Motorola One 5G Ace | 2021 | 2-Day battery | Unlocked | Made for US by Motorola | 6/128GB | 48MP Camera | Hazy Silver

The phone is gesture driven and well done for that. Purchased March 17th. By gesture driven, I mean there is no traditional “home” button. At first this threw me off because I have had either Samsung or Blackberry phones for my cell phone needs for years. I stopped buying carrier locked phones a long time ago and only buy unlocked. This being due to limitations preset on phones by carriers and bloatware as well as slow update rollouts.With no home button, it takes some limited getting used to, but there is a homescreen Moto app that trains the usage very well. Basic swipes for what you want to do, and most if not all are able to be done one handed. That seems to be the goal here. One neat feature that impresses those who have seen me do it, is the double chop gesture that turns the flashlight on or off.Battery life is the BEST I have had in any cell phone. I work overnight and sometimes use my phone to stream Youtube or Broadcastify as I work. Never in a 10 hour day, even streaming, has the battery been lower than 81%. That tells me that 2 days is an easy get for battery life, especially if not streaming etc.The camera is solid. It offers to switch to night mode or macro mode if the sensor sees that may be better, but lets you decide. I like that.As to data transfer from my old phone, I used the intuitive Moto app to do this. It came up on first start.It transferred all but a few apps, because they were unsupported old apps or based on Samsung specifically as my old phone was a Samsung 9+. I did have to sign back in to apps, but that is okay. That is with all such transfers, even within the same family of phones.It is slightly heavier than the Samsung 9+, but has a solid feel.One side note that is a con for me, but not a deal breaker. This phone does not do wireless charging. One must use a type C cord. Of course it comes with a cord, but it is a very common type right now if one wants to buy aftermarket ones that are longer.As I liked the stand charger I used with my old phone, I came up with a solution with an Amazon product.A stand https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B2WNNB2This stand allows the cord to drop down from the phone and stand up without overbinding the cord. As my phone is my alarm clock, this is a great way I figured to do it.Do get a case for the phone. The one I got was suggested when I purchased it and is called Osophter for Moto G 5G. I like the case. Simple and buttons are not blocked or hindered.5G. Yes, it will do 5G where it is available. I do get 5G in most places I go. Where there is not 5G it seamlessly switches to 4G or even 3G and in settings there is a option to allow 2G for apps to stay connected. Helpful for rural mapping.The android system is seamless as well.So, in closing, I do think this is a VERY good phone for anyone looking to buy unlocked and is not brand loyal to other makers. Motorola is a solid maker. Hello Moto. Remember that?Update: January 8, 2022I have been using the phone extensively since I purchased it and can not be happier. It is a good as the day I bought it. Battery life is still stable and shows no depletion of charge from purchase. With the case I bought, it has protected it. I have dropped it more than one time on tile floor and no damage has resulted. It has gotten moist from rain. Nothing happened. 5G is still rolling out and choices that are not exploitive in price are limited. Enter this phone. Reasonable price, unlocked and simply works well.

