A Moto G Miscellany

Don't call this a review; it's more a dump of random observations about Motorola's new Moto G.I've had a pre-release unit in my hands for all of five days , and I can really only compare it to the Nexus 5 currently on loan from LG Canada, plus my own LG Nexus 4. But as I will hopefully demonstrate, the Moto G compares quite well to both of them.Let's take a closer look...I took this photo to show the spring-loaded microSIM slot on the Moto G's uncovered back. It was only later that I noticed that huge speaker grille to the immediate left of the camera. It's mono but it's, and delivers much richer sound than the Nexus 5's weak down-firing speaker.There are three types of custom covers available from Motorola for the G: (1) The standard ones you see above, (2) a selection of more sporty two-tone covers that wrap around the front edges of the device, and (3) wallet-style covers that cover the G front and back.For anyone who's asking the cover on my Moto G is as challenging to remove as when I got it. Short fingernails certainly don't help!The built-in camera app on the Moto G is fantastic, and easily the best stock camera interface that I've used on an Android device. Swipe to the left for a ring with various settings; swipe to the right to get to your gallery as per usual.You can switch between photo and video capture via on-screen buttons in the bottom left/right corners of the screen. You don't see them here because they disappear momentarily while the settings ring is in use.Photos are captured by tapping anywhere on the screen. Tap-to-focus is achieved by holding down for a second or so. Unfortunately this also activates burst mode, but in most cases I got good results without needing tap-to-focus at all.And here's a reminder that I've posted a small sample gallery from the Moto G on Google+ ...According to AnTuTu the G scores slightly higher than my Nexus 4. That was unexpected.In my use performance has been fantastic  apps load super-quick and there's been no noticeable lag anywhere.Last week I posted about the Moto G's skimpy 8GB of storage  the 16GB version will apparently not be coming to Telus or Koodo, Motorola's exclusive Canadian launch partner. Since then Howard had me download a quintet of benchmarking apps:Each of these have been run at least once, and have presumably cached a bunch of data for their results. Yet we're still sitting at over 2GB of available space. Nice.There's something really appealing about a device that under-promises and over-delivers. Of the two review units currently sitting on my desk I find myself reaching for the Moto G over the Nexus 5 at least half the time.I was underwhelmed by the Moto X when I trialled it a few months ago, mostly because Moto Maker was not ( and is not ) coming to Canada. I personally think that the snap-on back covers for the Moto G are a more practical means of customizing your device.If the dual-SIM 16GB Moto G could be purchased unlocked from Motorola Canada for the equivalent of $199 USD I'd have already ordered a pair of them.dual-SIM support the 16GB unlocked version is still an amazing deal for our American friends, and will hopefully prove popular enough for some third-party firmware  that is, if Motorola will add the G to their list of unlockable bootloaders But even locked to Telus and with only 8GB of available storage, the Moto G punches well above its weight. In other words, it's a champ.[hr][/hr]