Motorola Moto X

Motorola Moto X shows how simple yet amazing a smartphone can be. Moto X is not defined by its spec; Its simple-ergonomic design and unique features make it a star. With Moto Maker, Moto X comes in about 2,000 colour combination options. The features like Active Display, Touchless Control, Motorola Connect and Quick Camera makes Moto X smarter than an average smartphone. Well, it does have some drawbacks with display, camera and some apps, for a device of its range. Comparing the specs, Moto X wont come near to its competitors like Galaxy S4, HTC One, iPhone 5s and all. But, its ergonomic design, user-friendly interface and features makes it a worthy competitor.

BUILD / DESIGN

Motorola Moto X is not stylish, but it wins your heart with its plain and simple design. The Moto X is build with softly rounded curves. The gently rounded back gives a really comfortable grip. The left and right back-edges slopes at a sharper angle to 5.6mm thickness, while the middle of the device has a thickness of 10.4mm. Even the battery used is specially formed, to match the Moto Xs unique curvature. The curved back makes it feel slimmer and also easier to hold.

Motorola claims that they measured people’s hands to find the best width and length for a phone and they put the largest screen possible inside that frame- The Moto X has a 4.7-inch screen with one of the thinnest bezels out there. Its build out of a composite material(except the version with a wood back!) in dimensions of 129.3 x 65.3 x 10.4 mm and weighs 130 g. The removable back has a smooth rubbery finish with attractive pattern on it and remains clean and dirt-free. The 10MP rear camera lens is at the upper center of the back with the LED flash below and speaker grille to its right. 

The Power button and Volume rocker on the right side are the only physical buttons on the phone. The buttons are easy to reach, but they are thin and small and hence- may lead to confusion in selecting the right one. A 3.5mm headset jack and noise cancelling microphone are on the top edge and a microUSB port at the bottom. The M logo lies just beneath the LED flash in a circular depression, right where your pointer finger will rest when holding the phone.

Motorola has introduced the Moto Maker to customize the Moto X you buy via certain carriers. The Moto Maker online studio lets you choose two front colors(black or white), 18 back colours and seven accents colours. The Moto Maker also lets you add a signature on the back and another to display during boot-up.

DISPLAY

Motorola Moto X features a 4.7inch 720p(720x1280) AMOLED display. Though it may feel slightly low compared to 1080p displays of its competitors, with a pixel density of 316ppi, you probably wont pick up on any lack of detail. The Moto Xs OLED screen technology produces vivid colors, deep blacks, and wide viewing angles.

Its not the brightest display and doesnt provide the same level of sharpness as HTCs and Samsungs flagships. Moto Xs display produces strong colours- a bit saturated, but never dull. The sunlight legibility is good, but not that good under a glaring light. The Moto Xs screen has an extremely thin bezel which adds an absolutely amazing impression.

SOFTWARE / INTERFACE

Moto X comes with Android 4.2.2(Jelly Bean) OS and is upgradable to the latest 4.4(KitKat) version. Interface on the Moto X looks near identical to stock Android. Though it is identical to the stock Android; the Moto X is equipped with its own set of cool features that separate it from other flagship devices.

Moto X doesnt have a notification LED, but it comes with the Active Display feature, which shows relevant notifications in a confined area on the display. Active Display will initiate when it’s nudges or flipped over from a display down position, or whenever it receives something new. You can manage which notifications would show up, when they do or preview those lingering notifications by tapping the blinking icon onscreen and then fully access them by sliding your finger upwards. You can even prevent them from displaying altogether when using password protection.

The Touchless Control is another highlighted feature. With this always-on voice recognition feature(Google Now), the Moto X is constantly at our service. It is triggered by saying “Okay Google Now,” followed by your command. With an excellent noise-cancellation microphone and a separate language recognition processor, Moto X detect your voice and reject others, even in noisy environments. You can find your current location, the weather, sports scores, get turn-by-turn directions, answers to your questions, make appointments, set up reminders in your calendar, and initiate calls, texts, and e-mails. The three-step personalization process makes you and only you can access this- Well, its a bit boring and hard job to get it started.

The new Moto Assist app replaces the Moto SmartActions app that was featured on previous Motorola phones. Compared to the SmartActions, Moto Assist is extremely basic in automating your phone and works only in 3 modes- Driving, Meeting and Sleeping. The Moto X knows when you’re driving(with accelerometer and GPS information) and can read aloud your text messages to you, tell you who is calling, respond to calls and messages, connect to your car’s stereo over Bluetooth and much more- all hands free. It helps to avoid interruptions in a meeting and to get a nice sleep. Moto Assist is much less complicated than SmartActions, but lacks features. The simplicity did attract people and so does the bugs in this app.