Pretty Good mid range 5G phone. UPDATE 6 MONTHS LATER=====================OK so I still like this phone, HOWEVER I have always had issues where I cannot reliably get SMS texts. Initially I thought it was a T-mobile coverage issue, but I am starting to think it is something with this frigging phone! I noted recently that if I turn OFF my Wifi, the SMS text reliability issue goes away and I can get text messages even in poor coverage areas. Anyone else experiencing this issue where you have to turn off WiFi to get SMS texts reliably?It was time to replace my 3 year old, unsupported, Huawei Mate SE phone, with something capable of 5G and a later version of Android.I initially bought a renewed Moptorola One 5G Ace, but battery life was not up to par, and despite being told it could be unlocked, I was unable to. I had T-Mobile (and Sprint) try many times and they could not unlock it. So, for $100 more went with a new, totally unlocked one instead.So far I am happy with this phone. The most annoying thing I encountered is the SIM/Memory tray is an utter pain in the ass to work with. The SIM does not snap in properly in the tray and it took many tries to get the SIM and microSD RAM to slide into the phone properly. Several times the SIM popped out and went flying across the room. Eventually I got it to work. That was the same situation with the first Moto One 5G Ace I received as well.Transferring data from the old phone was a breeze using Android’s phone-to-phone transfer mechanism, or you can use the Google backup from the cloud. Note that the latter (cloud restore) does not transfer your message history, which I believe is a feature Google does offer, but for a fee.PERFORMANCE – The Moto One 5G Ace uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G chipset, which is not the fastest or latest out there, but it powers this phone just fine. With 6GB of RAM and 128GB built-in storage, it is more than sufficient compute horsepower for the average or even a power user. Apps load quickly, perform well, and I have had no issue with multiple of apps all open and flipping between them. The user experience is snappy and smooth. Storage is 128GB and expandable to 1TB using an extra microSD chip.SOFTWARE – The phone comes with Android 10, and minimal bloatware loaded, which is nice. Not sure but it seems there is no upgrade path for this phone to Android 11 which for some, is a show stopper. It runs all my apps just fine and nothing I use has failed or crashed on the phone thanks in part to Android 10 being an exceptionally stable OS.DISPLAY – It has a nice big 6.7″ 2400×1080 FHD+ display which is reasonably bright. Some complained about the screen intensity in bright ambient light, and while you DO have to crank up the brightness to full in sunlight, it is still readable. It does wash out a bit in bright sunlight though, more than my old Huawei did, but not enough to be a major issue for my usage.BATTERY – The One 5G Ace has a 5000 mAh battery, bigger than many phones in this class. So far battery life has been good. It charges up quickly, and a full charge is lasting well into 2 days of average phone use.ERGONOMICS – The phone feels good in your hand, and has a good weight to it. The back is crappy plastic, and without a case, it is actually easy to slip out of your hand, but I always use a rubber case, which solved that issue. The fingerprint reader is in the correct location on the back allowing you to easily tap it with your index finger.CAMERA – The phone has several lenses which deliver reasonable photo quality, but not to the level you would get on a more expensive phone. The camera capabilities in this phone are somewhat lacking, thanks to using cheaper lenses. If you are a photographer looking to use your phone for real photography, this is not the phone for you. If you are the average user that periodically uses the phone to document how your mower came apart, taking the odd video, shooting pics of your dog, then it is just fine.NETWORK – The phone supports 5GHz WiFi which is a nice to have that I did not have on my old phone. It also supports tethering via WiFi or Bluetooth (useful if using a Tablet or PC on the go). On the Cell mobile network side, it supports 5G, but I have noted some issues with this. Occasionally when sending texts they do not transmit. I found that turning off the 5G support seems to solve that issue. This may NOT be anything to do with the phone, and everything to do with 5G coverage on the T-Mobile network.CALLS – Something many ignore on a PHONE these days, since this is what a PHONE is supposed to do. Audio quality is actually pretty good on this phone – you do not sound like you are talking through a tin can. It also supports WiFi calling which is a nice to have if you are like me and use a plan that has a limited number of minutes, you can push some of those calls off to WiFi if you are on your home network. Android 10 also supports some features I did not have before on my Huawei, like Google’s call screening service and better management of Contacts.GPS – The GPS works well, locks-on rapidly, and supports tracking of multiple different GPS satellite networks, including GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALLIEO, LTEPP, and SUPL. A key reason I dumped my Huawei is the GPS stopped working (possibly due to some software update) and it is impossible to get proper support on Huawei phones in the US.SENSORS – The phone has a Fingerprint reader, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Light Sensor, Gyro, e-Compass, Barometer and Near Field Chipset (NFC). The latter was missing from my old phone, so now I can use my phone for payments again.SUMMARY – In summary this phone offers good value for the price. I will post periodic updates to this review as time goes on.

Good Smartphone. It is a good phone however its OS is a bit cumbersome. Was upgrading from Samsung to a 5G phone. It would have been a keeper had not been for the OS, a bit cumbersome and not as intuitive as the Samsung. Return it after a week of trying to get used to new OS. If you currently have a Motorola I am sure the transition would be transparent however, if you are upgrading from a different make smartphone get ready for a considerable learning curve