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[Central] Moto G reviews 2013-12-12

[Central] Moto G reviews​This thread is a collection of reviews, tests and more about MotoG :
Here is a summary :
Written review (first sight) about our device by @lavafire
Full length review by gsmarena
Unboxing, Head to head with n5, Speed review, and video sample by @AndyCr15
Review and How to change back cover by @AndyCr15
Review by Android Central
Unboxing and Build Quality, Short Review, Display Quality and Video Playback, Speaker Test, LED Test, Benchmarks, Gaming Performance, Water-repellent Coating Tes, Sample 720p Video, Sample Slow Motion 720p Video, Autofocus Test by @jonmorris@shem2409
Review by @jonmorris
Review by @mobiletechReview
Scratch and drop test
Hard core testing
Feel free to share any link that should be here

Thanks. I have others if they're useful?
Unboxing
Head to Head
Speed Review
Video Sample

Fantastic phone!!!!

good morning! I just ordering in amazon.es (http://www.amazon.es/Motorola-Moto-...uad-Core/dp/B00GOYN5TE/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b)'m from Spain, but I still need to wait a while to make it available for sale this terminal.
is this acceptable terminal requirements for today?
reggards from spain! and see you guys
PD: I've subscribe to this channel http://www.youtube.com/user/androidandyuk

Android central
Moto G review
http://www.androidcentral.com/moto-g-review
The Moto G easily the best cheap Android phone you can buy right now. (And probably the only Android phone at this price point that delivers a user experience of this quality.) Every criticism of the Moto G has to be framed against its ludicrously low price. It’s frankly amazing that a manufacturer is able to put together a device like the Moto G for £135 and make money selling it.
Nuthin' but a 'Moto G' thang

Great phone, but it doesn't have sdcard slot

Had Moto G for about 24 hours now, I am so impressed with this phone. I really want to let everyone know about it I have compared this phone a lot with Samsung S4, not because I hate it, instead it was my last phone and I have used it for months, so have a good idea of what I am on about
Screen
Some may consider the resolution on this phone being too low, compared to the high end flagship phones this is about 100 ppi less. But does this mean the screen is bad? No. In fact, I am loving it more than the AMOLED on Samsung s4. First of all, I am just going to say that above 300ppi I can't tell the difference. To me, 400+ ppi = higher battery drain + requires more CPU + requires more GPU. Just why? Maybe there are some untold benifit of higher ppi screens, but to me I just don't see any advantage what so ever. Apart from the fact you could say to your mate "my phone's ppi is higher than yours...". So this to me is a big thumb up!
Speed
Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention speed of this phone. My S4 was running stock android 4.3 means I should see a massive different when I switch to this phone. But the reality is not the case, it really doesn't appear to be that much of a difference. There may be 1/5 of a speed difference when opening apps, but that is like 0.2 seconds? Even for inpatient person like me, it is more than acceptable. At the end of the day, it make you think what Samsung is doing with their snapdragon 600, when moto g can keep up using a snapdragon 400... This is on stock android, don't even mention touch wiz... But seriously find a review video or go to a shop and see it for yourselves.
Software/ROM
Well not much to say here, it is running basically stock Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks e.g. camera.
Storage
8gb or 16gb, it is always the question. Previously i'd say get 16gb, more future proof, however I choose 8gb this time. Not because of the 50gb gdrive storage (pointless if you have no internet connection), instead you could get OTG so if you really want to watch films on trips you can do that. Otherwise, 5.5gb is enough for general app installs. For photos, turn on auto google+ photo back up (or dropbox backup whichever fits u better) then delete the photos on your phone once they are uploaded.
Camera
Haven't really tested it, but at least ok from what I can see and don't expect it to match DSLR
Hardware/Ergonomics
+ Curved back, easy to hold. I especially like the dented "M" logo, it gives more grip, helps when I need to touch the top of the screen.
- Phone is a bit heavy, for people like reading lying down for a long time might be a bit of a pain.
+ Back cover is removable, awesome! In fact, there a lot of covers coming out soon.
- Although, back cover is hard to remove and a bit slippery, not so awesome.
+ Volume key & power key on the same side.
- Clean design, coming from HTC and Samsung, I really enjoy this kind of simple design. I don't like the HTC/Samsung logo on the most obvious place on your phone kinda ruins the look of the phone.
+ No physical keyboard (some may consider this to be a minus instead of a plus), I am just glad don't need to worry about menu wearing out over time
- Speaker on the back side of the phone
+ Due to curved back, no speaker sound is actually trapped when you place it on the back
+ Both headphone port and micro-usb port are located middle of top and bottom side of the phone respectively, again just simple and nice to look at
- No 4G connectivity. Not a problem for me, as I don't even get 3G where I live, a lot of people living in cities might find this some what a deal breaker.
- No removable battery
- No expandable storage
Battery Life
All i am going to say is 4.5 hours screen on time, 60% left. :good: I am not convinced the stats is accurate, so testing it right now to see if it is really that good.
Update: second time, 4hours22min screen on time, 8 and half hours on battery, 43% remaining.
FM Radio
I was never a radio fan, always thought it was kinda out-of-date technology. Then I moved to an area where there are hardly any 3g/2g coverage at all on the way to work, karma i guess... You might say just download music from google music/sportify, but I don't change my songs frequent enough and it just gets old. Conclusion: always better to have a phone that has FM radio than a phone that doesn't.
Notification light
It is plain silly to me why some OEM would even consider not include a notification light on their phone. *cough* iphone. *cough* windows phone. It make things so much easier, when all you need to do is glance at it rather than turn on the screen, then turn it off again just to check if your missing anything important. There is no more needs saying, it is just playing annoying without one, so another plus.
Value for money
For most of the people, money is a key factor when buying a new phone. Even if the price is not a burden, you might still get the same feeling as me, thinking it cost quite a lot and make the promise to use it for 2 years or more. Well, with this phone you won't get that. In fact, I brought mine thinking I will use it as a back up phone since no other phone has its spec in its price range. But after I started using it, I couldn't put it down. Now I am not even considering getting nexus 5 which was going to be my main phone.
What I look forward to
Hell this is XDA, obviously I want lots and lots of ROMs XD. But I also can't wait for 4.4 to come out and ART to be stable. I imagine it would make this phone even faster. Saw some comparisons between Dalvik and ART, have to say ART wins hands down especially considering it is still in development stage.
Final thoughts
So happy with this phone, and mostly happy about Motorola stepping up and giving us this product. This is important in the sense, they are fighting a price battle for us, the consumers. We should show some support to let the other OEMs know it is not about how much they spend money on advertising, it is giving us a great product with a reasonable price instead of throw in some latest chips and mark it £599 rubbish which is basically what is happening right now.
Tips
I would recommend everyone get this phone, and get the 8gb version. Since it cost so little, no one could moan at you when you get a new phone next year

