Motorola

While the 4th-gen Moto G has been well leaked ahead of a May 17th event, the flagship Moto X has remained more elusive. A sketchy leak from last year has now been collaborated by Evleaks and several official-looking press renders have surfaced from the reliable HelloMotoHK.

Lenovo is expected to release the 4th-generation Moto G at an upcoming event on May 17. While the appearance of the device has been widely leaked, not much is known about the specs of the device. According to a leak today, we know a bit more about what will likely be Lenovo’s first Moto devices.
We’re nearing the end of the first half of 2016, and that means a lot of new Android smartphones have been announced. Starting off the year was the Huawei Mate 8 and Honor 5X at CES in January, of course followed later by Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge as well as the LG G5 in February at Mobile World Congress. But which ones are the best buys? Keep reading to find out…
Yesterday we told you that the Nexus 9 was abruptly pulled from the Google Store, and now the Mountain View company has pulled another device from sale. The Moto 360 Sport, which we recently reviewed and has only been on the Google Store for a few months, is now listed as “Not available”…

Taking into account all the leaks and rumors we’ve seen over the past few weeks regarding the upcoming 4th generation Moto G, it’s safe to assume the device is going to be announced relatively soon. Corroborating those leaks we’ve already laid our eyes on, another batch of detailed renders has found its way online.

Albeit having been released months ago, much like all of its predecessors, the latest Android version, Marshmallow, is still running only on a relatively small number of devices. Much of it can be attributed to carriers and third party manufacturers, which often take a lot of time to properly re-skin, release certifications, and eventually give the green light to updates.
Fortunately for Verizon customers, however, it looks like Google‘s latest software is beginning its rollout for the Droid Turbo 2. In a note released on Tuesday on Google Plus, Motorola‘s David Schuster confirmed that the upgrade is in “full deployment”…

A video has been published on YouTube showing what the uploader claims is a prototype of the fourth generation Moto G. Its design is practically identical to leaks we’ve seen already, and it seems to be much bigger than the current generation budget Motorola smartphone.

With four of this year’s big-name smartphone makers having already announced — and some launched — their most important smartphones for 2016, our attention can turn to the rest. For the past few years, the Moto G has undoubtedly been Motorola’s (now Lenovo’s) most important device range. With competitive specs, a low price and — most importantly — stock Android software, the G has long been a recipe for success. And this year, the range could be getting a serious feature upgrade: A fingerprint sensor.

Last week, the first image of what is likely one of Lenovo’s next Moto devices revealed a front fingerprint sensor in place of dual speakers. Now, an image from Evleaks that shows a sketch of a ‘Moto G4 Plus’ with a similar sensor arrangement likely confirms that the image is legit…

Motorola’s Moto X line has consistently been a lineup of devices which enabled users to express their individuality. Ever since the first version was released with the Moto Maker tool, customers could make the phone look how they wanted it to. At the time, it was initially just a few different colors of plastic, with wooden backs added later on.
Fast forward a couple of years, and we now have multiple plastic colors, multiple wood options and a handful of leather backs. Recently, Motorola teamed up with designer, Jonathan Adler to offer limited patterns, and has now partnered with legendary graffiti artist, Futura, on an even more limited run.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Lenovo is going to release its first device under the ‘Moto’ brand in July. Save for screen sizes larger than 5-inches and a fingerprint sensor, not much is known about the flagship. HelloMotoHK, a leakster who showed us the first photos of the 2nd-generation Moto 360, has now posted a picture of what appears to be an upcoming phone…

A pair of listings on GFXbench (via WinFuture) have revealed two Lenovo phones that may possibly be the next generation Moto E. Additionally, two devices with the Moto X3 moniker have hit an Indian import/export database that might allude to a release sooner than later.

At CES, Lenovo announced that the Motorola brand name would be phased out in favor of ‘Moto’ and ‘by Lenovo’ branding. Today, the company announced a restructuring of its Mobile Business Group that sees the exit of long-time Motorola president Rick Osterloh.

