ArtofBeingCheap.com's articles on how you can save money on cell phones, computers, and other electronics

Turn a raspberry pi into NES classic, SNES classic, and Sega Genesis classic for cheap

5th December, 2017 · Andy Prescott

If you think you would like a NES classic, SNES classic, or Sega Genesis classic, you are wrong. Sure those are great systems and you will have great memories of playing them when you were a kid, but if retro gaming is what you want there is a better product that costs less.

The Raspberry Pi is a tiny $35 low powered computer that you can use as a computer for a variety of projects. Last week I wrote about how I used one as a home computer. It isn’t powerful enough to run the latest and greatest games, but has plenty of power to run games from older game consoles you might have had as a kid such as the Atari, Commodore 64, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and even the N64.

As simple as using a Raspberry Pi as a home computer is, it is even simpler to use as a classic gaming console. We will get back to that in a minute, but first let’s cover the legality.

Is it legal to create your own game console?

Well… probably not. There are two parts to making your own game console. The first part is an emulator which is the software that pretends to be the old game system. That is all perfectly legal.

The second part is the software that runs the games, which are called ROMs. These are easily available on the internet for free from a variety of sources. I am no lawyer, but from the research I have done it appears that in most cases downloading ROMs is a violation of copyright laws. In case your curious I also did a couple of searches to see if anyone had ever gotten in legal trouble for downloading ROMs and was unable to find anything.

So, this whole thing isn’t really legal. I am not advocating illegally downloading ROMSs, but just in case you figure out a legal way to get ROMs, I’ll go ahead with the rest of the article.

What you will need

First you will need all the stuff to make the Raspberry Pi run, which are a Raspberry Pi version 3 model B, a charger, a case, a TV/monitor with a HDMI connection, a keyboard and a mouse. See my article on using the Pi as a home computer for how to get all that stuff set up.

In addition to the computer stuff, you will need 3 more things.

A controller

You have to have something to control the games of course. You will need a controller that plugs into a USB port. An XBox 360 controller will work for all systems if you happen to have one laying around. If you don’t I recommend checking your local game store. If you cant find one anywhere else here is one rated 4 stars on Amazon for $20.

If you want a more classic feel you can get 2 NES controllers for $13. If you go this route you should be aware this controller doesn’t have enough buttons to play games from other systems such as the SNES.

With these 2 SNES controllers for $17 you have all the buttons you need to play games on many more systems.

If you are a Sega kind of person, here are 2 Sega controllers for $9.

A Micro SD card

Just like you need a micro SD card to run your Pi as a computer, you also need one to run as a game system. No, you can’t use the same one for both, you need 2. The good news is once you have each micro SD card set up your machine can switch from plain old computer to game system and back in seconds. Amazon has a 8GB micro SD card for $8.

A USB drive

Remember that the Pi has no harddrive, so we need somewhere to save those game ROMs to. If you don’t have a USB drive laying around Amazon has a 16 GB drive for $5.

How to set up your game system

It is easy to do. Just head over to retropi.org and follow the directions. The good folks at retropi won’t tell you how to get the game ROMs because of the whole being illegal thing and nether will I. I have heard of a website called google where these kind of questions can be easily answered, though.

That’s all there is to it

It is as simple as that. If playing old video games sounds like fun getting a system up and going really is that easy. If you already have a Pi as a computer, the whole thing is super cheap. If you don’t, it is still cheaper than buying the official Nintendo products.

How to get a new home computer for $35- The Raspberry Pi

15th November, 2017 · Andy Prescott · 4 Comments

For the last six months all of my home computing has been done on a $35 computer called the Raspberry Pi. My family and I have surfed the web, checked my email, written articles, run this website, done graphic design work, run accounting software, used spreadsheets too large for Google Drive to run, planned vacations, played games, done online classes, done homework, run 4 side businesses, and did my taxes. Just about anything you would want your computer to do. In this review we will look at whether the $35 Raspberry Pi is right for you, what it can and cannot do, and what you need to do to make it work.

This is some kind of clickbait scam, right?

I realize when I make a claim like you can get a home computer for $35 I have created a credibility problem, so let’s start by fixing that credibility problem.

