4G SIM NewsThis week has seen the launch of the third generation of Motorola’s popular low cost handset, the Moto G, which is 4G enabled to enable high speed web browsing, music streaming, video viewing, and gaming.
What’s new with the Moto G?
The most obvious feature of the new Moto G is that it comes with Moto Maker – a customisation site that allows customers to choose their own front and back colours and accents such as wallpaper, resulting in more than 1,000 design combinations. Users can also add a custom engraving to the back to create a bespoke handset. With Motorola Shells the phone back can also be changed to allow users to change their style, and these are available in black, white, turquoise, lemon lime, spearmint, raspberry, royal blue, and violet.
Motorola has also added advanced water resistance, usually only found on higher spec handsets, which gives it IPX7-rated protection from splashes and accidental drops in water. The camera has been upgraded and the device now comes with a 13Mp camera that includes a colour-balancing dual LED flash. There is a 2Mp camera on the front for selfies.
Specs of the Moto G
The new Moto G has a 5 inch 720p HD display with brilliant display quality and the strength of Corning® Gorilla® Glass. It runs on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. Measuring 141.5mm x 70.7mm, the device has a 6-11mm curve and weighs 155 grams. The device is available in 8GB and 16GB versions and with a slot for an optional microSD card – with up to 32 GB capacity – the device also has plenty of expandable memory. The 2470 mAh battery means the device should keep going all day, and of course the 4G LTE allows enhanced upload and download speeds.
Mototrola says, “A pure Android™ experience means your phone won’t include unnecessary software overlays. Moto G is powered by the latest version of the Android™ OS, Lollipop keeping it simple and sweet.”
Cost of the Moto G
Originally the Moto G was launched as a budget handset, and it still represents good value, but the cost has increased from the original. Prices start from £159 for the 4G version, which is around £30 more than the previous generations of the smartphone. This may well be due to the increased spec and the fact that Motorola has added a lower cost smartphone, the Moto E which retails at round £90, to its product range.
According to Adrienne Hayes, Head of Marketing at Motorola “We’ve tried to bring as many of our high-end features from Moto X to the G as quickly as possible, but we’ve also got Moto E stepping up to fill needs at the low end.”
Alongside the Moto G, Motorola also released two new versions of the Moto X, the Moto X Play and the Moto X Style, which we will look at in a later post. These higher spec flagship devices are designed to challenge smartphones from Apple and Samsung, while undercutting them on price.