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Motorola Moto G XT1032 (Global GSM) 16GB Black $96.48 USD (~$136 AUD) Delivered @ Amazon

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The 1st generation 16GB Moto G (Global GSM) XT1032 has dropped in price on Amazon to $89 USD. Add the shipping to Australia, and it comes to $96.48. Current exchange rates bring the price in AUD to ~$136

Supported bands:
850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz. (I use my XT1032 on the Optus network and it works great)

Although being almost 2 years old, it's a great phone for the price.

Pros:

  • 720p display on a 4.5" screen results in a pixel density > than that of an iPhone 6
  • Close to stock version of android (5.1)
  • Performs every day phone tasks with no lag or stuttering
  • Battery life - I can easily make it through a day with 4-5 hours of SOT.
  • Build quality

Cons:

  • The camera is horrible.
  • 1GB ram is a limitation to how many apps can stay open in the background. If you have many background processes, this means you may not be able to switch between 2 large apps (eg a game and chrome).

Overall, a good entry level android phone.

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

Related Stores

Amazon US
Amazon US

closed Comments

  • +4

    For the price it's a good phone.

      • +3

        Genuine question, what do you do that requires such high speed downloads on your phone? I get 5 or 6Mbps down on 3G which works for everything I use it for.

        • +2

          I suppose the speed of 4G is not that "high". Second, the improved speed makes day and night difference when you use internet in your browser or use any connected apps that need internet to refresh.

          Of cause 4G makes streaming experience better. But we do not even need to mention that benefit as we are talking the big difference about the basic internet browsing experience here.

      • +2

        Finding a chinese phone with all the relevant 3g and 4g band isn't that easy .

        • +1

          This one only has a relevant 3g but no 4g though…

        • There is plenty..

        • -1

          @storyteller: there are plenty

      • +1

        So many cheap Chinese phones have great specs on paper. But many don't live up to them with poor sound quality, poor call strength or band coverage, crashes and other software issues. I'd rather a lower spec phone which is more reliable.

        • +2

          No. Huawei,ZTE,Xiaomi,Lenovo (Motorola) and Meizu etc are bigger company than old Motorola based on their MARKET SIZE in Android era. Their budget phones are better and cheaper than Moto G in terms of EVERY SPEC period.

          Again, Motorola is a Chinese company now. You call of reliability difference is not true.

        • +1

          Also, now millions of Chinese use their Chinese budget phone and the wave is moving to India (every big Chinese smartphone player has established distribution channel in India now).

          Tell me why don't they choose more expensive budget phones with with lower spec such as what Motorola/Samsung offer?

          You will be NAIVE to believe the Chinese phones they choose are inferior than the phones like Moto G. Do you think Chinese use shxt products while you use something with better quality? Sorry, wake up, the truth lies in opposite.

        • @claud0902:

          THey may be bigger, but that's mainly due to the CHinese market, by itself, suddenly becoming the biggest market, by a long shot. Most people, who won't care about phones, won't have heard of these brands.

          Ask anyone on the street - they won't know these Chinese brands. Everyone's heard of Motorola… as well as iPhones, Samsung, LG etc. But ZTE? Huaw.. what? Xiaomi, how do you say that?

          Say what you will, but the truth is that they (Chinese companies) still have a long way to go before they are recognised as legit alternatives, to the everyday Joe.

          (For me personally, I prefer a brand name Motorola - yes, bought by a Chinese company, as opposed to a Xiao mi.)

  • +1

    would rather the 4G version (and now there is a 4G gen 2 as well!), but for that price it really cant be beat…

  • +3

    Wifey has this and the phone is great , but the latest Lollipop update has killed it
    It has become very slow and draggy ( despite the 5.0.1 version's speed improvements )

    So if you are getting it , update it to Kitkat and noting farther

    • Factory reset can sometimes fix lag issues (or other unexplained phenomenon such as bluetooth audio cutting in and out).

      Just make sure to back everything up if you go down this route.

      • This would need the same effort in securing the handset for 2-3 hours away from the Mrs which is a very tought job haha :)

        • Give her your phone for those 2-3 hours period should fixed the issue, just make sure you don't have Ashley Madisoooon on it. lol.

    • +3

      Try a clear of the cache partition: https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod…

      It can significantly improve the responsiveness of android devices, without the downside of losing any settings, etc that would occur with a factory reset.

