Compare: LG Volt vs Moto G vs HTC Desire 601
I left Virgin Mobile and went with Boost, leaving my HTC Desire 601 (Zara CL version) behind. When I went to Boost, I got the Moto G, and then purchased the LG Volt when it came out. Comparing this to the HTC Desire 601 from Virgin Mobile, the two phones are comparable. The LG Volt has a little bit bigger viewing area on screen, though the DPI is denser on the HTC so you see 'more' on the screen. Decreasing the font size on the LG helps this. The HTC Desire and Moto G are pretty much the same in this regard except that the Moto G has softkeys which take up some of your viewing area at the bottom of the screen. I would say the Volt and Desire601 are neck and neck, with the Moto G a little behind in this regard.
Videos look great, and the built in sound on the LG isn't bad either, though the HTC is noticeably better. Also, I noticed that the headphone volume on the LG is lower than what was on the HTC; not a deal breaker for me though, it's plenty loud. The Moto G is louder as well (it lets you exceed the 'safe' level), though the quality with built in speakers is about the same as the LG.
The speed seems on par with both the Moto G and HTC Desire 601. One thing I noticed is that both the Moto G and HTC Desire 601 have similar battery life which is pretty good. I can get a full day of fairly heavy usage out of either phone. With the LG, I can really push the usage and still have battery to spare at the end of the day.. to the tune of 40% or so, where the HTC and Moto would be around 10-20% for the same usage. This is attributed to the larger battery in the LG Volt.
The big difference of the three phones is that the Moto G is 3G only. The HTC and LG are both 4G. I think call quality is be a little better on the LG compared to the MotoG and HTC.
The LG does seem to be abel to handle WIFI better than the other two as well. Bluetooth works as expected.
The LG has better SD card handling than either of the other two; the MotoG has no SD Card capability so it automatically loses in that regard. The HTC is a pain to make use the SD card for what you need since it also employs an 'internal' SD card on top of the internal phone storage. The LG is straightforward and simple, you get phone storage and whatever your SD card is and it has a good 4GB available phone storage to begin with.
All in all, the MotoG is great if you need a really good but cheap phone. If you are like me and like having a little more under the hood, the LG Volt is a better bargain that the HTC Desire, but your plan will be a little more. Both Boost and Virgin Mobile give you unlimited text and data, but you can save a little on your monthly expense by sacrificing talk time with Virgin Mobile. One of the reasons I went to Boost (other than much better customer service) is so that I can get unlimited talk time cheaper than I can with Virgin Mobile.
Ruling: LG Volt from Boost is the best choice.