Let’s start by thinking about the 3rd generation Moto G Republic Wireless phone I reviewed last year. That phone cost $150 and had similar specs to the Raspberry Pi. The Moto G was a perfectly fine phone that had plenty of computing power to run all the programs you needed it to run. It had 1 GB of RAM that ran at 1.4 Ghz. The Raspberry Pi is comparible in power with 1 RAM that runs at 1.2 Ghz.

So take your $150 Moto G and take away the most expensive part of it, the touch screen. Then take away the 2nd and 3rd most expensive parts, the 2 cameras it is equipped with. Then take away the the 4th most expensive part, the battery. Then take away the microphone, the cell antennae, the speakers, the FM radio, the accelerometer, the case, the software and the operating system. What you have left is a computer board, a couple of chips, a wifi antennae, and a couple of inputs, which is pretty much what a Raspberry Pi is.

So if you take a $150 phone, take away all the expensive parts, plus most of the other parts as well does it seem reasonable that the device I just described might cost as little as $35? Good. It’s not too good to be true, and it’s not a scam.

Should the Raspberry Pi be your home computer?

The Raspberry Pi was never meant to be your primary home computer. It was meant to be a learning tool for kids to learn computing and programming, and for hobbyists to have a cheap computer to experiment with on whatever creative projects they can come up with.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean it can’t be used as your home computer though. As i stated above, I have used one for the last 6 months as my home computer and it has done everything I needed it to do. However, it doesn’t do everything everybody needs it to do. Here are the things it can’t do:

It can’t run Windows- If you absolutely have to use windows you are out of luck. But do you really need windows? If there is specific software you use that can only be installed on windows, then you need windows. I don’t really need Windows. The Raspberry Pi runs a simple version of an operating system called Linux with everything I need. It has a microsoft office clone with, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a powerpoint clone, and a graphic editing program that are almost 100% compatible with Microsoft files.It has a browser that runs all the programs I need it to run. It has a simple operating system that isn’t windows, but is similar enough to windows that you will be able to run with almost no learning curve if you already know windows. Because almost all the programs I run anymore are in a browser, this is everything I need.
Additional software can be installed, but you will certainly have less options than with a Windows machine, and you will probably find the software harder to install. I myself haven’t needed to install any additional software. The Office clone and browser are all I have needed.
It can’t run high powered games or other software- If you want to play the latest games, the Raspberry Pi isn’t for you. It just doesn’t have the computing power or the graphics capabilities to run modern games or other high powered software. I didn’t say you can’t play any games. I play a lot of games on the Raspberry Pi, but they are older games that a nostalgic 40 year old would enjoy.
It isn’t very good at playing video- You can watch youtube videos, but that is about it. No Netflix, no hulu, and no other streaming TV services. If you do a google search or two you will find articles about how the Raspberry PI makes a great media device for watching video, but don’t believe it. I have tried that program and I think it is junk. It’s for people who really know what they are doing, and is inferior in every way to all the other devices in your house that play video. So when I want to watch a video I watch it on my TV, Ipad, or phone, and leave the Raspberry Pi for computing stuff.

Who could use the Raspberry Pi for their home computer?

The Rasberry Pi is normally used by computer geeks and people who really know what they are doing, but don’t let that fool you. It is simple to use and can work as a home computer if your needs are simple. If you don’t need to install much software, and do all of your work either in Microsoft Office or a browser I think you will get along just fine.

What do you need?

Because the Raspberry Pi is sold as just a bare bones computer board with a couple of inputs you might need to buy a few things to make it work. Chances are you will have some of this stuff laying around your house, but you will probably need to buy a few things besides the Pi. All links to Amazon are affiliate links, see disclosure below. Here is what you need:

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

– $35 on Amazon. There are a couple different versions and some are cheaper than $35, but if you are going to use this as a home computer I think you want the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.

