Moto G Plus (5th Generation) - Lunar Gray - 32 GB - Unlocked - Prime Exclusive - with Lockscreen Offers & Ads

My last phone was a Sony Xperia C5 Ultra. It was a good phone, and in fact it's technically in a higher "class" than the Moto G series, but ultimately I decided it was time for an upgrade. Why? Because like so many major manufacturers' phones, the Xperia had two big problems: Tons of bloatware and a majorly altered version of Android. It got to the point where I couldn't download new apps because that Xperia had several gigabytes of Sony apps with their respective updates, and because Sony's tweaked version of Android wouldn't allow me to move apps, delete the bloatware, or have much control over the already-meager space left after the Marshmallow update. It was a great phone, otherwise, but Sony's insistence to have their WHAT'S NEW app on there, sometimes sending me notifications at 3 AM to let me know that I could buy some new Sony product... Well, that was just too much. It was frustrating to have a decent phone, but not have as much control over it as I preferred to have. What it came down to was that I needed a reliable phone for work, and the Xperia kept letting me down with its bloatware, battery-hogging, and various Sony quirks.Enter the Moto line of phones. Now, originally I was looking at the Z series, but I had to face facts and accept that I wasn't quite ready to spend that much on a new phone. I would have liked to, but I didn't see much in the Z series that made it worth it to me to spend so much more when the G series was offering such nice choices. So I grabbed Amazon's Prime-exclusive G4... And was a bit let-down. I apparently got a dud, and mine simply refused to connect to WiFi for long, and the WiFi would actually turn itself on and off at random. I sent it back as defective (because, honestly, that's a serious problem) and decided that I might as well go for the better-reviewed, premier choice in the Moto G lineup. And man, am I glad I did!The Moto G5 Plus is a joy to use. There's no storage-hogging, useless bloat. Not even the Amazon Prime apps are a problem, seeing as I'm a Prime member and do get use out of most of them (except for Prime Now, which really should be optional because it's only useful in select cities). Other than those few Amazon Apps, most of which I would have downloaded anyway, there's nothing else. There's no Moto-specific group of apps to rival (or replace) the Google versions of things. Unlike my Sony or ASUS devices, I don't have to deal with a proprietary browser, file manager, photo viewer, contacts app, messenging app, calendar app, clock app, or anything else that's a native part of Android. All the stock Android versions of these things are here, and they all work wonderfully.Also included is the Android Nougat (and Marshmallow) feature that lets you treat an SD card as an extension of internal storage. This feature is REMOVED from Sony, Samsung, and most other devices from major manufacturers. It's present here, so if you want to stick a 128GB SD card into your phone and have it tacked onto the built-in storage, boosting you to over 138GB of internal storage, you can do that. Of course, if you opt for the 32GB version (which I did) you won't need this for a while unless you download a LOT of apps. Either way, the standard method of formatting the SD card as removable storage is still an option.The fingerprint sensor is awesome, by the way. It changes the way you interact with Android. No longer do I have those soft buttons on the screen! Swipe left, you go back. Swipe right, you can see all the active apps (or access Menu options) and even open two apps side-by-side (a cool Nougat feature). Tap quickly and you go Home. The extra screen real estate you get from eliminating those soft buttons is nice, and the fingerprint sensor works perfectly. It lets you register multiple fingers, so you can operate it with both hands or let a family member have access. Once enabled, unlocking and putting the phone to sleep are extremely simple endeavors. No more trying to type in a PIN, password, or swiping a pattern!The Moto G5 Plus is FAST, too. I'm very happy with how it operates both in the UI and in games. It handles all the media I throw at it (especially if you use something like MX Player, PowerAmp, or VLC to play it) and it never feels sluggish.Yes, there are advertisements-- what they call "offers"-- on the Prime-discounted version, but they're mostly unobtrusive and always restricted to the lock screen. Still, if you don't like the full-screen offers you can get an app like Weather Underground that keeps a persistent weather notification on the lock screen, and then the offers are shrunk down to being just a small notification on the lock screen. If even that is too much for you, there are apps out there in the Play Store that 'Hide Notifications', and you can simply prevent the notifications you dislike from showing up