Contents of delivery:

• Smartphone
• Instructions
• microUSB cable
• USB adapter for 220V network

Introduction

In August 2011, a deal between two powerful companies was announced: Google and Motorola. The first bought Motorola's mobile division - Mobile Devices, which later became known as Motorola Mobility LCC. The acquisition was completed in May of the following year, and in 2013 Google officially unveiled a new logo and assigned a new name to MM. Now Motorola Mobility is called simply: “Motorola – a Google Company.”

The Moto X is the first smartphone to be completely assembled and designed in the USA. In addition, it is the first device developed since Google acquired Motorola's mobile division. The main feature of this gadget is that even before purchasing, the design of the Moto X can be slightly changed: the official website presents “MotoMaker”, with which you customize the colors of the rear panel, buttons and camera frame, and also select materials. For example, there are 18 versions of back covers alone, there are even wooden ones, but they are not yet available on the website. Unfortunately, the smartphone itself is sold only in the USA, i.e. in Russia you can only buy it from dealers in “gray” devices, and even then in a limited color variety. You can read a little more detail in our separate material dedicated to Moto X.

Design, dimensions, control elements

I think that you read about the appearance, color options for the case, materials, etc. by following the link above. Our test turned out to be the simplest version, as it seems to me: a white plastic back side, a black front side, the buttons and camera frame are silver. The edging is made of glossy black plastic, protruding slightly above the screen, probably for additional protection from external influences. The back cover is made of porous material, pleasant to the touch, and does not slip in your hands at all. Despite the fact that the surface is flat, visually it seems as if the panel has a relief in the form of a three-dimensional wicker structure. It looks cool and plays beautifully in the light.

The upper part of the back side is slightly beveled, there is no “braid” on it, and there is also no “braid” on the edges of the case.

The body shape is rectangular with beveled corners. There is a thickening from the edges to the center of the back side (from 5.7 mm to 10.4 mm), creating the effect of a curved phone. Therefore, the smartphone fits perfectly in your hands, especially if these hands are not “shovels”.

The dimensions are as compact as possible for a device with a diagonal of 4.7 inches - 129x65x10.4 mm, the weight is also within a reasonable range - 130 grams. The frame is 14 mm on top, 10 mm on the bottom, 3.5 mm on the left and right.

Another small but nice feature is a round recess below the camera, on which the letter “M” is engraved. The fact is that when using the phone, the index finger involuntarily falls into this hollow.

The gadget is non-separable, but during operation no problems were noticed: the rear panel does not play, does not creak, does not crunch when squeezed in the hand and does not bend towards the battery. The quality of the materials is also high: not a single scratch appeared on the screen (by the way, it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass), and the body, according to some reports, has a water-repellent coating (unfortunately, it does not provide the IP67 standard).

Overall, the ergonomics of the Moto X design are perfect from my point of view!

On top of the front panel there is a speaker. It is framed with a metal edging. The volume of the speaker is high, the interlocutor can be heard very well and clearly, mainly low and medium frequencies are heard, which is good news. No interference or extraneous noise or overload. The sound is pleasant, velvety and does not hurt the ears at high volumes. I can definitely say that Moto X uses one of the best speech speakers, comparable to Samsung Note 2, Note 3 and partly with Galaxy S4.

To the left of the speaker are a light sensor and a proximity sensor. Both work correctly. On the right is the front camera. The buttons are on-screen, so the manufacturer was able to minimize the distance from the bottom end to the screen, i.e. reduce frames. Thus, the device has become more compact. The microphone is located under the display to the left.

At the bottom there is microUSB, at the top there is 3.5 mm and a second microphone for recording sound in stereo. On the left there is a “symlot” for nanoSIM. Yes, yes, it’s nano, not micro. Strange decision. Most likely, again the calculation is that apple lovers will migrate to Andrew. On the right is the power button (it protrudes slightly above the body, can be easily felt with your fingers, the travel is minimal, a quiet click can be heard) and the volume rocker key. It is thin and short, and the tactile sensations match those of the lock/unlock button.

The camera eye, recessed into the body, a single-section flash, and a speakerphone are located on the back of the device. There is another small hole, but nothing is said about it anywhere. Perhaps this is another noise-canceling microphone. I don't rule out a reset button.

