
Introducing Moto E and Moto G with 4G LTE: Smart phones priced for all - neduma
http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2014/05/introducing-moto-e-and-moto-g-with-4g-lte.html
======
nicpottier
The big surprise for me was that they nixed the rear LED flash. Not because
anybody would take pictures with that camera, but for a phone made for the
developing world not having a "flashlight" is a huge knock against it.

Seriously, flashlights are a big selling point even on simple dumb phones here
in Rwanda, and I just can't imagine having a phone without it When the power
goes out a few times a week, having a source of light on you is a big boon.
(and no the screen doesn't count!)

Seems like a misstep to me.

~~~
trurl42
Turn screen brightness to max and turn all pixels white.

Now you have a flashlight.

~~~
jonah
For some definition of flashlight. I use the LED on my phone for a flashlight
several times a week and a white screen just doesn't cut it.

* Your hike took a bit longer than expected and now you're coming back down the trail after dusk.

* There's a rustling noise in the bushes, is it a raccoon or a burgler?

etc.

~~~
philjohn
This. I used mine on a long run into the mountains last year on holiday, left
super early (5am) before the sun rose and it got unbearably hot. No lights on
the dirt path we were running along so the iPhone flash worked a treat.

------
rtpg
The Moto G is still pretty much the best value proposition out there, great
phone at a great price.

In this crowd there's a lot of hate when the phone doesn't have an SD card
slot (and I kinda wish it did), but the fact of the matter is you cannot get a
better phone for the price (and even for double the price it might be hard).

~~~
bnn
Some phones for the same price: ZTE Geek v975, Lenovo P780, Lenovo S860, Jiayu
G4s, Star N9800. Faster, bigger, dual sim. And Lenovo has great battery.

~~~
GFischer
I bought a Lenovo for my girlfriend (S820), since Moto G was sold out.

While it's a pretty decent phone, the UI has some lag and feels a bit sluggish
compared to its competitors. I think the Mediatek does not deliver the same
performance as other similarly specced chips.

I don't know enough to understand why, maybe the GPU is not good enough or
something.

Edit: someone says that, among other improvements, Motorola uses a different
and faster filesystem (F2FS) which is faster
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7742608](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7742608)).

It does have some big advantages (much better camera for example), and the
battery seems to be pretty good too.

Huawei has ever cheaper similarly specced phones, but the reviews scared me,
it seems their software is extremely buggy.

If you're considering rooting / modding your phone, then maybe one of these
phones is a good option.

------
nolok
The Moto G is still the best in its price range, and at $129 the Moto E may
manage to pull the same thing in the lower than 150 dollar market.

Whatever Google changed in Motorola's approach, it's working, because that's
the first two phones they've ever made that I wish to buy and recommend
(including G for myself).

They say it sells very well so I hope these things are sufficiently profitable
for them, we will all benefit from great phones at low price point.

(the higher priced market may be harder to breach though, since the Nexus
brand is already there playing the same game)

~~~
tomp
On the other hand, it's a real disappointment that they only guarantee one (1)
future OS upgrade, which is a real shame especially since it's basically
Google.

~~~
zecg
One should tide me over until CM is stable.

------
pjmlp
Go to love the way upgrades are "sold" to the customers:

"And with a guaranteed upgrade" == "The device will receive at least one
software update to the current KitKat 4.4.2 operating system"

~~~
rythie
Still like a pretty weak statement to me: "at least one software update"

iPhone 3GS users had 4 years and 8 months of updates before they were stopped.

iPhone 4 users have had almost 4 years of updates so far, which is 3 major
versions or about 29 updates if you include minor ones.

~~~
fpgeek
On the other hand, for the launch price of an iPhone you could get 5 Moto Es.
Even if they're only supported for a year, that's 5 device-years of updates ;)

~~~
rythie
Just because the Moto E is cheap doesn't mean that people aren't expecting to
keep it for 3-4 years. $129 is still a lot of money to most people in the
world - particularly where they are targetting this.

