Tag Archives: Motorola

Having trouble with your Motorola or Lenovo smartphone? Use Software Fix

smartphone, ,

If you are the owner of a Motorola or Lenovo smartphone, you really ought to know about Motorola’s Software Fix app for Windows. This is a fantastic support app that will do its very best to get your phone up and running again without needing a trip to the local phone repair shop. No, it can’t fix a cracked screen but it can fix bootloader issues and OTA upgrade problems.

I’ve used it to repair a Moto G-something where the bootloader had become unlocked and every time the phone rebooted, there was an imperious warning in red lettering before the phone started booting. It wasn’t really a big deal but I wanted to sell the phone and make sure it was all in good working order for the buyer. Software Fix sorted it out, upgrading the phone to the latest Android version and relocking the bootloader.

Previously known as RSA (Rescue and Support Assistant), it’s been rebranded as Software Fix and works with Motorola and Lenovo phones, tablets and headsets. On the whole, the software is straightforward but it can be a little intimidating as Windows and the phone can sometimes throw up warnings when installing software such as the ADB drivers. You need to power through.

Overall, it’s a case of install the software, connect the phone via a cable and get busy. A connection through WiFi works for some of the tools, but I prefer the greater certainty of a USB cable. One of the early steps in the process is to enable Developer Mode by tapping on Build multiple times and Software Fix takes you though what needs to be done.

In addition to repairs, hardware tests can check the phone is operating normally.

One word of warning. If you do any low level work such as upgrading the OS, these actions are destructive as it’s effectively a factory reset (although it remains tied to the Google account). Make sure you have all the backups and uploads done before you start work.

Finally, if you do have a Motorola or Lenovo device, I’d recommend taking a look at this now even if you don’t yet have a problem. It’s worth figuring it all out before you have a problem, so that when you do, it’s an easy fix as you’ve got everything ready.

Motorola Returns to the High-End with Edge and Edge+

Information, Motorola, smartphone,

Motorola‘s been firmly established as the go-to provided of mid-range phones with its long running g-series of handsets, but the absence of a top-end phone has been noticeable, despite the appearance of a rebooted Razr. Fortunately, Moto have addressed this with the launch today of two new devices, the Edge and Edge+. Motorola reckon these will be the fastest, loudest and boldest.

This time round, Motorola are sticking to the traditional flat slab format – there are no folding screens here. The Edge+ is the high-end flagship supported by the less powerful Edge, which is still well above the g-series in terms of spec.

Both use the same screen each sporting a 6.7″ 21:9 aspect ratio “Endless Edge Display” with HDR10+ and 90 Hz refresh rate. It’s a 10 bit FHD+ OLED display and as is the fashion, it’s curved at the sides, though it seems the curves have quite a small radius, giving a significant edge to the screen (has the penny dropped?) Motorola are taking advantage of this Edge for actions – swipe down to show notifications, notifications – it’ll glow when a call comes in, and status, showing battery level when charging. There’s demo video here.

Under the hood, they’re both sporting the popular Qualcomm Snapdragons, but the Edge+ gets the faster Snapdragon 865 paired with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of storage. This combination of processor, RAM and storage appears to be the definition of high-end for 2020. The Edge takes the Snapdragon 765, with 6 GB RAM in Europe (4 GB USA) and 128 GB of storage, though this can be supplemented up to 1 TB with a memory card.

Unsurprisingly for 2020, both phones are 5G devices, with the Edge+ working with both mmWave and sub-6GHz frequencies. There’s WiFi 6 in there too.

A 5000 mAh battery will keep the Edge+ phone powered up for two days in normal use, though what constitutes normal will clearly vary. The Edge has a slightly smaller 4500 mAh battery and much like the OnePlus 8 series, the Edge+ has wireless charging (15W) but the Edge doesn’t, surviving with only 18W TurboPower wired charging.

Round the back, it’s a triple camera setup for the Edge+, with a 108 MP main shooter, a 16 MP ultrawide lens with macro vison and an 8 MP telephoto lens. The selfie camera is a 25 MP sensor with a hole-punch in the top left of the display. The Edge has slightly lower specs with a 64 MP main lens, but otherwise the 16 MP ultrawide lens with macro vison and an 8 MP telephoto lens are unchanged.

With dual stereo stereo speakers and precision audio tuned by Waves Audio, both Edge phones have the loudest, most powerful audio on a smartphone, and in news that will delight audiophiles, the phones both retain the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Regrettably, the Edge+ won’t be coming to the UK and it’s a Verizon exclusive in the US to run on their superfast 5G. It’ll be available in the US on 14 May priced at a cool US$999. In Europe, residents of Italy, Scandinavian countries and Serbia will be able to get their hands on the phones.

For the UK, the Edge will go on sale in May 2020 priced at GB£579 from O2, John Lewis, Amazon and Argos.

Motorola Modular Power System at CES 2019

ces, , ,

The Motorola Modular Power System is a new line of battery products being introduced by Schumacher Electric Company this week at CES 2019.