lavafire said:
Had Moto G for about 24 hours now, I am so impressed with this phone I really want to let everyone know about it I have compared this phone a lot with Samsung S4, not cos I hate it, but simply because it was my last phone and I have used it for months. So have a good idea of what I am on about
Screen
Some may consider the resolution on this phone is too low, compared to the high end flagship phones it is about 100 ppi less. But does this mean the screen is bad? No. In fact, I am loving it more than the AMOLED on Samsung s4. First of all, I am just going to say that above 300ppi I can't tell the difference. To me, 400+ ppi = higher battery drain + requires more CPU + requires more GPU. Just why? Maybe there are some untold benifit of higher ppi screens, but to me I just don't see any advantage what so every apart from the fact you could say to your mate "my phone's ppi is higher than your...". So this to me is a big thumb up!
Speed
Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention speed of this phone. My last phone being Samsung S4 running stock android 4.3 means I should see a massive different when I switch to this phone. But the reality is different, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. There may be 1/5 of a speed difference when opening apps, but that is like 0.2 seconds? Even for inpatient person like me, it is more than acceptable. At the end of the day, it make you think what Samsung is doing with their snapdragon 600, when moto g can keep up using a snapdragon 400... This is on stock android, don't even mention touch wiz... But seriously find a review video or go to a shop and see it for yourselves.
Software/ROM
Well not much to say here, it is running basically stock Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks e.g. camera.
Storage
8gb or 16gb, it is always the question. Previously i'd say get 16gb, more future proof, however I choose 8gb this time. not because of the 50gb gdrive storage (pointless if you have no internet connection), instead you have OTG so if you really want to watch films on trips you can do that. Otherwise, 5.5gb is enough for general app installs. For photos, turn on auto google+ photo back up (or dropbox backup whichever fits u better) then delete the photos on your phone once they are uploaded.
Camera
Haven't really tested it, but at least ok from what I can see and don't expect it to match DSLR
Hardware/Ergonomics
+ Curved back, easy to hold. I especially like the dented "M" logo, it gives more grip, helps when I need to touch the top of the screen.
- Phone is a bit heavy, for people like reading lying down might be a bit of a pain.
+ Back cover is removable, awesome! In fact, there a lot of covers coming out soon.
- Although, it is hard to remove and a bit slippery, not so awesome.
+ Volume key & power key on the same side.
- Clean design, coming from HTC and Samsung, I really enjoy this kind of simple design. I don't like the HTC/Samsung logo on the most obvious place on your phone kinda ruins the look of the phone.
+ No physical keyboard (some may consider this to be a minus instead of a plug), don't need to worry about menu wearing out over time
- Speaker on the bottom of the phone
+ Due to curved back, no speaker sound is actually trapped when you place it on the back
+ Both headphone port and micro-usb port are in the middle of top and bottom side of the phone respectively, again just simple but nice to look at
- No 4G connectivity. Not a problem for me, as I don't even get 3G where I live, a lot of people living in cities might find this some what a deal breaker.
- No removable battery
- No expandable storage
Battery Life
All i am going to say is 4.5 hours screen on time, 60% left. :good: I am not convinced by the stats, so testing it right now to see if it is really that good.
FM Radio
I was never a radio fan, always thought it was kinda out-of-date technology. Then I moved to an area where there are hardly any 3g/2g coverage at all on the way to work, karma i guess... You might say just download music from google music/sportify, but I don't change my songs frequent enough and it just gets old. Conclusion: always better to have a phone that has FM radio than a phone that doesn't.
Notification light
It is plain silly to me why some OEM would even consider not include a notification light on their phone. *cough* iphone. *cough* windows phone. Makes thing so much easier, when all you need to do is glance at it rather than turn on the screen, then turn it off again just to check if your missing anything important. There is no more needs saying, it is just playing annoying without one, so another plus.
Value for money
For most of the people, money is a key factor when buying a new phone. Even if the price is not a burden, you might still get the same feeling as me, thinking it cost quite a lot and make the promise to use it for 2 years or more. Well, with this phone you won't get that. In fact, I brought mine thinking I will use it as a back up phone since no other phone has its spec in its price range. But after I started using it, I couldn't put it down. Now I am not even considering getting nexus 5 which was going to be my main phone.
What I look forward to
Hell this is XDA, obviously I want lots and lots of ROMs XD. But I also can't wait for 4.4 to come out and ART to be stable. I imagine it would make this phone even faster. Saw some comparisons between Dalvik and ART, have to say ART wins hands down especially considering it is still in development stage.
Final thoughts
So happy with this phone, and mostly happy about Motorola stepping up and giving us this product. This is important in the sense, they are fighting a price battle for us, the consumers. We should show some support to let the other OEMs know it is not about how much they spend money on advertising, it is giving us a great product with a reasonable price instead of throw in some latest chips and mark it £599 rubbish which is basically what is happening right now. Basically
Tips
I would recommend everyone get this phone, and get the 8gb version. Since it cost so little, no one could moan at you when you get a new phone next year
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impressive review! thanks mate.. I would get this for Christmas soon.. till it reach our region soon.. anyway, If you could make a full video out of this review, I would love to watch it.. thanks

