Gadgetory

plenty of people out there thought that the motox actually kind of missed the mark by not having super high-end specifications well now that the Moto X is officially out we can compare it to those top-tier devices hey it's Josh regard from Android 30 what's going on everybody and this is the Moto X versus the Samsung Galaxy s4 as should be obvious from the get-go the Moto X is trump card in design is the Moto maker not only are you able to customize the color of your phone further cosmetic changes will come in the future Samsung Galaxy s4 on the other hand comes in only a handful of colors the Galaxy s4's main advantage comes from its 5-inch screen here and the fact that it is one of the easiest larger screens to handle the general aesthetic remains pretty classic Samsung with the glossy plastic that can be slippery to the touch it's a material choice plant if people are admittedly getting tired of but it is pretty tried and true for Samsung a tactile home button is upfront with the typical button layout on the sides of power opposite volume rocker the very thin back cover is removable allowing access to the battery and SD card slot for expandable memory it might be a little bit harder to manipulate it than the Moto X but the ham gymnastics on the s4 are kept to the minimum I will say this about the Moto X I really missed being able to reach the top opposite corner with one hand the X does come with a smaller 4.7 inch screen that affords it as smaller all-around form-factor motorola's design choice of having a very curved back did pay off as the ergonomics of this device were very high the are no tactile buttons upfront and the button layout is all on the right side and instead of a glossy plastic the X employs a soft touch plastic that isn't nearly as slippery or prone to fingerprints it might be somewhat thicker at the peak of the curve around the back but then again the curve is supposed to help alleviate all of that despite its material choices the Galaxy S 4 deserves a lot of credit for having one of the easiest to handle five inch screens available now it's feat of improving on the footprint of the galaxy s3 is definitely one of its strongest suits but then the Moto X reminds us that we have to know what we really want out of our devices a smart phone with such easy and simple handling is something we often take for granted these days I think when you want to keep things simple the Moto X is probably the most accessible smartphone available but of course it is because of the smaller screen that the Moto X has been able to achieve that in this battle we have the fight between 720p and 1080p resolutions so on the Moto X we have a screen that plenty of spec hungry people have already lamented 720 resolution is what you get at 312 PPI but don't get hasty and disregard the X because of this because this is a great performing little AMOLED screen for the most part you won't be able to even tell you're looking at a lower resolution screen unless Sayed you put it right up next to a galaxy s4 and you go searching for it side by side with the galaxy s4 is a great Super AMOLED 1080p resolution screen capable of 441 PPI the Moto X is actually able to hold its own but the s4 screen is bigger it better fits the current trends and is absolutely one of the best out there when you want a bigger overall display experience for let's say gaming or media consumption the s4 screen is stellar having that super saturated color profile does lend itself to more vivid colors than the Moto X but the X does take advantage of the AMOLED technology itself with its active notifications ultimately it comes down to size if your eyes are really that good at finding the quality difference then perhaps you would go for the s4 but in the respective sizes both of these screens absolutely achieve great results sure you can look at this as last year's specs versus current specs but that would just be hindsight at best I have a better metaphor for it though that I'll get into in a bit first of all here's the samsung galaxy s4 with its Snapdragon 600 processor that clocks in at 1.9 gigahertz backed by the Agena 320 and 2 gigabytes of RAM there's no doubt that the current crop of phones sporting this package are among the fastest and best available and this isn't even mentioning the Snapdragon 800 that is starting to pop up there might be the occasional bit of stutter here and there but it doesn't hinder tasks in the slightest performance on the s4 has remained reliable and it scores in benchmarks support this you'll get good and fast performance on the s4 no problem and that's why the Moto X was rather lamented due to its engine under the hood but it seems Motorola knew exactly what they were doing yes you get the Snapdragon s4 pro of last year clocked in at 1.7 gigahertz and backed by the Agena 320 and 2 gigabytes of RAM as well however a couple of extra cores were added in for governing a specific tasks like voice recognition and they really do lighten the snapdragons load altogether this is called the Motorola x8 computing system and you know what it gets the job done lower scores in antutu don't adequately show just how fast this phone can go this is likely due to the operating system being pretty damn close to fully stock Android but also it's probably because of these optimizations after all we've had over a year already to get the s4 pro right and therein lies my metaphor think about this the way you would think about cars perhaps an engine or let's say a performance package from a few years ago continuously gets tinkered with over time and eventually becomes a much more optimized version of its former self in that way we could be talking about the Moto X however we could also be early adopters of the more updated performance packages that have more power in them because obviously we're getting better every single year and in that case we could be talking about the Samsung Galaxy s4 either way you're going to get great performance from either one so if that helps you kind of put things into a little bit more perspective than great basically this is just me saying try not to be way too speck hungry and just disregard the Moto X just because it doesn't happen to have the latest and greatest that is out there today when it comes to hardware this battle can be summarized in really one word practicality