Thoughts about my Moto G after two months of use.

[Harvinder Sunila]

It's been two months since I got my 8GB Moto G, here are my thoughts on it so far...
Overall it's still the fantastic phone I bought. I've had no big issues with it, nothing defective and nothing has broken. Some faint scuffs on the black back, but that's as expected with any phone, I can buy a replacement black or various coloured back covers if I decide it's looking too scruffy, screen is in perfect condition.
The things that I don't like are connected to the KitKat update, what annoys me the most is that after the update the max brightness of the screen is not as bright as it was on Jellybean. The screen is one of the great things about the Moto G and I really don't understand why they played around with it. Had I known the KitKat update was going to affect the screen as much as it has I would have stayed with Jellybean, unfortunately no one else mentioned this happening after updating...although a few have now posted about it on the forum.
From my experience there is very little to no speed advantage with KitKat over Jellybean, the only place I've seen it slightly faster is when swiping through images inside the gallery...but that is negated by the fact that the gallery app stutters when you open it. The other stutter/lag etc is when scrolling, whether in apps, on the web it stutters. I haven't seen any battery usage changes.
A few people have said that apps haven't been optomized for KitKat yet because KitKat is so new and only a few phones run it...I don't know about that, all I know is that my Moto G experience was better on Jellybean than it is now, that may well change in the future but it doesn't help me right now.
Two months on and I still don't think there's a phone that comes close to it.
Hopefully KitKat 4.4.3 will give me my screen brightness back.

 

[Thricemin]

I'm using the Google edition and while reading your thread I decided to test the brightness. If the update is the same for the regular Motorola version then yes the brightness will be fixed. I just turned mine up and it was super bright.

 

[MrMoto1992]

I agree with you OP. My Moto G had almost no lag while on 4.3, but ever since going to 4.4 I run into small hiccups all the time. Is much for that project svelt thing...

Sent from my super awesome moto g.

 

[Caz42]

Agree with your review but just wondering why you need the screen so bright Harvinder?

I only have mine at around 30% brightness and find that really bright so can't imagine what 100% must be like ........not to mention the battery it would eat.

 

[Harvinder Sunila]

Agree with your review but just wondering why you need the screen so bright Harvinder?

I only have mine at around 30% brightness and find that really bright so can't imagine what 100% must be like ........not to mention the battery it would eat.

Hi Caz,
100% is not that bright on my Moto G after KitKat...I haven't seen it affect the battery, normal use it'll go for a day and a half...I recharge in the morning anyway as my phones on 24hours.
I'm a photographer, I look at images all the time and high res images from my blog/website are darker than they should be.
You're eyes do adjust to different levels of brightness, hence you being used to a lower screen brightness. If I showed you photographs side by side, with one on 30% brightness the other 100%, you would see a big difference in highlights and shadows.
The screen is one of the things that attracted me to the Moto G, I tested it side by side with the Nexus 5 and it's as good as if not better...both show slight colour casts, one being green the other magenta.

 

[Harvinder Sunila]

A couple of other things I've noticed that may help others...
When I updated to KitKat I didn't change my wallpaper, the bar at the bottom was graduated and transparent...I just changed my wallpaper, an image from my gallery, and the bottom bar is now black and opaque.
When I send anyone an SMS containing emoticons ,using the stock SMS app, the emoticons don't show up in the message. I even tried sending myself an SMS and the emoticons didn't show.
In KitKat the alarm clock only allows you to set the minutes in increments of 5, ie you can choose 12:05 or 12:10 but nothing inbetween...strange.

 

[mtvictor]

Why would you wake up at 6:03 am? Lol thats why its 6:00 or 6:05

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Harvinder Sunila]

Why would you wake up at 6:03 am? Lol thats why its 6:00 or 6:05

Hi mtvictor,
It's not a case of waking up at 6:03, I use the alarm for other reasons apart from waking up...ie just before a tv programe I wanted to watch, so if it started at 8pm then an alarm at 7:59pm comes in handy.
Not letting you choose the exact time is just a weird thing to change on the alarm.

 

[Comerman]

Here's my two pence worth on the moto G. I loved it from the time I opened the box, worked great for the few things I'd use it for (calls texts and camera is about it). Then came kitkat. . . . . . earpiece sound is now crap, was given great emoji but they wont work and I've just found out I can create groups in contacts but cannot text said groups (I cannot understand that at all) despite all that (because I'm hoping Motorola will fix it) I still love the phone BUT if it's not sorted soon then it's bye bye G.

 

[Mardavia40]

I love my Moto g as well that's why i have not updated to KitKat as yet and don't want to there nothing worth while
in that upgrade just more and more bugs and problems.
My moto g is on 24hrs a day and like above for (calls texts and camera) and a lot of the time i have mobile data and wifi off.
My battery's in it's 9th day and i still have 41% charge left unlike battery drain problems in kitkat, so I'm very happy to
continue on jelly bean 4.3 as long as it's possible.

