I had an iPhone 3GS for a couple of years with AT&T.  I was out of contract and had for a while been fed up with bills between $70 and $80.  I had a plan with very little data (250MB) and international texts and calls generally cost way too much.So I wanted to see what life was like outside AT&T''s walls.  I bought this phone and I am paying $39/month with Ultra.me. I''ll discuss this carrier at the end of the review.Thus far it''s been about 10 days and I am loving it.  My only slight regret is that a week after I bought this phone Motorola dropped the price on the big bro of this phone, the Moto X, and you can now buy it for $329 on their website.  I hope this comment doesn''t get deleted, because Amazon sells the X for quite a bit more.If you''re interested in the Moto X, the essential differences are these: (1) X is a bit more powerful; (2) X has 4G while G only 3G; (3) X has a 10Mpixel camera to the G''s 5MP; (4) The X can pick up both the 1700 and the 1900 band, so you don''t have to decide between the "US" version and the "Global" version of the phone.  If you trawl the reviews, as I did, the biggest beef with the G is with its camera.So, here''s my take on the G.  It''s so fast compared with my old phone -- I guess that''s to be expected since my phone was 3 years old or so.  3G doesn''t seem to be an issue, because the chip (I guess) is so fast.  Webpages load plenty fast.  I''m not a mega streamer of data -- I''m not watching netflix on 3g -- but on wifi, the screen definition looks fan-freaking-tastic.Compared with the iOS, I''m liking Android.  A lot.  I have always been an Apple guy, and love my Powerbook.  But I''m intrigued by Android.  The apps seem to work flawlessly.  When I got the phone, it immediately updated to Android Kitkat, and everything works fine.  I use Google Drive -- bonus, getting the Moto G got me 2 years of 50GB on Google Drive.  I may actually dump Dropbox for GD, although I kind of prefer the Dropbox UI.  I really like Google Gesture -- much easier to type than Apple''s iOS hunt and peck.Essentially it all just works well.  Yes, the camera could be better, but hey -- it''s $200.I went with the carrier Ultra.me for a variety of reasons.  One was that they have an international flavor, and I am often texting and phoning the UK.  For $39, I get 1000 international texts and 1000 minutes calling to the UK.  Both of those were quite a lot extra with AT&T.  I also get unlimited domestic calling and texts.  And 500MB 4G (in this case 3G) data, and then it''s throttled down a lot (128kbps -- super slow).  As I said earlier, I''m not massively bothered about the data limits since I just don''t use that much bandwidth.  Or at least I can be frugal and use wifi.  If I want to move up a tier, for $49 you get the same deal but 2GB of data instead of 500MB.  Ultra.me uses the T-mobile network, which was my one frustration, because I wanted to buy the "Global" version of the Moto G.  Unfortunately, the Global version doesn''t include the 1700AWS band which T-Mobile still uses in various places for 3G.  There are various accounts online of T-m moving to 1900 (which IS on the global phone) but I just couldn''t count on such anecdotal accounts (there are some in these Amazon reviews) and so decided to go for the "sure thing" of the US version.  I have mixed feelings about this since I sometimes travel to Western Europe and envisaged using the phone with a European SIM card -- and most European countries use 2100 for 3/4G data. But oh well.  It''s $200.