either you use the features Motorola put into the X or the myriad of extra Samsung put into the s4 in the case of the Moto X Motorola and Google wanted to enhance your Google now experience voice recognition is always on due to those two extra cores and when you say okay Google now and comes up right away for any and all commands it's incredibly handy and coupled with the active notifications they are really quite practical especially if you're already a Google now user in other specs the X comes with a non expandable 16 or 32 gigabytes of on-board storage along with the usual bevy of connectivity tools the s4 on the other hand sports expandable memory on top of it 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of on-board storage it is in all the other extra sensors though that Samsung wanted to keep their focus my full review of the s4 will give you the rundown of all of these extras so check it out if you haven't already but if you worthy of mention are motion sensors barometers or thermometers measuring your surroundings and s health and an IR blaster there are a lot of new ways of navigating your phone and it's clear that the s4 wanted to be more than just your smartphone the Moto X on the other hand seems to just want to perfect your smartphone experience so it's quality over quantity here but it's up to you which one of those two words accurately depicts either one of these phones capabilities we do have to award the Galaxy s4 a little bit of an edge here in terms of battery solely because it sports a replaceable one having a spare 2600 milliamp hour unit handy is always helpful but that being said the Moto X with its 2,200 milliamp hour battery is able to get the full day's job done battery saving features on both devices perform well and the way the Moto takes advantage of the AMOLED screen helps keep things pretty steadily powered by the end of a long day I consistently had at least 20% battery life available by bedtime on either device so it comes down to that spare but you'll get a pretty standard level of longevity in either phone the camera situation does favor Samsung's pedigree just a little bit more afterall the Galaxy S line has pretty consistently brought great optics to the smartphone markets the galaxy s4 app comes with all of the new features that again are explained in my full review but include drama and eraser mode along with dual recording the 13 megapixel picture quality is where the s4 strengths are as the colour reproduction makes nearly any picture have a high level of vibrancy there is little doubt that the Galaxy s4 sits atop the camera phone market which is why for what is supposed to be a flagship device the Moto X does disappoint with its camera offerings you get 10 megapixels in a much simpler app as this is almost stock Android we're working with the interface uses touch and swipe navigation and comes with only a few extras like HDR and slow-motion video you are able to easily access the camera app by flicking the phone about so quickly getting to your shot is more than possible the quality suffers a bit as the colors end up quite muted compared to their real-life counterparts I will say that the sharpness though is really up there as pictures have great detail and remain very crisp so it's really a shame that the coloured has to suffer for those looking for the utmost in quality there is no doubt that the s4 takes it here as pictures are just objective better the Moto X camera interface is easier to use and his pictures are very sharp though for some that just might not be enough let's get right to the Moto X in this software section as stock Android as it gets the Moto X interface is pretty much what we Android it through easy aspyn over Motorola's enhancements don't change the general aesthetic really at all and add quite a bit of functionality users of Google now like I've said will likely get a real kick out of using the voice recognition service that activates it just say ok Google now and you're ready to give whatever commands you want after that you get Google esque home screens notification drop-down with shade and the general aesthetic in this 4.2.2 version the galaxy s4 on the other hand employs the TouchWiz we all know and love or hate it's more bloated and uber colorful elements make a return with Samsung's sensor enhancements for navigation you can see in the notification shade just how much you're able to do with this 4.2.2 version of TouchWiz hand gestures we're moving about air view for zooming into things and even tracking your diet and exercise or all possible Samsung really packed in everything they possibly could and thus it gives you a ton of options if you feel the new ways of navigating will prove useful the s4 is loaded with them otherwise the Moto X is about as excessively simple as it can get for either phone the on contract price remains pretty much around $1.99 even though that price might seem a little steep for the Moto X this comparison should help you keep in mind how these two phones are actually closer on level than you may think unlocked both hid around a $600 mark with the s4 hitting generally above it and the Moto X slated to be closer to 550 and so there you have it yes this comparison would have been one-sided if we were dealing with just any mid-range phone but as the Moto X is continuously proving optimizations can go a really long way and can be just as good as updating the hardware itself as both phones are around the same price this is truly an exercise in knowing what it is you really want customization of the Moto X has brought plenty of people over to its platform but in general it gets closer to perfecting the system we already have in place the s4 on the other hand adds new options to the system and in the process might be a little too overwhelming for some we have to grade phones here either way and as long as you're plenty confident in which experience will better suit you then the choice that you make should end up being a good one as always thank you very much for watching and if you still haven't seen the full reviews for either of these devices then you can see links to them in the description below drop us a like on our videos don't forget to subscribe and stay tuned to Android authorities channel for all the best news coverage and reviews because we're your source for all things Android