I had the chance to play with the Huawei Watch last week. You’re considering buying one. We’ll most definitely post a full review in days ahead, but for now, let’s talk candidly about my initial impressions of the Huawei Watch.
The watch itself looks pretty stunning in all 6 style options. Above is my clear favorite: the $399 Stainless Steel watch with Steel link band. To be perfectly honest, I’m partial to silver faces with silver link-style bands on smartwatches across the board, but Huawei has me thinking that alternatives are worth considering.
Here is the cheapest model – the $349 steel face with black leather band – and it looks darn good if I may say so myself.
Or if you prefer a more modern but still sophisticated-slash-sporty there’s a black Stainless Steel alternative for $449. I happen to think it looks more graphite than black, which also makes me more of a fan.
I’d definitely wear any of those three.
The version that I’ve been seeing showcased most often is the mesh band with steel face. Maybe that’s because it’s so unique to the smartwatch space at a time companies are craving differentiation. It doesn’t fit my personal style, but generally speaking, it looks great. The same goes for the more expensive Rose gold-plated versions.
I didn’t have the chance to see the Alligator-pressed brown leather band – which will go for $699 when it starts selling later this year – and I’m wondering if that’d end up being my favorite of the six. At double the price of the base model, I’d have to doubly like it over the sub-$400 models to justify a purchase. I might (might) like it marginally better.
Speaking of the crown, Huawei has placed it at the 2 o’clock position to maximize reachability and make operation comfortable on either hand. It seemed comfortable enough for me.
Pressing that button should illuminate the screen, but did you notice that the screen is already on? It’s not easy to tell in the photo and it wasn’t too easy to tell in real-life, either. Most smartwatches (like phones) suffer visibility issues when viewing under direct sunlight and the Huawei Watch was no exception. It wasn’t any worse than most competitors out there… it just wasn’t any better.
You can expect similar experiences with screen smudges.
That’s par for the course considering how often you swipe the screen, but if you’re a potential first time smartwatch user who thinks screen smudges would set your OCD meter off the charts, it’s a factor worth considering.
It’s unfair to diss the Huawei Watch for issues the entire product category largely face, so I’ll lay off, but I will say that screen brightness in sunlight and smudgy screens are 2 factors I wish manufacturers would attack more directly. Yota Watch with eInk anybody?
From a design standpoint, Huawei absolutely nailed it.
I already know one criticism detractors will levy in regards to the “thickness”.
The obsession with “thin” smartphones has largely clouded people’s judgment. People think that because smartphones are constantly getting thinner and thinner, their other tech gadgets should be getting thinner and thinner, including their smartwatches.
But take a look at the Huawei Watch being worn naturally:
Compare that to popular non-smart watch brands across the world and you’ll see that the Huawei Watch fits right in line with premium timepieces of everyone from Fossil to Rolex. In fact, Fossil even has a size guide where they illustrate popular dimensions.
Fossil’s guide shows circular watch faces ranging from 22mm to 50mm.
The Huawei Watch face is 42mm.
Fossil’s guide shows circular watch thickness ranging from 8mm to 16mm.
The Huawei Watch is 11.3mm.
Case closed?
Let us also not forget that the same people complaining about thickness are often the same people complaining about poor battery life. You can’t have it both ways, although the Huawei Watch aced the style challenge while performing admirably in battery life claims (2 days with regular use).
Easier to verify will be the Huawei Watch’s ability to charge from 0% to 80% in 45 minutes and to 100% in 75 minutes. Already verified is the delightfully easy method of magnetically snapping the Huawei Watch to its charging dock.
Up to this point I’ve mainly talked about the design elements of the Huawei Watch and for good reason: smartwatch makers are aiming to be seen as elegant timepieces first. It’s much of the reason that Huawei chose “Smart, Redefined” for their tagline to emphasize the old-world version of smart (read: sophisticated) meeting the new-world version of smart (read: technology).
Huawei has succeeded in terms of making a beautiful timepiece, but is the hardware powerful enough? How’s the software experience? Properly addressing each question will require a considerably longer duration of time with the watch, but it’s worth noting that for Android Wear smartwatches across the board, style and design is the primary differentiating factor.