The Motorola Connect along with your computer’s Chrome browser, lets you view text messages and incoming calls list from the Moto X on our computer. You can even reply to text messages, but can only select to either ignore or send a message to the incoming calls. You can use the Moto X’s Wireless Display feature to stream what you’re doing on the phone to the big screen, which has a compatible Miracast Wireless feature. Moto X features few for highlight tweaks like the Camera app and also comes with usual stock Android pre-installed apps and features.

CAMERA

Motorola Moto X sports a 10MP Clear Pixel camera. The camera has an RGBC sensor, with a fourth clear pixel, that claims to be able collect up to 75% more light than the usual RGB Bayer sensor. The camera doesnt provide a stable performance. The image shot with Moto X is a hit or miss- a really impressive snap or an utterly disappointing one.

Moto Xs camera is capable of excellent levels of detail and good color reproduction. Sometimes it takes images upto or even better than iPhone 5s and Galaxy S4. Under low lighting, it brighten up the images and takes impressive shots- but sometimes it lacks fine detail and has noise. The LED flash is good enough to impress, but gives a warmer tone to photos.

The rear camera records good quality 1080p videos at 30fps and also features stereo sound recording and HDR. The video quality is also inconsistent and has noise when panned quickly. The 2MP front camera is also capable of recording 1080p videos.

Motorola has build its own camera app for the Moto X, which isnt brilliant enough, but it is impressive than the standard Android camera app. Motorola claims that you can wake the phone directly into camera mode via a wrist-twisting gesture and then capture photos in just under two seconds- and it does shoots extremely fast. The camera can be accessed by twisting the phone 180 degrees twice, even if it is locked. Though it works fast, quickly-shot images often appear out of focus and moving objects may appear blurry, especially in low-light conditions.

There is no dedicated camera button- both physical and onscreen- You can focus on and snap a picture by tapping anywhere on the screen. If you hold your finger pressed to the screen, like a burst mode, it will keep on shooting a number of images with an onscreen counter. The camera doesnt give much customization options; most features are automatically handled. The slide-out settings dial on the left side allows you to toggle options like flash, HDR, Panorama mode, Quick Capture, slow motion video, geo-tagging and shutter tone, etc.

Quick snaps may not be good, but the camera works really fast. Camera interface is really simple and effective. Its not a camera for those who want to tweak all those camera settings. Its something for those who dont want to mess up with those settings and still get a perfect shot- well, most of the time!

BATTERY

Motorola Moto X is fuelled by a Li-Ion 2200mAh battery and it provides an above average life to Moto X. It easily covers a day with normal use. It plays HD videos for an average time of 10hrs, which is a bit greater than HTC One. 

The Moto Xs battery saver is also very impressive. If enabled, it gets activated when battery drops to 15 percent charge and disables background data use and introduces quick screen dimming and time outs.

MEMORY

Moto X comes with 16GB/32GB internal memory and 2GB RAM. There is no option for expanding memory with a MicroSD card, but it does come with 50GB of free Google Drive cloud storage.

PERFORMANCE

Moto X is powered by a dual-core 1.7 GHz Qualcomm S4 Pro processor. Yes, a dual-core processor, and its competitors runs on atleast quad-core processor. Combined with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB RAM, Moto X works extremely fine and you wont notice a difference between Moto X and its competitors in normal use. Interface is pretty smooth and so is multitasking. One would notice the drawback of the use of dual-core processor when used for heavy tasks- like for playing a high end game. But still, it isnt that bad!

Specifications

Software

Operating system: Android

Launch OS version: 4.2.2

Proprietary skin: None

Design

Thickness: .22" to .4"

Height: 5.09"

Width: 2.5"

Weight: 4.58 oz

Color: Customizable

Keyboard type: Touchscreen only

Display

Screen size: 4.7"

Resolution: 1280 x 720 px

Technology: AMOLED

PPI: 316

Touchscreen type: Capacitive

Multitouch: Yes

Connectivity

4G (LTE/HSPA+): Yes

3G (HSPDA/CDMA): Yes

Edge/2G (GSM/GPRS): Yes

Bluetooth version: 4.0 LE + EDR

Wi-Fi: Yes

Mobile Hotspot Tethering: Yes

NFC support: Yes

Processor

Manufacturer: Qualcomm

Brand: Snapdragon S4 Pro

Speed: 1.7 GHz

Number of cores: 2

Memory

System memory: 2 GB

Storage

Internal: 16 GB, 32 GB

External type: None

Video

Front camera recording resolution: 1080p

Rear camera recording resolution: 1080p

Video codecs supported: Not provided

Photography

Front camera photo resolution: 2 megapixels

Rear camera photo resolution: 10 megapixels

Flash: Yes

Ports

Headphone connection: 3.5mm

Charging connection: micro USB

Interfaces: Video out

Sensors

Sensors: Compass, Magnetometer, Proximity, Ambient Light, Gyroscope, Accelerometer

Battery

Talk time : 13 hours

Standby time: 24 hours

Battery capacity: 2200 mAh

Battery technology : Not provided

Removable: Yes