Gadgetory

for years the Android smartphone world has been a grudge match of dueling specifications numbers put up against numbers to determine who's got the best phone out there the Google looks to escape from this kind of geekery with its new Moto X a phone designed less for the spec sheet and more for the real world but how successful is this strategy of promoting experience over horsepower let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the Moto X from Google what if we could build a smart phone that puts consumers first and solves real user problems rather than just cramming in the latest tech that no one needs or wants those are the bold opening words of the marketing material that came with our Moto X review unit reflecting the values of the new Google owned Motorola we'll see how well the device lives up to that problem-solving claim in four categories build software camera and some general test notes be sure to follow PocketNow on social media so you don't miss our past and future coverage of this device and every other smartphone and tablet we can get our hands on the Moto X is probably the most comfortable Android phone we've ever handled and it doesn't sacrifice screen size to get there it's almost impossible to believe the screen measures have full 4.7 inches across because the phone's surrounding it is so petite while the front side bears a striking resemblance to LG's Nexus 4 Motorola has done something completely different around back giving the ex a gentle sweeping curve that feels even better than it looks the Motorola logo sits in an indentation on the back cover giving a nice tactile cue for where to drop your fingertip and the phone's composite material is soft to the touch and just the slightest bit grippy helping to avoid drops even if you do let it tumble to the ground though the phone continues Motorola's proud legacy of solid hardware design while it's not specifically rated for durability it feels like a device that could take a beating in fact it doesn't feel at all unnatural to drop the X into a pocket with some keys or coins even right after unboxing it that holds true for this white and black versions and also the many customizable variations that Motorola will make available pressing the small power standby key on the side brings that big beautiful screen to life and here Google reminds us that the Moto X is assembled in the USA with a patriotic wallpaper that also leverages the AMOLED panels color saturation prowess the company went with a 720p screen over the now-standard 1080p flagship resolution but at 316 pixels per inch you're not going to be complaining about the pixel density unless you're one of those spec heads that Google is specifically avoiding with this phone the panel is bright it's sharp and it's beautiful underneath the screen motorola has built a special set of guts to power the X guts that normal folks shouldn't need to worry about but which are worth a quick look for context an older generation dual-core Snapdragon s4 serves as the phone's application processor but it's been mated to the newer quad-core Adreno 320 for a graphics processing that's an interesting combination in itself but there are two other cores here too one for language processing and one for contextual computing both of which we'll get into in software Motorola calls the whole arrangement the x8 mobile computing system and it's protected by the company's splash-resistant nano coating and backed up by two gigs of ram and either 16 or 32 gigs of on-board storage sadly there's no ability to expand that memory capacity with a microSD card but Google is offering 50 gigs of free Google Drive storage to MOTO expires which should soften the blow somewhat while our Moto X is running a straight from Google build of Android 4.2.2 this is no Nexus device motorola has included some significant customizations here all of them intended to make the phone more useful to the average consumer probably the most eye-catching feature and the one you're most likely to show off to your iPhone toting friends is the Moto X's touchless control here the phone uses that dedicated Linguistics processor to constantly listen for a trigger phrase so that even when it's sitting on standby either in a pocket or in your palm it'll wake up to take a command when you say okay Google now that key phrase is a little cumbersome and no you can't change it but using it will let you do things like set alarms call friends ask for sports scores or weather forecasts most of which we're already used to seeing from Google now voice interface it works well enough but touchless control isn't quite as impressive as it could be for a few reasons first it requires a data connection to function so if you're in the boonies or an overloaded network it's not going to deliver good results at all secondly it doesn't always respond to the catch phrase the first time around so you need to say the phrase pretty much exactly in the intonation you used when you trained it like old-school voice styling finally and most crucially Google now voice commands just aren't powerful enough to make this feature useful in a wide swath of situations if you remember to talk to it like a robot it'll work well liquor stores Mattituck New York or kayak rental marine port but using more common phrasing like I'm in the mood for pizza or take me home I won't get you anywhere until users can speak to Google now in a friendly casual manner and get something more useful than how tall is the Empire State Building this isn't going to be nearly as valuable or as enjoyable as it needs to be to see widespread use the touchless control is also baked into motorola assist a small feature that uses the phone's contextual awareness to determine when you're driving or in a meeting or asleep and it tailors notifications to match that situation of these the driving mode is the most interesting with the phone able to read your incoming texts aloud if you want to hear them so you don't need to take your eyes off the road sadly you can't respond by voice dictation automatically the phone just gives you the option to reply with a canned away message again this is functionality that would make the service much more useful and we wish it was included active