Recent updates have brought some great new features to Android Wear, but these aren’t exclusive to the Huawei Watch. Some features Huawei touts, such as Always-on and WiFi connectivity, are already available on the first generation Moto 360 after an update by Google. For this reason, they’re not convincing reasons to buy the Huawei Watch… they’re convincing reasons to buy an Android Wear smartwatch of which the Huawei Watch is one potential choice.
That doesn’t change the bottom line, though.
The Huawei Watch is gorgeous (all six of ’em, actually). Android Wear is growing more powerful and the Huawei Watch harnesses its power. It looks the part better. It plays the part. Time will tell if it does so better than competitors, but If you’re considering an Android Wear smartwatch, the Huawei Watch must be one of the few devices on your “must consider” short list.
Google announced last month their big plans for the future, which a lot of you saw that was Alphabet. So with a new and bright future must come a new and fresh logo for Google, and I must say I dig it.
The video below shows us how much Google has evolved, as well as how much the logo has evolved. The new logo is simple, plain, and still has those colors that make it seem familiar, but the new font will be something to get use to. Check out the video below and let us know what you think about the new logo.
I find I'm wanting a smartwatch more and more each day.
Lenovo already told us we should expect to see the new Moto 360 on September 8, but you know, we hate waiting. Thanks to @evleaks, we have another batch of Moto 360 (2nd Gen) press renders to enjoy, this time showing off the elegant Gold and Silver models.
Interestingly, the more I see this device, the more it grows on me. At first, I was unsure about the lugs and adjusted placement of the crown, but it is still a handsome looking smartwatch. Of course, it still features a “flat tire” to house the ambient light sensor, but I don’t mind that too much.
Pretty soon, we will see the complete offerings from Huawei, Motorola, ASUS, and LG in the Android Wear department. Are you leaning towards one in particular at this time?
After months of rumors and Samsung teasing their new round smartwatch back during their Galaxy Note 5/S6 Edge Plus event, the Samsung Gear S2 is finally official. The craziest part is it turns out there will be two versions of the S2, with slightly different styles — the regular Samsung Gear S2 and Samsung Gear S2 Classic. Both watches feature round 1.2-inch 360 x 360 resolution (302 ppi) circular AMOLED displays along with physical rotating bezels and home/back buttons.
Because a smartwatch is just as much a fashion accessory as it is a device, Samsung says the S2 Classic — which is only available in black — is for those who prefer a more “timeless watch design” and comes with matching genuine leather band. The regular S2 is definitely more modern looking, with a sleek minimal design and comes in dark gray watch and strap, or silver watch with white strap.
Inside, the watches are powered by a 1-GHz dual-core processor powered by Tizen OS (no surprise there). Samsung says these 2 components are optimized to provide between 2-3 days of battery life in a single charge. Also on board is a NFC for mobile payments and wireless charging, all in form factor only 11.4mm thin. Samsung also mentions that there will also be a Gear S2 with 3G connectivity with first-ever e-SIM for making voice calls directly on the watch.
Although pricing and availability wasn’t revealed, both of the watches will be available for viewing during this year’s IFA on September 3rd so be on the lookout.
Considering how powerful and accurate the best software keyboards have become, many smartphone and tablet users find hardware keyboards a thing of the past. Just ask BlackBerry. But one thing that’s forever? Power users.
Samsung – with their Galaxy Note series – is one of the few companies who have successfully tapped into the second-coming of the power using mobile market. The company went even further with the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, unveiling a very BlackBerryish keyboard attachment accessory.
LG didn’t want Samsung to have all the fun, so they’ve announced a solution of their own, and one that works with any smartphone or tablet: the LG Rolly Keyboard.
It definitely looks like a nice, big, full-size keyboard.
But it rolls up into a nice compact cylinder for tucking into a bag or even your pocket.
Will the idea stick? Not for smartphones, but this could be a pretty killer accessory to keep in tow for tablets.
All-in-one gadgets are a thing of beauty and to lug around an accessory it’s got to be pretty brilliant. It would need to provide enough utility to be vastly superior to the standalone option yet compact enough to be convenient, otherwise you might as well carry around a full-size keyboard or a laptop.
The sweet spot seems small here and it’s tough to know if LG hit it with the Rolly Keyboard without putting it through the paces of a full review.
