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Out with the old, in with the new: LineageOS cut support for Android 9 Pie earlier this year, and to make up for the loss, the open-source project has just released version 18.1 based on Android 11. It comes with official support for about 60 phones and tablets.
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Although Motorola has been slow to roll out Android 10 to most of its devices globally, the company is at least keeping developers happy with steady kernel source releases. Over the past few weeks, Motorola has released updated source code packages for most of its phones, accelerating the creation of custom ROMs and recovery partitions.
Motorola begins rolling out Android 10 to Moto G7 Power
The Moto G7 Play’s update is also in the pipeline
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Motorola is gradually getting back on track after a phase of subpar software support. Don’t get me wrong, the releases still aren’t timely, but at least they’re coming. The 2019 G series started its Android 10 journey with the G7 Plus, and the standard G7 joined in last month. And now, the latest Android version is reaching a few G7 Power users in Brazil, even before Motorola could make an official announcement.
Motorola is finally rolling out Android 10 to the Moto G7
The Moto G7 Power won't be far behind, hopefully
Lenovo-owned Motorola used to be king of the budget and mid-range Android handsets, but Nokia phones have overtaken them in recent year, in no small part due to HMD Global's commitment to fast Android updates on even its cheapest phones. The Moto G7 came out a little over a year ago and wasn't exactly the finest entry in the series. It's now finally getting its Android 10 update, at least.
LineageOS ROM releases first builds based on Android 10 (Update: Builds are back)
LineageOS 17.1 is here
LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM in existence, and the project prides itself on bringing newer versions of Android to unsupported devices. However, Lineage has been a bit slow to roll out a version based on Android 10 — the Pie-based ROM was already available by this time last year. Thankfully, the next major version of LineageOS seems to be just around the corner.
LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM out there, boasting official support for dozens of phones and tablets. The project is best known for breathing new life into older devices, and since we last covered Lineage, builds have become available for nine more phones — including some old favorites.
Motorola hasn't had the best track record for updating its phones, but the company is moving moderately quickly with Android 10. The Moto One Power and One Vision already have the update, and now the next phone to get it is the company's current mid-range flagship: the Moto G7 Plus.
Today brings us a discount on the already budget-friendly Moto G7, and now it's available for $180 — the lowest price we've seen yet. Today's deal at Amazon knocks a whopping $120 off the MSRP. During our review, we found the G7 to be a definite improvement over previous models in the G-series, but it also had a higher launch price than any of its predecessors. The G7 features a 6.2 inch 1080 x 2270 LCD screen, a 3,000 mAh battery, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage with the option of expansion via microSD. It's Snapdragon 632 SOC offers decent performance, especially at this price. The battery quick charges over USB-C, and users can unlock the phone using facial recognition or a fingerprint sensor. One notable omission is the lack of NFC in US models. So, while it may be missing some features you'd expect to find in a $300 phone, its current pricing may make the G7 worth another look.
If you're still hanging on to your old wired headphones, this is an excellent opportunity to pick up one of the last phones that still support them. Though it's not the most popular phone of this generation (see our review), the Moto Z4 is still a very decent phone, especially at this reduced price of $400. And with an included 360° camera, this is not a bad deal at all. If that's still out of your budget, several of Motorola's mid-range phones have been discounted as well.
TWRP is a custom recovery partition that can be installed on hundreds of Android devices, allowing homebrew ROMs to be sideloaded, full system backups to be created, and much more. Since the last time we covered the project, a handful of more phones and tablets have been added to the official roster, including the Asus Zenfone 6 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e.
I love flagship phones, but I'm always a little concerned when I take one with me, say, kayaking, or to a concert. Summertime is full of such potentially phone-ruining events, so if you're worried about the safety of your thousand-dollar pocket computer, consider grabbing one of these cheapo alternatives as a backup.
A phone can be among the most expensive purchases in a given year, so it's good to pick one up on sale or at a discount, and Prime Day is the perfect time to snag one. From Pixels to Galaxy phones, and the substantially discounted Nokia 9 PureView and LG G8, now is the time to pick one up, so here's a list of phones discounted this Prime Day.