Stop full quoting! Argh...
@lavafire Thanks, this describes the Moto perfectly, good for people who are considering yet.

Not a full review (I'll be posting that next week) but here's my blog entry about it: http://jmcomms.wordpress.com/2013/1...of-success-to-date-lies-in-the-budget-moto-g/

Battery life looks too good to be true and I hope everyone gets as gooder results as you
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

shure2 said:
Battery life looks too good to be true and I hope everyone gets as gooder results as you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in my video review, I got some of the best battery life I've ever seen from my Moto G.

SHEM's Moto G Videos
Here are my Motorola MOTO G Videos:
Unboxing and Build Quality:
Short Review:
Display Quality and Video Playback:
Speaker Test:
LED Test
Benchmarks:
Gaming Performance:
Water-repellent Coating Test:
Sample 720p Video:
Sample Slow Motion 720p Video
Autofocus Test
Sample Slow Motion 720p Video 2

jonmorris said:
Not a full review (I'll be posting that next week) but here's my blog entry about it: http://jmcomms.wordpress.com/2013/1...of-success-to-date-lies-in-the-budget-moto-g/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please comapre Nexus 4 and MotoG interms of
Camera, performanceand other relevent fields.To
me some of the specifications seem similar.
i guess only the experienced users can actually advice
which one to buy.
Regards
Shikhar

AndyCr15 said:
As mentioned in my video review, I got some of the best battery life I've ever seen from my Moto G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

shure2 said:
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Note had a 5.3" screen.. That makes screen 38% bigger.
Also, the software makes a difference. And maybe the Snapdragon 400 is more efficient than the Exynos used by Samsung

I was going to say, your maths is a bit off there at 10%. You need to look at the area, not the diagonal length.
If you think back to when 4.5" screens where the norm on top end devices, most batteries were less than 1600mAh. The Desire HD for example had about 1300mAh I think.

http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/the-motorola-moto-g-an-impressive-addition/
....software optimization can go a long way, Motorola has compared the Moto G’s performance with the Samsung Galaxy S4, when performing minor tasks. Despite Moto G’s mid-range SoC, lower amount of RAM and less powerful graphics chip, the handset apparently manages to make a call 1.1 seconds faster than the Galaxy S4, it answers a call 1.2 seconds faster, returns home 0.5 seconds faster and boots up 5.3s quicker too....
:silly:

shure2 said:
In trying to figure out how this works because 2000mAh isn't even that big for a 4.5" screen.
For instance my Galaxy Note has a 5.2" screen which is roughly 10% bigger but has a 2500mAh battery which is 20% bigger. At best I've been able to get 5h SOT which is everything low or off, usually I get 3-4 which I consider decent because the nexus 5 gets around 3-5h SOT and has a similar size screen and battery.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's look at the numbers,
The Galaxy Note has a 1280x800 @5.3 inch screen -> 4.49" × 2.81" = 12.62in²
The Moto G has a 1280x720 @4.5 inch screen -> 3.92" × 2.21" = 8.65in²
-> The Galaxy Note has a screen 45.9% larger than the Moto G
-> The Galaxy Note also features a battery 25% larger than the Moto G
Remember, that the 4.5 and 5.3 numbers are the diagonal size and do not linearly represent relative screen sizes
The Moto G has a better (battery:screen size) ratio than the Galaxy Note.

How have you found the vibration motor on it? - to anyone who has one in hand yet.
The one in my Skate seems to make more noise than movement :laugh:

Would you leave LG for the S6?

