Motorola’s Moto G is probably my favorite phone of 2013. Sure, it doesn’t have the Snapdragon 800 that’s in the Note 3, it doesn’t have the delicious 5.2 inch 1080p screen that’s in the LG G2, and the rear facing speaker is terrible compared to HTC BoomSound, but that’s OK. What the Moto G represents, to me at least, is the beginning of the era of “good enough” smartphones. You used to have to spend $600 on a phone to get even a decent experience, but that’s now dropped to sub-$200.

Now a phone is just one part of the equation, you need to connect it to a wireless network to make it actually do something useful. So with that, I’d like to remind everyone that Verizon Wireless has officially begun selling the Motorola Moto G as a prepaid device for just $99. You’re obviously not going to be able to connect to Big Red’s 4G LTE network, but that’s fine, since chances are all you want to use a Moto G for is the occasional tweet and Facebook status update.

Do I personally recommend the Verizon Moto G? Here’s the thing, America is different compared to the rest of the world. Really different. Whether you’re buying a $99 phone without a subsidy or a $599 phone for a third of the price thanks to a two year contract, your monthly phone bill doesn’t change. If I were living in the USA, I’d get a Motorola Moto X on Verizon. Slightly more money, but you get a bigger screen, faster processor, and 4G LTE connectivity.

Just my two cents.