Straight from the horse’s mouth:
In an effort to capture a larger share of the fast-growing mobile accessories market, LG Electronics (LG) will unveil the industry’s first solid rollable wireless portable keyboard at IFA 2015 in Berlin, Germany. Unlike other portable keyboards on the market, LG’s Rolly Keyboard (model KBB-700) folds up along the four rows to create an easy-to-carry “stick” that fits into one’s pocket as easily as any purse or briefcase.
Featuring high-contrast keys and a fold-out mobile device stand, typing on Rolly Keyboard is extremely comfortable because its 17mm key pitch is nearly as generous as the 18mm key pitch found on most desktop keyboards. Made of impact-resistant and durable polycarbonate and ABS plastic, typing on the keyboard offers satisfying tactile feedback not found on flexible silicone keyboards. Two sturdy arms fold out to support smartphones as well as tablets1 in an upright position. Simply unfolding the Rolly Keyboard enables the auto pairing function to connect easily to two different devices at the same time via Bluetooth 3.0 with the ability to toggle between the two with a simple key press. A single AAA battery powers the keyboard for up to three months of average use.
“LG Rolly Keyboard is just one of the many premium input devices we’ll be unveiling in the coming months as we expand our accessories offerings,” said Seo Young-jae, vice president in charge of Innovative Personal Devices at LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “The goal was to create a product that could add more value to LG smartphones and tablets at the same time offering a unique design proposition that hadn’t been explored before.”
What do you think: cool enough for power users and hardware keyboard lovers to consider? Or stick with an alternative?
Twenty years ago today, people were lining up at CompUSA or Best Buy at midnight. It wasn’t a new Call of Duty game, Apple’s latest iPod, or any type of hardware at all that shoppers were waiting for. It was software, and not just any software: Windows 95.
Microsoft’s Windows 95 release on August 24th, 1995 was a highly anticipated launch. Jay Leno helped launch the software alongside Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with a lot of jokes and the appearance of the entire Windows 95 development team on stage. It was a huge day for Microsoft with TV commercials blasting the Rolling Stones’ "Start Me Up" with images of the new Start button that we still (just about) use today. Microsoft even hired Jennifer Anniston and Matthew Perry to create an hour-long cyber sitcom all about Windows 95, and the software was so popular that 7 million copies were sold during the first five weeks.
Away from all the fanfare around the launch, PC geeks were choosing between Pentium or 486 processors, IDE or SCSI hard drives, double-speed CD-ROMs, and Sound Blaster audio cards to experience the best of Windows 95. Microsoft added a lot of features to Windows 95, but the biggest was a new Start button, menu, and task bar that made it a lot easier to discover applications and navigate the operating system. Multitasking improvements and the graphical interface were a big leap from Windows 3.1 and the days of MS-DOS, but the interface was rather similar for Macintosh and OS/2 users at the time.
Windows 95 wasn’t all about the Start button, though. Besides being a 32-bit OS, an important addition was support for long filenames, up to 250 characters. It sounds like a basic feature in 2015, but at the time it made naming documents a lot easier. Another big feature was the introduction of Plug and Play, to automatically detect and install hardware. While the process of Plug and Play has been greatly improved in more recent releases, Windows 95’s implementation was often referred to as Plug and Pray thanks to the often unreliable device install process that resulted in IRQ conflicts and lots of driver fun.
Windows 95 had a lot of new features
Microsoft had other equally ambitious plans for Windows 95. A new Microsoft Network (MSN) application came bundled with a prominent icon on the desktop. MSN was designed to provide access to email, chat rooms, newsgroups, and the first WWW homepages through a dial-up connection. Microsoft charged a monthly fee to access MSN, and if you used it for more than three hours a month, there were extra charges. It was the early days of the internet and dial-up connections, and MSN now exists as a web service through various tailored apps or a browser.
Microsoft also introduced its first idea of syncing data between multiple machines in Windows 95. The My Briefcase aimed to sync files between a laptop and desktop machine, and in modern releases of Windows, it’s all cloud-powered thanks to Microsoft’s OneDrive storage service. Microsoft even introduced user profile support in Windows 95 to allow multiple family members to sign in and have their own separate profiles with links and applications. If you weren’t happy with all the new features of Windows 95 then you could have purchased Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 at the time. It included the Internet Jumpstart Kit (an early version of Internet Explorer), theme support, and a number of system utilities. Subsequent updates to Windows 95 also introduced new features before Windows 98 arrived three years later to improve things even more.
