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Motorola spoiled a good budget phone with bloatware
- hexo 3y ago$300 is still $50 above what phone should cost. You cant change my mind.
- manbart 3y agoThis is why I won't get a phone that isn't supported by LineageOS
- ajot 3y agoMe too! And for ~half the price of the phone in TFA[0] you can get a Moto G32/42/52, which can run LineageOS officially since last year. [0] how on earth is 300 USD considered "budget" for a cellphone?
- leononame 3y agoOfficially? Can you elaborate a bit? I've got a g52 and it's really slow most of the time, I'd love to install a clean ROM but I just don't want to spend time on this right now. If there is a fast and official way, that'd be awesome.
- 28304283409234 3y agoOfficially refers to Lineageos officially supporting that phone.
- leononame 3y agoLol, now I feel stupid. That makes much more sense
- NegativeLatency 3y agoCompare it to the top and bottom of the iPhone "market": - https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-se https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-se $430 - https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-15-pro https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-15-pro $1000
- Rinzler89 3y ago>[0] how on earth is 300 USD considered "budget" for a cellphone? It's "budget" for consumers in wealthy western countries where 300$ doesn't even cover half a rent's pay, and it's "budget" when compared to flagship phone prices set by Apple which now cost 1k+ starting price and everyone else followed. Also inflation happened. The 300$ you remember from pre-Covid as being "a lot of money for a phone", are now worth a lot less in 2024. So yeah, compared to current market prices, 300$ for a phone is now kinda budget.
- ajot 3y ago> Also inflation happened. Oh, don't worry, I'm an argy, I understand inflation haha. What I mean is, budget phones are sub 200 USD nowadays, with very cheap phones around 100 USD. 300 dollars seem like a lot to me, and "just" to have some plastic fake leather cover, or nextgen wifi which isn't fully deployed everywhere?
- fuzztester 3y ago>you can get a Moto G32/42/52, which can run LineageOS officially since last year. Got any link for that? Would like to read about it. A non-tech friend has one of those phones.
- ajot 3y agoI bought a G42 (hawao) last year, I saw it on offer, I checked and it had been recently added to the roster, less than a month before. I had to wait a couple of days before Lenovo let me unlock the bootloader, not sure if that's because it was brand new or because you always have to wait a couple of days. The LineageOS wiki doesn't tell you (and I understand their reasons), but if your friend wants to run any homebanking app he'll need to install Magisk too, and add the Shamiko module (and configure a couple of things, but it's all out there) https://download.lineageos.org/devices/rhode/builds https://download.lineageos.org/devices/rhode/builds https://download.lineageos.org/devices/hawao/builds https://download.lineageos.org/devices/hawao/builds https://download.lineageos.org/devices/devon/builds https://download.lineageos.org/devices/devon/builds
- fuzztester 3y agoThank you.
- Rinzler89 3y agoIt's not just Motorola, but all budget Android brands and phones.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoIt is perhaps most notable because they used to be better than most budget options.
- xenator 3y agoWhole Android ecosystem is a mess.
- LeifCarrotson 3y agoI've been a Motorola customer for many years. Their other phones were lovely minimal and affordable tools with an almost pure Android experience. They had "Moto gestures" where you chop to turn on the light or twist to open the camera, and that's about it. This bloatware is unusual. Last year's Motorola Thinkphone was originally a $700 business-oriented 5G flagship alternative, it's now down to $400 and an awesome phone. It takes a minute to uninstall the extra Microsoft apps if you don't want them, (I still use Outlook, Excel, and Onedrive for work, so I left those, dumped the rest especially including LinkedIn) but that's easy. What is normal and disappointing from Motorola is their terrible update policy. The budget phones only get 2 years of security updates and no Android updates. I did just give up on my 5 year old Moto G from 2018, it went without updates for ~4 years. Fortunately the Thinkphone gets security updates through January 2027.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- duffyjp 3y agoI use both an iPhone and a Motorola G Power 2020. My Moto came with absolutely zero bloat. It’s annoying they’ve tapped into that revenue stream but as long as it’s uninstallable I wouldn’t get too upset. The first thing I do on any phone is uninstall everything I don’t need. Even the iPhone had a bunch of Apple apps I have no use for.
- yftsui 3y agoYou probably bought a Motorola version instead of the ones from prepaid providers. I have Moto G Power 2020 and 2021 from Cricket, both are full of bloatware like the article.
- duffyjp 3y agoOurs was from Google Fi. They had a promotion where you could buy the Moto for $50 on the condition of using it with them for 90 days. So we did and then she just popped her SIM back in her Pixel and I took the Moto. It has an unremovable Google Fi app, but it doesn't interfere with anything. I have it on a cheapo Verizon Red Pocket SIM which works great.
- jeroenhd 3y agoIs this trash installed in the factory image or is it part of the carrier-provisioned crapware?
- type0 3y agoI heard they push more of that crapware with updates on some models
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cjk2 3y agoI would rather pay twice that for a Pixel 7A. Or at a push 50 bucks more for a pixel 6A if you shop around. There’s budget and there’s shite and this is shite.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoWell the Pixel certainly isn't budget. The "a" models are at least mid-range prices, but still not budget. Also, the Pixel line is straight up missing features that Moto phones have; I'm quite fond of their shake-to-activate flashlight feature, which is far nicer than messing with touchscreen controls.
- sam_lowry_ 3y agoMoto Gestures are a killer feature, indeed. It's a shame this did not become standard on Android.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoMy understanding is that it has a hardware component (needed to do that kind of continuous sensor analysis without killing battery life), which might explain it.
- kcartlidge 3y agoRecently sold my Pixel 7a that I got to replace my Moto G32 (I succumbed to the appeal of shiny) when I realised that the £130 Moto G32, despite being slower and less powerful, was a more pleasurable all-round experience.
- karakot 3y agoComing soon to your iPhone.
- kcartlidge 3y agoIs this just a US problem? I'm using a Moto G32 in the UK and it's got no bloatware, regular security updates (got one yesterday morning), and an experience that's smoother than the Pixel 7a I got rid of (though a little slower due to the chips etc). All for £130. Couldn't be happier, I haven't even switched on my iPhone in months. Oh, and Moto gestures for the torch and the camera are great for when out walking the pooch. There was one thing I disabled which I've never needed to do on previous Motos, but talk of Moto going rogue doesn't match my (UK) reality.