on the lock screen at all. Of course, since you paid less for the "with offers" version, it's up to you to decide whether or not it's right or fair to do such a thing, but I mention it because there are options, and that shows how open and unrestricted this version of Android is. You can't get rid of the offers entirely, of course (not without paying), but you have some flexibility regarding how and when they're offered, and whether they use any mobile data. Amazon didn't make them obnoxious, so most people won't mind them, and some might even like the special deals they offer.The body of the phone does have a metal panel on the back, but it's clear that the majority of the phone (including under that panel) is plastic. That's fine. I've checked out durability tests, and the G5 Plus passes with flying colors, even passing bend tests and boasting Gorilla Glass that offers some decent scratch-resistance. They also advertise "water resistance", but I'm not keen to test this. It's just night to know it won't suffer from the occasional raindrops or being accidentally placed on a wet spot on the kitchen table.The camera is quite nice, though maybe not top-of-the-line. It does the job and the camera app is tweaked by Moto to work well with what they've got here. I especially like the gestures on this phone, because it's exceptionally convenient to be able to activate the camera with a couple twists of the phone, and turning on the flashlight with two chops is so much smarter than having to interact with the screen.The screen's nice enough, though it does suffer a bit in direct sunlight. Still, in every other condition it's an attractive screen with deep colors and no blurriness, ghosting, or light leaking around the edges. It's a quality screen, for sure.Finally, battery life is excellent for a phone this size, and the fast-charging ability means you can get it back up and running quickly if you find yourself running low on juice. I drive and use GPS a lot in my career, and even after a day of GPS and music, the phone still has enough charge to take a few phone calls and watch a TV show or two. Truly decent.Bottom line: This is an amazingly nice mobile phone for the price-- especially with the Prime exclusive discount-- and it has all the features I was looking for. This is a five-star experience all the way when you consider that it's technically a "mid-range" phone and has such an excellent price. Nothing else out there, aside from the far-more-expensive Google offerings, gives you a more pure stock Android experience than the Moto line of phones, and that alone makes them worth checking out. Unless you're a cell phone snob, you won't regret the purchase.Oh, and one more thing: I'm on Cricket Wireless at the time of this writing, and the Moto G5 Plus took almost zero set-up to work on their network. This was the easiest phone transfer I've ever done. I'll give credit for that to both the phone and to Cricket, but no doubt the Moto G5 Plus made the transfer easier just by being so open and unlocked.

I've had iPhones forever, plus an iPad plus a Mac, so I'd probably be the last person you'd expect to love this phone, but after two days of ownership I have to say I do. I lost my phone overboard on a boat in February, and, after that, determined to avoid the sickeningly high price of a new iPhone, bought four (yes, you read that right) 16 GB iPhone 6-es on Ebay, all of them for around $325. All of them had problems, even when they were advertised as new. Totally fed up, I looked up reviews for the best budget Android phone on The Wirecutter and found this one. Wow, what a revelation. For $185 (I got mine with ads) I have a phone that feels 2x as fast as the iPhone, has twice the storage space and has a fingerprint sensor that actually works - all the time, including with some apps, like my Bank of America app. It was really pretty easy to learn the Android system, and there are many nice features on this phone. All my apps work. It has a phenomenal battery life, something I could never say about any iPhone. The only bizarre thing was trying to activate it on Verizon, as others have noted here. I moved the SIM card from my iPhone to the new phone myself and activated it online, although I got an error message saying the SIM card wasn't recognized or words to that effect. I was advised to go to the nearest Verizon store for help. It turns out the phone had, in fact, been activated and they didn't need to do anything more, although at first they didn't realize that and tried to find an appropriate new SIM card for the phone. They threw up their hands, saying they wouldn't be able to activate it. Then they looked at my account and figured out that it was already activated. I was so determined not to pay $750 for a phone I probably would have left Verizon for another carrier if I'd run into problems. I'm glad it all worked out, but not very happy with Verizon that they make this so difficult.