Enjoy a brief look back at Windows 95 in the photos and videos below, especially Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer dancing to "Start Me Up." It’s classic, just like Windows 95.
Actually looks like quite a nice phone. Especially for ~£300.
In spite of being one of Samsung's best smartphones to date, the Galaxy Note 5 left a few people disappointed with its move to a smaller battery and away from microSD storage expansion. Oppo is now stepping in to fill the void left by the Note by introducing the 6-inch R7 Plus, a smartphone with a 4,100mAh battery and a microSD option.
The R7 Plus comes in a unibody enclosure made out of a magnesium-aluminum alloy, which is punctuated by a 13-megapixel camera module and a fingerprint sensor on the back. Up front, the 6-inch AMOLED display has a 1080p resolution and a subtle curve to its edges, which Oppo describes as evoking the grace and tactile feel of a violin's neck.
3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage come as standard, with the latter upgradeable by up to 128GB more via the microSD card slot. There's a tradeoff to be made, though, as using the memory expansion slot takes up the space provided for a second nano-SIM. The processor inside the R7 Plus is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615, which should prove sufficient for most purposes, but doesn't quite match up to the elevated standard set by this phone's massive battery and high-end construction.
Big phones deserve big batteries
The biggest shortcoming of the Oppo R7 Plus, though, might be the lack of 4G support for the US. European and North American fans will be able to buy it via the Oppo Style online store, but Americans will only be able to use it on T-Mobile or AT&T without LTE. The R7 Plus is on sale in China and Southeast Asia today, costing 2,999 yuan ($470).
If you’re still wondering why BlackBerry would need to even consider making an Android-powered phone, let this statistic blow your mind: 82.2% of all new smartphones sold are Android devices, and if you add in iOS as well, 96.8% of all smartphones run either Android or iOS. This latest data is contained in a quarterly sales report by Gartner and really puts into perspective what a futile battle the smartphone market is if you aren’t called Google or Apple. Windows and BlackBerry device sales are slowly but surely dwindling, though we do wonder if the Windows 10 factor will help Microsoft claw some ground back in the future.
While the short term news is good for Android, Gartner also suggests that the smartphone market is reaching its peak with the Chinese market reaching “saturation”. This has caused global growth to slow to 13.5%, the slowest since 2013 which means manufacturers are going to have to really sell their devices to consumers who are looking for replacements, rather than their first devices. And if these reports are anything to go by, it’s a pretty good chance that the replacement is going to be an Android device. Just sayin’.
What do you think about the fact 82.2% of all new smartphones sold are Android devices? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
One of the longstanding outrages at the USPTO was the Apple iPhone design patent. It’s flat out stupid for Apple to be able to sue a company for making a rectangular phone with a home button.
Thankfully, that’s about to be in the past. The USPTO has ruled that Apple’s patent is invalid. This wasn’t some hero-caped judge who decided to go against the grain, so get that out of your mind. The ruling was made based on a technicality involved with the patent’s protection date.
There’s a lot to explain in that regard, but here’s the skinny of it: Apple’s once-solid design patent had only come to form because it encompassed previously submitted patents that were initially rejected. The patents which were rejected did not originally clearly cover smartphone design, so Apple is not allowed to use the protection date from those rejected patents on the new one.
Therefore, their patent technically only covers the stretch of time starting from late 2008 through today. See where we’re going with this? Apple cannot possibly own a hard design patent for the general shape of their iPhone because there were phones on the market well before their patent was granted. Therefore, the USPTO feels the patent should never have been granted in the first place.
It likely won’t be enough to completely extinguish the flames on this Samsung vs Apple spat anytime soon — and, to be fair, there are still a lot of other patent hurdles Samsung has to get over in order to be completely clear of Apple’s wrath — but this is a major development in the case and things should take some very interesting turns the next time they’re scheduled to return to the courtroom.
Because you can never have too much Material, Android 6.0 Marshmallow brings, not only a host of new software features, but brand new #materialyolo boot animation as well. We know it’s not the biggest new update, but given that the vast majority of Android users are using non-Nexus hardware (those built by Samsung, LG, HTC, or Motorola), we know that many of you will never see this. To give you a quick look at what you’re missing, we decided to post.