I was very impressed with what Samsung had to offer. The phone looks gorgeous, the camera performs absolutely incredible in low light (based on their own comparison with the 6+), and they've finally sped up TouchWiz!
Other things I was really impressed with were
1) Exynos 7420 - First 14nm FinFET processor should offer better battery life and performance - Initial Antutu scores were over 69,000!
2) Real-time HDR on both front and back cameras
3) Wireless charging that supports both standards
4) Faster DDR4 memory
5) Faster storage memory (up to 2.7x faster than the current standard)
6) Samsung Pay and the support for MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) which will allow it to be backwards compatible with nearly all merchants and terminals
I'm sure I'm probably missing a few key points, but has the S6 made you want to switch?

Japultra said:
...has the S6 made you want to switch?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hummm... Touchwiz might be faster now, but it still is touchwiz. The price for a new S6 is just to high.
If i remove money from the equation... i would wait for the LG G4!

is there any news of the lg g4? i would like to see if it's gonna be a monster too

Japultra said:
I was very impressed with what Samsung had to offer. The phone looks gorgeous, the camera performs absolutely incredible in low light (based on their own comparison with the 6+), and they've finally sped up TouchWiz!
Other things I was really impressed with were
1) Exynos 7420 - First 14nm FinFET processor should offer better battery life and performance - Initial Antutu scores were over 69,000!
2) Real-time HDR on both front and back cameras
3) Wireless charging that supports both standards
4) Faster DDR4 memory
5) Faster storage memory (up to 2.7x faster than the current standard)
6) Samsung Pay and the support for MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) which will allow it to be backwards compatible with nearly all merchants and terminals
I'm sure I'm probably missing a few key points, but has the S6 made you want to switch?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read a few days ago that LG and Apple signed a deal with Samsung for those DDR4 RAM components. I'd also bet that LG will go with the faster nand (knowing that they like to keep up with Samsung). The S6 really looks snappy, but i'm not convinced it's the touchwiz/Exynos optimizations, i'd say it's because of better I/O with both the faster nand and DDR4 RAM. What i mean to say, you can bet that the LG G4, if LG decides to use the same components, might also be that snappy.
The camera is another story. The camera app launch speed, quick shutter speed, tracking autofocus, low light performance with that f1.9 lens.. it looks promising.
On the other hand, despite that newer AMOLED displays look really good (note 4 and now the S6) , but i still prefer LCD. I don't like the idea of possible burn-in issues (something i faced with my galaxy nexus back in the day).
Also, with Samsung Knox, and Exynos SoC's, i'm not sure how much development from the xda community will it get, it will always have "debloated" versions of the stock ROM, but everything other than that will be buggy.
I'd say wait a bit, more phones with similar specs and technologies (and possibly lower price tag) will emerge (Chinese and non Chinese).

Screen is too small for my taste, but the Note 5 might be a good shout if the rumors of Touchwiz not being dog slow prove true.

The LG G4 will be anounced in the next couple of months - I'll wait to see what the spec of that phone is before deciding.

I just moved from my beloved but ridiculously buggy-slow g3 to a Note 4. I miss the back controls...but other than that, not much else. I've had so many lagging/rebooting android devices now and the Note just doesn't. It'll take a lot to make me go back to LG or HTC in the near future.

NO SD Card for me it is deal bracker
Faster memory/storage is a treath, faster CPU - i never feal lack of performance?
Smaler body is also nice (one handed operation with G3 while riding my bike is Chalenging )
Small batery - we need to see how long it'll last?
at the end i am not changing (not to S6) for now

no sd card and no removable battery either... a big no no...

No sd card slot, non removable battery, 800€ for the 64gb version. Oh hell no.

QHD with ultra powerful processor, without removable battery..? i fear the battery life would take a hit
and the lack of microSD slot...
and Exynos...
yep, too many dealbreakers. won't consider as an option unless G4 is overall a worse package.

Nope, I personally hate the idea of a screen degrading to the point it basically damages itself (burn in)
Until AMOLED technology has advanced far enough that it no longer suffers from such issues, I'll stick with IPS displays.
On top of that, I'm not sure I'm sold on any phone with 2 panes of glass. Sure if must feel awesome in hand, but just the thought of it being so delicate at such a high price..no thanks.
Short answer: No, I'll stick with my G3. I could care less if the S6 camera is better

No removable battery or SD card, WTF, major,mistake , batteries really need replacing after a year, Doh

gsw5700 said:
No removable battery or SD card, WTF, major,mistake , batteries really need replacing after a year, Doh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep one possibility to secure future customers for the S7

I'm leaning more toward the HTC One M9. From the demos so far, the S6 still has a laggier interface. Not as bad as in the past, but still a bit more of a delay.

I quickly scanned the thread and failed to notice anyone say anything about the bootloader, WHICH WILL BE LOCKED

I have g3 too, but my microsd slot is empty and I never moved battery
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app

kinfolk248 said:
I quickly scanned the thread and failed to notice anyone say anything about the bootloader, WHICH WILL BE LOCKED
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And exynos processor. Soooo not many custom roms like cm12 etc.

It's amoled, so no, thanks.

