Gadgetory

what happens when two smart phones made by the same company go toe-to-toe I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the Droid ultra versus the Moto X since being acquired by Google last May Motorola Mobility has been mostly coasting sure it's released the HD updates to the Droid Razr line only for the hubub to die weeks later in July however Motorola announced three new phones for Verizon the Droid ultra wide max Android Mini and at the beginning of this month the Moto X was unveiled in our laps we currently have the Moto X and the Droid ultra and we put them head-to-head which one comes out on top let's find out the biggest difference between all of Motorola's latest smartphones oddly enough is appearance and design the Droid mini as the name alludes is the smallest of the quartet the Droid ultra and the Droid Maxx with 5-inch displays are the largest and the 4.7 inch Moto X rests perfectly in the middle and on the outside the Moto X has very little in common with its next of kin the Droid ultra is squared and industrial the glossy plastic bag makes it feel more like a samsung galaxy handset than something we've come to expect from Motorola and it's button controls along the side protrude with a harsh grooved aluminum that's impossible to miss the power and volume rocker on the Moto X are a smooth finish and barely there yet they're very firm and tactile that takes your buttons on the ultra or mushy yet grippy tiny differences like this extend throughout the hardware the headphone jacks are on the top edge but the ultras is to the right and the Moto X's is in the middle of a nice rounded bevel that blends into the back edge the backside of the ultra is flat and sort of bubbles on top to accommodate for the camera which sits in the middle of a speaker grille and the LED flash sits to the left instead of beneath like on the Moto X and of course the Moto X is rounded on the Mac and slips right into the palm of your hand the Motorola emblem on the Moto X is integrated inside a dimple that your index finger naturally slips into for additional grip the ultra zim logo is again a brushed aluminum that clashes with its glossy surroundings and the navigation buttons on the Moto X are on screen the ultra and it's droid brethren feature capacitive navigation buttons o unless we forget the Droid ultra has a neat trick of a if you look around the edges you will not find a slot for the nano-sim the Moto X is is quite obviously located on the left edge but the ultra SIM tray is hidden within the volume rocker use your fingernail to snag the notch and gently pull outwards clever indeed and their dimensions differ as well the Moto X measure is one hundred and twenty nine point three millimeters tall sixty five point three millimeters wide ten point four millimeters thick and it hits the scales at a fair a hundred and thirty grams it's eight point two millimeters shorter five point nine millimeters narrower three point two millimeters thicker and seven grams lighter than its larger compatriot their outsides are clearly quite different the ultra is definitely more reminiscent of an older Motorola while the Moto X is fresh and symbolic of starting anew internally however these two smartphones are nearly indistinguishable they both come with 10 megapixel clear pixel cameras the x8 mobile computing system which consists of a 1.7 gigahertz dual-core Krait CPU quad-core Adreno 320 GPU a low-power CPU dedicated to contextual computing and a final low-power core dedicated to natural language processing they both have two gigabytes of RAM 720p Super AMOLED displays Wi-Fi b/g/n AC NFC LTE Bluetooth 4.0 etc the main differences in specifications are that the Moto X comes in either 16 or 32 gigabyte models while the ultra is confined to only 16 gigabytes the Moto X has a 22 hundred million power battery to the ultras 2130 million powers if you want more capacity or a larger battery in your Verizon troy'd you will need to opt for the virtually identical Droid Maxx and clearly the display sizes are different while we're on the topic of displays both the Droid ultra and Moto X use 720p Super AMOLED displays at 4.7 diagonal inches the Moto X has a slight advantage in pixel density 312 pixels per inch to 294 pixels per inch on the ultras 5-inch display as you would expect they're neck and neck on brightness contrast black levels viewing angle saturation etc really the only difference between them is their size and likewise density but only marginally so there's also the hot topic of on-screen buttons taking up precious pixels and real estate it's purely a preference thing we like on screen buttons but we don't knock the altar for having capacitive buttons either in the end we give the edge in hardware to the motox the glossy fingerprint magnet backside of the droid ultra is slightly disappointing despite the fact that we preferred the extra size of the Droid ultra the Moto X caters to the shape of our hands more nicely and although the ability