Comparative sizes:

Moto X and Nokia Lumia 1020

Moto X and Meizu MX3

Moto X and iPhone 5

Moto X and HTC One

Display

In this case, the manufacturer did not pursue the size of screen diagonals, so the Moto X uses a 4.7-inch display with HD resolution. The physical size of the matrix is ​​56.5x102.5 mm, density is 312 dots per inch. Naturally, at such a density, pixelation is invisible. The matrix is ​​made using SuperAMOLED technology and has a special structure without the notorious PenTile (RGB AMOLED screen). The picture quality is above all praise: the brightness and contrast are high, the colors are saturated (but not oversaturated, not “vigorous”), the viewing angles are maximum, and the bluish tint when tilted (a common phenomenon in SuperAMOLED matrices) is almost invisible.

Moto X Screen Matrix

Below is a comparison of the displays of Nokia Lumia 1020, Motorola Moto X, Meizu MX3 and LG G2.

The best result at right angles, in my opinion, came from the Nokia Lumia 1020, followed by the Meizu MX3 and LG G2. But Moto X has a lot of red colors. When tilting the displays away from you, Nokia is again better, then Moto X, LG G2 and lastly Meizu. At other viewing angles, the screens behave approximately the same, except for the LG G2, in this model the matrix alternates between yellow and violet. This suggests that LG did not install the highest quality matrix in its flagship device.

Moto X screen viewing angles

Battery

This model has a non-removable battery. Its capacity is 2200 mAh (Li-Ion). Typical for most devices with small screen diagonals. Therefore, the operating time is also standard: approximately 10 hours, provided that data transfer is turned on, the brightness is “Auto”, about 10-15 minutes of calls, an hour of taking photos and videos. If you watch a movie in 1080p resolution at maximum brightness and sound volume with headphones, the battery will run out after 4 – 4.5 hours. The autonomy test program Antut Tester gives 525 points, which once again proves the average “survivability” of the Moto X battery.

Communication capabilities

The device works in GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA and even 4G LTE networks, and in Russia too (non-fast versions of the devices). There is Bluetooth 4.0 (LE+EDR), Wi-Fi has a standard not only b/g/n, but also AC. There is an NFC chip.

Memory and memory card

Traditionally, not the most top-end smartphones still have 2 GB of RAM. Of this volume, about 1.2 GB is free. In fact, not very much, considering that it uses “bare” Android and the resolution is not FullHD.

Built-in memory comes in 16 GB or 32 GB. It all depends on the version you will purchase. In the USA the difference is minimal - only 50 dollars, in our country it can range from 5 to 15 thousand rubles. The review was a version with 32 GB Flash, a little more than 26 GB free. There was no slot for a memory card in this gadget.

Camera

Recently, almost all manufacturers have decided to use marketing designations for cameras that use supposedly special image processing technologies, huge matrices, superpixels, and so on. In general, Moto X also decided to get confused and call the 10 MP camera module (by the way, pixel size 1.4 µm, aperture F2.4) CLEAR PIXEL (RGBC matrix covers 75% more light than standard RGBG).

The result was as always: the picture quality is not the best, especially when compared with the current flagships Samsung Note 3, LG G2, Sony Xperia Z1 or Nokia Lumia 1020. Color reproduction is excellent, the viewing angle is relatively wide, focusing is quite accurate, there are practically no mistakes , but detail suffers. Possibly incorrect post-processing. When the lighting level is insufficient, color artifacts appear in the photo.

Moto X shoots video in 1080p resolution (you can’t make it lower with the standard application) at 30 frames per second and with automatic focus. There is a Slow Motion mode. The number of frames becomes about 120 (the video slows down), the resolution is reduced to 720p, the sound is turned off, the focus remains.

There is an HDR mode. It works very well in my opinion.

There are two ways to launch the camera. The first is standard: you need to unlock the screen and click on the “Camera” icon. The second is the most convenient and unusual: to activate, you need to quickly turn the screen twice and turn it away from you, i.e. make a rotating movement with your hand. This feature works even when the screen is locked.

Interface

Everything is very simple. On the bottom right of the screen is video recording, on the left is the launch of the front camera (2 MP, video records 1080p). Swiping from left to right brings up the following settings: HDR (auto, on or off), flash, touch focus, SLO (Slow Motion), panorama, geotags, turn sound on or off, activate the camera by rotating the smartphone. Swipe from right to left to open the gallery. To use digital zoom, you need to swipe up (zoom in) or down (zoom out) on the screen.