The new Motorola Modular Power System is built with patented Aluminum Lithium Ion Battery Technology, is designed to greatly improve conductivity and provide enhanced power in more extreme conditions. Motorola batteries provide a 50% increase performance when jump starting a car and perform up to 25% longer than lithium power cells.

The system includes:

* AC Power Module (model MT113), a 100W inverter to charge your laptop and other electronics on-the-go with standard AC power, USB, and USB Type C connectivity. Suggested retail price: $69.99.

* LED Lantern Light Module (model MT153), providing bright 500 lumen lighting with adjustable intensity and 360-degrees of light with a magnetic base and spring-hook carabiner clip. Suggested retail price: $69.99

* LED Torch Light Module (model MT071), with CREE 500 lumen LED lighting. Suggested retail price: $69.99.

* Jump Starter Module (models MT129 and MT130), with either a 4-cell Aluminum Lithium Ion 8,000 mAh battery rated for 500A Crank Amps and 1,000 Peak Amps to jump-start a car up to 25 times or a 12,000 mAh Aluminum Lithium Ion battery rated for 750A Crank Amps and 1,500A Peak Amps that can jump-start a car up to 30 times. Suggested retail price: $139.99 for model MT129 and $159.00 for the larger model MT130.

* Digital Air Compressor Module (model MT080), with 140 PSI to top off your tire pressure in one minute and including a flexible air hose and LCD display and LED area light. Suggested retail price: $69.99.

Also on display at CES is the Schumacher Portable Power Generator (model SL1404), a backup power system that can supply household electricity as an excellent alternative to a generator. It’s quiet and has no fumes or fuel, making it safe for indoor use.

An excellent source of emergency power, or to power a tailgate or campsite, the Portable Power Generator can run for 11 hours powering a table lamp, TV set, LED lights, a speaker and a laptop.

Built with Advanced Lithium Ion-powered battery cells, the Portable Power Generator has two 110V AC outlets and three USB outlets capable of powering a small refrigerator for almost 24 hours, keep a laptop running for more than four days, or even power a TV for an entire day.

As a power source, it could recharge a typical cell phone 70p times, recharge a laptop 17 times over. The unit also includes a bright LED light that can flash light that can flash an “S-O-S” signal. Suggested retail price of the Schumacher Portable Power Generator (Model SL 1404) is $1,299.

Visit the Schumacher Electric Corp. at CES 2019 LLVC, South Hall 4 #36143

Keep The Note 4?

Android, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nook, Samsung, smartphone, sprint, , , , , ,

Motorola Bag PhoneSince the mass adoption of the cell phone happened starting in the 1990’s, like everyone else I’ve gone through a long succession of cell phones. My very first cell phone was a Motorola bag phone. Remember those? Analog cell phones could sound surprisingly good. Of course, in fringe reception areas, the sound quality would often become quite crackly and was prone to dropped calls. Those bag phones could output up to three watts of power, so the reception could be decent depending on the area it was operating in.

The next phone I had was an early analog candy bar style phone with a nickel cadmium battery. It had a terrible standby time of only about 30 minutes. Reception was poor in part because output wattage was cut back to about ½ a watt.

After that, the next one was a more modern Nokia candy bar style phone with better battery life and was both digital and analog. Unfortunately, the digital sound in those days was pretty bad, and the analog reception suffered from vastly diminished ½ watt of power.

The next one was an updated version of the Nokia candy bar phone. It offered somewhat better performance, and a few more bells and whistles.

Cell phone number five was a folding LG camera phone that included a color LCD and was my first phone with an integrated 640 x 480 camera. The phone also had a USB port. I was able to figure out how to plug the phone into a computer and go through a very clunky process of transferring the photos from the phone’s built-in memory to the computer’s hard drive, a process that required some hacky third party software I downloaded from the Internet. Even after I replaced this phone I continued to use it for several years as an alarm clock, a function that worked quite well.

Next came my first smart phone. It was a Windows Mobile phone from HTC with a 3.5” pressure sensitive touchscreen with WiFi and 3G EVDO. It included a storable stylus and a slide-out keyboard, features I found of little practical use.

My second smartphone was another HTC phone running Windows Mobile, this time without the slide-out keyboard. It still had a 3.5” pressure-sensitive touchscreen, WiFi and 3G EVDO.

Smartphone number three was my first Android device, a Sprint Evo also manufactured by HTC. The HTC Evo  included a 4.3 inch capacitive touchscreen and the 8 megapixel rear camera was able to record 720p 30fps video, though the video sound quality suffered compared with newer devices. The HTC Evo’s biggest problem was that it had awful battery life.

Smartphone number four was a Samsung Galaxy S3. It had a 4.8 inch touchscreen and was a better performer than the Evo while offering somewhat better battery life.

Smartphone number five was a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The Note 3 had a 5.7” 1080p touchscreen and offered great battery life. The Note 3 can record 4k video. The Note 3 has great stereo video sound. Many Note 3’s remain in use today.