display is the last feature we'll cover here one you'll use more often than either of the above it detects when the phone is removed from a pocket or flipped onto its front side and it pulses a quick summary of any notifications you've received allowing you to act on them dismiss them or just unlock the phone as usual its interface takes some getting used to but it is quite handy once you get a feel for it almost making up for the lack of a notification light almost camera performance has become a huge factor in the smartphone space and Google made such a big deal about its nuclear pixel camera for the Moto X that we were excited to give it a try and then we gave it a try we already covered how terribly the camera fared against the Google Edition HTC One in an earlier comparison video so for the review we made it our goal to shoot as many photos as possible with the X in the most favorable conditions we could find we made use of the panorama mode to capture an approaching storm system and we used burst shot to snap some photos of dogs in the air and dogs licking their face to its credit Motorola lives up to the fast shutter speed claim the X does do a nice job of capturing motion with little to no blur sadly though the phone's photos also feature little to no color even in bright daylight and dramatic sunset lighting the images it produces are seriously lacking in vibrance compared to other smartphone cameras there's a gray pallor over almost everything and even highly saturated scenes are washed out through the X's vision this dock sideview was dominated by a lush verdant green in real life and these flowers are actually brilliantly yellow to the eye but the X's camera just saps the life out of them we found that tweaking the HDR mode helps a bit in some circumstances but if you're looking for a camera that will deliver well balanced and beautiful photos with no hassles this isn't it that's a shame too because the viewfinder software is so simple and well thought out and even innovative with its shake to activate function that it deserves a camera that lives up to that experience in the video arena the phone defaults to 1080p at 30fps with a record button always present in the viewfinder so you don't miss an opportunity for a quick video you can capture a nice Sun set with it and the images are actually pretty sharp and well defined but once again you're not going to see the kind of vibrant colors that you should be in most situations the video cameras real advantage isn't exactly rare but it is fun you can shoot at 60 frames per second at 720p resulting in some really smooth slow motion video there's no sound recorded in this mode but it doesn't matter high-speed video is fun no matter what and Motorola was right to join other manufacturers in building it in here in some this camera will deliver a fun and easy shooting experience with its simple and enjoyable viewfinder and on the phone the results it puts out looked pretty good on the bright and saturated AMOLED screen send the pictures to friends though and the snotty er ones will be wondering if you remembered to take the protective film off the lens before you started shooting we tested the Moto X over the course of four days in rural New York State alternating between 4G LTE and 3G coverage on AT&T our network experience on eastern Long Island wasn't nearly as impressive as it normally is in Boston and our time on 3G brought back a lot of bad memories fortunately the Moto X will be available on every u.s. national so you'll be able to pick what carrier is best for you where you live and work even more fortunately for the Moto X Motorola's 85 years of experience have resulted in a voice calling experience that's second to none calls are very clear on our end with rich side tone and wonderful sound through the earpiece even more impressive callers said we came through wonderfully on their end as well with Motorola's crystal talk noise reduction making us audible even over blowing wind through a car window and even over the roar of a boat engine we wish the phone was a tad louder in speakerphone calls but we wish that about every phone if voice quality is important to you the Moto X should be at the top of your smartphone list in terms of endurance Google's claim of 24 hours of mixed usage time with the Moto X is bold and a bit overblown we were able to use the Moto X pretty aggressively without seeing battery charge plummet but we were only able to get to about 12 hours of moderate to heavy mixed usage on its special embedded 2209 amp hour battery your mileage may vary depending on coverage and how often you're firing up that camera but you're probably still going to need to charge the X everyday thankfully whatever software optimization motorola has made to get that endurance up hasn't affected the UI responsiveness the Moto X has been consistently fluid and responsive during our entire time with the device the Moto X will go on sale for a suggested price of $1.99 on contract and it'll be on most US carriers by the beginning of September that price is in line with many other flagship devices despite the lower horsepower of the X and it's a further indication that Google is trying to change the conversation from specs to experience in that respect the X almost delivers the inconsistent usefulness of touchless control and the underwhelming camera have us wishing this phone was selling for a bit less on the flip side though the simplicity and responsiveness of this clean build of Android on hardware that's at once comfortable beautiful and hugely customizable means this is a phone we definitely recommend to first-time smartphone buyers looking to get into Android so while it is a bit overpriced in our opinion the Moto X is also a fine smartphone and a respectable first step to rebooting the Motorola brand we give it an 8 out of 10 folks we have a full written review on the Moto X coming on August 7th at pocket now visit us at pocketnow.com to see that also be sure and check out our comparison videos feature tours and editorials both here on YouTube and at pocketnow.com leave us a comment down below if you have some feedback and toss us a like if you enjoyed the video and as always thank you for watching we'll see you next time