It’s nothing too wild, just a replacement for the colorful spinning balls we saw introduced in Lollipop. The new material animations are definitely a nice touch but we only hope that for current Nexus users, most of Lollipop’s bugs have been squashed. As much as we like Marshmallow’s new boot animation, we don’t want to see it too often. Ha.
Not sure how I feel about the fingerprint unlock being on the back...
And I thought this weekend was going to be a quiet one. With all the leaks surrounding the appearance of the LG Nexus 5 2015 in the past few weeks, it almost seemed inevitable that we were going to get a look at one in person, and it appears that now we can. A photo showing the back of the Nexus 5 2015 has appeared online and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it matches exactly what we were expecting based on previous renders and leaks of the Nexus 5 2015’s cases. Check out the image for yourself down below:
Predictably, marked on the device are the words “not for sale” as well as the Nexus logo branded in the same location as the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 before it. Of course, we also see that the lipped camera from the earlier renders was spot on, and that there is a fingerprint scanner just below that. We’re inclined to believe that we are indeed looking at an actual LG Nexus 5 2015, unless of course it’s an elaborate 3D printing job – very elaborate.
Is it bad that I sort of like the look of the Note 5?!
It seems like forever that we’ve known these devices have been coming, but they are finally official – the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ have been announced, and they’re exactly the devices we expected them to be. Both giants and with pretty much identical hardware specs – except for the curvature of their displays, of course – these devices are Samsung‘s bet to stop Apple encroaching on their phablet territory. Check out how Samsung’s introduction videos for both the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ below:
Now that these devices are finally official, tell us what you think in the comments below.
With the release of Google Play services 7.8, we announced the addition of new Mobile Vision APIs, which includes a new Face API that finds human faces in images and video better and faster than before. This API is also smarter at distinguishing faces at different orientations and with different facial features facial expressions.
Face Detection
Face Detection is a leap forward from the previous Android FaceDetector.Face API. It’s designed to better detect human faces in images and video for easier editing. It’s smart enough to detect faces even at different orientations -- so if your subject’s head is turned sideways, it can detect it. Specific landmarks can also be detected on faces, such as the eyes, the nose, and the edges of the lips.
Important Note
This is not a face recognition API. Instead, the new API simply detects areas in the image or video that are human faces. It also infers from changes in the position frame to frame that faces in consecutive frames of video are the same face. If a face leaves the field of view, and re-enters, it isn’t recognized as a previously detected face.
Detecting a face
When the API detects a human face, it is returned as a Face object. The Face object provides the spatial data for the face so you can, for example, draw bounding rectangles around a face, or, if you use landmarks on the face, you can add features to the face in the correct place, such as giving a person a new hat.
getPosition() - Returns the top left coordinates of the area where a face was detected
getWidth() - Returns the width of the area where a face was detected
getHeight() - Returns the height of the area where a face was detected
getId() - Returns an ID that the system associated with a detected face
Orientation
The Face API is smart enough to detect faces in multiple orientations. As the head is a solid object that is capable of moving and rotating around multiple axes, the view of a face in an image can vary wildly.
Here’s an example of a human face, instantly recognizable to a human, despite being oriented in greatly different ways:
The API is capable of detecting this as a face, even in the circumstances where as much as half of the facial data is missing, and the face is oriented at an angle, such as in the corners of the above image.
Here are the method calls available to a face object:
getEulerY() - Returns the rotation of the face around the vertical axis -- i.e. has the neck turned so that the face is looking left or right [The y degree in the above image]
getEulerZ() - Returns the rotation of the face around the Z azis -- i.e. has the user tilted their neck to cock the head sideways [The r degree in the above image]
Landmarks
A landmark is a point of interest within a face. The API provides a getLandmarks() method which returns a List , where a Landmark object returns the coordinates of the landmark, where a landmark is one of the following: Bottom of mouth, left cheek, left ear, left ear tip, left eye, left mouth, base of nose, right cheek, right ear, right ear tip, right eye or right mouth.
Activity
In addition to detecting the landmark, the API offers the following function calls to allow you to smartly detect various facial states:
getIsLeftEyeOpenProbability() - Returns a value between 0 and 1, giving probability that the left eye is open
getIsRighteyeOpenProbability() - Same but for right eye
getIsSmilingProbability() - Returns a value between 0 and 1 giving a probability that the face is smiling
Thus, for example, you could write an app that only takes a photo when all of the subjects in the image are smiling.
