Motorola has just unveiled its new lineup of smartphones, the Moto G, Moto X Style and Moto X Play. While these phones are mostly updated versions of their previous iterations, Motorola is sticking with its key advantages — price, customization and less bloatware.
The Moto G is a 5-inch Android phone that costs $180 without any carrier subsidy. The Moto X Style is an updated Nexus 6-style phablet as Motorola is the maker behind the Nexus 6. And the Moto X Play is a cheaper version of the Moto X Style that you won’t find in the U.S.
The Moto G Is Now Waterproof
With the Moto G, Motorola clearly targets people who look at the price tag first. Moto G users want to spend as little money as possible on their phones, and keep them for as long as possible. And the company understands that.
That’s why this year’s edition of Motorola’s best-selling smartphone is waterproof. It comes with a 720p 5-inch display, and 1GB or 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. It features a quad-core Snapdragon 410 chip and the 13-megapixel camera module that you can find on the Nexus 6. The battery is a little bit bigger at 2,470mAh, and you can add a microSD for more storage.
The best part is that the Moto G now comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with as little bloatware as possible. It means that you get the default Android interface and lock screen. Motorola added a few features like Moto Assist, Moto Display and Moto Actions, but these are much more lightweight than Samsung’s customizations.
The Moto G now comes with swappable back shells, and still costs $180 without any carrier subsidy — your carrier could end up selling it for even less than that. It is available today.
Moto X Style & Play
The Moto X Style is Motorola’s flagship’s device, packing the best components of the company’s lineup. It features a gigantic 5.7-inch display, a six-core Snapdragon 808 chip, 3GB of RAM, a 21-megapixel camera, a 3,000 mAh battery and up to 64GB of storage.
Like the Moto G, it has customizable elements. The Moto X Style will ship in September for “$200 to $300 less” than comparable phones. As Amazon will sell a Pure Edition without any Motorola add-on for $400, you can expect to find the normal edition at a comparable price point or less with carrier subsidies. This is much cheaper than an iPhone 6 Plus or a Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, but still a bit more expensive than the newly announced OnePlus 2.
The Moto X Play, on the other hand, is a cheaper 5.5-inch device for the rest of the world — Motorola won’t sell the X Play in the U.S. You can expect a 1.6GHz Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, the same 21-megapixel rear-facing, and an impressive 3,630mAh battery. Motorola will start selling the X Play in August across Europe, Latin America and Canada.