A USB charger

– The Pi doesn’t come with a power supply. Although the power supply looks like your phone charger, there is a decent chance you don’t have a charger laying around your house that is powerful enough and will need to buy one. Look at the label on the charger for the voltage and the amperage. Look for the part of the label that says something like:
DC Output: +5V 2.5A

The 5V means it puts out 5 volts, and the 2.5A means it puts out 2.5 Amps. You want the volts to be at least 5 and the Amps to be 2.5. Chances are an everyday phone charger won’t be powerful enough but if you have a device that is made to power multiple USB cords at once you might just be in luck. I tried to cheat a little and use a charger with 2.1 amps instead of 2.5 and found my Pi ran slower than it should have.

A USB keyboard

– Many people will have one of these laying around the house already.

A USB mouse

– Just like the keyboard, any mouse will do as long as it connects to a computer through a USB.
If you need both a mouse and a keyboard you can get them bundled $20 for wireless.

A monitor with a HDMI input

– You can also use an old TV with HDMI inputs, which is what I do. If you don’t have an old TV or monitor that will work I recommend checking garage sales or Craigslist where a monitor can often be had for around $20. If you absolutely have no other options you can get a new monitor from Amazon for around $90.

HDMI cord

– If you don’t have one already check your local thrift store. My local thrift store sells them for $1. A new one costs $6 on Amazon.

Heat Sink

– You don’t need this. It is included in many of the packages but according to the makers of the Raspberry Pi under most conditions this isn’t necessary. One came with the package I bought, but I didn’t even bother to install it.

MicroSD card

– The Pi has no internal hard drive, so the operating system and all your data live on a SD card that can easily be removed. The minimum size is 8GB and the max is 32 GB. If you don’t already have one Amazon has a 8GB micro SD card for $8.

Case

– The Pi itself is just a bare computer board, so you are going to want to put it in something protective. Here is your chance to be creative, do a google search and you will find relatively easy plans showing you how to make your own case from wood, cardboard, or even legos. 3d printing is also an option. If you are boring like me, just can just buy a case for $8 from Amazon.

Packages

Chances are you will need some of this stuff but have some of the stuff already, so Amazon has different packages available, hopefully 1 has the combination of what you need.

Pi, Charger, and Case, for $50– This is the package I bought.You basically get a charger and case for $15, which seems like a deal.

Pi, Charger, SD card, and Case, for $57- For $7 they throw in a SD card. This SD card is preloaded with the software you need so it saves you just a little bit of time.

Pi, Charger, Case, SD card, and HDMI cord for $70– So this basically adds a HDMI cord for $13. You could buy them separate for less. I’m not a fan of this bundle. I don’t think this SD card is even preloaded like the above bundle.

Pi and Charge for $42- If you want to make your own case this is just $8 extra for the charger. Not bad.

Setup

Setting up your Pi takes a little time, but you can do it. It really isn’t very hard. Just follow the instructions that come with your Pi and you’ll be up and running quickly.

Other stuff you can do with your Pi

You can also turn your Pi into a retro game console which is way better than one of those overpriced retro NES or SNES consoles Nintendo is selling like hotcakes. The best part is you don’t even need to buy another Pi. Just buy another Micro SD card and you can switch out SD cards to turn your Pi from a computer to a game machine and back. I’ll write more about this later.

Other projects you can do with your pi are limited only by your imagination. Make your own tablet, dashcam, baby monitor, or any number of other things. I like to browse reddit.com/r/raspberrypi for ideas.

Disclosure:

The prices stated in this article were accurate as of the time this article was written, but prices might have changed since that time. It is my opinion that the items linked were the best deal available on Amazon at the time this article was written, but that too might have changed. All links to Amazon are affiliate links. 10% of all revenue generated from affiliate links is donated to a charity chosen annually by readers of artofbeingcheap.com.

Is Direct TV Now the best deal in TV? It might be for sports fans

9th March, 2017 · Andy Prescott

The cable monopoly has finally been broken and it is a glorious thing. A couple companies have already started offering cable TV packages streaming through your home internet at prices much more reasonable than you are used to from your cable company.

I recently signed up for Direct TV Now to give it a try. Here is what I thought:

Price

Channel packages start at $35 per month and even the lowest package has a pretty complete channel listing. I checked with my local cable company and getting all the same channels I care about through my cable company would cost me $60. That isn’t a bad deal at all.