I might leave the LG G3 ...... for the LG G4!
Though I might would be tempted by a note 5 (if there was such a thing) if it had an even bigger screen, because I really love phablets. But let's be honest, the price would likely be $800+ so once again the LG would likely win with whatever offering they had based on that fact. Also, the SD card slot is a huge sell point for me on anything.

Zenfone 3 - The worlds first phone with 5/6 GB of ram?

There are several rumors making their rounds where the ram is now being quoted as being 5 or 6 Gb?? can anyone from Asus comment over this?

5-6gb for what :lol: You want your phone to be a supercomputer or something? Planning to play 'Shadow of Mordor' on your phone?
95% (even 99%) people not using upto 4GB. 4GB is more than enough at least for now.
What we really need/want is better battery life and user experience like better camera, better software, better performance, blah blah...
What I want to see Zenfone 3 is 2 (or even 3) days battery life with a 3000mah (or more) battery, 7-10h screen on time. Not 6GB RAM for nothing and 1.5-2h screen on-time.

@ Archmage1809 ... Completely agree on your point...Most of the smartphones who boast on better processors/ram/software sucks in terms of battery.. Lenovo / Gionee are launching phones with 5000mAh...what is the use of a smartphone if it doesnt give better battery backup.

hey now... why should I NOT get to play 'Shadow of Mordor' on my phone given the chance??... just think... you plug your phone with any bigger screen and boom ... every game you ever wanted is right there!!! OTG to connect a mouse and keyboard and you are all set to go ... no need to buy or carry gaming laptops anymore!! ohh the things I could get done if only this comes along! if you can get a replacement of your laptop/tablet/gaming console ...in a neat all in one package ... why the heck not!!
there are other options for better battery life if anyone wants them ... but for 350~400 $ I get an alternative for 1000$ on a minimum..

What is the use of the phone that allows you to play any game you want but in a few hours you have to keep it for charging ?
Yes, No doubt its a great thing that we might get that much amount of ram in some time but without fixing the battery issue which is a necessity that much amount of ram does not make any sense to me.
If they or for that matter any Smartphone manufacturer want to get something right for now that is battery life. If they do and then give us 5/6 gb of ram it would be awesome.
Asus Zenfone 2 4gb model is giving me only 4h screen on time which is not great at all. If you compare it with other phones in the market right now its the worst out of the lot. Battery is the Achilles Heel for this phone.

King_huzi52 said:
What is the use of the phone that allows you to play any game you want but in a few hours you have to keep it for charging ?
Yes, No doubt its a great thing that we might get that much amount of ram in some time but without fixing the battery issue which is a necessity that much amount of ram does not make any sense to me.
If they or for that matter any Smartphone manufacturer want to get something right for now that is battery life. If they do and then give us 5/6 gb of ram it would be awesome.
Asus Zenfone 2 4gb model is giving me only 4h screen on time which is not great at all. If you compare it with other phones in the market right now its the worst out of the lot. Battery is the Achilles Heel for this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree to this and everyone who says battery is a priority.
@op remember why phones were made. To communicate is the first priority, business application, navigation, news, social media and portable camera. The gaming is just at the end of their priority. Why not buy a device solely made and designed for gaming??? A phone is a phone regardless old tech or smartphone, remember why it was built for in the first place.

King_huzi52 said:
What is the use of the phone that allows you to play any game you want but in a few hours you have to keep it for charging ?
Yes, No doubt its a great thing that we might get that much amount of ram in some time but without fixing the battery issue which is a necessity that much amount of ram does not make any sense to me.
If they or for that matter any Smartphone manufacturer want to get something right for now that is battery life. If they do and then give us 5/6 gb of ram it would be awesome.
Asus Zenfone 2 4gb model is giving me only 4h screen on time which is not great at all. If you compare it with other phones in the market right now its the worst out of the lot. Battery is the Achilles Heel for this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get around 4.5 to 5 hours SOT with power nap, greenify, amplify, project T kernal and superZen debloated... With around 18 to 20 standby... You can track my earlier posts here for screenshots as well... So you CAN get more juice if you twist it right... Check that out first...

livewire168 said:
Agree to this and everyone who says battery is a priority.
@op remember why phones were made. To communicate is the first priority, business application, navigation, news, social media and portable camera. The gaming is just at the end of their priority. Why not buy a device solely made and designed for gaming??? A phone is a phone regardless old tech or smartphone, remember why it was built for in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why buy a phone with 4gb when 1gb versions do all that you wrote above... It's a niche market and and should cater to different people.. Let's say they roll out different versions... One with 6gb ram and the other with 6000mah bat.... Everyone is happy..
Capitalism at it's finest..

SBFarooq said:
Why buy a phone with 4gb when 1gb versions do all that you wrote above... It's a niche market and and should cater to different people.. Let's say they roll out different versions... One with 6gb ram and the other with 6000mah bat.... Everyone is happy..
Capitalism at it's finest..
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Fragmentation is why.
We were lucky that Z00A encompassed so many variants, that the same ROM can be used across the board. Z008, ZF 2E, Laser, Selfie, et cetera, weren't so lucky. That group by and large lost out to the developer treats afforded to Z00A.
Bigger battery -> different form factor -> different model.
To say everyone will happy by having more models, is a misunderstanding. The current dumping of models upset a lot of people when they realized they would be left out this time around.