to customize the colors is limited for AT&T right now the ability to do so is certainly worth noting honestly we'd love nothing more than to have the Moto X in the size of the Droid ultra you would think coming from Motorola and both being touted as flagship esque devices that the only major difference between the Moto X Android ultra would be included blue air right that assumption isn't entirely wrong but strangely enough both have unique Motorola features they share some the Droid ultra has some too itself and the Moto X has some of its own it's just odd and the only logical reason for that is Verizon having its hand in the software cookie jar both run Android 4.2.2 and both have touchless control assist migrate motorola connect and active notifications the Droid ultra comes with droid zap the ability to share photos from within the Photos app for the two-finger swipe up and some of Motorola's order touches like the Droid command center widget and the Moto X has skipped the NFC unlock feature which no longer says it's compatible with the ultra and Google Play and trusted devices aside from those inconsistencies there's nothing between the software on these two they're both very nearly stock Android experiences and the Moto X fills just a tiny bit more vanilla than the Droid ultra with the same unique chipset under their hoods performance is exactly what you would expect from the two any differences are indistinguishable they're both buttery smooth and average performance switching between apps opening and closing apps etc multitasking and intensive gaming are great on both devices as well naturally their performance and benchmarks is also similar one of the more significant differences we've come across with these two devices is speaker quality the rear loud speaker will know Ultra is significantly and noticeably louder and more crisp than the speaker on the Moto X it's also much more difficult to cover up we've been using the Moto X on AT&T LTE network in the Charlotte metro area and the Droid ultra is obviously a Verizon only device data speeds and network performance is dependent upon many different factors but we will note that we've averaged higher speeds with the Moto X on ATT thus far and battery life we haven't had the ultra long enough to fully test its battery efficiency so far the two seem to be discharging at approximately the same rate taking into consideration that we've put the Droid ultra through quite a bit more abuse today as far as capacity goes the Moto X has a slight advantage with a 2200 milliamp hour battery to the ultras 2130 million power battery for more on battery life and network performance keep an eye out for the full review finally camera quality both feature the same camera sensors 10 megapixel clear pixel sensors that utilize an additional clear pixel in the sub pixel arrangement on the sensor to take in more light the easy way to put it is its no optical image stabilization low-light pictures are very muddy and like lots of detail and even in bright conditions there seems to be some higher-level compression at play edges are soft and there just isn't the same level of detail we've seen from other smartphone cameras 8 or 13 megapixels comparatively neither camera is amazing and truthfully they're on par with one another but it's worth noting that the droid ultra perform better in most situations the Moto X had trouble with colour reproduction the ultra produced fairly accurate shots while the Moto X took images that sometimes looked milky underexposed or over this is a perfect testament to how important camera software optimization truly is at the end of the day there is no clear winner there's hardly anything between them at all we're one fall short the other shines so we ask you which of these two devices would you declare the winner it's a tough decision for sure we like the size of the Droid ultra better but the build and design of the Moto X the software on the Moto X is more useful and practical but the ultras camera and loudspeaker are better if we had to pick a winner we'd give it to the Moto X but only by the skin of its teeth and for good reason availability and finish the Moto X will launch on all four major US carriers as well as US Cellular the Droid ultra is destined to remain on Verizon shelves forever and come November moto maker will be available to all that's going to wrap up this comparison if you enjoyed it be sure to let us know by clicking the thumbs up button below and subscribing stay tuned for more droid ultra coverage over the next week or so with comparisons and a full review and be sure to follow us in the usual places Twitter Google+ and Facebook at pocket now you can find me on Twitter at Casper Tech I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next week I almost forgot yesterday I left my hat at home so a friend made a hat for me and I told him I would wear it on video it says have a wonderful Labor Day weekend so be sure to do that and we'll see you next week