At their event this morning in São Paulo, Brazil, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside announced their newest handset the Moto G. The phone according to Mr Woodside is definitely aimed at the lower end of the handset range.
The Moto G is focusing on giving a great experience to customers who can’t afford the highest end handset or want a smaller handset. Mr Woodside says the ‘Moto G offers a premium experience at less than one third of the price of high end devices’.
Hardware
Charlie Tritschler, Product Manager Motorola Mobility, listed off the specifics of the device starting with the Waterpoof Nano-Coating included in the phone to help make the device a bit ‘life proof’. The phone still contains high quality components including a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Quad-Core SoC, 1GB of RAM with a 4.5″ 720p HD Display right up front with a 5MP Camera on the rear.
- 4.5″ 1280×720 HD 329 ppi display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU
- 1GB RAM
- 8/16GB Storage with Two years 50 GB storage free on Google Drive(65GB total)
- 5MP Rear Camera with 1.3MP Front-Facing Camera
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps as well as CDMA/EVDO Rev A
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/GLONASS
- Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean)
- 129.9×65.9 mmx6.0-11.6 mm (curved) @ 143 grams
- Built-in rechargeable 2070 mAh lithium-ion battery
Notably as you can see, there was absolutely no mention of 4G/LTE support on the Moto G, making the HSPA+ the only option for the Moto G in Australia. The phone will be SIM unlocked when made available and come in Single and Dual-SIM configurations in certain markets.
Meet Moto G
Customisation and Accessories
The Moto G will not be as heavily customizable as the Moto X that was introduced to the US earlier this year but will include 19 customization options including Removeable Backs called ‘Motorola Shells’ available in 7 colours – Black, White ‘Chalk’, Cherry, Lemon Lime, Turquoise and Violet, coloured Flip Shells which are smart covers for the Moto G as well as Coloured ‘Active Grips’ which are bumper like accessories.
They are also going to be offering accessories such as wired and un-wired earphones, wireless speaker from JBL and Motorola power packs for charging on the Go.
Software Features
Punit Somni Software Product Management, Motorola Mobility listed some of the software features of the device which unfortunately didn’t list Moto X specific features such as the Active listening, or the wrist gesture Quick Capture to activate the camera, nor did the phone seem to come with Active Notifications, what he did spruik was the fact that the Moto G comes with Android 4.3 but with a guaranteed upgrade to Android 4.4 which he promised will be delivered to handsets by January 2014.
Features such as the Motorola Migrate software which will help you to migrate your settings and contacts from other phones as well as Motorola Assist a service to help personalise your software.
The Moto G will also come with 50GB Google Drive on top of the 15GB standard Google Drive space that all users receive giving a total of 65GB in total.
Price and Availability
The Moto G will come with two options for storage 8GB or 16GB all at the low price of US$179 for the 8GB version and US $199 for the 16GB version, no local pricing has been announced for the device at this stage
Availability for the Moto G seems to concentrate on markets less travelled with the Moto G available in Brazil and parts of Europe from today and then in Latin America, Europe, Canada and parts of Asia in the next few weeks.
The Moto G will then expand availability to the US, India, the Middle East and more of Asia in early January for a total of more than 30 countries with 60 partners by 2014.
As you can see from the above screen capture, Australia and New Zealand appear to have been listed in the second batch, so we will see the Moto G on Australian shores in early 2014 if you’re interested in the Moto G.
Are you interested in the Moto G?
I was turned off by the rumours but it’s a nice tight little device. Compare this to a Nexus 4 for example, even at the sell out prices. This is a steal. Will strongly consider one of these for my mum if she’s happy with it.
$200 is remarkably cheap but no LTE kills me
If you can afford a plan with a decent LTE quota, then this probably isn’t your phone.
I think this is a great device… Although i won’t be buying it as the main features of the Moto X aren’t there.
The lack of LTE doesn’t bother me, like it seems to bother others.
It’s the lack of active listening that i’d trade the Nexus 5 in for this phone.
Active notifications can be added by the third party Dynamic Notification app (great app for any OLED screen).
I still think Australia might see the Moto X, given the piles of them sitting unsold in U.S. warehouses.
Oh to hope that Optus throws them out in a firesale plan…
If it had uSD it would be a good little phone
The appealing thing about this is that it looks like they’ve put effort into this even though it’s a low-mid range device. Wasn’t just released on the down low like many other cheaper devices too.
Loved all the digs they had at other Android OEMs about their bloated skins and similar apps that compete with Googles. 😛
It sure is good to see Motorola doing a quality phone, without all the bloat, for a great price. It’s hard not to see the guiding hand of Google in the background here.
It’s a prepaid phone, I assume. Compete with the cheap LGs and Huaweis and Sonys. Under the glass at the smokes counter in Woolworths.
Nothing wrong with prepaid phones, you silly looking goose.
Yes my prepaid plan has more data than your post-paid … and its a good deal cheaper.
The phone looks great for its price. $199 Moto G (Probably $249 in AUD) – $399 Nexus 5. Google has it covered ^^
This is a smart move by Motorola to compete with Nokia in the budget space. I suspect folk that prefer Android on a budget have looked longingly at phones like the Lumia 520 & 620 and wondered where the colorful, good performing Android equivalent is. The Moto G looks like the answer to me.
Not really.
The perfectly functional, no-lag, cheapest Nokia Lumia (520) is $100 cheaper, if the Moto G will cost AU$250).
There’s one thing you’re forgetting: The Nokia Lumia 520 runs Windows Phone 8, which is about as appealing as sleeping in a mudhole.
In a market where 4G has become the norm offered by carriers, you’re going to release a 3G phone, late, AFTER Xmas and the post-Xmas $ale$, when folks won’t have the cash to buy. Good going Googlrola.
So third-world countries are going to be given the Moto G before AU. Good going Googlrola.
So you’re determined to not give AU the REAL Moto X, but rather, a watered down, features shredited, lower grade copy in its place. Good going Googlrola.
Fat depressed people always have negative comments. Australia doesn’t seem like the market for Motorola to start with. Just go but a nexus if you are indeed of a phone
Happy Dog, ease up!
personal attacks aren’t welcome here.
What? You don’t like a Happy Dog?
Not called for, try and be a but more like you name and less negative yourself.
Quite hypocritical that within the last month you’ve called someone out for being racist yet are happy to insult and discriminate against people yourself.
Fatty
Bringing out a phone at a time of year when no one else is? Going work Motorola.
Bringing out a phone that can be purchased outright, bypassing the greedy carriers? Good work Motorola.
Releasing it in larger markets before smaller ones where more people are likely to buy it? Good work Motorola.
Deciding to be the largest name targeting low-mid range Android phones? Good work Motorola.
There’s two sides to every coin (3 if you count the edge) 🙂
Absolutely brilliant post, Ben
🙂
Go home Ms Skunk you’re drunk.
With Hong Kong being on the list as one of the first regions to receive the Moto G, perhaps Kogan/Mobicity etc… will have this available before Christmas?
Guy Kawaski confirmed to me via Twitter that the Moto G is launching in Aus in early 2014.
He was hosting a question session about the Moto G on Twitter after the launch.
It looks like a good little phone however the lack of LTE 🙁
Going back and playing on my Galaxy Nexus after being spoilt with the S4’s LTE is horrid. Who know’s maybe we will see the MotoX come over if this thing does alright.