Rather than upping the obvious eyecatchers like RAM that don't really add much to the phone at this point, I'd rather see a Zenfone 2.1 or whatever they want to call it:
Keep the 4GB and the Z3580 (or go Z3590 if they must)
Do something (anything) to improve battery life
Improve the speaker to match the awesomeness-suggesting grill on the back
Include a higher quality camera module that works well in any app, not just ASUS' own
The current CPU and especially RAM should mean it's pretty futureproof, and by keeping the specs roughly the same custom ROMs for the Z00A can be used. ASUS would save on development costs yet produce a cracking phone that could, for the right price, get ASUS' name out there, which would mean a true Zenfone 3 will have to be good when the time comes if they remain serious about the mobile market.

Well I have my hopes up for a plug and play beast... This phone pushed me into learning about Android and Linux on a programming level.. And thanks to Udemy ..I would be ready for something around next year... Thanks for letting me learn something new.. Especially the information about form factors... Really got a different perspective now... But still.. 6gig would be a hellovathing...

SBFarooq said:
I get around 4.5 to 5 hours SOT with power nap, greenify, amplify, project T kernal and superZen debloated... With around 18 to 20 standby... You can track my earlier posts here for screenshots as well... So you CAN get more juice if you twist it right... Check that out first...
Capitalism at it's finest..
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I dont want to Hijack this thread for an issue I am facing with this phone. But I have tried every possible thing without rooting (as I dont want to void my warranty just yet) But if you have any posts which helps out please advise that I would like to go through it.
Apart from that staying on the topic. No one can make everyone happy. Hence requirements are different for everyone. My priority is Battery as everything else is available in this phone. There are some Gimmicky things which other phones are giving and Asus Zenfone 2 does not have that but I am fine with that.
There are three things which I consider as Cons for this awesome phone..
1. Battery
2. No backlight for capacitive buttons
3. Display is not that bright when at maximum... Check White to Contrast ratio when max.
Bdw as per the NEWS Asus Zenfone 3 would still have 2/4 gb ram not more.

I'd be down for bigger battery but 5gb ram? Don't think we need that in our phones yet.

Frankenberrie said:
I'd be down for bigger battery but 5gb ram? Don't think we need that in our phones yet.
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Agreed, 20% more battery life is 10x better than 20% more RAM.

Will PM you later when free..

4gb ddr3 to 4gb ddr4
22nm to 14nm
Is the best way to go

]
SBFarooq said:
Why buy a phone with 4gb when 1gb versions do all that you wrote above... It's a niche market and and should cater to different people.. Let's say they roll out different versions... One with 6gb ram and the other with 6000mah bat.... Everyone is happy..
Capitalism at it's finest..
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What your asking is not a niche but a bespoke phone and Asus marketing strategy focuses on mass general market which does not need a bespoke 6gb and 6000mah battery combo. Their lineup and variants with their prices range should have been a dead give away. Maybe try Samsung or HTC which caters to the higher price range and closer to bespoke market.

2GB is fairly sufficient. I have a Huawei Ascend mate 2 with only 16gb internal, 2gb of RAM and a 128gb micro SD and it's more than enough. I did order this device in the 64gb, 4gb ram version and am anxious to see how it is. It's arriving today. If anyone on here has unlocked their bootloader and rooted, would you mind sharing your expierences and or the simplest way to go about this?

MikeyLee said:
2GBis fairly sufficient. I have a Huawei Ascend mate 2 with only 16gb internal, 2gb of RAM and a 128gb micro SD and it's more than enough. I did order this device in the 64gb, 4gb ram version and am anxious to see how it is. It's arriving today. If anyone on here has unlocked their bootloader and rooted, would you mind sharing your expierences and or the simplest way to go about this?
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Don't install custom rom yet by unlocking your bootloader. Asus so far has been improving their firmwares almost twice a month if I'm not mistaken and it's getting better as it is. There are rumors that the new fw v2.20.40.127 might be coming out this week with a hefty 123mb more or less file size.
But if the current fw and os does not satisfy you, might I suggest the cm12.1 for zf2 nightly which is one of the most popular roms here and in zentalk and so far as per several user comment the most stable of them all for the zf2 x86 device.

SBFarooq said:
There are several rumors making their rounds where the ram is now being quoted as being 5 or 6 Gb?? can anyone from Asus comment over this?
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How about 6000 mAh battery? ASUS you feel me?

New Xperia X Compact Announced

Looks like combination of the XZ design and features and X processor and lack of waterproofing. I'm not sure this is a win for those of us with Z3C's looking to upgrade. The first review from Digital Trends doesn't exactly paint a favorable experience with the devices either.
"It’s a shame, then, that collective weight of all the XZ’s little shortcomings ultimately drag it down. The design is unrefined. The software is strangely unresponsive. The camera is a disappointment, as are the speakers. And the handset lacks basics practically ubiquitous in its category — namely waterproofing and a fingerprint sensor {US Version}."
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/sony-xperia-xz-hands-on/#ixzz4J17CcPOZ

Mmmm, I think you'd be better of buying the Z5 compact. It cost's less here in the Netherlands, and you'll have a high end processor and waterproof phone. Only downside is 1 gb less of memory, but for me 2gb of ram is sufficient.

