X-rated Android antics: Motorola's Moto X puts boot in chunky brother

Hello Moto

Had mine for a week and pleased I bought one.

It was this or the Nexus 5 for me. Sure the Nexus is much faster than the Moto X, but the Touchless controls, Active display, and better battery life swung it for me. Plus I was coming from a Nexus 4 and fancied a change.

The touchless controls make voice commands actually useful for the first time ever IMO. I've never seen the point of voice commands when you've got to unlock the phone and have it there in your hand anyway. Being able to set a reminder for myself for the following morning when I suddenly remember something when I'm in bed and the phone is the other side of the room being a great example!

One thing I miss is the photosphere from the Nexus. I suspect you may be able to sideload the Nexus camera app, but then I'd lose the extra features I like from the Moto's own camera app I expect.

> [ Shaking the phone ] a surprisingly quick and easy way to fire the camera up. It’s not a feature I recall coming across on a mobile phone before which, on reflection, I find surprising.

I would have thought that this feature was a by-product of the same low power chip that also monitors the microphone for 'touchless voice commands', and so is not seen on other phones because they lack the hardware. I might be wrong, but if you are going to include an always-on chip to wake up the main CPU in response to sensor input, this seems a good use of it.

Apple have implemented an always-on low power chip for similar purposes - capturing accelerometer data without waking up the rest of the (new) iPhone.

Is it just me....

...or does that look more like an IPhone than the Galaxy S that Apple had such a hissy fit over?

FYI, on my 3rd Moto G

The touch screen keeps on dying. The first was along the left edge, where about 1/3" was non-responsive or wildly erratic. The second was occasionally non-responsive on the whole screen. And I didn't drop either one.

So there may be a reason they're cheap.

"lacking a user replaceable battery"

Can you say "planned obsolescence"?

I was a little surprised by this statement:

"The big difference between the X and the G is in the screen tech. The X uses a RGB-matrix AMOLED panel to the G’s IPS LCD. This means it is more vivid, shows blacker blacks and is easier to read in direct sunlight."

Were the two phones actually compared by the reviewer in direct sunlight? My experience with a Samsung Galaxy 3 is precisely the opposite; the Galaxy's amoled screen is virtually impossible to read in direct sunlight (in Australia anyway).

I too struggle with the Moto G's extra mass

"the Moto G is a bit of a lump by comparison"

Yes, that's true,. I often have to resort to a team of Sherpa's to haul my Moto G when I go out. To hold it to my ear I have a specially built cradle to winch it into position. The worst thing about it is when I take a photo with it, the extra mass causes severe gravitational lensing so distorting the image...

Howdy from Texas USA (no, not all of us wear boots and make love to a bottle of Maple Syrup) where we have the Moto Maker (The phones are assembled & shipped out of Texas so I got mine in 3 days). I went with the Turquoise rear body, orange-chrome buttons & camera ring with a black front... it LOOKS GREAT. In many of our local stores, they have a sales setup that allows you to see ALL the colors and feel the textures available. Some colors like Black and Red have a rubber feel. Most have a smoother feel. Those with a pattern have an older Moto texture feel (shown in this review).

Why I choose this phone, when my previous Motorola has such a poor camera? Size & feel. Its 4.7" screen in a body that is smaller than my previous 4.5" phone. Most of the other phones are simply huge and getting bigger, harder to fit in my pocket. My Moto X is barely bigger than my OLD Samsung Galaxy S1 with a 4" screen. I don't use protective cases because I don't destroy my phones, I want them small as possible and whats the point of a nice looking phone that you can't see or touch? I cannot stand the feel of the cheap plastic glossy backs on Samsungs and LG. But as we see, newer Samsung and LGs are coming out with NEW phones with a nicer feel. I considered the HTC One, but the beautiful metal body is generally cold, but on another personal level, I can't stand having the power button on the top. HTC still takes the best photos of any Android phone. LGs have moved the power/VOL to the back, I simply don't like it. My wife is okay with it and may get one soon.

The camera is the weakest feature on the phone... best from Motorola, but it doesn't compare to Nokia 900/1000 Lumias and is lower-middle range compared to Samsung S4/LG2/HTC One. But its FLICK to Camera mode does WORK better than I thought it would and it CAN be turned off. There is almost NO options for the camera. Other than FLASH / HDR / Slo-mo / Shutter sound. Its UI is super simple. Camera defaults to STILL mode... pressing the Video Camera = REC video mode. Press STOP, and it reverts to Camera mode... which MAKES great sense. Pressing anywhere on the screen = Focus & shoot. The Moto-X camera doesn't include styled shots (B&W / Exposure / etc) *BUT* those features are part of the gallery instead.

I do with the Moto X had a removable back like the G so that I could replace or change out the backs when I want to. The G's back covers sells for $15USD. In the USA for the Moto X, they *JUST* came out with 9 new back covers and 3 new accent colors. ARGH! 4000 possible combinations! 31 rear colors / styles. I like that I DO NOT have the basic black phone, my phone will stick out more when I lay it down.

PS: I named the back of my Phone "AMIGA"