      • Never dod this before and would check it out tonight , thanks mate :)

    • +1

      If you're up to it, try a rom. Currently using Paranoid Android on mine (cyanogen had a random black screen bug), and it runs really well.

      • good idea and I certainly can do it , just have to pry the handset off her as she is constantly "whatsapping"

        I run a custom rom on Nexus 6 and wouldn't go back to stock , personally :)

      • Can you elaborate please on what exactly one needs to do to try a 'rom'? I currently have this phone. Although I will be upgrading soon, I wouldn't mind having this phone run a little faster, as it is incredibly slow atm.

        • +1

          I use Euphoria ROM on a nexus 6 and find it good , so suggesting the same for Moto G , but I have no experience runnign it on Moto G , so it would be good if you run a small research before diving in , the link to the ROM and file is listed at the end

          I believe yo have not installed a custom ROM earlier , so here are the basic steps :

          1. Take a back up of all your media and app back up as well
          2. Unlock the Boot loader ( instructions in the CM - Cyanogenmod link provided below )
          3. Install a recovery as in the CM link below
          4. Download the ROM and GAPPS from the XDA page , copy them to your handset — don't use the CM OS as Mister Plod has encountered black screen bug (comment above )
          5. Use the instructions on the XDA page to flash them
          6. Enjoy your handset with a freshened up OS :)

          All this will sound vague and puzzling at the start , but you can easily do it once you read through them and the usual disclaimers apply haha :)

          http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_falcon

          http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g/development/lollipop-…

        • @kamban:
          Thanks kindly! Good info to begin my research!

    • my wife has this phone running 5.1. reasonable performance, neither super fast nor very slow/draggy.

      • When did the 5.1 update come thru , mine's is stuck on 5.0.1 … The handset was bought from Amazon US , so the update scehdule may vary I guess .. .

        • +1

          I also got mine from amazon US and got the OTA update to 5.1 about 2 weeks ago.

        • +1

          The notification came a few days ago.

        • @ddhytz: Damn , I should try it out tonight - check the manual update option

    • +1

      Try a cache flush, not as drastic as a factory reset, takes about 5 minutes.

      http://allaboutmotog.com/how-to-clear-cache-partition-on-mot…

      (edit:looks like someone beat me to it. :) )

    • +1

      Have this phone and same issue…was terrible…

      Then I restarted it and it is better than ever, things that used to lag don't anymore. I don't know what to say but the update was awesome to me after a restart. Good luck!

      • Cool mate , well try it out :)

  • +1

    Anyone seen the moto g 2nd gen dual sim for good price?

    • +2

      I'm using it and wouldn't recommend it. Get something with more internal storage and ram

  • +5

    Chinese phones from Lenovo and Xiaomi would nowadays give this phone a run for its money. I'm sure most likely this phone will receive updates for quite a while but that's about the only benefit.

    If you are an Android dev that's good but not much of a bargain otherwise. It doesn't do 4g and there's not enough Ram.

    There aren't that many deals phones in the 4.5 inch size any more though, so those who want a more compact device would find this a good alternative.

    • Also remember this phone does not support micro sd. This is a huge disadvantage against those dual sim 4g phones from China.

    • +2

      Since Lenovo owns motorola now this IS a phone from Lenovo!
      I had one a year or so ago and it was a good budget android phone. If you don't care about the latest and greatest its a good choice with a very lightweight skin.

  • +1

    still waiting for the "not as good as the Note 5" comments

    • +9

      Not as good as the Note 5.

      • Duh… Not buying it now.

      • Not as good as the Note 6.

    • note as good as not 5.

  • This phone should work fine on Telstra 3G too since it uses 850 & 2100mhz.

  • +3

    My wife had this phone until she dropped and smashed the screen recently. It was good, a little laggy, and suffered from poor/non-existent reception (optus). The camera isn't great but usable. he battery life is excellent and it is a great budget phone.

    But with that said, she just got an Optus ZTE Fit 4G phone and prefers that, even though it has an average screen and seemingly-worse camera. It is lighter, better to hold, quite a bit faster and has much better reception with 4G. Of course only really best for Optus network users.

    Just saying that for $45 at officeworks/coles you can find a low-medium-end phone that competes against this.

