This brand did IT! It made me want to use an android again! Me! As someone who didnt want to give android a chance just because they got ’inspired’ by the iOS to lay the foundation for the platform and I take such’inspirations’ very seriously. I got the moto G because I was in need of a temporary phone and was not willing to spend serious money on any phones. That little thing wowed me. It is fast, fluid handles everything like a champ( except photography but like I said it wasn’t my primary phone so I didn’t care too much), in fact it was so good that I was looking forward to a more premium offering from their stables to replace my iphone5s. Looks like my timing was right as here comes the Moto X or shall I say the NEW Moto X!
I like everything about the phone. well almost everything. The screen size bump is justified and the resolution increase to 1080p Full HD is warranted( almost criminal negligence if they don’t put one on a flag ship device these days especially since Quad Hd is slowly but surely making its full blown entry). The curved back with the metal band arounf the phone looks and feels premium. I like the moto dimple and as said before it provides a good place for the index finger to rest while making calls. The camera with dual flash in the plastic ring surrounding the camera looks like design win for me. The fact that one can order whatever back on the moto maker that too with personal engraving is a killer feature that definitely is a huge huge plus when everyone wants their own unique take on their phones but alas this is not applicable for us Indians as moto maker is not available to us and we are restricted to a 3 pre choosen formats through Motorola’s only authorized e-seller Flipkart. Also since we are speaking of the disadvantages of the Indian consumer for Moto X be warned that though a 32gb model is available internationally we are only to receive the 16gb variant. Whether they will release it at a later time only time can tell but I would suggest you not to hold your breath on this one. From what I hear the stocks are low for the 32 gb so it might take some time if at all it does make it to our shores.
Lets leave everything else behind and get to the fact why Moto X deserves to be on every phone consumers list of potential buys. Its all about the software and its spectacular implementation. It runs Android 4.4.4 Kit Kat the latest and greatest from Google this side of the Android L and it is a joy to use. Everything is super smooth and fast. did I mention fast? And( drum roll people) THE reason that Moto X piqued my interest on a fanatical level -
The Moto Voice - performing tasks on your phone without having to touch it at all and making sure the phone responds to your voice only is phenomenally useful. Its a lot more than a popular trick to show at parties and to your friends too. Change the hot word from’ ok google now’ to anything you please( it cant be too long or too short) and then you Moto X is your to command. It can get you to make calls, take pictures and selfies, post to twitter and facebook, google up answers for any ridiculous things that may pop up in your mind randomly. the sky is the limit! This is a fantastic feature and its kinda shocking that no one else have managed a truly hands free experience in 2014 except for Motorola. And I applaud them for it. take a bow Moto cause you deserve it for bringing innovation and excitement back to the smartphones instead of just hardware victories and specs jump. It worked seamlessly in my use and it understood me surprisingly well 99% of the time. The only catch here is that you need a constant internet connection for the feature to work. There is no offline support yet and I cant understand why not. may be not all of the actions possible but to make calls and take photos doesn’t and shouldn’t need a net connection! There are 4 microphones in the Moto X so the phone is able to hear your command well and its a life saver when you have forgotten where you have placed your phone and its in silent mode just calling out’find my phone’ will ring an alarm. Nice!
The rest of the moto apps though useful isnt too much of my concern. The Moto active display is another great feature where you wave your hand over the phone so that it may show you the time and notifications without turning on or unlocking the phone. its a nifty feature and a battery saver. We all know we turn on our phones numerous times just to see if there is any update in our digital lives The moto assist which determines you location such as office, driving, sleep time and performs accordingly is mostly spot on and does its work unobtrusively.
These are the features that define the new Moto X. they are what makes this phone so fantastic to use. It truly makes it a Smart phone!.
The camera though at 13 MP is still subpar. I dont have a problem with the fact that the user interface of the camera is plain and simple and there is actually a good software that takes a photo before and after you click so that it can suggest a better shot. Over all its a camera you can live with and be content but not ecstatic about. All the bells and whistles of slow mo video, 4K recording are also available as is the norm nowadays.
The battery on this moto is 2300mah which isnt impressive in anyway given that there isnt any battery saver mode akin to the samsung and htc. Granted Motorola has exceptional knowledge in eking every bit of juice from their phones so realistically it should last you a full working day. The fact that you get only 10GB out of the 16 GB available to youn means there wont be too many high end games( most are over 1GB) since you just dont have the space to install them all. This means you wont get to drain the battery playing games that you dont have on the phone. The same applies for videos too.( you can always purchase an usb otg and plug and play like I do) So considering the average person has atleast 2gb of music, 2- 3 gb worth of games and other essential apps where do you put all the photos and videos you take?( the 4K videos are humungous) And fast as the phone may be fill it to the brim and inevitably the phone will lose some of its snappiness. Sure some of you may argue about the cloud storage but thats just not how I roll and I believe the same applies to the average consumer. There is a limit to the stuff you can do in the cloud. especially in India where reliable and fast net connection cannot be always guaranteed. And this my friends is the single biggest hindering factor for me - low on board storage with no option for a micro sd card. And this is the reason why the LG G3 is now my primary phone instead of the Moto.
I know I havent talked about the specs but its fairly up to date giving the current flagship configurations - 2GB RAM on a snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5ghz. It performs admirably in all the benchmark tests. So this brings us to the finale of this review -
Should you buy one? I would love to say YES YES YES but you have to take to account that if you do purchase it, it would be mostly used for its smartphone features than a device that can be doubled as an entertainment device for games, movies et all. So in todays jack of all trades phones the Moto X will be largely limited to being just a phone with innovative features and thats only because of its chosen 16GB memory. Also the camera is average at best If you are alright with just a few games and apps and are willing about the usb otg for the video needs then you should definitely consider it. At 32000 INR it isnt exactly cheap. I love this phone but at the end of the day The G3 managed to suit my needs more. Tell me what you guys think