------
free
This is the first time I am seeing that a phone is priced cheaper in India. It
is exclusively available online in India on
[http://www.flipkart.com/motorola/motoe](http://www.flipkart.com/motorola/motoe)

~~~
mataug
A friend of mine just bought one last night.

~~~
programmer_dude
Its out of stock already!

------
higherpurpose
Moto E is a nice phone, and although I haven't tried Moto G in real life, it
actually looks like it has slightly better build quality for some reason, and
more compact, too (for the size). But for only $50 difference, Moto G seems
the better choice. Maybe my expectations were unrealistic, but I actually
thought they could manage to put this one at $99, especially once I saw a
rumor that it will sell for $117 in India. Moto G also started at about 17
percent in India more than in US ($210), so I logically deduced in US it would
be $99.

[http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-
tabs/moto...](http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-
tabs/motorola-launches-moto-e-prices-it-at-rs-6999-makes-it-available-
exclusively-on-flipkart/)

Moto G had a GREAT price at $179 ($210-$240 elsewhere), and why it became so
popular in the first place. It doesn't quite look that Moto E has the same
type of great price for what it offers. $99 would've been that great price
that would've made everyone recommend it as the default choice for the price
range.

If the rumor about the price in India was right, and it won't actually be more
like $150 now there, then perhaps they are trying to have a more "global"
price, where it's more or less the same price everywhere, even in US, and this
way they'd make little profit on the global versions, but more profit in US.

As for the specs, I'm a little disappointed it comes with Cortex A5 instead of
A7, but since it's clocked 200 mhz higher than Cortex A7 would be, maybe it's
not too big of a problem, especially since they claim the general performance
of the device is faster than a Galaxy S4 in many situations (like opening
apps, which I think has more to do with their use of the F2FS file system,
which ironically is made by Samsung, but they aren't using it themselves).

I also told my little brother if he'd want one of these, and he asked me if it
has flash, and was disappointed to hear it does not. I think Motorola
underestimated the importance of flash for this type of phone. The screen,
size, internal storage+SD, I'm fine with. I'm just hoping that whenever Google
launches Android 5.0 (hopefully this year), it will be upgraded to it.

------
ColinDabritz
Regarding the guaranteed upgrade: "2 The device will receive at least one
software update to the current KitKat 4.4.2 operating system."

The wording there is confusing. I could see reading it as "it currently
doesn't support 4.4.2, but it will." or "We'll upgrade to at least 4.4.3" or
"we'll upgrade to at least 4.5"

I suspect they intend it to mean 4.5, but it is written vaguely, and that sort
of promise sounds very much like marketing weasel words to avoid shipping
anything more than minor system upgrades (which are INTENDED to not break
functionality on devices).

They should be more explicit, why not just say a particular version number or
later? Fear of the team changing the numbering scheme?

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Considering the Moto X (on Verizon even) was the first non-Nexus phone to
receive an upgrade from 4.3 to 4.4, I would assume it means that the Moto E
will get whatever major release comes out after 4.4.

But I would also be willing to bet that the wording is intentionally vague
such that if Android 5.0 comes out next, and makes it "impossible" to upgrade,
that the lawyers will be happy with just a single security/bugfix update.

~~~
r00fus
Why would Android 5.0 be impossible to upgrade? Looking at it from the Apple
side of things, where each phone gets 2-3 years of OS updates, "at least one"
seems paltry in comparison.

When you say "impossible", I see "cost prohibitive" \- i.e., they can't sell a
phone at this price if they want to support drivers and a newer OS for more
than one release.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
I guess it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and meant more that "if the Android team
all of a sudden re-architects the entire platform", then they have a way out.

In all likelihood, any Android 5.0 release will continue to be an incremental
upgrade of the Android platform. But lawyers don't like committing to
anything.

------
pling
I own a Moto G and am not totally happy with it. I replaced a Lumia 820 with
it. The big problems for me are the camera is awful, I mean really bad. It's
that bad I've started dragging my DSLR with me. Also the WiFi is terribly
unreliable. I'll be sitting opposite the router and it'll start "avoiding poor
connections". This isn't environmental as it happens everywhere. Also exchange
integration is ugly and painful. Genuinely regretting the purchase.

I'm sure someone can produce a better handset for the price.