On top of that HBO is only an extra $5 a month. Buying stand alone HBO Go costs $15 per month as does getting HBO through most cable companies. At $5 per month Direct TV Now is the cheapest way I know of to get HBO

How it works

Direct TV Now is an app that runs on apple, android, smart TVs, and other devices built to only run on TVs such as Chromecasts, Roku players, Fire sticks, and Apple TV (You can find my review of these devices here). You can watch the Direct TV Now app on any of your devices or your TV if you have the right device and can watch as many as 2 shows at once. For a limited time Direct TV Now is giving away a free fire stick if you prepay for 1 month or a free apple TV if you sign up for 3.

Once you get into the app, it doesn’t work entirely differently from your cable TV system. You can select the guide to see a list of all channels and what shows are currently playing on them. You can setup a watch list to quickly find all your favorite shows. You can select a channel and see a list of all the shows available from that channel. You can also do a search to find any show you can remember the title of.

It’s pretty simple, and shouldn’t give you too much trouble after you take a few minutes to study it.

Channels

You actually have a few different options for streaming pay television, but the channel line up is the one area where Direct TV now is the clear winner. The $35 per month package has all the channels I would want. You can see the complete channel lineup here.

Where Direct TV Now really wins is with sports fans. For years people have been searching for ways to get rid of cable and watch TV over the internet. What those people found is while they had no problem finding all their favorite sitcoms and dramas, live sports is the one thing they were missing out on.

Direct TV Now has fixed the sports problem because their sports channel line up is great! I get ESPN, ESPN2, and Fox Sports 1. I have found that these channels for sports lovers are usually not found on the most basic cable packages.

You know how TV executives always put your favorite teams first round March Madness game on some ridiculous channel you have never heard of that nobody gets like TruTV or something? I have double checked and the cheapest package has all the channels that will be televising March Madness games. (Assuming you can get CBS from an antenna)

Direct TV Now really is the package for cheap sports fans.

There is one glaring problem with DirectTV now and that is they don’t get your local broadcast channels. This problem is somewhat mitigated by the fact that most shows from ABC, NBC, and FOX are available on demand. After the show airs for the next week or so you can watch the show any time you want from the Direct TV app.

CBS shows are not available, but that is OK. CBW has it’s own app where you can watch it’s shows from the same device you watch Direct TV Now on.

I used this TV antenna (affiliate link) which is currently the best seller on Amazon to get local channels, so this isn’t a problem at all for me.

DVR

While Direct TV Now doesn’t come with a DVR per se, it does come with an on demand feature that works almost as well. My family has had a DVR for so many years that the concept of having to watch a TV show when TV executives want to air it is a completely foreign idea to us.

The on demand feature works almost as well as a DVR. The only problem is that you can only watch a show for a few days, while a DVR keeps a show forever. This might be an issue occasionally if you go on vacation or life finds you too busy to watch TV for a short period of time, but I am guessing for most people it isn’t a big problem.

Problems

When Direct TV Now first launched in December 2016 there were a lot of problems with it. Searching the web you will find tons of reviews older than this one that are universally negative. All those reviews were true at the time. On demand basically didn’t work, shows you were watching would pause and freeze from time to time, and on some rare occasion the whole damn thing just didn’t work.

Because I really don’t watch TV that much, and because I can easily find something else to do if my TV is temporarily not working I wasn’t as upset by this as some people. My patience in giving the good folks at Direct TV Now to work out the bugs was rewarded as the service is now greatly improved.

The review you are now reading was written in March 2017 and by this time those issues seem to have all been fixed. On demand is working fine and my shows rarely freeze. When they do freeze switching channels and then going back gets them back on track.

At this point I would say Direct TV works well enough for all but the most serious TV lovers to enjoy. There is the occasional problem, but when you weigh them against the huge channel lineup for a reasonable price they don’t bother me too much.

Contracts

The number #1 rule for signing up for TV service right now is don’t sign a contract. 2017 will see a pay TV revolution with several new services coming online and competition to get customers will be fierce. Do not for any reason sign a long term contract. Direct TV Now doesn’t have contracts unless you count the free apple TV when you prepay for 3 months which isn’t a bad deal at all.

