I got this phone for free last year and it has been the worst phone I've ever had so far.

Full specifications on GSM arena

Issues

These issues seem to stem from software, not hardware. I've had worse or similar hardware perform much better, like the Redmi 6 and the Galaxy A56 or A36.

These are all issues that I've never seen on a different phone.

  1. Memory - I would think 4GB + another 4GB virtual would be more than enough but that was not the case. I can't keep a single app in the background with some saved text in a form to go copy something from a different app. Even if I get back immediately, the app restarts and I lose my completed form data. It's super annoying when you're trying to fill in bank information.
  2. Media playback - audio cuts out when playing music to a bluetooth car radio.
  3. Alarms - it constantly misses alarms.
    • I had 3-4 alarms set at some points wondering why I was sleeping through all of them. I wasn't, the G35 was just not making any noise when I set alarms during the day when I was awake.
  4. Notifications - having a different phone next to the G35, the G35 is consistently the last one to ring or vibrate on a notification. It NEVER beat the other phone, consistently reacting a few seconds late.
    • I also had multiple ignored Whatsapp calls on this G35 which may be related. The G35 just didn't ring at all, only sending me the missed call notification afterwards.
    • Sometimes if I have my G35 set to vibration, with Whatsapp open on my computer, the G35 does not stop vibrating until I open the notification (either on my PC or on the G35). This is by far the weirdest and most annoying issue I've ever seen.
      • This is not exclusive to Whatsapp. I've also had it not stop vibrating when my alarm went off in the morning. I had to install a vibration control app from the play store in order to stop if from vibrating. I turned alarm vibration completely off after this.
  5. Software updates - they can not be turned off, ever. You get no option at all to even delay an update let alone stop it completely.
  6. Google - you are locked to using Google at every step.
    • If you disable Google Photos, you can no longer view your camera roll in the camera app. You need to open your gallery app separately.
    • You can't save contacts on your SIM card or just on your device. The only options you get are all device + sync to at least one Google account.
    • There may be many others.
  7. Phone rotation - for some reason, the G35 needs to be tilted excessively to rotate. It also prefers to be horizontal rather than vertical it seems, so if you are trying to use it while it's laid flat on your desk, the slightest tilt will make it flip to horizontal orientation, then you have to pick it up to flip it back.
  8. No battery safety features - you can't set your battery to stop charging after a specific state %. This was a feature on every other modern phone I've had.
  9. Terrible launcher - I had to install a third party launcher to control battery drain of 29% caused by the Motorola launcher. Details here Improve battery life by up to 29% on Motorola devices.
  10. Physical issues
    • The phone edges got scratched and scuffed simply from putting my case on and off to clean it regularly. The phone's body is incredibly soft and poor quality despite the great-looking finish on the back of the phone.
    • I could not find protections for the camera lenses, they seem to not be available at all in my area. All I could find were protections for the area around the lenses which aren't much help.
  11. Camera
    • Auto-focus is terribly slow and annoying. It struggles to focus on objects in the middle of the screen.
    • Night mode simply doesn't work at all. If I take a picture with the G35 in a dark room, the photo is pitch black. If I take a picture with the Galaxy A56 in a dark room, the entire room is more visible in the photo than in reality, because the night mode on the A56 actually takes multiple higher exposure shots and combines them properly, like night mode is supposed to do. The G35 seems to just take a normal photo.
    • On long recordings, like recording a trip with the phone as a dash cam, the phone produces weird black semi transparent horizontal bands occasionally. Not much of an issue but for some people it may be annoying.

I probably missed a few issues.

Qualities

  1. The phone is cheap - (Found it for 165 euro in my area)
  2. Jack output (TRRS) - Yes, I count this.
  3. SD card slot
  4. Dedicated fingerprint sensor - On the power button, not on the screen.
  5. No AI bloatware
  6. Battery hardware usage statistics - Unlike on some other phones, you can check how much battery your hardware is using (like your screen and network).

Don't bother.

There must be better options in this price range. Do not buy this phone.

The issues are so blatant, it's not even worth considering. It's a nightmare to deal with and at times feels embarrassing to use, even to someone like me who generally doesn't care about their phone.

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