Motorola announced the Moto G, a new low-cost entry-level smartphone for global markets. The Moto G doesn't skimp on features, but Motorola is selling it for a rock-bottom price: $179 unlocked and without contract. The company says that its partners plan to offer it for even less.
Despite its bargain basement price tag, the Moto G has a 4.5-inch, 720p LCD TFT display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8 or 16GB of storage, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 2,070mAh battery. Aesthetically, the Moto G looks almost identical to the Moto X, with a very similar shape and feel. The biggest differences are the front-facing camera and rear speaker, which are on the left of the Moto G while they are on the right of the Moto X.
Motorola isn't offering a Moto Maker customization service for the Moto G, but the back plate is removable, letting customers swap it for different colors and styles. Motorola is selling blue, teal, red, yellow, purple, white, and black covers, as well as rugged versions and flip-style portfolio covers for the Moto G (the company says there are 19 options in total). Unfortunately, the removable cover is purely for cosmetic purposes: the battery is non-removeable and there isn't a microSD card slot on the G.
The Moto G is launching with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, though Motorola says that Android 4.4 will be available for it in a matter of weeks. Like the Moto X, the Moto G's software is very close to a "stock" Android experience, with very little in the way of modification by Motorola. Sadly, the Moto G doesn't have the Moto X's cool software tricks, such as Active Notifications, Quick Capture, and Touchless Control, since those require the special processor only found in the X.