Disclaimer

I was not compensated in any way by Direct TV Now and paid full price for their service. There is an affiliate link to Amazon.com in this article. 10% of all revenue generated from this affiliate link is donated to a charity chosen by the ABC’s readers.

Photo by flash.pro

Vidangel: Not just for religious nuts. Cheap new movies for everyone

6th May, 2016 · Andy Prescott · 1 Comment

VidAngel (affiliate link) is a movie/ TV show streaming service that is primarily marketed towards religious nuts for its ability to edit nudity, swear words, and other ungodly things out of movies. But all you nudity loving, frugal, Satan worshippers (and those of you who fall somewhere in between the spectrum of religious nuts and nudity loving Satan worshippers) out there need to hold on just a second because Vidangel is an unholy good deal!

The economics of streaming video is broken

The entire video streaming industry has been broken since it was invented and VidAngel has finally fixed it. Let’s say you want to rent a movie at Redbox. All of the following things have to happen and expenses have to be incurred for you to rent a movie at Redbox:

1. The DVD needs to be manufactured

2. The DVD needs to be packaged

3. The DVD needs to be shipped somewhere

4. The DVD needs to be unpackaged

5. The DVD needs to be put into one of those clear plastic Redbox containers

6. The DVD needs to be taken to the Redbox

7. The Redbox machines has to be manufactured

8. The Redbox machine has to be taken to its retail location and installed.

9. Somebody needs to fill the Redbox with all those DVDs and take out the ones nobody watches anymore

10. Somebody has to fix the redbox machine when it isn’t working right

11. Redbox has to pay rent for the space it’s machines take up

So all of those things have to be done and paid for and still it only costs like what $1.25? That is incredible!

On the other hand look at streaming. All you need is a server to store the movie on and an internet connection to send the movie out over. The marginal cost of you renting one more movie over a streaming service may not be zero, but it is a number awfully close to zero.

So why the hell does it cost me $5 to rent a movie over streaming?!? Sure you can pay a little under $10 per month to Amazon, Netflix, or Hulu to get a relatively small selection of unlimited movies that are many years old. But, if you want to watch a recent movie you have to shell out $5 bucks to Google Play or Amazon video. Why? It doesn’t make sense! Streaming should cost a fraction of Redbox, not 5X more!

Vidangel fixes the economics of streaming video. Finally, somebody has come out with a streaming video service that makes sense. The cost is $1 for standard definition or $2 for high definition. That is a fair price. Sure there are a few minor but obnoxious catches, but the bottom line is Vidangel is the best deal out there for seeing new release movies.

Here is how Vidangel works.

First you buy the movie for $20, then you watch it, then you sell it back to VidAngel for $19. I know it sounds screwy, but that is the way it works. My family watched a couple of movies this weekend to test it out, and sure enough, a credit for $19 appeared on my account making the net price of the movie $1. Why mess around with buying the movie then selling it back instead of just renting them? That is how they can legally do their stupid editing tricks, but we will get to that later.

In addition to movies, you can also watch TV shows. A dollar per episode of a TV show really isn’t a very good deal in my book, but there are some exceptions. My wife loves watching the HBO show Game of Thrones which leads to an annual fight over whether or not we are going to be spending $15/month on HBO for several months until this year’s season of Game of Thrones is over. One dollar per episode is a whole lot cheaper than $15 a month for HBO, so those fights have now been resolved.

Vidangel is simple to use

VidAngel is as easy as it is cheap. You can watch it on the always easy to use Roku player (affiliate link), Amazon Fire stick (affiliate link) or the chromecast. I chose to watch it using my ipad and a chromecast.

First I installed the chromecast and Vidangel apps onto my Ipad. From the Vidangel app I found a movie and sent it to my chromecast so I could watch it on my living room TV. The Vidangel app was easy to navigate, and completely intuitive. I found the movie I wanted to watch, clicked just a couple of buttons to buy it, clicked a single button to watch it, then clicked a single button to sell it back to Vidangel for my $19 credit when I was done. It just couldn’t have been easier.