EXIF information from a photo file

Video file characteristics:

• Format: MP4
• Video codec: AVC, 17,000 Kbps
• Resolution: 1920x1080, 30 fps
• Audio codec: AAC, 128 Kbps
• Channels: 2 channels, 48 ​​KHz

Characteristics of the SloMo video file:

• Format: MP4
• Video codec: AVC, 5000 Kbps
• Resolution: 1280x720, 15 fps

Examples of HDR photos:

Examples of photos taken with the main camera:

Example photo with front camera:

Performance

The manufacturer claims that this device is built on an original architecture called “Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System”. But in fact, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro is used: two Krait cores of 1.7 GHz, 28 nm, ARMv7. The main thing is not to confuse it with APQ8064, it has 4 cores, and here it is MSM8960T. The company is talking about software optimization of this chip.

“In addition, there are several processors for other tasks. In particular, a voice processor that allows you to “communicate” with the device even when the screen is off, as well as a processor with reduced power consumption, used by the smartphone to display only the necessary notifications in standby mode (Active Display). If I understand the description of this mode correctly, then Moto X will be one of the first Android smartphones with a normal notification system, which was previously on the S60 in Nokia, for example. That is, you have a smartphone operating in standby mode, basic notifications are displayed on the screen, but almost no energy is consumed due to the fact that a separate processor with minimal power consumption is used for this task.”

Adreno 320 is responsible for the graphics part. Screenshots from the game Asphalt 8:

The smartphone turned out to be “lightning fast”: the interface works very quickly, programs and games launch, during testing no slowdowns or “glitches” were noticed, and there were no interface lags either.

Therefore, it makes sense to consider a Chinese metal phablet. There are several fundamental “chips” in the Meizu MX5 - high-quality sound (a dedicated audio chip helps), Android redesigned beyond recognition and a fast processor in everything except games. In terms of the quality of the body and autonomy, the “Chinese” is inferior to Motorola and Samsung, in terms of power it surpasses them, and in terms of the quality of cameras and display it is approximately equal.

The main problems of the model are the “crooked” adaptation for Russia, as a result of which the smartphone cannot work with the vast majority of 4G networks in the country. In order not to get into trouble with “3G only”, it would be a good idea to check whether the Chinese exotic is compatible specifically with your telecom operator.

conclusions

*Voice of Zadornov*. "Get ready - there's going to be a strange phrase." And the thing is that the dismal results of the Moto X Play in benchmarks did not spoil the impression of our hero. Coming from a reviewer who does nothing but twirl gadgets in tests, this will sound unusual, but in fact our Motorola remains a pleasant smartphone to use, even with “butt-butt” power.

Because X Play carefully throws up information every time you take it out of your pocket; because its body is seriously different from the vulgar metal and glass competitors, and at the same time it feels even more expensive. Because the display is of high quality and does not have toxic colors, and the autonomy is such that you can walk around with two SIM cards and not worry about it.

But, of course, there are also contraindications - the smartphone is very massive, well-fed, and in cloudy weather and at night the camera works stupidly. X Play games are difficult to run even at medium graphics detail, and in the operating system the lack of power is compensated with varying degrees of success by the perfectly “polished” Android.

Moto X Play is not a geeky device. This is simply a pleasant-to-use alternative to Korean and Chinese “pop”, one of the most well-made and durable phablets today. It is recommended for everyone who is looking for a “normal smartphone” with good battery life and a good body. But for more demanding Motorola lovers, it makes sense to wait for models produced jointly by Lenovo-Moto - the Chinese promise to present such smartphones by the end of 2016.

Despite the relative simplicity of the design of modern Motorola smartphones, it is unique and easily recognizable. Two wide speaker slots on the front panel, rounded corners and back panel, and, of course, a vertical strip with a camera lens, an LED flash and a stylized letter M - these are the main distinguishing features of Moto devices. All four Motorola smartphones recently presented in Russia are made in this style, and differ in appearance only in size and the number of sensors on the front panel. U Moto X Style there are a lot of them, which is especially noticeable in white colors, so if the accumulation of circles and ovals around the top speaker seems ridiculous to you, it is better to choose the black option. Apparently, there are no others in sight - the Moto Maker service, which allows you to independently choose the color of each main element and the material of the back panel, is still not available in Russia. Those wishing to get their hands on the Moto X Style with a wood or leather back panel will still have to order the smartphone from abroad.