~~~
nellyspageli
The camera might be awful compared to a phone that costs twice its price, but
have you compared it to any other phones in its price range?

~~~
GFischer
I have (not the OP but I wanted to buy a Moto G). If the camera is the killer
feature, I recommend a Lenovo (S820 for example should be similarly priced).
But it lags behind the Moto G in other aspects.

------
whizzkid
I see that Motorola is trying to get to the position where Nokia is/was. I
don't think it is really really easy but at least they got the idea right.

"Moto E: Made to Last. Priced for All."

~~~
sirkneeland
As a Nokia employee (well, still-Nokia since the phone part went to Microsoft
and I'm still at Nokia) I have long thought that recent Moto phones were the
most "Nokia-like" Android phones out there (Nokia X notwithstanding of
course). Motos are going for that spot of fun design, high durability, global
availability and thoughtful experience touches, all from a reputable and
storied brand.

It's probably why the first phone I bought with my own money in years was a
Moto X (I bought it the day after the Nokia-Microsoft sale was announced).

That my Moto X was made in a former Nokia manufacturing center in Texas just
makes it all the more fitting :)

I'll miss you, Nokia (phones). But hopefully Moto will be a worthy successor.

------
enscr
Moto E & Moto G, both are very well designed, hot selling items in developing
countries. They offer so much more value for that price point than ANY of the
competitors. Granted you'd find pain points but the fact is, they are
providing a quality user experience to the masses at a fraction of the cost.

I think a first time budget user deserves a quality UI with a great touch
experience to start with. (I'm looking at the sluggish Samsung etc. models at
this price point with crappy touch experience).

------
serf
I know it's becoming less of an issue for others, but I wish that the current
Motorola lineup had replaceable batteries.

------
apricot13
They've been very clever with the timing on this! Bringing it out at a really
affordable price just before all the new nexus/galaxy s5 mini/metal/iphone 600
come out!

So people like me, who are (desperately) due an upgrade can buy this and sit
on the fence until all the shiny new phones are available and then start a new
contract. Genius!

Its a shame about the lack of flash and the non removable battery but I think
this type of phone is made to be short term. Its meant to be either an interim
solution as I mentioned above or as a taster to get people into the smart
phone ecosystem and upgrade to something better in a year or so when it starts
slowing down.

------
fidotron
At least in Canada it remains incredibly difficult to get the G or X without a
plan or contract. I can't help wonder what exactly it is that makes Motorola
so resistant to direct selling in the frozen north.

The single greatest thing about the Nexus 5 is how easy it is to buy the
handset with absolutely no consideration about the carrier at all, and it's
sad that Motorola haven't learned this from greater Google before going off to
Lenovo.

Doubly sad, as the products deserve a lot more attention. I do wonder if
they're concerned about them being good enough to cannibalise vast swathes of
the market.

~~~
w1ntermute
It just doesn't make sense to target a developed nation with high smartphone
penetration that has a population of only 35 million. Moto's aiming to sell
the G and E to price-sensitive first-time smartphone buyers in developing
nations, probably with the plan that by building a brand now, those customers
will buy higher end Moto smartphones as they gain wealth.

------
ctb_mg
Where does the Moto E compare in "horsepower" to phones we currently know? It
states the Snapdragon 1.4 ghz dual core processor, isn't that what's in the US
domestic Galaxy S3?

~~~
gerbal
It would appear to be about the same as a S3

------
nellyspageli
This is great news for android developers! Maybe one day google will be able
to deprecate Gingerbread! It was released over 4 years ago yet every android
app must support it since it represents about 20% of users since manufacturers
continue to sell phones with it in 2014. Gingerbread is a real pain to support
and bloats and slows all android applications by having to include a huge
support library (~5MB).

------
peterwwillis
My Android 4.1 smartphone is $70 at Bestbuy. It's a dual-core 1.4ghz with 1GB
ram. Half the cost of the Moto E.

