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  "path": "/article/4177363/motorola-android-phones.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-28T10:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.computerworld.com",
  "tags": [
    "Android, Android Phones, Mobile, Mobile Phones, Smartphones",
    "Android column",
    "newsletter",
    "my free Android Intelligence newsletter",
    "Android Upgrade Report Cards",
    "Android versions",
    "critically important changes around privacy, security, and performance",
    "the new discovery",
    "observations published this week",
    "released a statement",
    "its website",
    "Device Native / JR Raphael, Foundry",
    "so much preinstalled bloatware",
    "guilty of this sin",
    "Motorola of yesterday"
  ],
  "textContent": "Over the past decade, there’s something I’ve hinted at, mentioned in passing as a part of broader discussions, and told more people than I can count privately via email and other one-on-one conversations.\n\nAnd now, as the writer of the internet’s longest-standing Android column and newsletter — a fancy way of saying someone who is apparently now old as molasses — I feel like I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t just come out and say it as prominently and plainly as possible:\n\nThere is no valid reason anyone should be buying Motorola Android devices in 2026. None.\n\nIt’s a shame, too, ’cause Motorola has a heck of a history within Android and the mobile realm in general. And, to its credit, the company does still make some impressive-looking and at times quite interesting hardware.\n\nBut the compromises that come with that package are just too serious and consequential to be forgiven. That’s been the case for some time now, truth be told — but with yet another facepalm-inducing infraction being added onto the list now, it’s time to say it loud and clear:\n\nPlease stop buying Motorola Android phones. And please join me in telling everyone you know the same thing.\n\nTrust me: You’ll be doing them a major favor. And here, with no punches pulled and absolutely no sugarcoating, is exactly why.\n\n**[Get level-headed knowledge in your inbox with** my free Android Intelligence newsletter**— three new things to try every Friday and tons of other tasty treats.]**\n\n## **The Motorola Android compromise: Part I**\n\nI won’t beat around the bush: The most pressing reason Motorola Android phones are completely inadvisable to buy is the reason that’s been present for the longest — and that’s the company’s complete and utter disregard for even minimally acceptable post-sales software support.\n\nIt’s something I’ve noted in my data-based Android Upgrade Report Cards for more years than I can even remember at this point, and it’s almost comically consistent: Year after year, upgrade cycle after upgrade cycle, Motorola simply does not give a damn about investing the time or the money to bring current Android versions to its existing customers in anything close to a timely manner. Once you’ve forked over your phone and put away your wallet, good luck: You’ll be lucky if you get a _single_ software update from Motorola after that, half a year to a year after the fact — and you almost certainly won’t hear a single peep from the company about the progress (or lack thereof) at any point along the way.\n\nMotorola has managed to score an almost impressive number of back-to-back “F” scores on my annual analyses; no other Android device maker even comes close to that record. And lest you think this is purely about pokiness in providing polish and surface-level progress, remember that practically every Android software update is packed with critically important changes around privacy, security, and performance — and the way apps are able to interact with both your data and your hardware.\n\nRunning outdated software isn’t just dangerous — it’s downright _irresponsible_ , especially if you’re a professional using your phone for business purposes but even if you’re just a regular ol’ schmoe focused purely on personal stuff. No one who understands a thing about security would ever recommend that, and that’s exactly what you’re signing up for anytime you buy a Motorola-made device.\n\nSo that’s part one, and that’s the _biggest_ problem with Motorola’s Android products. But it isn’t the end of this tale nor the reason I was finally moved to write this missive, with the hopes that it’d eventually reach any Android-interested phone-buyers with Motorola on their minds.\n\n## **Motorola’s more recent Android offenses**\n\nAll update-related issues aside, the problem with Motorola’s Android products is that they make all sorts of compromises that are all about lining Motorola’s pockets at the expense of _your_ experience.