Motorola Moto X hands-on

Introduction

It's been a while since Google bought Motorola but it's only now that we finally see the fruits of that cooperation. By this point, we were already overly excited because we couldn't wait to see what rabbit would come out of Google's and Motorola's proverbial hat.

After weeks and weeks of rumors, leaks, assumptions we're now finally here, looking at the Motorola Moto X and taking in its quality finish, sleek display and seamless construction, the colorful interchangeable back cover and the whole shebang.

The Motorola Moto X doesn't premiere with promises to be the most powerful device on the market. Instead, it strives to attract the most attention, relying on several intriguing assets. First off, it comes with nearly completely stock software on board. Unfortunately, it's not the latest Android Jelly Bean 4.3. The Motorola Moto X has Jelly Bean 4.2.2 on tap instead.

Beyond everything else, our inner (and outer!) geeks find the camera the most interesting. The camera uses a clever technology, dubbed Clear Pixel, which lets up to 75% more light to the camera sensor, compared to regular smartophone cameras. But more on that later.

The device is powered by a custom-built Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System, which is based on a Snapdragon S4 Pro chip with two Krait cores, clocked at 1.7 GHz each, but adds extra processors for various specialized tasks. The Adreno 320 handles graphics and there are 2 gigs of RAM to carry out the heaviest of loads.

Motorola Moto X at a glance

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band UMTS/HSPA, 100 Mbps LTE with a second LTE antenna
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 129.3 x 65.3 x 10.4, 130 g
• Display: 4.7" 16M-color 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) capacitive touchscreen RGB AMOLED display with curved Gorilla Glass and ~316 ppi
• CPU: Dual-core 1.7 GHz Krait
• GPU: Adreno 320
• Chipset: A custom-built Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System, based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• Memory: 16/32GB storage
• Cameras: Primary 10 megapixel auto-focus Clear Pixel camera with 1.4 µm-sized pixels, f/2.4 aperture, native 16:9 aspect ratio, face detection, HDR mode, panorama, geo-tagging; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps with HDR, Secondary 2MP front-facing camera with FullHD video capture; Quick capture allows you to activate the camera with a double twist of your wrist;
• Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS, GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, wireless screen sharing (Miracast protocol)
• Misc: Composite plastic materials - surrounding back panel and curved edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass front; dual-mic setup for noise cancellation; water-repellent coating on electrical components for trouble-free operation in the rain; some 50 GB worth of extra free Google Drive storage for 2 years (on top of the usual 15GB); Active Display system, showing notifications on a fraction of the screen size when the screen is off; Touchless control - voice control capabilities in standby (with the screen off).
• Battery capacity: 2200mAh.

The Motorola Moto X is more than camera prowess and software trickery, though. The housing is just as appealing as the innards. For one, there's a new type Gorilla Glass on board, which is curved towards the edges and covers the whole front.

   
Moto X by Motorola

The back panel is made out of high-quality plastic and is available in 18 color options. The primary Moto X variants, which you will be able to buy in store are the Woven Black and the Woven White colors.

But more on the hardware in the second chapter. Follow us to get the full scoop.

Motorola Moto X hands-on

The first thing that hit us when we walked on the showroom floor was color - so much color, everywhere! This is the thing about the Motorola Moto X - it's highly customizable, to a degree we haven't seen in phones ever before (not counting overly expensive third-party services).

Motorola is promising to deliver your fully customized phone in under four days, the company is leveraging on its US-based manufacturing to do that. You've probably guess there's a "but" coming - the Moto X will be available in the US only for now.

Sigh. If you're in the US you can read on and see what the phone is like, if not - read on to see what you're missing.

  
The Moto X in hand

Motorola has chosen a 4.7" AMOLED display with a 720p resolution. It's not only gorgeous to look at with the deep blacks and punchy colors, but it's also great to touch. That's thanks to the Magic Glass layer on top that's been designed in cooperation with Corning for extra protection, as well as the tapered edges of the display.

   
The 4.7" AMOLED display is a sight to behold

As a result of the choice of display size and the minimal bezels, the Motorola Moto X is very pocket-friendly and a dream to handle. Unlike the RAZR HD display, this has an RGB matrix, so the 316ppi pixel density makes the display quite sharp. True, it's only as sharp as last year's flagships, but while this year's competition does slightly better, the difference isn't too easy to spot.

The AMOLED not only has beautiful colors and contrast, but it also enables the Active Display feature, which shows you notifications on the Moto X screen even when it's off. Active display uses a fraction of the screen's surface to display the clock and and any pending notifications. You can slide a notification icon to go directly to the app that produced it.

Also, Active Display does not operate while the phone is in your pocket or purse (or face down), but it senses your motion of picking it up and displays the clock automatically.

The Active Display feature takes full advantage of the AMOLED

Motorola has spent quite a lot of effort to make the back cover fit perfectly in your palm, studying the human hand quite extensively during the design process. As a result the smartphone packs quite a curve, but really does the job it's meant to.

The back covers are made of plastic and appear to feature a pattern. That's not an actual texture of the plastic, though - it's simply cleverly applied paint. A cool design trait is the embossed circle around the Motorola logo right below the camera LED.

   
The Motorola Moto X in black and white from different angles

The comparison with the HTC One is imminent as both share a 4.7" display and are quite similarly sized. The Motorola Moto X footprint compares quite favorably to the aluminum-clad HTC One, although we have to note this one doesn't have front-mounted stereo speakers. A drawback of the comfortable to hold curvy body design is the added thickness. It's more than what we expected at 10.4mm and while the curve does play it down, it's still thicker than, say, the HTC One (9.3mm).