Moto G, Moto X Play and Moto X Style smartphones launched

[HEXUS]

The Moto G is available now but the X Play and X Style flagships will arrive a few weeks later.

Read more.

[Saracen]

Moto G looks interesting, but is certainly losing it's original focus, which was decent quality, low price and very good value for money.

But each successive generation up's the spec (which is good), but also up's the price (which isn't, for the initial market, at least). A phone at £180 is in a different category to one at <£100.

So for this new one, as someone that would be looking for the original Moto-G type phone, does gaining a 13MP camera, 4G and/or IPX7 really matter? Nah. Does the price? Hell, yes. So either Moto have changed target market, or lost the plot. It used to be in a league of it's own, but it's now a bit 'meh, me too', IMHO.

Dare I suggest they established a name with the original, and are now looking to cash in. It makes the original look like a deliberate strategic loss-leader.

[CustardInc]

So have we departed from the era of one handed flagship phones?

[peterb]

Having paid just under £150 for the MotoG2, there is really nothing in the new version that says its a must have.

The phone itself is very good, just a pity about the latest incarnation of the operating system - although now I've got to grips with its quirks it isn't to bad to use.

At the end of the day, it allows me to make calls, send texts, read e mails and do some web browsing, and sync my calendar with iCloud (thanks to some cogent advice from fellow HEXITES . And thats enough.

[Arulmani]

Motorola has taken a safer step by launching multiple devices to attract consumers in all segment. Considering the numerous budget friendly yet decent devices from the various Chinese OEMs, Motorola rather understood the the better way to approach the market for this year.

[Smudger]

I've got the current (2014) Moto X, and whilst I really like the phone, and the unintrusive Moto software they add on, the battery life can be pretty poor. So, the battery life of the Play makes me go towards that, but the goodies on the Style are pulling me towards that. The attractive thing about both is the price, both are an improvement on the 2014 Moto X (Apart from maybe the SOC in the Play) but they both cost at least £100 less than what I paid for mine last year...

[LSG501]

Having paid just under £150 for the MotoG2, there is really nothing in the new version that says its a must have.

Honestly there's nothing really worth upgrading from the first lte version, it's still a 720p screen albeit slightly bigger, it's still using a snapdragon 400 series (albeit 64 bit... pointless in my opinion). The only 'new' features are better camera and 2gb ram on some versions.

I'm still waiting on my 5.1 upgrade (some have had it but I'm still waiting strangely.. might need a wipe to get it) but the phone does everything I'm after, which is calls, emails, calendar, sat nav, web and photo's when needed (rare).

I'll admit the play takes my fancy, the big battery is more important to me than screen res although I can't help but think if someone made a decent 4.5inch mobile with decent battery and stock android they'd make a killing... the amount of people asking for smaller screens is huge.

I'd also LOVE for moto to build a windows mobile phone, my opinion of motorola is arguably the best quality phone maker out there at the moment but I'm edging more towards windows mobile for my next upgrade

[DanceswithUnix]

A phone at £180 is in a different category to one at <£100.

And yet American sites (http://www.anandtech.com/show/9468/m...the-new-moto-g) seem to be saying $179 which would be rather a bargain if we didn't get the usual 1.0 conversion ratio.

[Saracen]

Motorola has taken a safer step by launching multiple devices to attract consumers in all segment. Considering the numerous budget friendly yet decent devices from the various Chinese OEMs, Motorola rather understood the the better way to approach the market for this year.

Depends who their target is. I know a lot of people, me included, that wouldn't touch budget, unknown-name Chinese OEMs with a bargepole, and want to be buying from Argos, etc, not eBay. I doubt that those inclined to be buying cheap Chinese OEMs would be buying Moto's either, as they'd still get better bang-for-buck for the cheap Chinese units. Surely, Moto was about having a spec competitive enough, and a price reasonable enough, but attached to a brand name and high street availability.

[Domestic_Ginger]

The first gen moto g (which I got) was cheaper at retail than the launch price. Supermarkets bulk buying really IMO really drove the price down.

My phone is still fine. May rollback to the android version it was released with as the new one is noticeably slower.

Edit: £139 at tesco.

[peterb]

And yet American sites (http://www.anandtech.com/show/9468/m...the-new-moto-g) seem to be saying $179 which would be rather a bargain if we didn't get the usual 1.0 conversion ratio.

Don't forget that U.S. Sites tend to quote prices without sales tax. You really need to remove the 20% VAT to do a true price comparison.

[Cr@ig]

Moto G looks interesting, but is certainly losing it's original focus, which was decent quality, low price and very good value for money.

But each successive generation up's the spec (which is good), but also up's the price (which isn't, for the initial market, at least). A phone at £180 is in a different category to one at <£100.

So for this new one, as someone that would be looking for the original Moto-G type phone, does gaining a 13MP camera, 4G and/or IPX7 really matter? Nah. Does the price? Hell, yes. So either Moto have changed target market, or lost the plot. It used to be in a league of it's own, but it's now a bit 'meh, me too', IMHO.

Dare I suggest they established a name with the original, and are now looking to cash in. It makes the original look like a deliberate strategic loss-leader.

Its to be expected to be honest. Business model is simple sell at cost to gain market share, then steadily increase in price to start making profit. I reckon they play on the fact that people know about inflation and expect the price to go up because of it. General punter will accept that 20% increase even though it should be only 2% inline with inflation. Simple but effective market strategy.

[Gerrard]

I bought a Moto E LTE last week for £110 after my HTC Desire finally broke after over 4 years of use. Does what I need (very little) and since I don't need wireless or mobile network on all the time, I still have 36% of charge left from when I charged it last Tuesday night and it reckons four more days left on it. So 12 days from one charge on standby is pretty good! It is also smaller than the Moto G and yet I still found it a bit bigger than I need it to be (compared to my old Desire and my work's G4 Mini). The only niche thing that would be nice would be a flash for the camera; to use as a torch! Still, can get a white screen app to do that torch-like function for me.

[sykobee]

I saw £160 for the 3rd Gen on the single site that Google Shopping has found selling it so far. I'm sure it will be cheaper when it hits the supermarkets.

The Moto X Style is a very strong smartphone at a very competitive price.

[kingpotnoodle]

Moto G looks interesting, but is certainly losing it's original focus, which was decent quality, low price and very good value for money.

But each successive generation up's the spec (which is good), but also up's the price (which isn't, for the initial market, at least). A phone at £180 is in a different category to one at <£100.

So for this new one, as someone that would be looking for the original Moto-G type phone, does gaining a 13MP camera, 4G and/or IPX7 really matter? Nah. Does the price? Hell, yes. So either Moto have changed target market, or lost the plot. It used to be in a league of it's own, but it's now a bit 'meh, me too', IMHO.

Dare I suggest they established a name with the original, and are now looking to cash in. It makes the original look like a deliberate strategic loss-leader.

There is also the Moto E, which perhaps now fits the design goals of the original Moto G, the G has moved up a bit.

Having not long ago picked up the 2014 Moto X and liked it I'd tell people to give these a look, decent phones, decent prices and minimally modified, up to date Android.

[Rad77]

I've had a Moto G 2nd Gen since the start of the year and if that was up for renewal I would definitely be looking at the latest version. The price is certainly creeping up though and I would have expected either more features at the old price or a price cut.
I've used the Moto E and that is a perfectly good phone (actually it's an improvement if you want a smaller phone), if they improved the camera on that I think I would be tempted to look at that very seriously.