Gadgetory

this episode of Android Authority is brought to you by Norton security last year we saw the return of Motorola and it was a sweet one it was with the phone that championed experience over specifications personalization over cookie cutting and it defied users to reevaluate what they thought made of smartphone a flagship and this year despite some managerial and logistical changes within the company itself Motorola has brought the follow-up and I was finally able to get the version I wanted so it's Joshua Vergara from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is the Moto X just as important as the customization options are the updates to what keeps it all together a new metallic frame keeps the 2.5 D glass front kept together with whatever backing you decide on a bump up to a larger screen allows for even better viewing and handling experiences dual front speaker grilles allow for another area of color customization and the Motorola logo on the back has been enlarged and given prime positioning under the optics that include a dual ring flash the curve on the back harkens back to the original design making economics a continued focus the feel of different materials for the backing will dictate the grip I have felt all the material choices and have had little issue with any of them grip on the wood options are more than adequate the leather sticks quite well to the palm and the plastic backings all feel very familiar one issue I have with the handling however is the fact that the sides have been made very thin in order to accommodate the curve due to the smoother feel of the metal the thinness can make side gripping a bit difficult it's a small handling hurdle to get over but it was there all in all the general shape of the phone is a continuation of Motorola's already well-received design language further improved by a better frame and your own customizations thankfully all material choices have been made available from the start this time around so creating a phone that is really yours is easy via the Moto maker plastic leather and a bunch of different color combinations including accents help put together a fully personalized phone while the only gripe I might have involves the Motorola logo because it kind of flashes the branding a little too much it's definitely far from a deal-breaker though the original Moto X was heralded for not being a very large phone this iteration has been bumped up to what can be considered the industry standard 5.2 inches is the size now for the screen and it brings 1080p resolution at 424 pixels per inch AMOLED technology is also used here bringing the kind of color saturation and contrast that you'd expect from it but its usage is also advantageous for the active display which only activates the needed pixels to show the time and the notifications that you get sharpness is where it should be making text easy to read on here and things like media and games are all enjoyable on this size screen the specs underneath the hood happen to keep up with the notion that the Moto X isn't the bleeding edge but then again it doesn't need to be the Snapdragon 805 does not make an appearance here but the 801 does bringing 2.5 gigahertz backed by the audrina 330 and two gigabytes of RAM this is not the absolute best performance package available right now but it still does a great job of helping the phone fly through its elements seriously the speed on this almost completely stock version of Android is easily felt especially when going through applications using the recent apps screen even with Motorola's additions put in there is little you can do to really slow down this phone are you going to be easily playing the most advanced Android games no but that isn't the focus of the Moto X and in all other respects it still handles the job as well as it should when it comes to hardware there are a few places that modal held back on but they are clearly made up for in other details onboard storage comes in 16 or 32 gigabyte flavors but there is no microsd card slot for expansion this phone is already available for all major carriers though a pure edition of the Moto X is available for anyone that wants it unlocked call quality then is still as good as you'd expect motorola to make it a robust microphone setup ensures that audio capture sounds great even though there are two indentations for what looked like front-facing speakers in reality only the bottom one is a speaker but that being said this front facing speaker on the Moto X is still a better performer than anyone's that might be found on the Raider or even on the bottom speaking of audio captured the same voice recognition hardware and software returns and is even better this time around perhaps the best new feature of the voice service is the ability to pick your own phrase even in noisy environments still the Moto X is able to pick up the phrase and then activate the voice commands and then on the corners of the phone is an infrared sensor array that can recognize your hand over the phone a wave over the phone while a call is coming in will silence the ring but simply waving a hand over the phone will turn on the active display making it easier to find out what's going on battery life requires another compromise on motos part as they kept the unit at only 2300 milliamp hours which will only hit a day and a half with lower to moderate usage he can get the row solid day but you'll probably be worried about running out of juice more often than not near the end of that day if there was one real point of contention with the original Moto X it was with the camera despite an easy-to-access camera app via a couple of twisting motions it wasn't a very high quality performer but this time around we have a 13 megapixel shooter and a dual LED flash that is actually wrapped around the optics which is pretty cool as far as the app goes it's still quite minimalistic with only a few different options available via swipes the modes include HDR panorama and a burst mode that activates when you hold down instead of tapping to take a shot 4k video recording is also available and in the right conditions does get quite a bit of detail the problem is that it is not a default setting focusing in the app requires dragging the focal points where you want