However, we really liked the standard materials. The display is protected by glass Gorilla Glass 3, A water-repellent coating provides some protection against splashes and drops. Rubberized back panel pleasant to the touch and does not tend to slip out of your hands, but metal frame frame significantly strengthens the structure - the smartphone perfectly resists bending. Here, however, its thickness also plays a role, varying from 7.5 to 11.1 mm. Motorola once again refuses to sacrifice functionality and durability for the sake of record thinness, and this is good news. Of course, thin devices like the Huawei Mate S (7.2 mm) seem more elegant, but the Moto X Style is still safer in your jeans pocket. The only sad thing is that with such dimensions, Motorola did not bother to make the battery removable, and the back panel is tightly attached. (Nano-SIM and microSD cards are inserted on the tray into a common slot on the top edge.)

Speaking of dimensions: despite the 5.7-inch display and fairly large speakers, the smartphone is even shorter and narrower than the 5.5-inch Apple iPhone 6S Plus and only a centimeter longer than the 5-inch HTC One M9. The sound, although not as high quality as that of HTC's flagship, is still very loud and clear, even with hints of bass. Unfortunately, many buyers' complaints about the top speaker turned out to be quite justified; it does wheeze slightly when listening to music at high volumes. But it’s just that it’s slight: if you don’t hold the device close to your ear (and you definitely shouldn’t do this at high volumes), it’s almost impossible to hear the defect. If your player has an equalizer, you can try reducing the bass slightly. For speakerphone use, only the bottom speaker is used, so during a telephone or Skype conversation the problem disappears altogether.

Motorola Moto X is an iconic phone no matter how you look at it. With its appearance, it marked the beginning of closer cooperation between Motorola and the search giant Google.

A smartphone that is positioned as a flagship in terms of price, but in terms of hardware it is more similar to last year’s flagship. A smartphone whose appearance can be customized even before it leaves the factory assembly line. A smartphone that does what no other phone can do. What is this Motorola Moto X really like?

	Motorola Moto X
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (MSM8960Pro) 1.7 GHz Motorola X8 System (SoC+NLP Processor+Contextual Processor)
Screen	4.7 inches AMOLED (RGB) 1280x720
RAM	2 GB LPDDR2
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.0
Storage device	16/32 GB, 2 years 50 GB Google Drive
Interfaces	microUSB 2.0, 3.5 mm, NFC, Miracast
OS	Android 4.2.2
Battery	2200 mAh, 3.8 V, 8.36 Whr
Dimensions / Weight	65.3 x 129.3 x 5.6-10.4 mm, 130 grams
Camera	Main 10 MP Clear Pixel (RGBC), Front 2 MP 1080p
Price	$99 (16 GB), $149 (32 GB) with 2 year contract

Design

Describing the design of the Moto X is extremely difficult, despite its simplicity. By the standards of 2013, Moto X can be classified as a compact phone. Although, I am sure that at the time of the first Samsung Galaxy it would have been classified as a “shovel”. Almost the entire front part is occupied by a 4.7" screen with incredibly thin side frames. On the upper indent from the screen there is a speaker grille, a front 2 MP 1080p camera and light and proximity sensors. On the lower indent there is only a microphone hole: there are no physical or touch buttons. On the right the edges contain the power buttons and volume keys, and on the left there is a nanoSIM tray (like in the iPhone 5/5s/5c), which can be removed using the included “paperclip” tool.The entire front panel seems to be one solid piece thanks to the seamless soldering of the screen and front bezel If you look closely, you can see small ridges on the top and bottom of the bezel that prevent the screen from touching the table surface when the phone is lying face down.

The back cover is non-removable and has a curved shape. The seam between the front and back panels is clearly visible, apparently, this is how ease of assembly of “custom” Moto X designs is achieved. The front and back parts are connected with latches and glue, depending on the buyer’s choice. The curvature of the back of the Moto X is difficult to describe. The smartphone looks very natural, has excellent ergonomics and fits very comfortably in the hand.

