News - Motorola Moto G quad-core smartphone launched at £119

[Gerrard]

There's usually a hard off if you hold down power button for a length of time, or plugging into a computer often allows restart even if phone has crashed.

That's good to hear; I find I have to plug my Kindle in when that crashes to get it to restart.

I guess the final point will be to wait to hear how the battery life is but I imagine it should be good enough for my needs.

[Saracen]

Perhaps your iPaq could be replaced by a tablet that only connects via wifi, that way you can retain an airgap on it if you wanted to which would be more difficult with a phone. I probably should of gotten myself the Samsung Note instead of the Nexus 7 but I couldn't justify the price to myself at that time.

I have one, but it's not a complete overlap. And it's tricky getting a 10" Samsung tab in my coat pocket.

What appeals about a phone is getting at least some element of portability of that data onto a device I carry anyway, given that my existing phone is starting to be reluctant to charge.

What doesn't appeal is the privacy issues mentioned earlier. So I'm a bit conflicted about doing it at all, and if I do, there are things I will not do on a smartphone that I do do on the iPaq, not least because far too many Android apps require FAR more intrusive permissions than I'm comfortable with, but you cannot compromise data you simply don't put on the device.

Oh, and my main benefit is having the data on the device I carry anyway, NOT using the internet while mobile. I have no need for that really, or very rarely, and no need for a relatively expensive monthly contract. So, it's PAYG-based, and in terms of communicating while I'm out, it's pretty much limited to occasional phone calls, which is another reason why Cat's suggestion of a full-featured, high-end phone doesn't appeal. I don't really have the need, let alone desire, for a smartphone at all, but you can't get iPaqs any more .... that I know of.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AFAIK,Ubuntu for mobile phones is being released and it probably can be configured far more than Android,iOS and Win Mobile which are more for the mass market. I suspect Saracen if you got a phone with the specs you want,you could just use Ubuntu for the default OS.

[Noxvayl]

I have one, but it's not a complete overlap. And it's tricky getting a 10" Samsung tab in my coat pocket.

What appeals about a phone is getting at least some element of portability of that data onto a device I carry anyway, given that my existing phone is starting to be reluctant to charge.

What doesn't appeal is the privacy issues mentioned earlier. So I'm a bit conflicted about doing it at all, and if I do, there are things I will not do on a smartphone that I do do on the iPaq, not least because far too many Android apps require FAR more intrusive permissions than I'm comfortable with, but you cannot compromise data you simply don't put on the device.

Oh, and my main benefit is having the data on the device I carry anyway, NOT using the internet while mobile. I have no need for that really, or very rarely, and no need for a relatively expensive monthly contract. So, it's PAYG-based, and in terms of communicating while I'm out, it's pretty much limited to occasional phone calls, which is another reason why Cat's suggestion of a full-featured, high-end phone doesn't appeal. I don't really have the need, let alone desire, for a smartphone at all, but you can't get iPaqs any more .... that I know of.

My Nexus 7 fits neatly in my coat/jacket pocket Even if a tablet fits in your pocket it is another device to carry around.

CAT mentioned Ubuntu which could be a good option for you, not sure what its privacy features would be like but I doubt they'd be as bad as Android. I would like to try it on my Nexus 7 but not until I play my humble bundle games that work on the tablet, they will be used a lot on my next flight back to SA.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My Nexus 7 fits neatly in my coat/jacket pocket Even if a tablet fits in your pocket it is another device to carry around.

CAT mentioned Ubuntu which could be a good option for you, not sure what its privacy features would be like but I doubt they'd be as bad as Android. I would like to try it on my Nexus 7 but not until I play my humble bundle games that work on the tablet, they will be used a lot on my next flight back to SA.

It seems you either dual boot or run it as an app in Android.

[Apex]

Saracen can you tell me why the SD slot is of such importance to you ?

[kellyharding]

No SD card makes me not really want it. I use a 64Gb mSD card for music out and about and in the car, sometimes 3G just doesn't work too well in some places.

[Saracen]

Saracen can you tell me why the SD slot is of such importance to you ?

Erm, up to a point, yes, though I thought I already had. It's to carry a specific data set, in large part reference PDFs, for a project. Right now, it fits on a single SD card, and indeed, is on an SD card on that tablet I mentioned. There's no guarantee it'll continue to fit on that 32GB SD card, in which case I may need an additional SD card. Each PDF can be relatively large, by which I mean in MB not GB, but there are a LOT of them. And some of the reference material is video files.

What it isn't is what most people would carry, be that Youtube clips, loads of snapshots, films in MP4 or 20,000 CDs in their music collection .... though some of that latter would be nice, too.

With an SD slot, I can expand storage to an effectively unlimited extent, 32GB (or whatever a device's max card size is) at a time. Without it, I'm either constrained to the phone's fixed capacity, or reliant on cloud storage, with is not an option, firstly for privacy reasons, and secondly, because I'm then limited to either only having access when I have a wifi link, with all the inherent risks of an unknown and not necessarily trusted wifi connection, or the cost of large 3G/4G data connection, when such costs are utterly unnecessary if I have an SD card slot.

[Saracen]

AFAIK,Ubuntu for mobile phones is being released and it probably can be configured far more than Android,iOS and Win Mobile which are more for the mass market. I suspect Saracen if you got a phone with the specs you want,you could just use Ubuntu for the default OS.

It's a good thought. It's also somewhat outside my comfort zone. I did look long and hard at customROM (I.e. de-Googled, and de-Samsung'd, by which I mean unloading the bloat), and rooting (for an effective firewall install) this tablet.

I might yet do it. But for now, my solution to the privacy issue is to use the tablet for relatively few things, and put NOTHING on it in the way of personal data. Not even an email address I actually use.

It curtails the usefulness of the data, but rather that than expose personal data to snooping apps, many (almost all) seem to require extensive permissions for which they can have no conceivably valid justification except data raping the device. Unlike, I suspect, most people, I do carefully read permissions apps require, and err on the side of caution of what I'll install.

If, repeat IF I was confident a Ubuntu install would give me the security I feel I need, it might well expand the use I'd put a phone, and that might change the target spec and/or budget. But it's quite a big if.

It's certainly an interesting thought, though.

[Apex]

Had a look at the XperiaM or is that out of your price range ?

Also thanks for clearing up; in that instance then a sd card slot is a must [i share your concerns over using 'cloud' type services - just a fancy name for hosted / remote services tbh]

[Noxvayl]

It seems you either dual boot or run it as an app in Android.

My games have taken up all of my available space on the Nexus 7. Until I can delete some I am unable to experiment unfortunately. Damn those Humble Bundles being so tempting, can't keep up with the games I get in them.

[zdn1042]

A Nexus 5 or this? Which is better?

[watercooled]

A Nexus 5 is a higher spec phone, but it's more expensive. However this Moto G offers an incredible feature set considering the price range.

[loyal986]

WoW, now how am I supposed to buy this phone from serbia. How I wish to buy this phone and get away from my alcatel 997...

[mojothejester]

Got my missus the 8gb version, she is mostly in places with wifi, so the 65gb cloud storage is always accessible. I keep going into the shops and looking online for the 16gb version, but they're always sold out. As soon as they come into stock, they're snatched up again. My HTC desire died after 3 years, now I'm using an old spare nokia 6300 until the Moto G comes back into stock