Moto X4 (retail U.S. version) good to go on Public Mobile, Android 8.1 APN not locked out

[computergeek541]

For those who got caught up in the Moto X4 half price sale at Newegg this past week ($262.49 CAD - well they claim half price, but it's half off the original price from last year when released), I just wanted to let everyone know that Motorola did not lock out the addition of APN settings, even after updating to Android 8.1. 

By the way, this isn't a sales pitch.  I gain nothing by mentioning this, and you'll be able to see that the phone model is sold out there anyway at this price.

The APN locking has been a concern for many customers who have phones with Android 8.1 because of the possibility that cellular data won't work.  This becomes especially important with smaller brands such as Public Mobile because the Android phone's software might not have the APN programmed in.

With the U.S. retail version of the Moto X4 (variant XT1900-1), everything works right out-of-the-box without needing to change any network or APN settings, vm retrieval numbers, SMS service centre numbers, etc.

While Public Mobile's APN settings get activated correctly and automatically,  Motorola also did something smart.  While editting the APN isn't possible (greyed out),  the option for adding a new APN is still enabled.  So, this means that this phone is good for any carrier in Canada no matter what obsscure APN setting is needed because you can always manually set it.

So, if you're still waiting for your shipment and you're a Public Mobile customer (or of any carrier in fact), don't worry about your data being disabled by performing the updates to Android 8.1.   I can't say for sure if the Android One variant also preserves this ability, but at least the standard non-Android-One retail u.s. variant (3GB, 32GB) still allows you to alter these settings.

[computergeek541]

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@youbme wrote:

I recently got my wife the X4 to replace her samsung S7. For her needs, it's perfect, awesome camera, fast charging, great screen and waterproof. And, pretty quick software updates. Highly recommended, especially at that price!

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The dumb thing about this phone is how Motorola chose to disable Miracast, or should I say, chose to leave it disabled.  I think Google ought to be sued over this, because it's the perfect example of anti-competitive behavior.  There's no reason to disable this feature on stock Adnroid images, other than the fact that they're trying to collect an extra $40 for you by forcing you to buy a Chromecast.  The other thing that I don't like about the X4 is the Wi-Fi strength.  It's weak by my standards, although it's about the same as pretty much any other mid range device I've tried.  However, I've also used a few devices before that blew this Moto X4 away when it came to pure Wi-Fi antenna strength.  In addition, I find that call volume isn't that great with the built-in speaker, which is a strange software quirk because ringtones and music playback is super loud.

On a good note, that Motorola didn't mess around too much with stock Android is also a good thing.  I'm coming from an LG G6 and while it looks good on paper, the software is dogcrap.  A couple of key things that drove me nuts about the LG G6 was how the ambient brightness sensor was far too sensitive, meaning that if you're using the phone outside, the phone's software very often cranks the screen brightness up to 100%.  Well, guess what happens to something like Netflix on-screen battery life at 100% brightness? It goes from about 4 to 6 hours while using it indoors or at night to about 2.5 to 3.5 hours during the day because of the way the auto brightness setting algorithm works. 

In addition, LG's insistence on turning down the volume of notifications and ringtone sounds when headphones are plugged in is head-scratching.  If you're tired of always plugging in and unplugging your headphones, you won't hear phone calls ring or your text message notfices because LG in their wisdom has decided that the user MUST be always wearing the headphones when they are plugged in so let's change the 50% volume setting on the internal speaker down to the equivalent of 0% or a system sound level setting of 100% down to about 20% on the loudspeaker.  You would have to have the sound volume set to 100% to even hear anything.  And if you've set your LG G6 to be used as an alarm clock and you've accidently left your headphone plugged in, you won't wake up on time in the morning because you won't hear your alarm!  LG has also decided to have seperate volume controls for both notifications and ringtones - over complication at it's worst in my opinion.  I used an LG Android phone for a couple of months back in 2013, and even back then, LG had also these same speaker volume anomolies.

Motorola's near-stock Android on the X4 is a dream in comparison.

[youbme]

I recently got my wife the X4 to replace her samsung S7. For her needs, it's perfect, awesome camera, fast charging, great screen and waterproof. And, pretty quick software updates. Highly recommended, especially at that price!

[will13am]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@NDesai wrote:

So many phone choices out there, but people gonna end up paying huge amount for iPhones 

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iPhone XS:  Who has $1500 for a phone?

I like my choice better.  I know for $262.49, I could probably get a much higher end phone, but it'll be a used device meaning it will be more banged up, have other people's stuff from the.. cough cough... washroom on it (although some devices can be successfully washed due to waterproofing), and the key thing being that a used phone battery will start degrading is charge quality sooner (important factor because of internal batteries).

The Moto X4 is little low on RAM for today's standards, and the CPU is rather mid range, but for a brand new phone at that price, it's fine.

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The iPhone is totally off topic when compared to basic android phones.  The cost of one phone barely covers the tax for the other.

[computergeek541]

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@NDesai wrote:

So many phone choices out there, but people gonna end up paying huge amount for iPhones 

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iPhone XS:  Who has $1500 for a phone?

I like my choice better.  I know for $262.49, I could probably get a much higher end phone, but it'll be a used device meaning it will be more banged up, have other people's stuff from the.. cough cough... washroom on it (although some devices can be successfully washed due to waterproofing), and the key thing being that a used phone battery will start degrading is charge quality sooner (important factor because of internal batteries).

The Moto X4 is little low on RAM for today's standards, and the CPU is rather mid range, but for a brand new phone at that price, it's fine.

[NDesai]

So many phone choices out there, but people gonna end up paying huge amount for iPhones