    • Just saw the Coles Optus ZTE Fit 4G offer… $45 Not bad.

      • +2

        Just watch it complain about over heating when its on charge. For $45 it's not bad though for a basic smart phone

  • I am still waiting for Moto X Play, albeit more expensive but it has bigger battery that this.

  • +2

    Nexus 4 (refurb) AU$149
    http://www.gadgetgear.com.au/lg-e960-nexus-4-16gb-black-refu…
    A better buy IMO.

    4.7" v 4.5"
    2GB v 1GB
    Qi wireless charging

    • +3

      It IS better. Much better… My phone vs my sisters…

      Snapdragon s4 pro vs the Moto G's… The s4 pro is a lot faster. A lot.

      Also the display quality on the Nexus is much better, mainly because of display angles.

      However the battery life is simply rubbish compared to the Moto G.

  • I bought the 4G, 2nd generation G for $220 at The Good Guys last year

    It's a great phone for the money and far superior to this

  • +1

    Not dissing the phone or anything but why do people mention pixel density as a spec? You could have 1cm x 1cm 720p completely useless and unusable display and be > than iphone 6. It's a completely pointless thing that tech sites like to use and equivalent of the gluten-free hype being slapped onto inappropriate products.

    Nice entry level Android phone however.

    • Pixel density is actually pretty important, especially if you really value your screen display quality. Whilst the point you make is valid in terms of ridiculous sizes, I can compare this 4.5" to other 4.5" screens, can I not? In this case, the high pixel density means that should I want to use Google Cardboard or other types of similar stereoscopic 3D goggles, I can have higher resolution per eye.

      It's good information to know, and nothing wrong with mentioning it as a spec. If you feel like it is unnecessary, it's easy to disregard it.

      • You're right about it being a metric for display quality. I just don't like people being conned into putting too much weighting onto it when there are better metrics to judge the phone screen by. It's only just the Resolution L x H / the area in inches.
        What would be more important is the type of display which I think dictates the colour quality of each pixel.
        After judging the resolution, I imagine the physical dimension would be next, which affects usability like if it's too big to fit in your hand or just right etc. The new Zenfone 6 has 720p as well but is physically larger.

        Personally, PPI tells me next to nothing about the phone and I'd rather be told the numbers which make up that value. I'd really hate to see someone here regret buying a phone they didn't really understand.

        • To a certain point you're right, but if you look at the Samsung Galaxy Ace for example, you will understand the importance of this spec.

          After a certain point, it's almost not noticeable.

    • If you don't want to see pixelation, you'd want a higher pixel density.

      These days phones can have over 500ppi, which I think is pretty insane and overkill.

      In my opinion, anything above 280ppi is good enough for everyday use. You won't see pixelation unless you really really scrutinise the screen, like with a magnifying glass.

      • TBH, there's only been one instance I remember where that's been something to point out and it was with one of the new Nintendo DS where they were marketing a larger screen, but didn't mention that the resolution was exactly the same and the result was more noticeable pixelation.

  • +1

    zte smart fit is more future prrof then this and a lot cheaper too, sure the PPI is not comparable BUT doable.

  • +1

    I have this phone for about 2 years, however it restarts itself about once every 2nd week usually when i am using the chrome.

    Another bug, Both my sims is shown as SIM2. I refer them as the first sim2 and the second sim2 to anyone that needs to use my phone.

    I dragged my data limit restriction to above 13,000 terabytes/month now I can't change it at all.

    Running 4.4.4 lol cheers.

    Its an ok phone but I can't really recommend it as a phone to buy in 2015 unless you intend to use only as a phone, maybe some light, browse the internet and watch videos. Can't really handle any graphic intensive games.

    It also lacks a gyroscope which turned out to be more disappointing, since the introduction of google cardboard. If VR becomes more popular in the future your out of luck with first gen moto G

  • I wonder how long Motorola will continue to support it.

    • Marshmallow 6.0 coming early '16 would presumably be the last update for 1st gen.

    • +1

      I don't think you should expect too much. It's a little budget phone after all.

      … However this line is Motorola's best selling phone, by far… And so it's their most important phone, by far. It runs very well on KitKat already

  • Still good phone if you have small fingers for texting. And you do most of your data stuff over wifi. Just got the 5.1 upgrade on mine and its great. Main disappointment is camera.

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