The end of mini flagships....

Remuzzz said:
Mmmm, I think you'd be better of buying the Z5 compact. It cost's less here in the Netherlands, and you'll have a high end processor and waterproof phone. Only downside is 1 gb less of memory, but for me 2gb of ram is sufficient.
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Actually snapdragon 650 is better than 810.

deniz2694 said:
Actually snapdragon 650 is better than 810.
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Not better, but comparable. They both offer similar benchmarking scores

PuffDaddy_d said:
Not better, but comparable. They both offer similar benchmarking scores
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Yes but 810 throttles and heats up a lot which means you will never use it at full potential.

Looks to me so far the only replacement for a z3c is a new z3c?

5,2" and they call it "compact" xDDD
I miss Mini Pro times

SoulFury said:
5,2" and they call it "compact" xDDD
I miss Mini Pro times
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That's the XZ.
The X compact is 4.6".

I was determined to buy X compact when Engadget preview said besides SD 650 it has the same water-resistant chassis as XZ...turned out to be a mistake and now they have corrected it.
Really, Sony, is it that difficult to get the right thing done?

When I was about to buy z3c I was excited for that waterproofing, but in reality I have used it just 3 times (for more than a year) once was for testing, and twice when I got drunk and threw it in a glass of water
However, lack of that should make the build quality better (*cough* screen peeling off *cough*).
And as for the SD650, the main talking point, it will perform very well on a 4.6" 720p device and it will be surely efficient. It was pointed out by users of Moto X and Redmi Note 3 Pro that it is snappy and battery friendly.
You really don't need to max out clock speed to avoid lags and keep it smooth... I'm using tweaked interactive governor, that goes to 1.57 ghz as max, and most of the time it's at 1.19 mhz and lower.
The X compact looks really nice (for my taste), and it's actually a good package, the problem with it is that picture quality is going to be sub-par based on initial samples (+ based on experience with Sony's post processing) and it will be expensive.

Lack of water / dust resistance means its not something i would buy. While i am not looking for a "rugged" phone, having had one die after dropping in the toilet the IP68 rating is important. Sony FAIL on this one. Much sadness.

astmacca said:
Lack of water / dust resistance means its not something i would buy. While i am not looking for a "rugged" phone, having had one die after dropping in the toilet the IP68 rating is important. Sony FAIL on this one. Much sadness.
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With all due respect, having dropped your phone in the toilet means you should be a bit more careful with it, not that a waterproof device is a necessity

Cirra92 said:
With all due respect, having dropped your phone in the toilet means you should be a bit more careful with it, not that a waterproof device is a necessity
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Look and ask around friend. There are a lot more people than you may think who have killed phones that way. Its not that hard for it to slip out of a pocket. And anyway, i work out doors a lot in all kinds of weather. To drop the IP68 rating is silly of Sony, but hey, companies to silly things sometime. Be interesting to seehow much in terms of $ / phone they save by doing this. I suspect, not many.

Lol literally just bought another one. I'm cool with this phone still. Still love it and dev community still going.

Sony has gone to ****.

Have prices been announced for it yet? If it's more than the Z5 Compact, then I would probably upgrade to that instead. Despite the Snapdragon 810, Sony is one of the few manufacturers that seemed to be able to wrangle the heat. So unless that S650 gets phenomenal battery life (I'm talking better than the Z3C) and can match performance of the Z5C, I see little reason to go with it over the Z5C. And judging from the way that the full sized X compared with the full sized Z5, I'm not expecting it to do so:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Sony-Xperia-X-Smartphone-Review.170397.0.html

doriandiaconu said:
That's the XZ.
The X compact is 4.6".
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My bad

thanks

Since I drifted away from masturbating on benchmark scores when deciding on upgrading my phone and started to value actual practical aspects of the phone, I found this announcement laughable. I watched the hands on review and every time a feature was pointed out I was able to say that I already have that one. Newer CPU and more ram is an insignificant change, at least from my point of view, I'd be able to not play games or simulate protein folding even faster.
I don't need a new phone and I don't care about the current market, yet it really puzzles me, why a completely new phone, the successor to the successor of my current one, is arguably the very same thing?
Camera is still so-so, selfie camera is not a big deal, z3c CPU is still enough, 1 gig of ram is not a deal breaker, what's left on the table?

Moto X Style Very Poor SoT

I know there are a lot of threads about the poor battery life on the Moto X Style my case is a bit extreme, My SoT doesn't extend beyond 2 hours and I am considerably a heavy user but I have cut down on most apps and I use those on my Moto Z which is like my second phone, I use that at home but for college I use this Moto X Style and I have to charge it twice daily with apps like Facebook Instagram Messenger WhatsApp one or two arcade games that's it. What could I do to extend my SoT? i don't want to root my phone till I am receiving software updates. I bought this phone in January 16. There are no performance hickups either. I have disabled apps that i don't need too.