The DROID Ultra, Maxx, and Mini were announced just days before the first Moto X, and now Motorola is reneging on an early promise to provide Android 5.1 to those devices. As consolation, however, they are offering owners a discount on the Droid Turbo 2 or Maxx 2.
Moto X Pure Edition is one of the best phones that launched last year, and now you have even more reason to buy one. Just last month we gave it a “3 months later” second look (spoiler: we still think it’s great), but Motorola wants to make the deal even sweeter with a free Moto 360 Android Wear watch…
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Unsurprisingly, Lenovo “product engineer” Ashton Kutcher is also doing online videos to promote Motorola. His last appearance demonstrated how people are incapable of not touching their phones. Now, Kutcher is talking with engineers and showing off features specific to Motorola phones.

A few months ago, as soon as it was officially launched in the UK, I checked out the Moto X Play. Price and spec-wise it stood halfway between the Moto G and the Moto X Style/Pure. Although it undoubtedly had its positives, there were some elements of the experience that left me disappointed. It intermittently stuttered and lagged during transitions, and very often refused to load data within apps. It wasn’t all the time, but it was enough to leave a less-than-great feeling.
With Android Marshmallow, the experience is so vastly different, it’s pretty difficult to believe. In fact, it’s so much better, I felt the phone should be revisited…

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Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang said today that the company will launch a new smartphone for the US in July, according to comments reported by The Wall Street Journal. Earlier this month at CES, the company announced that the Motorola brand name is actually being phased out around the world.

Best Buy offers the 2nd generation Moto X 16GB (unlocked) smartphone in black for $242.99 shipped, which is $57 below its retail price and the lowest price we could find for a brand new model. If you’re looking for its cheaper little brother, though, B&H offers the 2nd generation Moto G 8GB (unlocked) smartphone in black for $99.99 shipped w/ a free Belkin PowerHouse microUSB dock. That’s a savings of $95 compared to what these items would cost at retail…

Recently, Lenovo’s chief made some comments regarding the future of Motorola and Lenovo smartphones. Those comments seemed to indicate that the Moto brand name would only be used for high-end smartphones, while Lenovo’s ‘Vibe’ lineup would form the bottom end of the companies product portfolio. Some saw this as confirmation that Moto G and Moto E handsets would be discontinued.
Speaking to The Verge, a Motorola representative was quick to debunk those suggestions:
“Although we are simplifying the combined Motorola and [Lenovo] portfolio, we have no plans to retire Moto G, our most successful smartphone, or Moto E.”
Despite the fact that Lenovo’s chief seemed to be indicating an end to the bottom-tier Motorolas, it seems that instead, the Moto and Vibe brands will be used in different markets. The Moto G and Moto E are incredibly successful in a number of markets, particularly North America. In Asia, the Vibe brand is a better fit. So it could be instead that it slims down its portfolio, while still continuing to build new models of affordable Moto-branded products.
Most of the confusion and interest surrounding Motorola and its phones stems from a recent discovery that the Motorola brand name will be dying. Since then, it seems as though everything has been up in the air, at least in the media. While Motorola is going away, the Moto brand is too strong to give up. Just like it did with ThinkPad, Lenovo is going to continue using the Moto moniker for its devices.

If you’re still using a 2014 Moto X on Verizon, some good news has emerged today. A Motorola Forums Manager revealed today that the company will now allow bootloader unlocks for the 2014 Verizon Moto X, although it will still void the warranty.

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Update: Motorola has provided us with an official comment on the new branding.
In an interview with CNET, Motorola COO Rick Osterloh said that the storied Motorola brand will be phased out for Lenovo. Purchased by Google in 2011 and then sold to Lenovo in 2014, Motorola has had varying level of successes. While praised for stock Android, Moto devices on the high-end have not been successful in dethroning Samsung or LG.