FollowThe Moto X has finally been revealed by Motorola at New York City, after months of leaks and rumours surrounding the device. Originally leaked as a high-end device above anything currently on the market, the Moto X gradually took the form of a mid-range smartphone with new sensors and software to make the phone more custom to the user.
That is exactly what we got at the event, the Moto X was not the high-end, all powerful super-phone prophesied in the early leaks of the “X Phone” but instead a mid-range challenger with some incredible custom features and a new design ethic from Motorola.
The design of the Moto X speaks waves on how Motorola is changing with the new Google ownership, from the large Droid-type builds to the Moto X in its thin, clean, curved and incredibly beautiful form.
Moto X Specs
Specs on the Moto X include a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro that is inside the Motorola’s X8 chip. This also includes a quad-core GPU, single-core for contextual computing and single-core for natural language processing. 2GB of RAM and either 16 or 32GB of storage come alongside the X8 chip.
Motorola believes in long battery life more than an incredibly sharp screen, adding a 720p display instead of 1080p. The AMOLED display is used to support Active Display, a new lock-screen feature allowing the user to quickly access messages.
Battery life is 24 hours long according to Motorola, who have doused the specs down to bring an actual all-day smartphone for users. We can see the upsides, for power-users it may hurt to have redundant performance, but for the average user 10 hours more battery means more than a few more pixels or a few more MHz of speed.
Android 4.2.2 is pre-loaded onto the Moto X and we are surprised to see even though Motorola’s parent company runs Android, they still cannot get the latest version. Motorola has said they will be bringing Android 4.3 but cannot get Google to just throw it onto the phone.
Moto X Customisations & Carriers
For AT&T buyers, the Moto X will come with 18 back panel colour choices, 7 side-button and rear camera choices and 2 front panel choices. AT&T managed to grab the exclusive Moto Maker customisation tool kit, but Motorola stresses this is for a limited time.
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular will all stock the phone. In Canada, Rogers has an exclusive hold of the Moto X for a while, we cannot say how long. Latin America has not been discussed yet, but we know Motorola is interested.
The Moto X will also be available in two different types of wood, but this will be left until Q4 2013. This is the first smartphone to have wood built onto the back and Motorola is still experimenting to see if this would work and be practical for the user.
One of the most surprising announcements is the Moto X will be coming on contract for $199. This is the normal price for a two-year contract in the US, but we thought with the cheaper specs there would be a cheaper price tag, perhaps close to the Nexus 4.
Availability
The Moto X will also be an Americas exclusive, this means Canada, USA and Latin America will be the only places getting the phone, with Europe and Asia left out. Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside did say they are working on different cheaper models for consumers in Europe and Asia.
This is the closest we have ever seen Google and Motorola partner, it is obvious Motorola had some help with the design of the software like Quick Capture, Touchless Control and Active Display and we are sure Google pushed for a solid build and more battery life, as Larry Page apparently told Dennis Woodside.
But there is still clear differences between the two companies, if this was a fully Google project, we would see this coming to the Google Play store and to T-Mobile on contract free. This is the main difference between Google and Motorola, Google wants it cheap and off contract, Motorola wants to continue the battle against Samsung and other OEM partners.
