I had a Samsung Note 2 for a while. It was a good phone. Sadly, it met a granite floor and shattered. The screen still worked but it was FUBARed. I had smartphones for years, and have dropped them many times, but this is the first time I actually broke something.
Anyway, I needed to do something. I thought changing the screen wouldn't cost a ton, but it would have cost me at least $250. After finding this out in my research, I came to the conclusion of "FUCK THAT" and look for unlocked phones. After looking at some other phones, I remembered the Motorola Moto G was out and it was a cheap unlocked device. So I went to Motorola's site and ordered a phone, case, and shipping total came to $250, what it would have cost me for the screen of the Note.
The Moto G is the "little brother" of the Moto X phone. The Moto G doesn't have some of the features of the Moto X, mostly due to the hardware used is less expensive, but it does have a lot of the features of it's higher-end brother. The phone doesn't have the "always listening" feature the X does, nor does it have the "active notifications" feature. That's fine, since it's something I'd try at first but would turn off at some point. I think it's the slower processor that is the reason these aren't in it. One other feature not in the phone is no LTE. I only have 3G speeds. To tell you the truth, I don't need LTE. I'm on wifi a lot, and when I am on a cellular network, I"m not downloading huge things. 3G works fine for me. No LTE also means my battery life is better.
Using the phone so far has been a great thing. It's not as fast as the "bigger" phones, but it works fine. The biggest thing I had to adapt to is the smaller screen again. This wasn't a big issue just jarring seeing a small screen after some time with a device the size of the Note 2. One of the biggest positives is that since Motorola is owned by Google, it's getting the updates to the Android OS almost as soon as Google's Nexus line of phones. Along with that, the UI on the phone is as simple as Android is built to be. That means no crazy "skins" or UI like Samsung's Touchwiz. You get some special apps made by Motorola like their camera app and some other apps, which are useful and also optional to the experience. I will say, using the Assist app-where it reads your calender and putting the phone into silent mode when you are at an event, if you want it to, or when you are sleeping-is useful for work. Again, not in the way of the experience, but cool to play with.
I recommend this phone for anyone looking for an unlocked phone for a GSM network and don't need all the "luxuries" of the higher-end phones.