Gadgetory

change is everywhere in the smartphone space Samsung's first Galaxy Note was a niche device no one thought would sell and now the note lineup is one of androids most prestigious properties Google's Nexus phone began as a platform for developers before morphing into the affordable flagship portfolio it is today and last year's Moto X a smallish handset with modest specs designed to be a smarter smartphone has become the Moto X second-generation a husky powerhouse with the same soul but in a body built to go toe-to-toe with the best the competition can offer how well does Motorola's special take on Android mesh with this new Bron I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow let's find out in our Moto X 2014 video review we've already compared the new Moto X with its predecessor in a separate comparison video at PocketNow so if you're stuck deciding between these devices or considering an upgrade from old to new be sure to check that out as well taken by itself the build of the new Moto X is a kind of fusion a cobbling together of design elements that results in a distinctive if slightly kludgy fuselage the top and bottom speaker grilles we saw on the Moto e have been ported over and the curved design of last year's Moto X has thankfully survived intact it's bordered by an aluminum frame here which brings a somewhat spendy feel and mirroring that metal right in the middle of the back cover sits an expanded version of the finger dimple that's become a motorola trademark here it's as big as the camera lens and while that means you'll have no trouble finding it with a fingertip it is big enough to seem garish the new Moto X has also been widened to accommodate a 5.2 inch display it's 1080p with 423 pixels every inch and the vibrant colors and raven blacks we've come to love about AMOLED screens are here as well the flipside is that it's not great in direct sunlight and the Edit girth it demands makes the new Moto X harder to use with one hand but it's a big display with narrow bezels almost a requirement for true flagship status in 2014 and the gorilla glass 3 protective layer atop it seems to flow directly into the aluminum border beneath it so craftsmanship is not in question here speaking of craftsmanship Moto maker is still here to answer the call to customize offering finishes from colorful composites to wooden backs to the HAR winged leather of our review unit the leather looks feels and smells like the real thing which it is and while it does show we're quite easily it works together with the aluminum trim to make the phone feel more substantial than 144 grams the spec sheet claims it all comes together for a more memorable feel in hand than we experienced from its forerunner and the spec sheet is more future-proof 2 with a Snapdragon 801 driving everything at two-and-a-half gigahertz its raw power is right in line with most other top-shelf 2014 smartphones but the Moto X has never been about raw power and the new version continues Motorola's focus on delivering a smarter smartphone not just a beefier one when it's reclining and standby the new Moto X uses its face plate sensors to wake the Moto display when you reach for it that's a handy addition to the existing trigger conditions which light up the screen when you pull the phone from a pocket or periodically when it's sitting on a desk moto assist has grown a lot in the year since Motorola introduced it as we covered in our Moto X after the buzz video a few months back not only does it dictate text messages to you when it detects you're driving a car now you can respond to text messages by voice as well and you don't need to be driving anymore Assist can read your texts aloud when it knows you're at home or it can automatically silence your phone when you're sleeping or in a meeting most significantly moto voice is better than ever before even with the screen off you can still talk to the phone now using a custom trigger command what's up the list of actions recognized by the Moto X has been expanded to so you can do everything from setting an alarm to taking a selfie without ever pushing a button or even touching the phone we'd still like it to be faster but it's useful it's fun and it's something you can only find out of the box on the Moto X it's also great for finding a temporarily lost phone too as far as the rest of the software we're looking at a very clean build of Android 444 using the Google launcher popularized by the Nexus 5 that means big icons a bright paint job and Google now enjoying a permanent position on the leftmost homescreen it's a big jump from the older darker palette but it more closely associates the Moto X with Google's preferred incarnation of its software ironic considering Google's recent sale of Motorola Mobility in any case the software is spare lightweight and it flies under the the 13 megapixel camera on the back of the phone is notable for its distinctive ring flash and for it's helpful trigger shortcut a quick double flick of the wrist and launches the camera now the software isn't the Google camera app as you might expect rather its Motorola's custom build from last year with very few changes we liked its simplicity but the photographs it produces we can take or leave on the bright side photos can sometimes turn out very nicely indeed with rich color and a fair amount of detail especially in a 13 megapixel mode the camera defaults to 10 megapixels so you can shoot in widescreen instead of 4 by 3 most of the time it does the job it's supposed to do you can coax some great results from this camera given the right conditions and a little luck but the focus is too slow and it drifts too often exposure also drifts depending on where you're focused low-light performance is underwhelming at best and there's no optical stabilization either the improvements since last year are only marginal a shame when you consider how disappointed we were with that devices optics that said reality check many PocketNow readers didn't think last year's motox camera was that bad and something of a blind taste test so maybe we're making an Edsel out of an El Camino here and on video things are better while colors are more watery than they are in real life it's not as shaky as you might expect from a camera with no optical stabilization 4k recording and slow-motion are here if you want them and audio is actually pretty great probably thanks to the four microphones in sum the motox wouldn't be our first choice if the camera was our number-one priority but it's also not a total disaster it's just an underwhelming portion of an otherwise exceptional package that package brings some pretty great sound quality to Motorola's crystal talk noise reduction benefits greatly from the addition of that forth microphone resulting in much more effective noise cancellation than on last year's Moto X moving the loudspeaker around to the front also makes the new phone better at speaker phone calls and watching videos or streaming audio while we're a little disappointed that only one of the front firing grills is used for a speaker we are grateful it's a loud one with processors so advanced it's tough to find shortcomings in gaming performance these days and the Moto X handles basically any title we can throw at it the more pressing concern when it comes to this stuff is battery life an embedded power pack almost the same size as last year's and powering a bigger denser display sounds like trouble and frankly it is as with most modern smartphones we can get through a day of use on the new X but only if we're careful now Motorola has updated some of the software we're using during our test period so we need to take some more time to run the phone using the new software to see if it helps any and we'll update the full written review at pocket now once we've done this overall though we doubt this phone will ever be known as an endurance champion the new Moto X sacrifices some of the principles of its forerunner in its quest to keep up with the Joneses it's bigger screen makes its casing more cumbersome its battery probably less potent but those are handicaps also suffered by the very competitors than new Moto X seeks to keep pace with and this phone uses its horsepower more intelligently than many of those contemporaries for the second year in a row put simply it's the reboot that not all old Moto X owners will appreciate but it's also one that needed to happen and for what it's worth it's one that this reviewer has already purchased for himself for more on the new Moto X and its companion SmartWatch the Moto 360 see our other videos here on YouTube and our fold Moto X review at pocketnow.com available September 17 until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on Twitter reminding you to keep your leather oiled we'll see you next time