latest
LineageOS 17.1 adds official support for OnePlus 2, Moto X Play, and other phones
Android 10 on phones from 2015
LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM around, and version 17.1 is based on the newest Android 10 release. The Lineage project has been slowly updating older devices to 17.1, and in the time since our previous coverage, even more devices have arrived in the official roster.
LineageOS is one of the most popular custom ROMs available, with somewhere around two million active installations. It typically takes a while for the project to update to newer versions of Android, since development is largely done by maintainers in their spare time. Six months after the public release of Android 9 Pie, it looks like LineageOS is about ready to make the jump — but not before dropping older devices.
Motorola's flagship devices still get updates relatively quickly, but its budget phones lag behind quite a bit. For example, the Verizon Moto G4 Play was just updated from Android 6.0 to 7.1.1 earlier this month, shortly after the international variants received it. Now Motorola has released the kernel source code for the G4 Play's Nougat update.
Motorola's excellent track record with updating devices fell by the wayside as it became part of Lenovo and started releasing more device variants than anyone can keep track of each year. Nothing is better proof of that than the Moto G4 Play's situation. The device, which was released on September of 2016, has been stuck on Marshmallow 6.0.1 for months and months as owners gave up on even getting an update. Then the unlocked international variant started getting Android 7.1.1 last month and now the Verizon one is following suit.
B&H is running a massive year-end sale right now, fittingly named the 'Mega Deal Zone.' We already covered some of the offerings here, but there are also seven Motorola phones on sale. That includes the Moto G5S Plus, Moto G4, and last year's Moto Z Play.
Read update
- Motorola has decided to update the G4 Plus to Oreo, but not without a bunch of catches. Check our post for the full details.
You know who everyone hates? Liars. Nobody likes being promised something, only to have it taken away without explanation. At launch, Motorola advertised Android N and O updates for the Moto G4 line, but to the shock of many G4 owners, none of these phones were listed in the company's official Oreo update list. In fact, all mention of this promise has been wiped away. Motorola, this is bullshit.
If there's one thing that Motorola consistently does well, it's budget phones. All three variants of the Moto G4 - the normal, Plus, and Play - were some of the best inexpensive phones on the market last year. Now that the Moto G5 is out, we've seen the G4 Play drop to $100 on occasion, and now it has happened again.
We're fast approaching MWC with some of the major highlights of the event, like the Moto G5, seeing some serious leaks. Like I mentioned yesterday, good phones from last year should not be discounted simply because they're a year old. Such is the case with this returning deal here. The Moto G4 Play is available for $99.99 from B&H with a promo code, a total savings of $50.
The deals just keep coming in. This one is for the unlocked Moto G4 Play, a respectable little device. Usually clocking in at $150, B&H has it for $100 which is a nice 30% off. This covers both the black and white colors, but the latter is currently listed as "More Coming Soon."
The budget smartphone segment in America seems to be a shrinking one of late (well, at least of good options), but we've rounded up the best we think the market has to offer consumers right now in the $250-and-under segment. The selected phones are presented in no particular order.
The Moto G series has become something of a fixture of the mid-range and low-end Android market, thanks to a combination of competent hardware and clean software. That's no less true now that Motorola has gone modular with its flagship Z series - in fact, I'll bet that a few fans of the old Moto X models are moving down the line. Today Best Buy is offering the Verizon prepaid Moto G4 Play, normally $85, for a jaw-dropping .99. You don't even have to buy any service to get the phone - nice!
Read update
If you're looking for a good phone under $150, Motorola's G4 Play is probably one of the best options. You get a Snapdragon 410 CPU, 2GB of RAM, expandable storage, a removable battery, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow (with Motorola promising Nougat soon). This is also one of the few phones in this price range that supports GSM and CDMA, meaning it works with all US carriers.Now you can snag a G4 Play on Amazon for $20 shy of the $150 MSRP. This is not the Prime Exclusive model with ads, this is a completely unmodified device. Only the black color is discounted, the white model is still $150. Both models have Prime shipping available.Keep in mind that this is a different product from the similarly-named G4 Plus and G4, which are both priced above the G4 Play. I wish Motorola would have stuck with making one phone for high-end, mid-range, and low-end - it was much simpler.Source: Amazon
Motorola picked a pretty busy day to release its list of phones that are slated to be upgraded to Android 7.0 - make of that what you will. After previously confirming that the new Moto Z , Moto Z Droid, and Moto G4 lines would be upgraded to Nougat "starting in Q4," a more complete list was published to the company blog today. The list is fairly predictable, with some notable exceptions.
If there's one thing Lenovorola (Motonovo?) has been consistently good at for its past few phones, it's releasing kernel source code quickly. The Moto G4 Play was made available for sale just last month, but its source code has already been published. This might be one of their quickest turnarounds yet.
It's a frequent woe of Android users: you buy that fancy, top-of-the-line phone in the summer or fall, and you just know it's going to take the manufacturer months to get around to releasing the updated software that Google pushes out soon. They tend to issue press releases or Twitter posts promising support for the new update, though dates are typically either absent or vague. Such is the case with Motorola's commitment to Android 7.0 on its latest phones.
The third member of Amazon's Moto G4 family will be coming to the US after all—the Moto G4 Play launches on September 15th, and you can pre-order it today. You've got some choices to make, though. The regular phone will be on sale via various retail outlets, but there's also going to be a cheaper Amazon Prime version with ads.The G4 Play is specced lower than the other members of the G4 family, but it's also cheaper. Here's what you get.
Motorola was the first major smartphone maker to start putting its stock apps in the Play Store. Before that, OEMs would only update those apps as part of an OTA update. It sounds positively barbaric by today's standards. Motorola isn't done yet, though. Just today it added its stock file manager to the Play Store. You won't see much in the way of improvements this time, but who knows what the future could bring?
Lenovo and Motorola announced the G4 and G4 Plus a few weeks ago, and today it appears Moto has published the kernel source for its latest high-end-of-the-low-end (or bottom of the mid-range?) handsets.
The Moto G4, Moto G 4th Edition, or Moto G 2016, regardless of what you want to call it, has leaked several times already. We first got the blurry cam snap, then the graphics render, followed by more recent shots of the retail box and the retail unit of the G4 Plus variant. Now things are official after an event in New Delhi where Lenovo, technically not Motorola, announced the new G4 and G4 Plus.