Motorola's Moto G may start a revolution.
A well-built Android phone for $179 without contract, the Moto G is clearly going to raise everybody's expectations of what an inexpensive, unlocked phone can be. In one swathe, it attacks Nokia's growing success with the Lumia 520, Samsung's bustling midrange business, and all of the no-name and Chinese manufacturers that are growing fast in the developing world.
I spent a little while with the Moto G today, and I was deeply impressed. The key here isn't just the specs; manufacturers like Blu, Verykool, and others have gotten close to this price point with similar devices. If you're willing to get a phone that looks and acts cheap, like the Samsung Galaxy Young, you can get down to $100 without a problem. No-name Chinese smartphones go even lower than that.
The Moto G's killer feature is its fit and finish. We've been reviewing more mobile devices from low-cost manufacturers lately, gadgets like the EVGA Tegra Note, Blu Life Play, and Verykool S470. While they deliver good performance for their price, they typically feel unpolished in some way. That's part of why the $189 Lumia 520 has done well in places like Latin America; it doesn't feel cheap. (The 520 costs $99 in the U.S. because AT&T kicks in $100.)
Neither does the Moto G, and it has the specs to back it up. Its 4.5-inch, 720p IPS LCD screen had deeper, more saturated colors than my Moto X's AMOLED screen. It runs a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, a more mainstream part than some of the more generic Cortex-A7s you see in other low-cost smartphones, and it'll come out in versions that could support all four major U.S. 3G networks up to EVDO Rev A or HSPA+ 21 speeds, typically about 1Mbps for downloads on Verizon and 4-6Mbps/sec for downloads on AT&T and T-Mobile.
Holding the Moto G in my hand, it didn't feel much cheaper than my Moto X. The backplate peels off to reveal the SIM card slot, and you can replace it with one of seven colors, a nod to the Moto X's Moto Maker customization scheme.
Motorola cut some corners, but they're relatively invisible. The base Moto G will have 8GB of storage and no memory card slot. That's going to be tight. There's also no LTE, no Touchless Control ("OK Google Now!"), and no Active Display, the Moto X's very useful little notifications trick.
Motorola confirmed that it is making money on this handset, which is also a good thing: unlike, say, the Amazon Kindle Fire, this isn't a break-even or loss leader product. And since this is a Google phone, it'll get Android 4.4 KitKat starting in January.
The Moto G is coming to the U.S. in January, and it looks like it'll arrive in an unlocked GSM version for AT&T and T-Mobile/MetroPCS, and a prepaid Verizon version. Expect it to cost much less than its $179 price if it's sold by carriers.