Your views and feedback from email and the web
Moto G13 woes
Many congratulations on finally publishing a review of affordable phones (see issue 336, p70). Although it’s nice to read about all the high-tech goodies that hundreds of pounds can buy, in my real world, I can only afford something below £200 and a pay-as-you-go SIM. To be able to read a comparison of four phones in this range was excellent.
I was so taken with the Motorola Moto G13 that I was on the verge of placing an order, when I had a look at some of the chatter online. It appears that there is a problem with this MediaTek CPU and the handling of SMS messages, but only on the O2 network. Whether this is a hardware, firmware, software or network problem is not clear, but it’s now mid-June and has still not been resolved since being reported in March.
As I am with Tesco (which uses the O2 network), I can’t now consider this phone, and will probably have to stick with my ageing Samsung Galaxy A20e.
Perhaps, as well as checking the colour gamut of the display, you could also see if a phone can do the basics, like making and receiving calls and texts on the four UK mobile networks.
Geoff Kurth
Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: I wish I had time to run all the tests I would like! This was a tough problem to anticipate so I will have to say mea culpa for not spotting the complaints from Tesco customers online before we published the magazine (I actually spotted them a day late). Motorola told us: “Motorola is aware of the isolated SMS issues of Tesco SIM card users on the Moto G13. We are currently working with Tesco Mobile and O2 to address the issue and will update users accordingly. This issue does not affect any of the other Moto G13 family devices or MediaTek chipsets.”
More Linux, please
Two items in issue 346 caught my eye. Barry wrote about the bloat in Windows (p22), while Lee replied to the star letter (p24) commenting on the demise of Windows 10 and the trashing of older machines. He also commented on the opportunity for Linux.
Having been locked into the Microsoft OS by various employers since the mid 1980s, retirement a year or so ago has allowed me to escape. My main OS is now Linux Mint (Mate) and far from Lee’s statement – “If Linux has ambitions to mature and come into the mainstream” – I would argue it already has.
Linux Mint is a near perfect replica of Windows and comes with LibreOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird for email, along with options for a range of media players plus a large app store built in. All the functions are accessible via the GUI and I haven’t