TonyStark410 said:
I know there are a lot of threads about the poor battery life on the Moto X Style my case is a bit extreme, My SoT doesn't extend beyond 2 hours and I am considerably a heavy user but I have cut down on most apps and I use those on my Moto Z which is like my second phone, I use that at home but for college I use this Moto X Style and I have to charge it twice daily with apps like Facebook Instagram Messenger WhatsApp one or two arcade games that's it. What could I do to extend my SoT? i don't want to root my phone till I am receiving software updates. I bought this phone in January 16. There are no performance hickups either. I have disabled apps that i don't need too.
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Yeah... Battery life is bad... Stay on WiFi as much as possible. Social media, especially with less than excellent signal will kill the battery on this device. I get anywhere from 2-3.5 hours on a single charge with mixed WiFi and mobile data.

I don't know how but last two security updates made it worse. i used to get around 2.5-3.5 hours but recently it's hardly 2-2.5 hours with mixed 4g and wifi mostly wifi though

Uninstalling Facebook and Facebook messenger would be good for increasing battery life.

TonyStark410 said:
I don't know how but last two security updates made it worse. i used to get around 2.5-3.5 hours but recently it's hardly 2-2.5 hours with mixed 4g and wifi mostly wifi though
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I have the same issue, before updates it's was like 3,5h easily now I got around 2,5. I hope 7.0 will fix this ;\

iks8 said:
I have the same issue, before updates it's was like 3,5h easily now I got around 2,5. I hope 7.0 will fix this ;\
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I hope too till then using my moto z as my main driver but using 4g and VoLTE it's battery also pales out pretty much fast, I guess it's all moto phones which pale out fast. Either phone I need to charge twice to go through the day

Jessooca said:
Heya Ace, Question... You are always on here helping out people, I'm curious as to what you think of the someone going from the Moto X Pure to a G5 Plus. Personally I think it's either the same (in some ways) or a step backwards going to the new G5. Price wise you can get either phone for pretty much the same price; hence my question between the two phones. I actually thought they'd use a snappy 810 as the processor in the G5 Plus
Sent from my S8+ courtesy of Samsung
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Moto G5 Plus is a great device... as far as a downgrade, that's personal opinion of what matters to you. The screen is a downgrade from QHD to fullHD and NFC is lost, but you gain Fingerprint unlock, battery life is increased 50%-100% for SOT, and the SD625 will walk all over the SD808 in terms of performance, both computational and GPU performance. Other than the display itself and the loss of NFC, the G5+ is probably a superior device in my opinion.

Jessooca said:
I was talking to a reviewer friend of mine and he said he was fairly disappointed in the camera quality though.
Superior device? Perhaps you're being generous with the word Superior. Lol
Ok then what about the G4 Plus 64gb 4gb vs G5 Plus 64gb 4gb??
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As I said... All depends on what you want.
G4+ vs G5+ boils mostly down to screen size, build quality, and battery life. G5+ has a smaller screen, but is slimmer, it also has a more efficient processor thus uses less power, but they both use the same 3000mAh battery, this gives the G5+ about a 20% battery life improvement over the G4+. The G5+ also has a metal build and seems of better quality. Camera is a wash quality wise, but reviewers state the G5+ starts up and focuses faster. The G5+ also has a faster processor and GPU.
Winner in my book, the G5+, but realize to me screen size, once it gets over 5" or 1920x1080 resolution, means nothing to me.
I do find it odd on the G5+ Lenovo opted for a smaller display... But 5.2 to 5.5 is not really significant.

Jessooca said:
Well if you get a chance, put one in each hand and your mind will change, the skinnier G5 just feels odd and looks meh. It's like holding a Blu R1 HD.
Ok there is a debate going on about the best for under $299 with many saying the Moto G5 Plus is the best bang for your buck but how can that be when the Honor 8 is $260 on Amazon and if you've used it it's hands down a perfect device under $300
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Well, where do I start with this... I have touched all these devices and more. I like the metal feel, better than plastic, again this is just personal preference. The build quality seems noticably better. I thrown them in a case regardless.
I was only making a comparison between those 2 devices, not considering other options or manufacturer's. Personally, the Honor series has great hardware, but EMUI ruins the device completely, especially with how much under the hood crap Huawei has done to prevent you from changing the launcher, seriously, is it that bad to swap a launcher? But if you can deal with the bloat of EMUI or Asus's ZenUI, they are great options in that price range, personally I think the UX ruins the devices from these makers.
Personally, I like the Axon 7 Mini at the $200 price point (BestBuy and others frequently discount it to that price, my son has one, it's great). Plus there is the Blu Vivo 5R, with 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, dual SIM, and an unlocked bootloader with nearly pure Android is nice at $169 (MicroCenter current price, the website doesn't say 5R but that is what's in the store). Or even the $129 Blu Studio XR2 is a fantastic deal.
At the $300 price point, things get interesting... The Blu Pure XR is fantastic, plus they have a few more good devices in that $200-$300 range. Don't count out Blu, the last couple years, especially the last year, they have really stepped up there game.
Pushing that, I'm big fan of the OnePlus 3T but it's pushing a bit out of price range for even high-end budget device.
Yeah... I've been looking... A lot.