it to be and that's a bit cumbersome especially when you're trying to take shots with one hand so I would have preferred the tap to shoot to handle the focus and exposure just seconds before taking the picture nonetheless the photo taking experience is ultimately still pretty easy on the Moto X but the quality does leave a little bit more to be desired still the performance and bright environments is nicely detailed but the colour reproduction can be hit and miss for the most part you'll get a usable image but it might take you a few tries it's in lower light that I actually found there to be some higher than average performance higher ISO limits allow for a pretty good looking image without the incredible amounts of noise and blur and that's even without the flash the flash though ingeniously wrapped around the optics are still quite harsh and can actually bleed some light into the image due to how close they are to the optics so though it's far from the best camera available on Android right now I would say that the new Moto X has improved on the camera performance from before and other concessions aside though a much better camera experience would have been a huge boost for this phone anyone worried that Motorola is exit from Google's umbrella would change the software experience need not worry with this Moto X it is still the very stock like Android experience with motos actually very handy anyone that has used say a Nexus or any stock Android build will feel right at home here home screens app drawer notification drop-down with the quick settings shade and the Google now launcher brings the second home screen experience it's in Moto's own editions that we find some actually useful extras we have the modal voice service and the active display that I've already touched on but some assist abilities make the phone aware of where you are and react accordingly connect your phone to an audio source in your car and you will automatically play music when it detects that you're on the road set it to know when your meetings are and the phone will be silent during those important times and during the night it will go silent so as to not disturb you what I love about the software experience especially as an original motox user are the small improvements being able to pick your own voice activation phrase is the right step forward from the already reliable ok Google now in the active display you can now select different notifications and swipe to either side to dismiss them and even the date is displayed up top when you are tapping down to use the active display the speed of pretty much a fully stock Android keeps things really snappy but the additions are undeniably useful and honestly really fun speaking of software and before I get into the end of this review I do want to talk to you guys a little bit about our sponsor for this video Noren security a trusted name and device protection that you probably are familiar with already with norm security you will get total protection from all of the threats on the internet including malware viruses ID theft and financial scams and with normal security you can have the peace of mind browsing and enjoying the internet that you deserve but from there with all of the different devices that we now have in our lives these days we also need to up the ante when it comes to our security and that's exactly what Norton security can do with multi device protection you can install norm security on your desktop your laptop your tablet your smart phone yes even the musty moto X that I have in this review and you could have Norton security protect you across all of them with the same level of security that you need and with a 100% money back guarantee you can rest assured that with norton security all of your devices will remain virus free or your money back for more information on norton security and what it can do for all of your different devices whether they be computers or android devices tablets or smartphones make sure you check the description below for links and even more info and remember that northern security has your back when it comes to your safety on the internet the Moto X is now available for any and all contract plans for below the usual premium price $99 for a phone that blurs the line of flagship it's great to see that it doesn't have the flagship price but if you want to have a fully unlocked pure edition Moto X the total price will start at $4.99 adding bamboo and 32 gigabytes of storage for my version brought the phone up to just over $600 so be aware that customization comes at a price especially with its now standard screen size it falls in the realm of current flagship competitors like the Samsung Galaxy s5 and the Sony Xperia z3 for a lower price you might get slightly lower specs but the margin is small and almost negligible if Moto's experience better speaks to you and so there you have it the Moto X it's hard not to like a phone when you've made it exactly the way you want it in the past that might have been the saving grace for what could have been considered a sub flagship device but now the Moto X has matured and gotten its foot squarely in the top-tier door a better spec all-around keeps it as speedy as its competitors if not more because of its decidedly Spartan Android build and where the Moto X fall short it doesn't fall far at all yes we would have liked a bigger battery we would have liked the bleeding edge in processing power and yes we could have done with a more robust camera experience but for all intents and purposes the sum of its parts is what makes the Moto X such an attractive package it's not about keeping up with the Joneses it's about Motorola sticking to their guns as to what makes a great Android experience and in the case of this Moto X they have definitely succeeded as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Moto X don't forget to drop us some likes on our videos subscribe if you haven't already so you can keep up with all of the great content we have coming for you in the following weeks and remember to check out the content from my colleagues in Android Joe J's Kevin the tech ninja and of course lawn keep it tuned here and don't forget to head on over to Andrew authority comm because we are your source for all things Android