It is noteworthy that the entire space under the complex bend is occupied by a non-removable stepped battery 2200 mAh, made using Lg Chem technology. The material from which the back cover is made, although visually it has the texture of Kevlar, feels more like soft-touch plastic. The phone does not slip in your hands, and it collects smudges and fingerprints much worse than its glossy counterparts. Also on the back cover there is a 10 megapixel camera, an LED flash and the Motorola logo in a round recess. At first glance, this recess should not have any functions, but during a conversation it is very convenient to place your index finger in it, and when you take the phone out of your pocket, it is good to determine what orientation it is in now. The Moto X has three microphones: one at the top, next to the headphone jack, a second at the bottom at the back, and a third under the screen. To charge the Moto X, use the microUSB connector located on the bottom.

In your hands, the Moto X doesn't feel like a cheap phone, that's all. Nothing creaks or crunches in it. It also doesn't feel fragile. I don’t want to quickly put it in a case and protect it. This paradoxical feeling, for example, is caused by the iPhone 5s, which is assembled very firmly from high-quality materials, but at the same time you want to immediately protect it with a case. I had completely the opposite feelings with the Moto X - it looks durable and stylish enough that even a thin case would ruin its exterior. Given the current trend of larger flagships, the Moto X seems like a real treat for compact phone lovers.

Regarding assembly, after two weeks of very hard use, my copy of Moto X began to creak slightly in the area of ​​the power and volume buttons.

Screen

The smartphone has a Super AMOLED panel with a diagonal of 4.7" and a resolution of 1280×720. I don't like AMOLED screens, but the Moto X does not have the most terrible screen that I have seen with such technology. Firstly, in terms of RGB layout it is not PenTile, but the so-called S-stripe (officially this term is not used by companies to describe this type of pixel arrangement.) This type of pixel arrangement was first used in the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 screen. Essentially, the Moto X screen is a smaller version of the Galaxy Note 2 screen. Due to the difference in diagonal, the Motorola screen looks better than the Galaxy Note 2, but its brightness reserve is noticeably greater (318 Nits). Despite this, on a sunny day, almost nothing is visible on the screen, and you need to look for the shadow to see at least something. Automatic brightness works very smoothly and adapts to the ambient lighting almost imperceptibly to the eye. The screen looks very good indoors, with excellent viewing angles, rich colors and high contrast. Speaking of colors: traditionally for AMOLED they are obscenely oversaturated, but at the same time the color temperature remains at a reasonable level. The screen does not fade into blue, red or green shades - everything is within the acceptable limits. True, there are also traditional AMOLED artifacts - at minimum backlight, gray appears a purple tint, and if you arm yourself with a microscope, you can see colored halos around white letters on a black background. But if on the Galaxy Note 2 this flaw was clearly visible without a magnifying glass, here it is successfully hidden by the smaller screen diagonal. 1080p screens are becoming a hallmark of modern flagships, and in this regard, the Moto X looks lackluster with its 720p.

But the presence of honest three RGB sub-pixels with a 4.7" diagonal gives us a density of 312 ppi, which is certainly not the crazy 450+ that we are used to seeing in the latest new products, but this is quite enough not to complain about the lack of screen clarity. Don't get me wrong. - there is a difference, and it is not in favor of the Moto X, but from the point of view of everyday use it is absolutely not critical and is not as obvious as it seems when directly comparing the numbers. In any other situation, I would have preferred a well-tuned 1080p IPS screen, but Motorola stood faced with the task of balancing hardware power, autonomy, physical dimensions, and also implementing proprietary “Active Notification” technology, and in this case such a choice is completely justified.

Sound

I attach quite a lot of importance to this point in phones. Nowadays, when a smartphone acts as a phone for 5% of the total time of use, it is customary to ignore this parameter. Moreover, both from the OEM side and from the reviewers/consumers side. The Moto X, despite its single external speaker, sounds very tight and good. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it for the first time. The phone may lack the bass and stereo of the HTC One, but that doesn't stop it from sounding loud and clear. The quality of speech transmission is excellent, both in conversational dynamics and in speakerphone mode. When playing music, the sound in the standard player is also excellent, and the presence of an equalizer (for both headphones and an external speaker) is also nice. In general, the voice quality alone makes me think about purchasing this smartphone as my main device. I make a lot of calls at work, and with the Moto X I feel much less tired from talking.