Learn More
It’s easy to build applications that use facial detection using the Face API, and we’ve provided lots of great resources that will allow you to do so. Check them out here:
Until recently, talking about mobile payments without using words like "confusing" or "mess" meant essentially lying. A confounding mix of banks, carriers, manufacturers, point-of-sale systems, and all the competing interests behind those businesses served to make paying with your phone unreliable. Those problems are finally beginning to fade away thanks to wider adoption and simpler back-end systems, but they're not gone yet.
Even with Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and the soon-to-be-launched Android Pay, consumers can't be entirely sure that the little NFC icon they see at registers will guarantee that they can tap to pay. Samsung thinks it has a solution for that last problem, though, and predictably enough it's called "Samsung Pay."
It transmits to almost any credit card reader
To fix the problem of ensuring that more stores will take mobile payments, Samsung turned to a clever piece of technology that lets you pay at most any terminal where you can swipe a credit card. The trick comes thanks to a tiny coil that shoots out the same magnetic code that those readers normally get from your credit card. It's called "Magnetic Secure Transmission," or MST; it's built into the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5. As with other mobile wallets, Samsung Pay can also let you pay with NFC and it will store loyalty cards and gift cards.
Back in February, Samsung acquired LoopPay, which developed the MST technology, and it wasted little time building it into its phones. LoopPay's co-founder, Will Graylin, came over to Samsung with the acquisition. He contends that the threshold at which users will begin to really use mobile payments is 80 percent — that is, 80 percent or more of the stores you visit need to be able to let you pay from your phone. Since Samsung Pay can work with most credit card terminals, Samsung believes that it has a jump start on the competition.
Even though it's transmitting via a magnet, Samsung Pay seems to be set up to maintain security. It uses tokenization, which means that your actual credit card isn't sent, instead it uses a temporary one that Visa or Mastercard creates for you. It's also storing that information in a "trusted execution environment," which keeps it isolated from any app that might want to access it. Apple Pay also keeps that information in a secure element, but Samsung was quick to point out that Android Pay doesn't (though it is also tokenized, so the risk is lessened).
To use Samsung Pay, you simply swipe up from the bottom bezel of your phone. It works from the home screen and, in a clever twist, when the phone's screen is off. A credit card pops up and you unlock it with your fingerprint. At that point, you can either pay with NFC (as with Apple Pay or Android Pay) or hold it up near the spot where you swipe a credit card. Unlike Apple Pay or Android Pay, which can begin their payments process when they detect NFC, Samsung wants its system to be initiated by the user first. That's why it's using that swipe-up motion to get it started: it's easy and works even if the phone is off. (Samsung's executives weren't particularly concerned about any confusion that could stem from the fact that the same gesture is used to activate Google Now on other Android phones.)
Swipe up, unlock, tap, done
Samsung trotted a group of reporters over to a Dunkin' Donuts in New York to show it off and it worked so simply that there's not a whole lot to say — except that the swipe on the point-of-sale station was a little awkwardly placed. Swipe up, unlock, tap, done.
There are a few places where the MST technology won't work, namely any credit card reader that requires a physical trigger to activate the card read. That means that ATMs and gas pumps won't really work with Samsung Pay, but most stores will.
Samsung says that it's not taking a transaction fee from card issuers, but it is acting as a conduit for some of your transaction information. It sends that along to your phone so you can get receipts, but Graylin says that "we just pass it through" and that Samsung isn't collecting that data.
Samsung Pay is launching in Korea on August 20th and in the US on September 28th — though a software update which enables it will come sooner. It also says "select US users" will be able to take part in a beta test beginning on August 25th. The service is also planned for the UK, Spain, and China.
It’s not that we are too good for them or don’t see their importance, but we typically don’t review mid-range Android phones like the Moto G (3rd gen). We tend to stick to the high-end guys, the ones that most of our readers get all sorts of opinionated about after flocking toward with wads of cash. But there is something different about the new Moto G. Not only is it the 3rd version of Motorola’s most successful phone of all time, but it’s also impossible to ignore. This is a sub-$200 phone that bests many $400 and above phones in performance, battery life, and style.
Since receiving a review unit a couple of weeks back, I’ve spent enough time with and without the new Moto G (3rd gen) to share some final thoughts. And while this is a step out of our comfort zone, I think you’ll see why after reading this that we decided this one was worth a deeper look.