Prime Day is upon us and the deals are coming fast and furious. Here's a budget phone sale that caught our eye — the Moto G7 can be had for two Benjamins right now, down from $300 when Ryan reviewed it just a few months ago. Also on sale are its younger siblings, the G7 Power and G7 Play.
The Moto G7 makes a decent entry-level option, with a 6.2-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage with a microSD card slot, and a Snapdragon 632 processor powering it along. The 3000mAh battery quick-charges over USB-C, and you get facial recognition and a fingerprint sensor to unlock your device. You can check out Ryan's review of the phone, where he praises the design, software experience, and the fact that it retains a headphone jack.Along with this, the Moto G7 Play is on sale for $156, the lowest I've seen this drop to. It's basically the G7, with a smaller 5.7-inch 720p display, a larger notch, and less RAM and storage. No to be left out, the G7 Power also went on sale yesterday for $190. This is a G7 Play, with a larger 6.2-inch display, in case 5.7" was too compact for your liking.These are Prime Exclusive variants of the Moto G7 family, so Alexa will be built-in, but you aren't restricted from disabling any features or using the network provider of your choice — it works on everything but CDMA operators like Verizon.Buy: (G7: 0), (G7 Play: 6), (G7 Power: 0)
Today brings us a good deal on the Moto G7 and G7 Play, both of which have had $30 and $20 slashed off their original asking prices, respectively. That translates to the G7 being $270 and the G7 Play $180, and you can grab yours from Amazon, B&H, and Best Buy.The Moto G7 is the most expensive G phone to date, pushing right up into Pixel 3a territory (or the same effective price with some of the deals floating around). Disappointingly, there wasn't much to justify the hike, though it did feature some more horsepower and a nice design. The G7 Play, meanwhile, represents the minimum a smartphone can have and still get any kind of recommendation.
If either of these phones interests you, saving $20 or $30 is a good deal. You have your choice of electronics retailer, but we recommend B&H this time around since it's offering a free case, tempered glass screen protector, and a 3-month 8GB Mint plan on both phones.
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The debut of Call Screen on the Pixel 3 and 3 XL late last year was a magical moment. The deluge of robocalls shows no sign of slowing, but Call Screen gives you a way to reclaim a little sanity. The feature was exclusive to Pixels at launch, but now some Motorola phones will have it, too.
Motorola started the trend of cheap phones that aren't junk with the original Moto G back in 2013. That was the first time you could buy a phone for a couple hundred bucks that would get you through a day without making you want to hurl it through the nearest window. The success of that phone led other OEMs to target lower prices, and the battle rages to this day. However, Motorola has moved the Moto G a bit more up-market. Each successive generation has been a little more expensive, but some premium smartphone features are still missing.That brings us to the Moto G7, which launched recently at $299. It's the most expensive Moto G update yet, and it makes some improvements over the last-gen devices. Some of those updates are valuable, and others won't matter one way or the other. I like using the Moto G7; it's fast, attractive, and the software is clean. However, it doesn't offer enough to completely justify the $300 price tag. That's a problem for the G-series, which has traditionally offered incredible bang for your buck.
It's the big day for Moto's new budget G-series phone. The Moto G7 is on sale today via all the usual retail channels including Best Buy, B&H, and Moto itself (yesterday). If you want to use the G7 on Google Fi, there's some good news. Google will sell you the phone for $50 less than the retail price.
Google started talking about Digital Wellbeing last year at Google I/O, but the feature never appeared in any of the pre-release Android P builds. Eventually, its surfaced as a beta feature on Pixel phones running Pie. Digital Wellbeing has slowly branched out to Android One phones, and the Galaxy S10 is supposed to have it as well. The next target, the Moto G7.
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Motorola announced the G7 several weeks back but it didn't have a firm release date at the time. Well, now things are clearer. Motorola will happily take your money for the G7 today, but pre-orders won't ship for a couple more weeks.
With all of the new devices that debut, Google is constantly working on adding ARCore support to the latest and greatest. The ARCore compatibility page was last updated just three weeks ago, but several more phones have just joined the club. The Moto G7 family is the most noteworthy addition, with some Chinese phones we don't get stateside added as well.