Does the Moto E have slightly higher specs than my phone? Yes. But is it
"shaking up" the smartphone world? Hell no. Feature phone buyers will buy
phones like mine, which are half the cost of the Moto E, and fully capable
modern Android phones.

------
rahimnathwani
Does anyone know why the maximum MicroSD capacity is listed as 32GB? 64GB
cards work on my relatively old Huawei Android handset.

~~~
reitzensteinm
Doing some digging, it seems to be possible to format >32gb cards as FAT32
using this utility[1] (see the video[2]). Apparently the 3DS is also limited
to FAT32, but accepts 128gb cards fine using similar techniques[3].

And according to Wikipedia, this appears to be within the FAT32 specs[4] -
it's just Microsoft's crappy format utility that has a maximum of 32gb.

That said, I'm not going to risk $350 (card + phone) on this working until I
see a few field reports...

[1]
[http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm](http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA9fp863d-o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA9fp863d-o)
[3] [http://nintendoeverything.com/3ds-can-accept-128gb-sdxc-
card...](http://nintendoeverything.com/3ds-can-accept-128gb-sdxc-cards/) [4]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table)

------
grymoire1
"Goodbye Flip Phone" Not likely - as long as the carriers REQUIRE a data plan
to buy a smart phone. Some people use a WiFi tablet and a flip phone to keep
monthly costs to a minimum.

------
shapeshed
Seems you can't buy the phone outright in the UK and have to buy it through
network providers. Would have been good to see an unlocked version purchasable
direct from Motorola.

~~~
pling
You can buy it from Amazon in the UK. That's where I got mine.

~~~
ableal
I suppose you mean the Moto G you mentioned elsewhere. For now, I cannot get
Amazon to show me a page for the Moto E - specifically looking for "Motorola
Moto E" only shows Moto G links.

~~~
ars
The US amazon page for it says:

"Special Shipping Information: Due to federal and international regulations,
this product can only be shipped within the 50 states."

Strange message. I don't believe them anyway, it's more likely Motorola
restrictions.

~~~
self
Amazon generally won't ship electronics outside the States:

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=4...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468634)

------
DonGateley
These Moto phones would be great vehicles for getting people to try Ubuntu
Touch. Why do they only provide images for the most expensive possibilities?

~~~
noir_lord
One reason I can think of is that the high end now will be the mid range by
the time Ubuntu Touch is any kind of shippable form.

------
neves
I'm a happy Moto G user, use its led as a flashlight, but as someone who has a
big music collection, the external 32g sd card is really a must.

------
jokoon
I'd still buy a smartphone without a camera. I wonder how much that smartphone
would cost without a camera.

~~~
megablast
Why? I can't see a reason unless you work in a secure environment.

~~~
georgemcbay
I assume jokoon's point wasn't that he(?) needs a phone without a camera,
rather that the camera is completely superfluous for him(?) and would like an
option to get a phone without a camera for a cheaper price, even if only
marginally cheaper.

I actually wouldn't mind that myself. I'm never without a 'real' camera
without at least an APS-C sized sensor, so the camera on my cellphones might
as well not exist. If I could get even a couple dollar discount on a phone
with no camera I'd take it.

Having said all of that, I realize that it makes no business sense for any
phone maker to cater to me considering the costs of having a separate camera-
less SKU would far outweigh any additional sales they might get by catering to
the extreme minority of people like me, and having a phone with no camera
option at all is just too niche to bother with.

~~~
rahimnathwani
It would be pretty inconvenient for me to have a phone without a camera now,
even if I were happy to carry a separate camera. Even though I have an eye-fi
card and can therefore wirelessly transfer photos from my camera to my phone,
there are many use cases where it's too clunky or too impossible:

1\. Scanning a barcode (e.g. a product bar code or a QR code to add a
contact).

2\. Sending time-sensitive photos over WeChat, e.g. my wife sent me some
photos as she was standing in a fabric store in another continent, and I was
instantly able to pick the one I wanted.

3\. Video calling using Skype/Hangouts or similar

4\. Adding a payment card to the Uber app

------
jestinjoy1
Both MotoG and MotoE don't have replaceable Battery. Whether this has any
effect on their pricing!

