closing a folder), you’re actually installing an application that you probably don’t need.
And that’s not all. The pre-installed weather app is an absolute nightmare. It’s littered with ads, as well as random news articles and videos from 1Weather Shorts and his 1Weather TV. The app also horribly It’s optimized and often locks up if you just scroll and do nothing.
Finally, there’s Glance. It’s a persistent lock screen widget that is supposed to display “a unique lock screen with live information and personalized recommendations for each moment,” including live sports scores and package tracking information. In reality, all Glance does is serve me. News article. Also, like the weather app, using Glance can often be laggy and frustrating.
To Motorola’s credit, you can uncheck and disable all of these when setting up your new Moto G. But I know this because I’ve set up hundreds of Android smartphones over my career. If you give any of these phones to your parents or family members, you can be sure that they will install this junk without your knowledge. And unsurprisingly, it’s the primary user of Motorola’s Moto G.
Where do we go from here?
Where does Motorola go from here? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I started using this year’s new Moto G. I distinctly remember using the first Moto G and thinking it changed budget cell phones forever. And it was successful! However, after using this latest Moto G, I am left with nothing but disappointment.
It might be even more frustrating because I know Motorola is better. In the last year alone, Motorola took on Samsung and Google with the Motorola Edge Plus, released the best foldable phone ever with the Razr Plus, democratized flip phones with the Razr, and even launched Google Pixel 8 with the Motorola Edge. It has fallen below. If Motorola puts its mind to it, it can create some of the most interesting smartphones out there.
But what if Motorola doesn’t do that? We’ll end up with phones like this latest Moto G, cheap, forgettable, and uninspiring phones. . There are still plenty of good, cheap phones out there, but if Motorola continues like this, that progress will be ancient history.
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