If this phone doesn't have any flashy features will you still get this instead of HTC/Samsung?

[Aquila]

S4 lag is complained about all over these forums. There are fixes, and Samsung has attempted to fix some of it and many S4 owners think it's overblown, while others think it's an intolerable amount. It's not a question of "if" it lags, it's whether or not the amount that it lags bothers the user, etc.

 

[anon(6174973)]

Never experience any lag on my phone.

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[Ry]

People primarily sign up because they provide great coverage and reliability. It doesn't excuse the locked down, modified and bloated phone offerings, and the slow updates just because Verizon customers sign up despite these problems.

Not all phones are part of their Amazon deal.

+ my Bionic has less bloat with official updates to Jelly Bean than when it launched with Gingerbread. And locked down is irrelevant to me and most other customers who will not be rooting and/or flashing custom ROMs on their devices. If that was my priority, I would probably have a Nexus or GPe/Dev Edition of a phone and I wouldn't be on Verizon.

IMO, Verizon has been getting better with the bloat.

 

[Ry]

Depends on your usage. If you run intensive tasks, your phone is bound to lag.

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I would rather have a Motorola that ran smoothly with an S4 Pro than a GS4 that had noticeable lag running a custom 600.

 

[chadthebuilder]

I would rather have a Motorola that ran smoothly with an S4 Pro than a GS4 that had noticeable lag running a custom 600.

That is what I really hope Motorola can do with the X Phone. Lower specifications with a more optimized and bloat free system, creates an even better experience than a power hogging, feature filled phone filled with bloatware. My mom has the GS4, and I will admit, that even my older Galaxy tab running stock Android 4.2 runs smoother than TouchWiz on her S4. I believe that if Motorola can skip the bloatware, and use a very optimized Android, it will be a killer phone that will blow even the S4 out of the water, as far as smoothness and performance goes. I can hardly wait until the X Phone is released!

 

[Ry]

That is what I really hope Motorola can do with the X Phone. Lower specifications with a more optimized and bloat free system, creates an even better experience than a power hogging, feature filled phone filled with bloatware. My mom has the GS4, and I will admit, that even my older Galaxy tab running stock Android 4.2 runs smoother than TouchWiz on her S4. I believe that if Motorola can skip the bloatware, and use a very optimized Android, it will be a killer phone that will blow even the S4 out of the water, as far as smoothness and performance goes. I can hardly wait until the X Phone is released!

It will also come down to what you consider "bloat". We know it'll have features on top of "stock" Android. MOTO MAGIC, a new notification system. These are going to be "stock" Motorola features. Are they bloat?

 

[chadthebuilder]

It will also come down to what you consider "bloat". We know it'll have features on top of "stock" Android. MOTO MAGIC, a new notification system. These are going to be "stock" Motorola features. Are they bloat?

I don't mind slight changes made by device manufacturers. What I do mind is the amount of bloat that gets added. My moms S4 has 2 gigs of RAM. Over 1 Gigabyte of that is constantly being used by TouchWiz, and the preinstalled apps. It is a supercharged device, yet it constantly feels sluggish and slow. I have no problem with changes to Android. I do, however, mind if they overly hinder performance.

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[return_0]

My moms S4 has 2 gigs of RAM. Over 1 Gigabyte of that is constantly being used by TouchWiz, and the preinstalled apps.

And, I should add, 4 GB of storage space.

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[Aquila]

Back to the explanation of why using RAM is a good thing in Android.

 

[hokiesteve]

Not all phones are part of their Amazon deal.

+ my Bionic has less bloat with official updates to Jelly Bean than when it launched with Gingerbread. And locked down is irrelevant to me and most other customers who will not be rooting and/or flashing custom ROMs on their devices. If that was my priority, I would probably have a Nexus or GPe/Dev Edition of a phone and I wouldn't be on Verizon.

IMO, Verizon has been getting better with the bloat.

Nope, but you'll frequently find other garbage on them. The VZ Navigator, VZ Music, etc especially comes to mind. There's no excuse for any of that bloat, especially given how much they charge for phones and plans. It cheapens and degrades the customer experience on what are supposed to be high end phones.

While locked down might be irrelevant to you, it isn't to me. I like phones that are easily flashable for custom software or to just be able to restore them to factory easily. It would be easy for Verizon to cater to customers such as myself and have no impact on other customers that don't care. Leaving the bootloader unlockable wouldn't impact anyone. If they are so concerned about people screwing up their phones and asking for warranty replacements, there's an easy solution to that: void the warranty on phones with unlocked bootloaders. While a phone with an unlockable bootloader isn't as much of a priority to me, it is still high on the desire list, but not enough to jump to a carrier with inferior coverage and reliability.

 

[TechTinker]

Nope, but you'll frequently find other garbage on them. The VZ Navigator, VZ Music, etc especially comes to mind. There's no excuse for any of that bloat, especially given how much they charge for phones and plans.