~~~
seanmcdirmid
What modern smartphone has a replaceable battery?

Edit: well, I'm actually quite surprised.

~~~
sirkneeland
A Samsung Galaxy S (up to and including the S5)

I don't personally like the Galaxy series, but it is undeniably a modern
smartphone that has a replaceable battery.

~~~
userbinator
In fact I don't think Samsung has made _any_ smartphone without a removable
battery.

~~~
GFischer
A good thing, since their batteries don't last that long. I've had to replace
2 batteries (on Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Mini 2) which had only 2 years of
(admittedly heavy) use, while my Nokias sustained a lot more abuse.

------
dan_bk
Who cares about yet-another-new-phone.

What we need is 100% open-source software, hardware and firmware.

~~~
aurumpotest
Get working on it then.

------
krisgenre
Its better than my Galaxy S2 that I bought for more than $550 just three years
ago :(

------
JohnDoe365
Currently Moto G has US GSM option only.

------
andyl
I hope all phones will adopt this feature: "Built-in FM radio"

~~~
phkahler
I've been waiting for that and Built-in TV tuner for years. I don't think the
carriers want that because you don't use their expensive data then. I'm on
republic now, so I don't use carriers data anyway and TV would be great. Also
as a special interest, allowing that FM tuner to go a little higher in
frequency could pick up the aviation frequencies - every pilot would want one
(that's not a huge market).

~~~
GFischer
Most no-brand Chinese knockoffs have built-in TV tuners.

If they work as well as their cameras, I don't think they're what you're
looking for (a coworker bought one as a temporary cell phone just to try it,
and it was nowhere close to what they advertised, and was basically awful).

Just to be clear: I'm talking about chinese white-label products, some are
sold here under the brand Xion for example.

[http://www.zonatecno.com.uy/Celulares_Xion_XI-
CE50_Dual_Sim_...](http://www.zonatecno.com.uy/Celulares_Xion_XI-
CE50_Dual_Sim_TV.asp)

Searching, I just found out there are cheap dongles to add a TV Tuner :) for
example:

[http://www.elgato.com/en/eyetv/eyetv-
micro](http://www.elgato.com/en/eyetv/eyetv-micro)

[http://www.geniatech.com/tv-tuner-for-android-
tablet.asp](http://www.geniatech.com/tv-tuner-for-android-tablet.asp)

and they apparently work reasonably well

[http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2094801](http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2094801)

------
ommunist
Moto - 1 day on battery with moderate use. iPhone - 5 days on battery with
moderate use.

Moto does not cost 5 times less than iPhone.

~~~
smackfu
What is this magical iPhone you have?

~~~
ommunist
The moderate use is the magic. I'd like to have a Moto for a model use
comparison.

------
chrisbolt
I went to motorola.com, clicked "Learn More" about the Moto E, then clicked
Buy Now, and the first "option" I was presented with was this:

[http://cl.ly/image/3E3y0m083j2I](http://cl.ly/image/3E3y0m083j2I)

After that, I was shown options "US GSM" and "Global GSM", both priced
identically. Why even ask me? All they did was add clicks between me and
giving them money.

~~~
userbinator
According to [http://forums.androidcentral.com/moto-g/338376-differnces-
be...](http://forums.androidcentral.com/moto-g/338376-differnces-between-
gobal-us-versions.html)

    
    
                    UMTS/HSPA+
        Global      850/900/1900/2100
        US          850/1700/1900
    

So unless you absolutely need that 1700MHz band for 3G from your provider,
Global is probably the better option...

~~~
aranjedeath
That 1700mhz is a tmo-licensed band for the US that offers UTMS AWS, which
provides 3g at rather snappy speeds. If you're not intending to go abroad, the
US edition makes sense. If else, the global model has pretty nearly every
widely-deployed 3g band.