The design of the earpiece also contributes to comfort: when other phones begin to cut into the ear with a sharp edge after a certain time, Moto X does not cause such sensations. The intricate shape of the back cover allows you to avoid blocking the external speaker when the phone is lying on your back.

Performance

Motorola's marketing department had a difficult task - how to count processor cores so that 2 turned into 8. In the process, the brand "X8 mobile computing system" was created. 8 cores were obtained by adding 2 Krait 300 CPUs of 1.7 GHz each, 4 Adreno 320 graphics processors and 2 auxiliary processors for processing natural language and context dependence. I am sure that if the marketing department gets to know the engineers even more closely, it will be possible to count all 12+ cores. Thus, a buyer who thinks in terms of “cores” should be satisfied with the potential performance of his phone and not suffer from attacks from friends whose phones boast 4-8 cores. In my review, I already said that the industry made the leap to 4-cores too early, without fully revealing the potential of dual-core solutions. The presence of X8 in Moto X does not upset me at all, rather it even makes me happy.

The Moto X's CPU is a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960Pro with two Krait 300 cores operating at 1.7 GHz each; the GPU is an Adreno 320 (400 MHz). The performance of such a combination is not just enough - in most cases it can easily compete with modern quad-core flagships from other companies. All this, of course, contradicts logic, but here you need to understand that the Moto X screen is 720p. Also, “performance is saved” by the relatively high (1.7 GHz) frequency of both cores, which is maintained for a longer period of time than other flagships. While your beloved SGS4 most of the time runs on one core with a frequency of 1 GHz instead of the four 1.9 GHz promised to you, the Moto X tries to keep the frequencies of both cores high.

Potentially, this approach has a worse impact on autonomy, since every +100 MHz of the processor is a significant increase in power consumption. However, we get performance from the Moto X that is close to modern flagship solutions, and in some tasks even surpasses them. The absence of four cores in the Moto X needs to be specifically looked for to be noticed. Personally, I didn’t notice any slowdowns or lags either in the system itself or in the games. The Moto X uses the F2FS file system to store user data, which, in addition to improving overall performance, is also immune to the number of overwrites and performs better in conditions where the drive is very full. All these elements, as well as the lack of a huge number of add-ons in the OS itself, make the Moto X a very fast phone. Not the fastest on the market, but significantly faster than most people would think when reading the spec sheet.

Android OS - Clean, but not fresh

Moto X out of the box runs on the not-latest version of Android 4.2.2 JB. Those who say that the Moto X runs on “pure Android” have either not seen pure Android, or have not held a Moto X in their hands. Visually, it really looks like a real default Android, with the exception of a few differences. The panel with on-screen buttons is in most cases translucent (as in Android 4.4 KitKat), and the elements in the notification panel and curtain are arranged slightly differently. Also, quite a lot of items have appeared in the settings menu that relate exclusively to proprietary Moto X technologies. The camera UI has undergone changes for the better. In addition, unlike stock Android, all localizations, including Russian, have been removed from Moto X. This is a completely logical decision, given the complete lack of adaptation to Russian of many proprietary Moto X technologies. But to summarize, the Moto X firmware is truly the most insignificant customization of stock Android that I have ever seen. It is noteworthy that, according to rumors, the Moto X will not be updated to 4.3, but will go straight to 4.4 KitKat.

Autonomy

Motorola beat itself in the chest and stated that the 2200 mAh battery of the Moto X will be able to work for 24 hours without any problems. Quite a loud statement and everyone immediately begins to think that he will work for so long with the screen on. The reality turned out to be much less rosy. In my case, under heavy load in the form of synchronizing two gmail accounts, working as an LTE access point, an hour of calls, the phone offered to charge itself after 8 hours of use. In moderate mode (Internet, Twitter, G+, YouTube, one account and Wi-Fi/LTE) it quite easily survived until the end of the day and showed 2.5 - 5 hours of screen time. Screen brightness was controlled automatically all the time. By the way, in all cases there is a charge leak caused by the “Android OS” process, which makes no sense and sometimes exceeds the power consumption of the screen. I spoke with François Simon (a fairly competent XDA developer) about this and he suspects that this behavior is caused by a bug on the side of the Google servers, and that something similar has recently started happening to him on several devices. According to unverified data, this problem has been fixed in Android 4.4 KitKat.