This is our Moto G (3rd gen) review.
What’s awesome about it?
Battery Life
Phones that have great battery life will always have a special place in my heart. I loved the OnePlus One because of its two-day battery life. The Xperia Z3 Compact ranks up there in my favorites as well for the same reason. And now, you can add the Moto G (3rd gen) to the list. With its ultra-efficient Snapdragon 410 (quad-core) processor, 5-inch 720p display, and 2470mAh battery, this phone just goes and goes and goes. Even with the phone running on AT&T and at my house, which happens to be an AT&T black hole of signal death, this phone, on LTE only, easily gets through an entire day with solid use (14-16 hours with a terrible AT&T signal). Turn on WiFi and it might last for days.
In fact, the standby time on this phone might be the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in a smartphone. I’m pretty sure that I turned this phone on for the first time after returning from NYC a couple of weeks back, charged it, connected to WiFi, and then didn’t touch it for 3 or 4 days, yet it still somehow had most of its battery left. Today, I woke up at around 5:45AM, grabbed the Moto G (with WiFi on), caught up on news, then went for a 30-minute run (using GPS the whole time), and am now sitting here at 12:30PM with almost 70% remaining (1.5 hours of screen on time). That’s insane! The Galaxy S6 would have asked me to recharge it at least once in that amount of time.
Design
The new Moto G is an obvious member of the Moto family. The design, while different in many aspects, is still very much a Moto G. Take a look at the picture below to see what I mean, but also to see how the line has evolved over the last couple of years. It’s simple, clean, and starting to become somewhat iconic at this point. Someone tell HTC that this is how you evolve smartphone design.
Holding this phone reminds me a lot of the original Moto X in that its curves melt into your palm, all areas of the screen are reachable with one handed use, and it isn’t so thin that it becomes difficult to hold. There is a slight texture to the (replaceable) back side, along with a somewhat sticky phone frame that both help it from slipping around in your hand. The power and volume button places are in their proper spots and not at all confusing. And the camera housing, with dimple, and flash add some much needed flair.
Overall, this phone is refreshing in that it’s not an oversized behemoth, but it’s just big enough that it feels like a 2015 phone.
Personalization
As an added bonus, Motorola added the new Moto G (3rd gen) to their Moto Maker service, which means you can customize a Moto G at no extra cost and receive it within a few days. This isn’t the full Moto Maker treatment that accompanies the Moto X package, but you do get to choose a white or black front and from 10 different accent and back colors. You can even choose to engrave it or double the RAM and storage, though the RAM and storage upgrade will cost you extra.
Still to this day, no one is doing customization like Motorola. That’s too bad because personalization of a phone has become one of our favorite things to do with new Moto phones.
Camera
This isn’t the best camera you will find in a phone, but it might be the best you will find in a $200 phone. Motorola, a company that almost always disappoints in the camera department, appears to be figuring things out. Not only did they express a major desire and focus for putting out the best smartphone camera around in the new Moto X Pure Edition, they seem to have spent some quality time with the Moto G’s shooter as well.
You are looking at shots taken with a 13MP f/2.0 camera that includes pretty quick auto focus, 1080p video, slow motion shooting, burst mode, and auto HDR.
As you can see, the phone gets a little aggressive with the auto HDR, but it is quite capable of taking some decent shots more often than not. I went for a run this past weekend with the phone, along Portland’s waterfront, and captured all sorts of photos that I’d be happy to share publicly. I also took some indoor, semi-lousy-lit photos of my son that are more than acceptable.
Sure, the camera doesn’t have OIS, but again, for a camera from Motorola that is inside a sub-$200 phone, I don’t know how you could complain about it.
Performance
When you talk mid-range phones that cost under $200, you don’t necessarily expect them to perform as good if not better than some high-end phones. The Moto G (3rd gen) is the exception for now. Even though it runs a Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor, this phone just flies around without a hiccup or stutter. While it may not be the king of gaming or video consumption with its Adreno 306 GPU and 720p display, it does everything else as good as more expensive phones. Motorola has fine-tuned this experience on the back-end so nicely, that I’d be shocked if you used this phone for a week and came back frustrated with its performance.
