There are some smartphones that feel great in your hands, and the 2024 Moto G Power is one of them. It's on my desk and I pick it up anyway, even though I don't need to do anything right now. That soft touch back! Flat but with a slightly contoured edge! Rotate to find the headphone jack on the bottom edge. Just to remind you if it's there or not. When the battery gets a little low, place it on the wireless charging stand for some thrills. All this in a $300 phone. imagine!
But after spending some more time with the Moto G Power, I'm brought back to reality. The LCD panel is not as nice as the OLED and lacks contrast (which is acceptable). This camera is underwhelming and suffers from Motorola's unusual image processing tendencies (not so forgiving). But again, this is a $300 phone in a world where the standard price for a top-tier flagship model is $1,000. Many things can be forgiven!
There is one exception. That's bloatware.
Scroll through the app drawer and you'll see several „folders“ that were automatically downloaded. These are not folders. They are apps. The first time I met them I hated last year's Moto G Stylus 5G.
There are three main attackers: shopping, entertainment, and gaming hubs, each of which acts as a small hub. The icons of legitimately downloaded apps will be displayed in the corresponding „folder“. You can find many other recommended apps that you can download. You'll see them over many pages. Apps as far as the eye can see!
When you close the Recommended Apps section, it is replaced by the Discovered section. The shopping app prompts you to „unleash the power of shopping“ with links to buy TJ Maxx's kitschy Easter decorations and more.Fortunately, there are Toggle to hide this section.
All these apps are It's made by a company called Swish, and you can't opt out of these downloads during the setup process.you can Opt out of downloading third-party lock screens from another service called Glance (and you should!).
The more I look into this phone's software, the more I dislike it. The pre-installed weather app shows ads and more app recommendations, as well as targeted insights like „With such high humidity, air conditioning would be a good idea.“ Once you tap the option to remove ads, a pop-up will appear asking you to pay $4 for 1Weather Pro.
What feels particularly brutal is that all of these services absolutely want your data. They want to be able to send you notifications, track your location, and download apps on your behalf. And it's hard to know exactly which company is behind it. that.The 'About' section of the weather app tells you where it comes from A service called OneLouder. OneLouder is, after all, Owned by Pinsight Mediaformerly owned by Sprint, now owned by A company called InMobi.To be clear, what this app is looking for is Always-on access to your location. At the very least, you should make it clear exactly which company you are giving that permission to.
All this garbage can be uninstalled. If you bought this phone, please make sure to uninstall it. You can download another weather app from a source you trust, or at least one you can identify. You can create your own app folder. But if you're not technically savvy, you probably won't realize that you can do all of this. It's a shame because there are some great budget phones out there in this crap.
Photo by Alison Johnson/The Verge