In general, autonomy is not revolutionary, but quite acceptable for a phone that “constantly listens” to the user’s commands.

Camera

The Moto X camera gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is the first to use “clear pixel” technology, which, without going into technical details, allows you to get less noisy photos in low light conditions. On the other hand, Google engineers have not yet been able to make this technology work to its full potential; in the first version of the commercial Moto X firmware, the camera produced completely insane results, and after the update, the sensor seemed to be replaced out of the blue and the number of cool photos began to grow rapidly. Subjectively, I'm happy with the camera. Although it is worse than the one in the iPhone 5s, if you understand its limitations and capabilities well, it is quite capable of producing very beautiful pictures. However, sometimes, in difficult lighting conditions, color artifacts appear in the form of purple halos.

I liked the camera interface. This is truly a step in the right direction from the stock Android camera. It is not overloaded and simple, perhaps even too simple. By default, the camera focuses on the subjects at all times and takes a photo by tapping anywhere on the screen. In the settings menu, which slides out by swiping to the right from the left border of the screen, you can set the focus on the selected object by tapping on it on the screen. With this setting, the photo is taken after you click on the subject and the camera focuses on it. In the latest leak of the official Android 4.4 firmware for Moto X, there is also the ability to focus by moving a special frame-sight across the screen. In the settings menu, you can set the behavior of HDR (on/off/auto), geotagging, enable slow-motion video mode (720p@15fps), panoramas, and enable/disable camera activation using a special wrist rotation gesture. By the way, this trick of turning on the camera with a similar gesture seemed pretty stupid to me at first glance, but later I started rotating my other phones and didn’t understand why the camera wouldn’t start in them. In a word, turning on the camera in this way is very convenient and intuitive, and in my case no false alarms were noticed.

Moto X video records in 1080p@30fps without options for choosing compression and quality, stereo sound is 128 kbps. "Slow motion" is recorded at 720p@60fps and then played back at 15 frames per second, the iPhone 5s is much better in this regard. Everyone can evaluate the quality of the photo for themselves by looking at the examples.

Touchless Control

You may have already read how much I appreciate this innovation of Moto X. If not, I recommend reading it. It is worth adding a few technical details to what has been written. Moto X doesn't respond to anyone else's voice. And it responds only to the English phrase “Ok, Google Now”, moreover, it does not recognize the words, but rather reacts to the amplitude of vibrations. This is how they achieved a reaction only to the owner’s voice, which, by the way, Moto X needs to be “accustomed” to during the initial setup. Why did I decide this? Because a couple of times while listening to music without lyrics, I noticed how the Moto X reacted and turned on the screen to receive commands. Perhaps certain fluctuations in the composition were similar to a code phrase. However, this is just a theory. I got used to the feature of a constantly active microphone and now other phones seem somehow “dead” to me. Even despite the rare recognition and response errors, it is incredibly convenient when the phone just lies nearby and you can ask it for any information. Let's say you're playing a game and can't complete a certain episode. Without being distracted from the process, you can command the phone to search for the passage of the desired game. When you wake up to your alarm in the morning, you can tell Moto X to wake you up half an hour later. Often, when I am sitting at a computer and having an active correspondence with someone, I can ask for related information by voice on the phone without being distracted from the process. If you don't know where you left your phone in the room, you can say “Find my phone” and Moto X will light up the screen and make a repeating sound to help you find it.

For me, the Touchless Control feature is a much bigger innovation than the fingerprint scanner. And only for this alone can I forgive the Moto X for all its shortcomings. To be fair, it is worth noting that for exclusively Russian-speaking people the value of this function tends to zero, but such technology has potential and soon we will distinguish phones by whether they can listen or not.

Active notification

This function is based on a very simple idea - to use the feature of the AMOLED screen not to consume energy when displaying absolutely black color. Thanks to it, a notification system was developed that displays information about them in the form of a small monochrome icon. In other words, if there is a notification about any event, the screen will pulsate, displaying a clock and an image of a ring with an application icon inside it. If you touch the ring while it is highlighted, a small preview of the most recent notification will be displayed. Further options are possible: if, without releasing your finger, you swipe up to the notification, the phone will unlock and transfer you to the application that displayed that same notification; If you swipe to the side without releasing your finger, all notifications will be reset; if you let go of your finger, the phone will continue to pulsate with notifications, changing them if new ones arrive.