The camera fires up instantly with Motorola’s twisting gesture, the phone awakes immediately when picked up through Moto Display, and it opens apps/settings/Google Now/etc. right when you ask it to. If I didn’t know that this phone ran one of the lower-end Snapdragon processors, I would have thought that Motorola snuck in something more premium.
Software
As has been the case since dating back to the original Moto X, Motorola is continuing to push a “pure” Android experience that is accompanied by their own suite of Moto software on the Moto G (3rd gen). Everything here is as Google would want it, but then Motorola adds on pure awesomeness, like Moto Display, Actions, and Assist. We’ve talked on countless occasions about how Moto Display is one of the few game-changing software add-ons introduced in years, so we won’t bore you with that here. Just know that it’s as good as ever, even with the LCD display in the Moto G.
The phone comes loaded with Google’s launcher, the stock dialer and app drawer, familiar notification and quick settings shade, and system settings are in the right place. If you know Android, at least the stock kind, everything is where you expect it to be. Because of that, and because Motorola has become increasingly good at tightening up performance, the software experience is one of the best (if not the) in the business even on a mid-range phone like this.
I don’t really know what else to say, other than, this is how Android is supposed to be. This is the proper way to improve upon Google’s mobile operating system.
If you were looking for one missing feature, it would be Moto Voice, which is Motorola’s software that allows you to control phones with your voice. I would imagine the lack of Voice has to do with the processor setup and am not surprised that it’s not there. But when your friend who owns a Moto X starts talking to their phone, don’t be shocked that you can’t emulate their performance.
Price
$179 is the starting price of this phone. Not with a contract. It just costs you $179 and then you get to connect it to AT&T or T-Mobile service. If you want to double the RAM and storage from 1GB to 2GB and 8GB to 16GB, it’ll cost you another $40. The model I’m testing for this review is the upgraded model that runs $219. $219! Come on! This almost seems like a lie or some giant scam that you can buy a phone this good for this cheap.
What’s not so awesome about it?
Display
At $179, I didn’t expect the new Moto G to have the best display ever made. In fact, I don’t even think it’s bad as a 5-inch 720p LCD panel. But I have to be honest in telling you that this isn’t going to be the best display you have ever used. And you know what? Who cares. The viewing angles on it are fine, the colors are accurate and just punchy enough, and it clearly consumes little power with heavy use, so it is what it is. It’s not great in super bright sunlight, but it is very responsive to the touch. It’s a fine display, it’s just not a best-in-class display.
No NFC or Quick Charge 2.0
The new Moto G doesn’t have NFC or Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology. I can live without NFC, but felt the need to point out the lack of it in this phone, since it’s clearly a super hot topic right now. As for the missing Quick Charge 2.0, this is a tough one to stomach. Even though this phone will easily last you through a day, quick charging a phone is something that has become such a deeply engrained part of my life, that it frightens me a bit to use a phone without it. It takes a couple of hours to charge this phone. Phones with QC 2.0 take under an hour in many instances. That’s a huge difference! If you were ever to get stuck in a situation where you needed a quick bit of juice to last a few hours, you probably aren’t getting it here. If you buy this phone, just charge it overnight, please.
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Should you buy a Moto G (3rd gen)?
What’s your budget? Is it $200? Then yes, you should probably buy the Moto G (3rd gen). Head over to Motorola’s site at the link below and customize the hell out of one. I can’t think of another phone at this price that can top this one. The camera is solid, its performance is better than many flagships, and the battery life is on rockstar levels.
You can buy the new Moto G (3rd gen) from Motorola or Amazon, starting at $179.
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While the short term news is good for Android, Gartner also suggests that the smartphone market is reaching its peak with the Chinese market reaching “saturation”. This has caused global growth to slow to 13.5%, the slowest since 2013 which means manufacturers are going to have to really sell their devices to consumers who are looking for replacements, rather than their first devices. And if these reports are anything to go by, it’s a pretty good chance that the replacement is going to be an Android device. Just sayin’.
Predictably, marked on the device are the words “not for sale” as well as the Nexus logo branded in the same location as the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 before it. Of course, we also see that the lipped camera from the earlier renders was spot on, and that there is a fingerprint scanner just below that. We’re inclined to believe that we are indeed looking at an actual LG Nexus 5 2015, unless of course it’s an elaborate 3D printing job – very elaborate.
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