Lenovo will adopt the ‘Moto’ label for its smartphones | Hacker News Reader

Lenovo will adopt the ‘Moto’ label for its smartphones

thenextweb.com

66 pointsjonbaer37 comments

Also ruining Moto brand and reputation by dropping support for their devices. Moto G used to get two years worth of Android updates, meanwhile the G3 is just a year old and isn't getting Nougat. Their Moto G4 Play has the same SoC and is getting the update, so it's just Lenovo doing this instead of, say Qualcomm dropping the support.

G3 and G4 do not use the same SoC. G3 has an MSM8916, while G4 has an MSM8952.

Nougat's CTS requires either OpenGL ES 3.1 or Vulkan support. MSM8916 supports neither.

This is not true. See https://source.android.com/compatibility/android-cdd.html.

Particularly, the ending paragraph in 3.3.1 which says that you must export ES 3.1 symbols for linking purposes but their implementation is only compulsory up to the level for which the device declares support.

The following section 3.3.1.1 also mentions that Vulkan libraries and symbols must be present for linking purposes but may report zero VulkanPhysicalDevices.

Additionally, there are several qualcomm releases for 8916 nougat (LA.BR.1.2.9-01310-8x16.0).

G4 Plus has MSM8952. G4 Play and G3 both have MSM8916, and Nougat was announced for G4 Play.

Pity, I'm very pleased with my first-generation Moto G, even if it's not powerful enough for Pokemon and seems to have suffered from Android bitrot slowing it down.

I've been super happy with my Moto X Pure Edition. I loved that I could customize the back (from the factory) and that I got unadulterated Android with it. So far, it still performs well. iOS updates on the iPhones I had would severely affect performance.

How's it not powerful enough for Pokemon (if you mean GO)? I've played it for a good week (before getting bored) after the release and didn't notice any problems.

My G doesn't have a compass, so the AR portion of the game doesn't work at all. Could be that's what GP is talking about.

Well he/she does also talk about Android "bitrot" which I have not had an issue with since Android 4.4 so I wouldn't take what he says seriously.

It's tremendously slow. It takes ages to load. Tapping on things often has over a second delay. The phone doesn't have any spare RAM, so if you switch to another app it will immediately get ejected. The AR works, but at a few frames per second.

The "bitrot" is simply that it doesn't feel as fast as it did when I bought it, before upgrading to Android 5.1. And the storage is perpetually full with only a few apps and as many as possible moved to the SD card.

I had that problem with my Moto G 4G. Found out that it wasn't the 1G of RAM causing this issue but the firmware. This was fixed in an update and seemingly broken again in another update.

I still use a 2nd gen Moto G as my main phone. With a 1 gb additional RAM and a slightly better camera it would be the perfect phone for me.

Non-expandable storage is the big miss for the 1st gen Moto G.

At least in europe there was an LTE version that had an SD-card slot, an actual compass and gyroscope and the eponymous LTE support. My girlfriend still uses it and is a really nice phone (except for the, by now, ridiculously bad camera).

I am in Europe, and bought mine from a European Amazon, but no SD-card. I still use it, and yeah the camera is definitely quite far behind. I'll probably go for a Xiaomi soon.

Obligatory shoutout to the Moto E, LTE/CDMA, 2nd gen, which takes a 64GB MicroSD (even though it only says it'll take 32). Literally the device I dreamed of when I was a kid, it does calls, text, email, and most of my mp3s. (It doesn't do much else, due to a lack of internal storage and lack of RAM, but I just don't care.) It's been discontinued, so get one now while you still can.

I have one too. But I can't get the latest Android on it. It's stuck on Android 5.0.

I hope you mean "Stuck" not "suck"? I'm stuck on 5.1 and don't mind it.

I got one of these about 18 months ago, just as my 7-ish year old flip phone was wearing out. It's cheap and does what I need it to. I think FDE slows it down by half, but even after all this time, I'm not using it constantly. I dropped and cracked the screen earlier this year, and getting a new one wasn't a big deal (buy screen online, find someone nearby to apply adhesive).

I just wish it had a better Android version (5.1?) and 5GHz wifi. If a successor comes along, I might look into it and give mine to Mom or something.

I really wonder why. Motorola has been building a great brand over the past years, while Lenovo - in my experience - never built a decent smartphone. This will probably result in the pollution of the Moto-brand, causing people to trust it no longer, unless the Lenovo-smartphone department and the Moto-department are also merging.

Reminds me of The Wire: https://youtu.be/KbbZc2pab9k

I ran the Moto G for a few years and upgraded to the Moto X Force a few months ago, am really happy with both but the G was starting to show its age. The X force is much nicer than my wifes Oneplus2 in my opinion. My next phone will be a motorla as well but based on how well the G lasted it will be 2020 before thats a problem

Why did Google sell Motorola in the first place?

A major suspicion at the time was that other Android OEMs were concerned about Google's production of their own hardware and potential ensuing favoritism. To this day, Google has branded phones (Pixel, etc.), but they aren't made by Google.

As an aside, my Moto X is still such a well-designed product.

Pixel is "made by Google." There's not a hint of supplier manufacturing anywhere on the device (save for the battery).

It looks like Google got mad at the suspicion and decided to make it flat-out true.

They're actually made by HTC. Would be interesting to know what their exact arrangement is.

I think they're made by HTC in the same way Apple's phones are made by Foxconn, which is the reason I used the "made by" in quotes.

As I think it's disingenuous to consider the Pixel another company's phone (like the Nexus line was)

The current suspicion is that the phone was almost entirely designed by HTC.

It appears that it was a phone that HTC had in the works, but then changed to the Pixel when Google rang.

The og Moto X is the best Android phone I have owned. I now have a Nexus 6 since the replacement screen I bought for it is no longer working. The Nexus 6 does not support trusted voice so coming from a Moto X that is a downgrade for me.

Same here. I'd still be using it if I hadn't decided to switch to fi.

I think they only bought it for the patents while they were involved in patent fights with Apple? They kept the patents and sold off the rest.

It wasn't very profitable and hurting the bottom line.

Is the other half going to be Rola or Polo?

Motonovo doesn't sound too bad.

Title is a bit misleading, they are ditching their own brand name _for their smartphones_.

I thought the had Lenovo branded smartphones. There are some on ebay but I don't know how recent the models are.

MotoFish

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