Moto X uses its context-aware engine to determine the state of the phone in space and therefore display those notifications more intelligently. By collecting data from the gyroscope, light sensors and other sensors, Moto X determines the location of the phone and its condition. If it is picked up from a table or taken out of a pocket, it will show the time and the screen unlock ring. If you turn it face down or put it back in your pocket, the notifications will stop pulsing.

Motorola Connect, Migrate and Assist

Three nice software additions that, despite their simplicity, can do a lot. Motorola Connect- allows you to see the phone’s charge level, manage call and SMS logs directly from the Chrome browser window after installing the extension of the same name and logging into your account. In my case, the chip began to unpleasantly eat up the battery and I turned it off, but if they fix it, it’s nice to answer SMS and reject or receive calls without leaving the computer, even if the phone is nearby.

Motorola Migrate- allows you to transfer all data (including files) from your previous Android phone to Moto X using a simple QR code scanning operation. It works quite well and transfers everything including SMS and call logs. And just recently, for future Moto X users who order a smartphone through the MotoMaker service, the company offered a new service - transferring contacts and calendar from the Apple iCloud service. Thus, the former iPhone owner receives his “X” with all the necessary data.

Motorola Assist- perhaps the most frequently used feature by me and the one I'm starting to miss in other phones. The application has only three points: do not disturb, in a meeting and while driving. In "do not disturb" you set the hours of your sleep and the phone goes into silent mode and stops pulsating "active notifications" during this period of time. “In a meeting” does the same thing as “do not disturb”, but is based on the times of various events on your calendar. “Driving” is the most interesting point - using the context dependency core, Moto X determines that you are moving in a car, and in the case of incoming calls, it will offer you to answer or refuse them. If you allow the call to be answered by voice, the phone will put it on speakerphone. In the case of an incoming SMS, Moto X will read its contents aloud to you and offer to reply to the person who wrote to you that you are driving a car at the moment and cannot correspond. Any of these modes displays a notification in the curtain that it is activated, and you can always cancel it there. This can be useful, for example, if you are not driving a car, but are in the passenger seat.

Moto Maker

One of the coolest things that makes the Moto X different from other smartphones is the ability to customize its appearance before purchasing. On the corresponding website you can customize the color of the front (white/black) and back (18 colors) panels of the phone, specify the color of the buttons (7 colors), select the amount of available memory (16/32 GB), add text engraving on the back panel, select custom wallpaper and welcome text when loading the phone, as well as purchase a Sol Republic headset of any color and form factor. Within 4 days, your custom phone will be assembled at a factory in the US and sent to the specified address. So far, such luxury is available only to residents of the USA, and only under operator contracts, but a Russian person cannot be stopped like this and I personally know a person who bought and sent to Russia such a Moto X. Perhaps he will find the time and write to us on RN how he accomplished such a feat. I had a Canadian version of the Moto X, but secretly I now dream of my own version of the Iron Man-style Moto X.

Conclusion

There is such a wonderful property that our smart devices are gradually acquiring - context dependence. The device knows what we are doing and when we do it, it restructures and transforms the flow of information depending on our type of activity. This is exactly what the future should be like, in which cars fly themselves and devices know what you think. Moto X may not have made this future a reality, but it showed what is possible to achieve today. I was very skeptical about this phone before writing the review - 720p amoled, weak/outdated (on paper) hardware and high price contributed to this. But after finishing writing this article, I completely changed my attitude towards the Moto X and am quite ready to make it my main phone. You don’t immediately understand the value of all the technologies of this device, but at the moment when you come home, tired, from celebrating a birthday/New Year/Halloween, you throw your phone in an unknown location and fall asleep, after a while you come to your senses in a completely dark room and You don’t understand what time it is, or what day of the week, or where your phone is. Into the void you say: “Ok, Google Now, what time is it and what day is it today?” and your phone obediently answers you with a voice from the far corner. At such moments, you absolutely don’t care how many cores it has or what kind of screen it has, the only important thing is that it helped you identify yourself in space as painlessly as possible without getting out of bed.

I don’t think about what else I could buy for that money and how much bigger/faster/beautiful it would be. I just got freedom that I don’t want to part with now. Even all its shortcomings in the form of a controversial screen and autonomy that did not live up to expectations, I can completely forgive it.