Apple has forgotten iPod touch, and you should too. This week, through June 7, Best Buy will offer the Verizon version of the Moto G for a mere $49.99, sans any coupons.
Now, how does Verizon get away with this? Well, the Verizon Moto G is locked to Verizon. It is the only Moto G that requires prepaid service activation to be powered up fully – a possible violation of Android rules, out of box setup is not supposed to require carrier activation.
Of course, you only have to activate the prepaid phone for a day, then you can leave it in airplane mode forever. After that, it becomes a $50 iPod touch with built-in GPS.
And, really, stacking Moto G up against iPod touch is not a fair fight. Apple has basically abandoned iPod touch because of billions in subsidies in iPhone sales. Moto G is using a Snapdragon 400, and it only has trouble stacking up to iPod touch in the camera department.
Which, by the way, Google has finally fixed the all-cheap-Motos-have-bad-cameras-and-the-good-ones-do-too problem… a final gift to Motorola before handing the company off to Lenovo, I suppose. The Moto G is a capable cameraphone shooter for casual pictures, complete with an LED flash and an image sensor that is nothing to write home about… including in a bad way too.
In all, if you have even a passing interest in Android and don’t have a modern KitKat device, your wait is over. And if you’re still using an iPhone, go grab one of these and just try it out in Wi-Fi mode. I’ve already given two to iPhone zealots and it’s doing a good job of dispelling all the FUD that competitor(s) keeps pushing on Android.
Don’t expect this wave of Moto G deals to continue, however. A GSM Moto G is already much more expensive because it can easily be moved between carriers. Planning for the direction of Lenovo to take over at Motorola Mobility, the Moto G is also moving upmarket with Moto G 4G LTE on the GSM side. I expect CDMA carriers to replace Moto G with the newer Moto E over time at the $50 to $100 price point over the next few months.
Note that if you’re planning on parking the Verizon Moto G on Page Plus Cellular, with its $40/year backup phone pricing… that won’t work, as Verizon prepaid phones must sit out a six month wait before being used on Verizon MVNOs. You’re better off buying a Boost Mobile Moto G and flashing it with Verizon firmware… or buying one off of eBay that has had that done already. I did.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/smartphone-plans/
But don’t I have to shell out $45.00 to activate the prepaid phone even for a day according to above link? Thanks for very useful info!
You forgot to mention that when you buy the moto g, you get 50 gigs of google drive strorage for two years!
You don’t need to buy anything to activate it, just touch all 4 corners like it says on YouTube, that’s what I did with my $50 moto g
Hello Christopher,
Thanks for writing all this info on phones etc. A lot of this is a foreign language to me ( Im a nurse in a cardiac unit here in Oakland CA)
but I’ve been looking around to get a new phone service as I hate all these 2 yrs contracts, besides it’s like HP ( higher purchase) not financially good.
Anyway, I read you article on the Moto G and Pageplus service and also a more recent article on the phone news web site about Page Plus not accepting flashed phones come Jan 1st so my question is this.
(i Called Page plus today and the woman English was not great)
If I but a Moto G from say ebay that has been flashed with Verizon firm wear ( like you did) and buy this month, December, come January will it still work because it’s Verizon?
Thanks,
just trying to get a good phone for myself and son without all the Costs ( I have AT&T, hate it)
Deb