The stupid editing nonsense

Even though VidAngel is a hell of a good deal, that isn’t how it is marketed. It is marketed towards religious nuts as a service to edit out all the naughty bits of a movie or TV show. If you look at all the other reviews (besides this one) of Vidangel you find on the internet you will find an endless stream of praise about how great it is that (insert my brand of fundamentalism here) people like me can finally watch movies without having to hear swear words or how wonderful it is that children can finally be allowed to watch movies made for adults.

Is this really that big of a problem? I have a couple of kids myself, and it just never occurred to me that I should be angry about this. When my kids were little, we watched family movies together. That was fine, we had a great time. Never once did I say to myself “I wish I could watch movies full of drugs, sex, and violence with my kids.” Honestly, it just never occurred to me. My wife and I watched those movies later, when my kids were in bed.

Now that my kids are older we watch movies that have a little more adult themes, but this still isn’t a problem. The movie industry puts the ratings of PG or PG-13 on movies to tell me how appropriate a movie is for my children and that works just fine. My kids simply don’t need to watch rated R movies.

OK, enough of my ranting, back to the review. If you are the kind of person who wants to let your kid watch dirty movies with all the dirty parts cut out then VidAngel is for you. This is why you have to originally buy the movie for $20 before selling it back for $19. You have to actually own the movie to legally be allowed to edit it. If you were only renting the movie then it isn’t yours and editing it would be a copyright violation. There you go.

So after you buy a movie you are taken to a screen where you choose which parts of the movie you want edited out. If you are not a religious nut then at this point you are probably thinking “This is easy, I will just choose not to have any parts of the movie edited out.” That is what I was thinking also, but it doesn’t work that way. You have to edit out at least 1 part of the movie, and Vidangel won’t let you watch it until you do. Why can’t you just watch the movie without editing it? Because screw you! That’s why!

So you look at a list of all the parts that can potentially be cut out of the movie (You know, because a teenage girls shoulder can be seen or whatever) and look for the part that looks like it will matter the least if you cut it out.

To test things out, my wife and I watched Ted 2, a movie full of drug use and sexual innuendo just to see how things would work out. We looked at the list of things to edit out of the movie and decided to edit out the closing credits, because that seemed to be what would interfere with the movie the least.

It worked fine. We watched the whole movie except for the closing credits. We saw lots of sex jokes, drug jokes, bathroom jokes, and violence. It worked just fine. By the way, if the closing credits of Ted 2 are just great and I should go back and watch them will somebody let me know?

The editing part of Vidangel is obnoxious, but it really doesn’t hurt things all that bad. Just a minor inconvience you have to pay to in order to get brand new streaming movies for $1.

TL/DNR

Vidangel lets you stream brand new movies or TV shows for $1. Yay! It is also super easy to use. It has this obnoxious forced editing deal where religious nuts can take dirty parts out of a movie. No, you can’t just ignore the obnoxious editing deal, you have to edit out one small part of your show. Despite the obnoxious editing deal Vidangel is still the best deal in streaming movies. You can sign up for VidAngel (affiliate link) here.

Hate mail

I’m pretty sure many of you religious nuts out there would love to send me some hate mail over this review. You can direct it to artofbeingcheap@gmail.com.

Review of the Republic Wireless Moto G 3rd Gen

11th March, 2016 · Andy Prescott

My wife and I have loved our high end Moto Xs for the last 2 1/2 years, but when my wife’s phone finally stopped working I found out Republic Wireless doesn’t offer the Moto X anymore. Instead, Republic Wireless offers a budget option, the Moto G 3rd gen. We gave it a try to see if we would love this budget phone as much as our old high end phone. Here is what we thought:

Coverage Area

My wife has had her new Moto G about a week and hasn’t noticed a difference from her old Moto X. She has tried making phone calls on our home wifi network, a restaurants wifi network, around town, and in rural areas. There was no noticeable difference in coverage areas from the old Moto X and the Moto G.

