Motorola Moto G - new budget smartphone champion?

Currently with Tesco paying £10 a month sim only for 500 mins, 5000 text and 1gb data.

Gave them a bell and managed to get the Moto G 8GB for £10 a month on same tariff that i'm on so winner winner chicken dinner, phone for free (effectively!)
 
Well the frustration and annoyance of not being able to do what I wanted to do got the better of me so I took the plunge!!

I am now tweaking with mavity Box on my ''ROOTED'' Moto G 4G LTE (XT1039) :-)
Below is the exact method and files I used, happy rooting.

(Before doing anything backup ALL data from phone and enable USB Debugging (Google it!))

First unlock the bootloader via the motorola website:


Unlocking the bootloader

Plugin the USB cable in to the Phone and the PC

Hold shift and right click inside the folder where you unpacked the MotoG-Tools.zip files select Open command prompt windows here (Or simply cd:\ to this directory in command prompt)

In the command line enter the following:

adb devices

Check the tick box on the phone Always allow from this computer

In the command line enter the following again :

adb devices

It should now list the device:

List of devices attached
TA8900F923 device

Make sure that it is listed..


In the command line enter the following:

adb reboot bootloader

Wait for the phone to reboot in to the bootloader mode

In the command line enter the following:

fastboot oem get_unlock_data

This will return a string of code on five lines like this:

(bootloader) 0A40040192024205#4C4D3556313230
(bootloader) 30373731363031303332323239#BD00
(bootloader) 8A672BA4746C2CE02328A2AC0C39F95
(bootloader) 1A3E5#1F53280002000000000000000
(bootloader) 0000000

You need to put this string together so it is all in one line with no spaces like this:

0A40040192024205#4C4D355631323030373731363031303332323239#BD008A672BA4746C2CE02328A2AC0C39F951A3E5#1F532800020000000000000000000000

Enter the long code all in one line on the Motorola website in their step 6 and click the “Can my device be unlocked?” button. Once you click the button it will enable a 'REQUEST UNLOCK KEY' button at the bottom of the page. Click the request button and it will email you the unlock code within a few minutes... Now that you have your unlock code you are ready to unlock the boot loader.

In the command line enter the following:

fastboot oem unlock UNIQUE_KEY

Wait for it to complete, it should now say unlocked on the phones display it should reboot by it self.
Click to expand...

Rooting Moto G 4G LTE (XT1039)

Then download the following files:
http://www.files.com/shared/52f09ce75a7fd/MotoG-Tools.zip
http://download.chainfire.eu/451/SuperSU/UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.01.zip
http://goo.im/devs/OpenRecovery/xt10...1.1-xt1032.img
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2588979

Transfer the SuperSU.zip onto the moto g phone

(Install ADB onto your windows rig if not already installed)

Place ''openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-xt1032.img'' into the windows folder that ADB installs ''fastboot'' into

Now enable USB debugging in ''{ } Developer options'' on your Moto G 4G LTE (Settings --> About phone ---> Now tap ''Build number'' 7 times to reveal Developer options in settings)

With USB debugging enabled connect the Moto G to your PC with a USB cable

Now open a command prompt and change directory to that which contains ''fastboot'' and ''openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-xt1032.img''

First check that ADB is communicating with your Moto G 4G LTE by running the following command:
fastboot devices
It should return something like ''TA95000WAX'' if it says anything about ''unauthorized'' device then check your Moto G screen and confirm authorization.

O.K, now we need to reboot the phone into bootloader mode, use the following command to do this @ command prompt:
adb reboot bootloader
Your Moto G should now reboot into bootloader mode and STOCK recovery will be displayed on your Moto G's screen

We now need to get TWRP recovery running on the Moto G, use the following command to do this @ command prompt:
fastboot boot openrecovery-twrp-2.7.1.1-xt1032.img
You should now no longer see STOCK recovery on your Moto G's screen and instead TWRP's recovery :-)

Finally we need to flash SuperSU.zip , do this ON THE PHONE using TWRP's install option and browsing to where you placed SuperSU.zip on your phone.
Once flashed select TWRP's reboot to system option and unplug phone from PC.

You are now rooted :-)
Click to expand...

I highly recommend that you install xposed framework and mavity box, mavity box is AMAZING! :-)
 
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Anyone having problems with 4g?. Picked up a sim free 4g version last week from phones4u, got my 3 sim in it but cant get a 4g signal even when im supposed to be in a strong 4g area according to the coverage checker. Tried a few places but havent managed to pickup 4g.
Checked settings and 4g is enabled.

Any ideas?
 
ScoobyDoo said:
Anyone having problems with 4g?. Picked up a sim free 4g version last week from phones4u, got my 3 sim in it but cant get a 4g signal even when im supposed to be in a strong 4g area according to the coverage checker. Tried a few places but havent managed to pickup 4g.
Checked settings and 4g is enabled.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

might need a new sim
 
Just got my Moto G (4G) and I gotta say, it is mighty impressive for the price I paid. Simple design but not cheap feeling at all. Software is spot on and runs great for general usage. Screen is pretty amazing too and just the perfect size in the hand.

I know it's not a premium phone, it's missing some features and performance is not spectacular, but I just can't fathom why the average user would want anything more from a phone, other than for fashion or bragging rights.

If there was anything I'd have liked more, it would probably be 2gb of ram, but so far it seems to be chugging along with no issues on 1gb, even after having loads of apps running and flipping between them frantically.

I can also happily chuck it in my pocket without a case and not get paranoid about scratching a £500 device. Nothing beats that feeling of freedom.
 
To me it doesn't matter if its £100 or £500, I take the same care of my stuff whatever its value.
 
PiKe said:
To me it doesn't matter if its £100 or £500, I take the same care of my stuff whatever its value.
Click to expand...

Indeed. First thing I bought was a little case for mine. I think the screen protector I got is naff though, so I'm going to do away with it. Do phones even need protectors these days? I guess they add to the strength of the glass were I to drop it.
 
Farseer said:
Has anyone had any problems the using an SD card with the Moto G 4G?

Looking at some users reviews it sounds a bit hit and miss at the moment.
Click to expand...

Seems it can be a bit fussy on what cards it accepts from what I've heard, however all 3 that I have tried worked perfect (32GB Sandisk Ultra, 16GB Kingston and cheap generic class 10 16GB )
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Seems it can be a bit fussy on what cards it accepts from what I've heard, however all 3 that I have tried worked perfect (32GB Sandisk Ultra, 16GB Kingston and cheap generic class 10 16GB )
Click to expand...

Hopefully they can fix it with a firmware update. I'm looking to finally retire my HTC Desire (the original one) :)
 
Farseer said:
Has anyone had any problems the using an SD card with the Moto G 4G?

Looking at some users reviews it sounds a bit hit and miss at the moment.
Click to expand...

Well known issue. See my suggestion above if you want a tried and tested card. I went for the Transcend because it was recommended by someone on another forum.
 
Had this for a couple of days now, and massively impressed with it. Fast, minimal installed bloat, and an all important SD card slot.

Having had 48 hours with it, I'd say the only thing I'd probably change is having a metal case instead of plastic. That said, the build quality is good, and with a slim case on it the end result is more than robust enough.

Massively impressed, and glad I didn't go for anything more expensive, since so far this does everything I want a phone to do extremely well.
 
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