The next, and my current smartphone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I really like the Note 4. It has great battery life, fantastic performance and a Quad HD 5.7” touchscreen.

With cell phone number eleven, I find myself in a bit of a quandary regarding where do I go from the Note 4? Three of the Note 4 features I find extremely important, besides the 5.7” screen size, are the integrated Micro SD Card slot, the ability to do fast charging, and the user replaceable battery.

The fast charging feature is game-changing. If I have forgotten to plug the phone in or I find the battery is low, I can plug the phone in and quickly goose the battery. The Note 4 will charge from zero up to fifty percent in only thirty minutes which is incredibly handy. Even a quick 10 or 15 minute charge can be extremely useful in pushing the battery percentage back up to a higher level.

I recently experienced a suddenly failing battery in my Note 4. I was able to buy a high-quality replacement battery via Amazon and I’m back in business. If I had a phone such as the Note 5 with a non-user-replaceable battery, I would be forced to make an inconvenient trip to my phone provider.

I am inclined to simply keep the Note 4 that I have indefinitely. After all, it has everything that I demand. There’s nothing to be gained by switching to the Note 5 or later, and the user-replaceable battery to be lost.

Motorola Offers in the UK

Motorola, smartphone, , ,

Motorola M LogoAs expected Motorola is getting in on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday action with discounts for purchasers in the UK. The best deals are on the older models but even the latest gear gets some love. If you are looking for a new handset, these are worth a look.

Here are the deals.

  • Moto Phones Moto X 2nd Gen 16GB @ £200 – saving £195
  • Moto X 2nd Gen 32GB @ £250 – saving £195
  • Moto X Play 16GB @ £219 – saving £60
  • Moto X Play 32GB @ £259 – saving £60
  • Nexus 6 32GB @ £250 – saving £229
  • Nexus 6 64GB @ £310 – saving £229
  • Moto E @ £69.99 – saving £39 and includes free postage

I’m a big fan of the Moto phones having reviewed both the first and second generation Moto Xs for GNC, and my wife currently has a Moto G, though sadly there are no deals on that model.

The offers begin at 1:00pm on Wednesday 25th November and run until 11.59pm on Monday 30th November, only while stocks last.

Visit www.motorola.co.uk for more information.

Busy Week in Mobile Phones

Android, Motorola, Nokia, smartphone, , , , , , , ,

It’s going to be a busy week in the mobile phone space with both OnePlus and Motorola expected to announce new Android models. OnePlus hasn’t exactly been quiet in the run up to the event and Motorola’s suffered a few leaks in the process. Either way, it’s going to be fun to see what’s on offer before Google and Apple produce their annual refreshes later in the year. Nokia might be re-entering the smartphone market too but their latest announcement is shrouded in mystery.

ThOnePlus Logoe OnePlus 2 will follow on from the successful One, though with OnePlus stoking the rumour mill, it’s still hard to know fact from fiction. What has been confirmed is that it will have a fingerprint reader, 4GB RAM, a Snapdragon 810 processor, USB C connector and cost less than US$450. Some suggest that there might be more than one version of the 2 inbound, but if there is OnePlus haven’t mentioned so far.

Motorola M LogoOn the Motorola side, the teases us with “Your relationship is about to change” signed, “XGX Moto”. I think we can expect new Moto X and Moto G models and as Motorola tends to go with evolution rather than revolution, they’ll probably be much like last year’s, only better. Some have suggested that the two Xs might mean two models, but I think it’s just supposed to be “XOX” for hugs and kisses.

Nokia LogoFinally, Nokia might be re-entering the mobile phone space. There’s a VIP press conference in Los Angeles but no-one knows for sure whether it’s a mobile phone, tablet or a virtual reality headset. The invites featured “Nowhere” and “Now here” which led to much speculation with nothing concrete to go on. We’ll just have to see.

The OnePlus 2 announcement is at 7 pm PT on 27 July which is a very early 3 am UK time. Motorola have a far more reasonable 9 am ET on 28 July which equates to 2 pm here in the UK. Keep ’em peeled.

 

Motorola UK Summer Sale

Android, Motorola, smartphone, , , ,

Moto Nexus 6Motorola M LogoMotorola are having a fortnight-long summer sale on the Moto X and Nexus 6 smartphones in the UK.

There’s £166 off the Moto X 16GB and 32GB handsets, with prices starting from £229 and £269 respectively, and £80 off  Nexus 6 handsets in Midnight Blue or Cloud White, with prices starting from £399 and £469 for the 32GB and 64GB versions. There’s free postage too.

Certainly that’s the biggest discount I’ve seen on the Moto X in the UK so if you want a new phone for the summer, now’s the time to get it. Don’t forget you can customise the phone so it’s just how you want it. I really liked the Moto X when I reviewed it, but never got my hands on the Nexus 6. Details of the special offers are at Motorola.

Offer runs until midnight on 30 June or while stocks last.