For reasons I don’t understand, RW seems to like to keep information on how roaming works a secret. The information is out there, but you have to really dig to find it, and it isn’t going to be on page 1 of your Google search results. When you aren’t on Wifi, RW runs primarily on the Sprint network. When the Sprint network isn’t available, RW runs on the Verizon network. You can make all the calls and texts you want while roaming on the Verizon network, and it is all completely free. No roaming charges.

Data works a little different. When you are on the Verizon network, you can use data, but it is expensive. On RW, you prepay for data at a rate of $7.50 for 500Mb of data. However, if you use Verizon data, that data counts at 18 times the normal rate! That means if you roamed on Verizon all the time, you would only get about 28Mb of data instead of the normal 500!

You can look at this different ways, but I actually look at it as a good thing. In the RW app you can easily disable roaming data so all the data you paid for doesn’t disappear on you. I find myself in Verizon only areas from time to time and I go ahead and leave roaming data on. But, when I am roaming I am pretty careful with the data I use. I don’t do any downloading, streaming, or surfing while roaming. I pretty much only use it to let emails and other important alerts come through. A simple email with no pictures doesn’t take up much data at all.

Our Grade: Excellent

Call Quality

This is the one area where we found the Moto G 3rd gen to be a little disappointing. The call quality was OK, but not great. My wife finds the speakers to be not quite loud enough and wishes she could turn them up a little.

Our Grade: Average.

Screen

The screen of the Moto G 3rd gen is a big 5″. My wife loves the bigger, brighter screen. The trend in phones over the last several years is to get bigger and bigger and bigger. I might be the only person that feels this way, but I don’t want a bigger phone. I want a smaller phone I can easily slip into any pocket and will fit into my arm band when I go jogging. This is the biggest reason I have decided to hold onto my old Moto X until it completely stops working.

Our Grade: Excellent

Performance

When I first wrote a review of the Moto X and the original Moto G 1st gen 2 years ago I came up with a test to compare the performance of the two phones. In the interest of comparability, I repeated that test on the new Moto G 3rd gen. The test consisted of timing how long it took the phone to complete the following 8 tasks:

Make a phone call and hang up as soon as the call connects after 1 ring.
Send a text that says “hi”
Send an email that says “hi”
Go to the Google Play store and download/install the game angry birds
Open the angry birds app and shoot one bird as quickly as possible without aiming
Open the internet browser and navigate to artofbeingcheap.com. Wait for the page to load
Take a selfie
Take a regular picture

In the original test 2 years ago the Moto X took 3:35 and the Moto G took 3:44. This time? The Moto G 3rd gen completed these tasks in an amazing 3:15. That is 9% faster than the old Moto X. Impressive!

Our grade: Excellent

Camera

The camera is very good and takes fine pictures for a smart phone. The new Moto G’s camera is 13 megapixels vs 10 megapixels on our old Moto X. That is 3 megapixels better, but I can’t really tell a difference.

Our grade: Excellent

Battery

The Moto G has an excellent battery. My wife is a heavy phone user and her new Moto G lasts all day with no problem. All batteries degrade over time so it isn’t fair to compare to our old phone, so I will leave it at that.

Our grade: Excellent

Storage

This is one area where the Moto G 3rd gen has a huge advantage over other phones. The Moto G 3rd gen allows you to add storage with a SD card up to 32 G in size. This allows you to add more storage for audio books, music, pictures, apps, and everything else you want to store. Most phones nowadays don’t do this because they want to con you into buying a phone with more internal storage. Good for the folks at Motorola for not screwing consumers and allowing them to add their own storage!

Our grade: Awesome!

Cost

Republic Wireless offers the Moto G for just $199, which is $100 cheaper than they use to charge for the old Moto X. As you probably already know, their plans are the best available. $10/ month for unlimited talk and text plus $7.50 per 1/2 G of data with whatever data you don’t use refunded to you at the end of the month. You can’t do better than that.

Our grade: Awesome!

The Bottom Line

The Moto G 3rd gen is an excellent phone and an excellent deal. Republic Wireless is by far the best phone plan available and it continues to get better over time.

Note: I was not compensated by Republic Wireless for writing this article. I was not given a free phone or free service and paid for both all RW phones I own with my own money. Links to RW are affiliate links.