Motorola Moto G - new budget smartphone champion?

lsg1r · 3 Feb 2014 at 00:48

Tuvoc said:
My Moto G probably would be empty too. Most of my battery usage is shown to be Android system and Android OS. Totally different profile from your screenshot. When I first got the phone, the battery life was incredible, now it is not good at all.

tres said:
Why do you think that is? Just a quickly degrading battery or filling up cache with junk?

I'm regularly getting 6 days out of mine (wifi is connected to network, gps is 'active' on stock generic kitkat rom with art runtime set in developer section) before charging now so there has to be something in the background on yours Tuvoc or it's got a faulty battery. Maybe it's a widget, I had a couple on my nexus 7 which drained the battery quickly.

If not I'd take a guess at it being something like 'google search' or 'media server', I've had the media server one once and my battery drained in 12-24 hours... reboot fixed it though.

For reference after 3 days both my android os and android systerm are registering as 4% each, wifi is at 10% and mobile standby at 30%

deko · 3 Feb 2014 at 01:54

What would people suggest for a power control widget/notification? My mate loves the phone but misses having an equivalent of SBSettings in the notification pull down. Just for general toggles like Airplane mode, GPS, 3G, Torch etc, the built in power control widget is basically garbage.

Tuvoc · 3 Feb 2014 at 06:11

lsg1r said:
I'm regularly getting 6 days out of mine (wifi is connected to network, gps is 'active' on stock generic kitkat rom with art runtime set in developer section) before charging now so there has to be something in the background on yours Tuvoc or it's got a faulty battery. Maybe it's a widget, I had a couple on my nexus 7 which drained the battery quickly.

If not I'd take a guess at it being something like 'google search' or 'media server', I've had the media server one once and my battery drained in 12-24 hours... reboot fixed it though.

For reference after 3 days both my android os and android systerm are registering as 4% each, wifi is at 10% and mobile standby at 30%

I have Android System 37% and Android OS 26% of my battery usage. I'm struggling to get a day of light use. I need to look at what I've installed over the last 6 weeks since the phone was new.I'm wondering if it is the "360 Security" program.

deltalinx · 3 Feb 2014 at 09:58

deko said:
What would people suggest for a power control widget/notification? My mate loves the phone but misses having an equivalent of SBSettings in the notification pull down. Just for general toggles like Airplane mode, GPS, 3G, Torch etc, the built in power control widget is basically garbage.

Install Xposed framework and Gravitybox.

lsg1r · 3 Feb 2014 at 11:32

Tuvoc said:
I'm wondering if it is the "360 Security" program.

I've got CM (CLeanmaster) Security Free installed on mine.

Not a clue if it's actually protecting me from virus's (not likely to get these) or bad apps (I do get a pop up saying this app is ok although I only get my apps from play store) but it's got a thread on xda developers to take a look at too.

Seems really light weight and doesn't hit the battery life in the slightest

Tuvoc · 3 Feb 2014 at 11:40

lsg1r said:
I've got CM (CLeanmaster) Security Free installed on mine.

Not a clue if it's actually protecting me from virus's (not likely to get these) or bad apps (I do get a pop up saying this app is ok although I only get my apps from play store) but it's got a thread on xda developers to take a look at too.

Seems really light weight and doesn't hit the battery life in the slightest

Thanks for that, very helpful. From what I've read, Android does need some sort of anti-malware programe. My wife's Sony has had Avast installed for well over a year, and that seems fine, so is also an option for me.

Just checked the phone, it has lost 8% in 4 hours of me not using it at all, so that seems OK ? It will be checking email etc in the backgrouind even though it is not being used. Perhaps I'll reduce the frequency of that.

Mp4 · 3 Feb 2014 at 11:54

I was shocked yesterday using the Play store, the wife was looking for some games to play as this is her first android phone.

****
Warning don't download Snail Bob
****

She did download this thinking it looked funny...

It came up with popups and spam of a sexual nature.

so malware is an issue even on phones now

Matteysan · 3 Feb 2014 at 12:24

deko said:
What would people suggest for a power control widget/notification? My mate loves the phone but misses having an equivalent of SBSettings in the notification pull down. Just for general toggles like Airplane mode, GPS, 3G, Torch etc, the built in power control widget is basically garbage.