\n\nThe most recent example and the straw that broke the Android columnist’s (increasingly creaky) back is the new discovery that Motorola had seemingly been indirectly hijacking the Amazon app on its devices and sneakily injecting an affiliate code into links. The end result of such actions, according to observations published this week, is generating unearned revenue from _your_ day-to-day purchases.\n\nThat’s an underhanded and shady-seeming practice, to say the very least. It just _feels_ icky and ethically reckless. And clearly, what was demonstrated was intended to go unnoticed, which is always a pretty apparent sign in my mind that someone’s doing something shifty.\n\nFollowing the discovery and subsequent outcry, Moto released a statement saying that the behavior was “unintended” and the result of its partnership with a company called Device Native. According to Moto, it had teamed up with that organization to develop “an app search and suggestion experience for the Moto App Launcher.” You can choose to interpret that how you will, but the reality is that Device Native is a company that exists to inject personalized, native-seeming ads directly into the core Android software experience, as its website plainly establishes — with “no user opt-in required,” allowing for easier “scale” of “monetization globally.”\n\nA screenshot from the Device Native website.Device Native / JR Raphael, Foundry\n\nOn some level, at least, Motorola evidently decided to work with this company and integrate its ad technology into the Android experience on _its_ phones. Regardless of whether the Amazon code injection was truly deliberate, which organization caused it to happen, and who was or wasn’t aware of the actions, Motorola opted to place this ad-serving system into the phones _it_ was selling and to allow the company behind it to exert this kind of control over _its_ customers’ experiences — as well as, one would imagine, likely leaning on it for other forms of invasive system-level ad integration.\n\nAnd sure, maybe Moto will back down from this practice and perhaps even distance itself from the partnership entirely if the outrage grows loud enough. But does someone stopping a shady-seeming practice simply because they got caught and people complained make for the kind of company you want to trust in general?\n\nIt’s similar to the way Moto lards up its devices with so much preinstalled bloatware that you actually have to fight to get through it or — Goog forbid — _remove it_ and reclaim the product you paid hundreds of dollars to purchase. Heck, even the company’s top-of-the-line, nearly $2,000 folding Razr Fold phone is guilty of this sin, and that’s just embarrassing for a device of that price and caliber.\n\nEven with Motorola’s lower-level phones, though, we’re talking about devices that often cost $500 or close to that. These aren’t bottom-of-the-barrel, heavily subsidized garbage gadgets. You could get one of Google’s Pixel 10a phones for that same price or often even less — without any of the bloatware, the link-hijacking and potential ad-injecting shenanigans, or the unforgivable software support failures. You’d get a full _seven years_ of _guaranteed_ timely and reliable software updates, from major Android versions to monthly security patches and the quarterly feature drops that accompany those. And that’s to say nothing of the superior camera experience and other assorted advantages.\n\nYou could go with one of Samsung’s midrange models, too, imperfect as those are in their own ways, and it’d still be a _massive_ step up from the Motorola madness.\n\nWe’ve reached a point where there really is just no comparison — and, again, _no_ reason why _anyone_ should be buying a Motorola phone anymore. The issue, unfortunately, is that most of the people who _are_ buying Moto devices are the same people who _aren’t_ reading columns like these. They’re the people who waltz into a carrier store, see whatever model is featured on the shelf or pushed by a commission-earning, partnership-promoting salesperson, and walk out with whatever caught their eye or had the best promotional pricing on that particular day.\n\nMake no mistake about it: These types of devices give Android a bad name and propagate the myth of the entire platform being a second-rate dumping ground for “folks who can’t afford iPhones.” Android is _so much_ more and _so much_ better than that. _You_ deserve so much better than that.\n\nPlain and simple, this isn’t the Motorola of yesterday. At this point, there’s no excuse — and no reason to keep setting yourself up for failure when so many better options exist.\n\nSay goodbye, Moto. And make sure everyone you know who  _won’t_ be reading this column knows why they should do the same.\n\n_Get unmatched Android insight in your inbox with_ my free Android Intelligence newsletter**__**_— three new things to try and zero punches pulled every Friday._",
  "title": "Stop buying Motorola Android phones"
}