Agree, while sometimes I don't quite mind Verizon Apps (They have been getting better about the size.) to have a subsidized phone. But I do wish you could unistall freaking N.O.V.A, Madden, Slacker, and all the other random junk. The only Verizon App I think I would actually want is My Verizon, despite it being terriable. VZ Nav and all should have left long ago, no one actually uses them.

To relate to the title, yes. Moto Magic, the camera twist, long press for burst shot (take as little or much as you want), thats enough features for me besides the stock google now and photoshere (do recent non stock devices have it?) The Galaxy S4 has way to many Samsung apps, too much bog.

 

[chadthebuilder]

Agree, while sometimes I don't quite mind Verizon Apps (They have been getting better about the size.) to have a subsidized phone. But I do wish you could unistall freaking N.O.V.A, Madden, Slacker, and all the other random junk. The only Verizon App I think I would actually want is My Verizon, despite it being terriable. VZ Nav and all should have left long ago, no one actually uses them.

To relate to the title, yes. Moto Magic, the camera twist, long press for burst shot (take as little or much as you want), thats enough features for me besides the stock google now and photoshere (do recent non stock devices have it?) The Galaxy S4 has way to many Samsung apps, too much bog.

I agree, the S4 is a nice phone, but has way too much preinstalled garbage. I can hardly wait to get rid of Verizon when my contract ends next April. Unfortunately T-Mobile does not have super great service in my area, but with WiFi calling, that should work for me. I can hardly wait to get my hands on a phone with minimal bloatware, on a carrier that does not add a ton of bloatware to their devices.

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[Ry]

Nope, but you'll frequently find other garbage on them. The VZ Navigator, VZ Music, etc especially comes to mind. There's no excuse for any of that bloat, especially given how much they charge for phones and plans. It cheapens and degrades the customer experience on what are supposed to be high end phones.

While locked down might be irrelevant to you, it isn't to me. I like phones that are easily flashable for custom software or to just be able to restore them to factory easily. It would be easy for Verizon to cater to customers such as myself and have no impact on other customers that don't care. Leaving the bootloader unlockable wouldn't impact anyone. If they are so concerned about people screwing up their phones and asking for warranty replacements, there's an easy solution to that: void the warranty on phones with unlocked bootloaders. While a phone with an unlockable bootloader isn't as much of a priority to me, it is still high on the desire list, but not enough to jump to a carrier with inferior coverage and reliability.

I've disabled Amazon Kindle, Backup+ Media, City ID, Swype, Verizon Tones, Video Calling, and VZ Navigator. While they still take up space on my phone, disabling them is a rather simple process. As someone who used to work in the "app" industry, I can understand the business decisions behind the pre-load process.

People like you aren't the majority. I know you know that.

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[anon(6174973)]

Back to the explanation of why using RAM is a good thing in Android.

Yep. Android works differently from windows.

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[Rule9]

I've disabled Amazon Kindle, Backup+ Media, City ID, Swype, Verizon Tones, Video Calling, and VZ Navigator. While they still take up space on my phone, disabling them is a rather simple process. As someone who used to work in the "app" industry, I can understand the business decisions behind the pre-load process.

People like you aren't the majority. I know you know that.

Posted via Android Central App

I tend to look at this the same way I look at buying a laptop. Most branded laptops have a crap load of preinstalled junk software that I get rid of on a new one. But I wish our phones had the same capability laptops have: you can format a branded laptop and install your own licensed copy of windows minus the bloatware. That would be awesome if we could do that with all Android devices without unlocking bootloaders and rooting

 

[chadthebuilder]

I tend to look at this the same way I look at buying a laptop. Most branded laptops have a crap load of preinstalled junk software that I get rid of on a new one. But I wish our phones had the same capability laptops have: you can format a branded laptop and install your own licensed copy of windows minus the bloatware. That would be awesome if we could do that with all Android devices without unlocking bootloaders and rooting

What would be even nicer, is if phones were just preloaded with stock Android in the first place....

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[anon(6174973)]

What would be even nicer, is if phones were just preloaded with stock Android in the first place....

Posted via Android Central App

True story. Preloaded apps are irritating

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[RavenSword]

I'm interested enough in what the phone might be that I'm going to put of my phone upgrade until I see what it is. Best case scenario for me is this phone will be unlocked, run stock androidn(or atleast super close to it), gets timely updates, has great battery, and doesn't cost 600 bucks on the play store.

He'll, ill even take a subsidized version if it has good battery, screen, and was close to stock android.

 

[vjynn]

Let's pretend this phone has specs that are basically equal to the One and S4, but is pretty close to stock for the UI, a roughly equal camera performance and is built as nicely as Moto usually builds their phones, BUT doesn't have flashy features like Blinkfeed, Beats, or the various S4 features like eye scrolling air gestures etc, would you still buy it over the other 2? If yes, why?

Yes, solely because it (I hope) is smaller sized. I don't like phones that are bigger than 4.3" screen max because it makes the device too big.

 

[tech_head]

If it's got the specs of the HTC One and the Motorola build and built in 'Merica. I'm on board.