If he doesn't plan on rooting then Power Toggles is what he wants

lsg1r · 3 Feb 2014 at 13:22

Tuvoc said:
Just checked the phone, it has lost 8% in 4 hours of me not using it at all, so that seems OK ? It will be checking email etc in the backgrouind even though it is not being used. Perhaps I'll reduce the frequency of that.

If I'm not using my phone I go through 1% every 1-2hours so that would be around 3-4% in 4 hours. I've got push email on gmail but nothing else (just me being lazy more than not wanting other email added lol) so it's possible that the email could make the difference up.

Matteysan said:
If he doesn't plan on rooting then Power Toggles is what he wants

I used to use widgetsoid over power toggles, don't really need it now as everything I need is covered by the built in menu.

R3X · 3 Feb 2014 at 14:31

Alibaba99 said:
There is a setting on the Play store to allow updates over data.

thanks found the option "auto update apps at any time data charges may apply" so I disabled auto apps over wifi only, and ........ it still forces updates from wifi only lol

Maybe pressing the wrong feature but for now I think android was just designed for wifi updates will skip kitkat for now.

I noticed google play store never works for me tried it about 30 times over the past few days and comes back with "error connection failed retry" any idea?
web sites and online apps work fine.... and google account installed.

R3X · 3 Feb 2014 at 14:32

How does mp3 playback compare on other devices? I heard the moto g has poor audio quality compared to iphone/s3 is this true?

mrgubby · 3 Feb 2014 at 14:57

R3X said:
Maybe pressing the wrong feature but for now I think android was just designed for wifi updates will skip kitkat for now.

It's to stop people from using up all their 3G data & whinging at the phone manufacturer.

I think Motorola do PC software that allows you to update over USB, ask Mr Google or the XDA forums

R3X said:
How does mp3 playback compare on other devices? I heard the moto g has poor audio quality compared to iphone/s3 is this true?

It's not poor, just not as good ....

THMRK · 3 Feb 2014 at 15:28

I got one just because. It's utterly brilliant for what it is. Still prefer my HTC One but if this was the only phone I have, barring the camera, I don't think I'd have any complaints.

R3X · 3 Feb 2014 at 18:07

mrgubby said:
It's to stop people from using up all their 3G data & whinging at the phone manufacturer.

I think Motorola do PC software that allows you to update over USB, ask Mr Google or the XDA forums

It's not poor, just not as good ....

thx yeah it appears everything else updates inbetween ie small apps and stuff but the big downloads which are not even that big! wont work on data services.

I think is really poor considering some people have unlimited or 1gig allowance per month+ anyhow will register with XDA and try and find out, worst comes to worst ill go mcdonalds.

Interesting, anyhow I only text/call and all phones are great at that so its down to screen and speed which count. Guess the camera/mp3 playback are just designed for 'good enough'

Bet you moto g II will have sd slot and 8mega pixel and better sound chip though!

thep02 · 3 Feb 2014 at 19:57

^ Yup very annoying.

deltalinx · 3 Feb 2014 at 20:49

R3X said:
How does mp3 playback compare on other devices? I heard the moto g has poor audio quality compared to iphone/s3 is this true?

The audio is quite loud, it gets a bit tinny as it goes into higher levels, much louder and better than my old nexus 4 speaker though, I use decent in ear buds though mainly.

Skeeter · 3 Feb 2014 at 21:33

So with Motorola no longer a Google company, will the Moto G be dropped from upgrades by its vendor as quickly as any other non Nexus phone? I.e. expecting any more than KitKat is wishful thinking?

Mp4 · 4 Feb 2014 at 07:22

Skeeter said:
So with Motorola no longer a Google company, will the Moto G be dropped from upgrades by its vendor as quickly as any other non Nexus phone? I.e. expecting any more than KitKat is wishful thinking?

Even if that does happen, always roms i guess?

Mrs gets her simcard for the G today! And im tempted to get myself one too now and ditch the iphone 4s

deltalinx · 4 Feb 2014 at 08:16

Mp4 said:
Even if that does happen, always roms i guess?

Mrs gets her simcard for the G today! And im tempted to get myself one too now and ditch the iphone 4s

That will quite possibly be the best decision you could ever make in your lifetime.

Rusty! · 4 Feb 2014 at 09:50

Skeeter said:
So with Motorola no longer a Google company, will the Moto G be dropped from upgrades by its vendor as quickly as any other non Nexus phone? I.e. expecting any more than KitKat is wishful thinking?

Well there is a GPe version that should keep it going. Someone on XDA has knocked up a conversion.