 

[mtvictor]

Here's my two pence worth on the moto G. I loved it from the time I opened the box, worked great for the few things I'd use it for (calls texts and camera is about it). Then came kitkat. . . . . . earpiece sound is now crap, was given great emoji but they wont work and I've just found out I can create groups in contacts but cannot text said groups (I cannot understand that at all) despite all that (because I'm hoping Motorola will fix it) I still love the phone BUT if it's not sorted soon then it's bye bye G.

You can always root it and go back to 4.3?
Its an. Awesome phone ^^ we'll have to wait for a more stable update

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thatguy97]

To be honest I don't use mine much I loved it until i started to multitask like crazy and I seriously slow the phone down consistently so I went back to my iPhone 5 but I'm going to go to get a note 3 in a month I got caught up in the moment cuz of that price point

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013 or iPhone 5

 

[thatguy97]

It's been two months since I got my 8GB Moto G, here are my thoughts on it so far...
Overall it's still the fantastic phone I bought. I've had no big issues with it, nothing defective and nothing has broken. Some faint scuffs on the black back, but that's as expected with any phone, I can buy a replacement black or various coloured back covers if I decide it's looking too scruffy, screen is in perfect condition.
The things that I don't like are connected to the KitKat update, what annoys me the most is that after the update the max brightness of the screen is not as bright as it was on Jellybean. The screen is one of the great things about the Moto G and I really don't understand why they played around with it. Had I known the KitKat update was going to affect the screen as much as it has I would have stayed with Jellybean, unfortunately no one else mentioned this happening after updating...although a few have now posted about it on the forum.
From my experience there is very little to no speed advantage with KitKat over Jellybean, the only place I've seen it slightly faster is when swiping through images inside the gallery...but that is negated by the fact that the gallery app stutters when you open it. The other stutter/lag etc is when scrolling, whether in apps, on the web it stutters. I haven't seen any battery usage changes.
A few people have said that apps haven't been optomized for KitKat yet because KitKat is so new and only a few phones run it...I don't know about that, all I know is that my Moto G experience was better on Jellybean than it is now, that may well change in the future but it doesn't help me right now.
Two months on and I still don't think there's a phone that comes close to it.
Hopefully KitKat 4.4.3 will give me my screen brightness back.

If your story is true so much for kitkat system requirements and svelte

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013 or iPhone 5

 

[Comerman]

You can always root it and go back to 4.3?
Its an. Awesome phone ^^ we'll have to wait for a more stable update

Posted via Android Central App

If I was assured that a more stable update was coming I'd be happy enough to be honest.

 

[MotoGarel]

The clock app does allow minutes still you just have to slowly move the hand between the points.

I must admit the previous interface did the job fine why change what worked?

Overall for such a cheap phone ?110.00 at Tesco I can be happier.

It lacks some of the refinement of my iphone5 but on the whole I am getting used to it.

When the Galaxy S5 comes out I will move over from iPhone 5 (Not compatible with Vodafone 4g) I ended my EE contract early but feel there is less hassle with Android.

 

[Harvinder Sunila]

The clock app does allow minutes still you just have to slowly move the hand between the points.

Hi MotoGarel,
You're right, I just tried moving it really slowly between the 5 increments and it does give you the other minutes...It's not the easiesiest thing to do in a screen that size, but at least it's still there.
Thank for that information.

 

[Harvinder Sunila]

The clock app does allow minutes still you just have to slowly move the hand between the points.

Hi MotoGarel,
You're right, I just tried moving it really slowly between the 5 increments and it does give you the other minutes...It's not the easiesiest thing to do in a screen that size, but at least it's still there.
Thank for that information.

If your story is true so much for kitkat system requirements and svelte

Hi thatguy97,
That's just my experience of the Moto G so far...maybe future updates will change it for the better ?

 

[iamjosh007]

I did a check at Motorola forums and they advised to use Hangout as Messaging App to avoid emoticon problem

 

[shmotog]

I agree with you OP. My Moto G had almost no lag while on 4.3, but ever since going to 4.4 I run into small hiccups all the time. Is much for that project svelt thing...

Sent from my super awesome moto g.

games, you need the brightness for games, i know i do.

 

[unopepito06]

OP, I wonder if you've tried a factory reset? You may or may not want to, depending on if you have a lot of apps and things you don't want to wipe, but it seems that your experience with 4.4 is different than some others with 4.4, so perhaps the problem could be some mixed-up bits causing instability. However that's your decision to make about a reset: nothing sucks worse to me than a factory reset wiping everything, but not fixing the problem.