Gadgetory

one of them is an oversized Android smartphone with a Motorola logo and a pretty competitive price point know the way they both are both of the phones I'm talking about they are both that so which one is right for you it's a tough question but we're used to those i'm michael fisher with pocket now and this is Moto X pure edition versus Nexus 6 motorola took fundamentally different approaches to the big Android phone concept with these two well the Nexus 6 display is less than 1/2 inch larger and it's only 5 grams more massive the Nexus 6 feels huge in the hand thanks to its wider construction the Moto X pure edition is by no means a small phone it's even a millimeter thicker than the Nexus but in every sense it feels like the more petite device here it's also much more customizable there are literally hundreds of configurations available for the Moto X with custom materials ranging from silicone rubber to wood to leather and everything from accent color to software greeting to casing engraving customizable through moto maker it's no exaggeration to say that the Moto X pure Edition is the most customizable Android phone on the market meanwhile the Nexus 6 is available in blue and white and that's it stacking these devices in the hand and taking a look around it's striking how many design elements Motorola retained even to a layman size it's obvious that these phones are very close cousins if not outright siblings but if you could peel away the back cover which you can't you'd see the differences start to stack up from its architecture to the number of cores the Snapdragon 808 in the Moto X is an entirely different beast than the older 805 in the Nexus the Moto X also adds a 16 gig option to the 32 and 64 gig tears that they share and it packs a nice treat for those in need of even more storage a SIM tray that doubles as a micro SD card slot it once you fill up the Nexus you need to start moving stuff into the cloud and speaking of filling up the Nexus 6 brings a 7% larger battery and it also offers wireless charging where the Moto X does not on the flipside the Moto X comes with a beefier 25 watt charger in the box it doesn't let you swap the cable like the older turbo charger but it does charge the Moto X almost twice as fast which is super handy if you're often on the go which of these displays you like better will depend as always on your personal preferences the IPS display on the Moto X is probably the better screen on the whole with a slightly higher pixel density and much cleaner whites and more authentic color reproduction and it's also though better screen if you spend a lot of time outdoors because it can get far brighter than the AMOLED panel on the Nexus if you're more interested in impressing others or yourself with colors that pop the Nexus 6 is your way to go that AMOLED panel is an excellent showcase for the Nexus 6 is ambient display which tosses up waiting notifications briefly when the phone is moved or pulled from a pocket but when we compared the Nexus 6 with last year's Moto X we said this was a feature better realized on the latter with Motorola's active display and nothing's changed this year you don't even need to touch the Moto X to get it to show the time and you're waiting notifications pick it up and you can launch the camera just by twisting it twice or fire up the spotlight by chopping wood the Moto X will also automatically detect when you're driving and if you want it'll read your text messages aloud to you and let you dictate replies entirely hands-free if you're behind the wheel a lot that's a big deal and if you're not the Moto X can be set to do this when you're at home it can also silence your ringer automatically when you're in a meeting or asleep and if you want to use it without touching it just say its name and it'll be there okay Jarvis play Mariah Carey on Spotify to be fair you can do that last trick on the Nexus 6 as well but you can't use a custom key phrase and you can't do as much with it those individual features might not sound like much but taken together they make the experience of using the Moto X more personal than the conventional Nexus 6 if you don't care about any of that and decide to run each phone bone-stock well that's no problem each runs the most current version of Android and Motorola's record of timely updates to the Moto X line is pretty good of course nothing beats a nexus 4 update speed but I'd be surprised if there was a truly significant difference here motorola has upgraded the camera in the new Moto X to Sony's AMX 230 sensor a big step up from the I MX 214 in the Nexus well there's no optical image stabilization on the Moto X the new digital stabilization more than makes up for it and the newer sensor also brings almost double the resolution as well as phase detection autofocus which makes for easier macro shots and less wandering focus problems then on the Nexus 6 is contrast detection autofocus setup HDR video recording is also supported on the Moto X and the flash has been upgraded as well there's a color corrected dual LED on the back and even a flash on the Moto X is selfie cam at which by the way is a higher resolution than the Nexus component by now you've probably spotted the trend pretty much everything is better on the Moto X cameras and that's mostly borne out by the samples I'll shut up for a minute so you can see for yourself remember when we called out how striking the physical similarities are here well that carries over to general performance as well you'll find the pure speakers nearly as loud if not exactly as loud as the booming Nexus 6 now our Nexus sample unit is locked to AT&T while we've primarily tested our Moto X pure Edition on t-mobile but that's no problem it's called the pure edition for a reason all you need to do is pop in an AT&T SIM and presto the Moto X might as well have a Death Star tattoo too you don't even have to reboot it it just registers on the new network like nothing happened just keep in mind if you're buying one of these to work in a specific US carrier there are differences in which bands are supported with band 12 a particular sticking point for now see our full review at pocket now available September 18th for more on this you'll want to check that review for specific Moto X battery life figures as well as we've used these phones on separate networks for our test period then one of them is almost a year old while the other is fresh out of the box our data is not the most reliable on the whole though the Nexus 6 does better usually delivering between 4 & 5 hours of screen on time with moderate use the Moto X in my testing has yet to hit the 4 hour mark and screen on time your mileage will of course vary as always choosing between these two phones demands that you consider exactly what you're shopping for but while the Nexus 6 is still a pretty good buy on the whole it's tough to recommend it over the Moto X the newer phone brings better cameras a brighter display more useful software more current hardware and deeper customization than any other Android and if you just look at official prices at press time it's also cheaper than the Nexus 6 while offering microSD expansion to boot if your needs are very specific and you really need something from the Nexus family or you really refuse to give up an AMOLED display you'll probably be plenty happy with the Nexus 4 pretty much everyone else we recommend heading over to moto maker and building your Moto X pure edition if you want to see what unboxing your very own Moto X pure edition feels like check out our first impressions video and see what we had to say to viewers questions about the phone in the latest episode of the pocket now we play podcast stick around for a full review coming September 18th and it most importantly thanks for watching