Gadgetory

hi this is Brian Bennett for cnet.com and right now we're taking a first look at the Motorola MOTO X born from the union between motorola mobility and its recent corporate master Google a lot of people have been eagerly waiting this device but let me make this very clear the Moto X is not a nexus phone for developers and tech enthusiasts neither is it a google play edition handset for Android purists instead think of the Moto X as a unique collaboration between motorola and google to target ordinary smartphone users with nimble performance a compact and comfortable design along with some really whiz-bang Android abilities Motorola says you can expect the Moto X to ship in late august early September of 2013 for a suggested price of one 9999 it should also hit 80 Verizon Sprint and US Cellular a t-mobile version is apparently in the works but it's not clear if it will be an unsubsidized model or not if you're expecting the Moto X to have a top-of-the-line laundry list of parts well forget about it essentially using the same hardware as Motorola's new droids on verizon the X is powered by Motorola's x8 computing system unlike the true quad-core processors driving today's mobile hot rods like the HTC One samsung galaxy s4 and LG g2 the x8 system is based on a dual-core 1.7 gigahertz Snapdragon s4 pro chip still that doesn't mean the Moto X is slow far from it in fact backing up the processor is muscular quad-core Adreno graphics a healthy two gigabytes of RAM plus two additional cores a natural language processor and one for contextual computing running a special Motorola flavor of Android 4.2 to jellybean the Moto X uses these cores to perform some pretty wild tricks the first is touchless control meaning that after the X is trained to recognize your voice it listens out for your command when you utter the phrase ok Google now the phone perks up tied into the Google now advanced search tool you can then ask it to perform a number of tasks such as looking up facts navigational directions or simply setting finders making appointments or initiating calls another one of the Moto X's tricks is called active display instead of having to fire up the phone screen each time an alert comes through the display will pulse with notification icons touching the icons in the center of the screen tells the ex to display more details dragging them upwards wakes up the phone and lets you jump directly to the email text or social media alert in question much of what makes the Moto X really compelling though is its design this is one really really well-crafted phone trust me realize that from the moment you pick it up it has a sturdy feel with reassuring heft there's even a little dimple inside the motorola logo where you naturally place your index finger it all adds up to an outrageously comfortable fit in the palm by default the Moto X is available in two colors black and white what's really interesting though is that Motorola will provide a moto maker website to create moto X's in a myriad range of custom colors customers can even have their handsets stamped with personal engravings for added distinctiveness compact and trim enough to fit into tight pants pockets or other cramped locations the Moto X is about the same dimensions as the LG Nexus 4 yet manages to shoehorn in a larger 4.7 inch 720p OLED screen it's bright colorful and has nice contrast even when viewed off angle above the display is a 2 megapixel front camera while below it well there are no physical keys at all you do have virtual buttons for back home and recent applications the back of the Moto X houses its 10 megapixel main camera and LED flash while the sensor isn't technically a sharp as competing phone cameras Motorola says it's clear pixel technology let's send 75 percent more light than ordinary handset imaging systems Motorola also simplified the cameras app interface both paring down the number of settings and virtual buttons it also pushed the settings to the left side out of view still there are modes for HDR and panorama the Moto X's camera is also designed for speed twisting the phone in your wrist twice quickly causes the camera app to launch from any application or when the device is asleep touch anywhere on the screen to snap a picture or long us to shoot multiple shots in a row sliding your finger up and down zooms in or out while swiping right to left opens the gallery you can take stills while recording video too still there are modes for HDR and panorama of course as with any smartphone there are some drawbacks for instance the standard Moto X comes with 16 gigabytes of internal storage that's not a lot of space considering there's no SD card slot to add more data breathing room additionally while the Moto X uses a respectably sized 2200 milliamp battery it isn't removable I'm Brian Bennett for cnet.com and this has been a first look at the motorola moto x