Walter Mossberg wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Moto X is an innovative phone, not a revolutionary one. But it may point toward a more revolutionary future."
Mossberg highlighted that unlike other phones Moto X is always listening for voice input without the need to activate a command.
Reviewing for the New York Times, David Pogue noted how Moto X detects that the user is in motion while in driving mode.
"It starts reading new text messages aloud, routing calls to the speakerphone," Pogue said. (link.reuters.com/pyb32v)
Hardware
The Moto X in general - in all colours and variants - feels great. It's a high-quality smartphone that offers a sturdy blend of plastics on its sides, cushy surfaces on the back and a Corning Gorilla Glass on the front. There's absolutely no metal to be found though. As the Moto X feels so solid you almost forget this and think there's some sort of aluminium chassis in the mix. It doesn't exactly feel as well crafted as the HTC One, although its construction is leaps and bounds ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Camera
The Moto X has both good and bad things when it comes to its camera offering. The 10-megapixel-rear camera is primarily ideal for shallow depth of field shots. Rick Osterloh, Motorola's senior vice-president, attributed this to "ClearPixel" technology in the camera sensor that allows for "75 per cent more light than a traditional sensor".
This also means the camera should perform well in low-light settings. However, photos - especially ones shot in dark conditions - are a bit too saturated and noisy. It's nothing to be alarmed about, but we can imagine serious photographers scoffing at such quality and processing.
Since photo quality isn't exactly mesmerising, the real winning features of the Moto X's camera boils down to its user-interface and Quick Capture function. Starting with the latter, a repeated flick-of-the-wrist immediately wakes up the handset and brings up the camera in about two seconds. It's awesome - we used this feature to death and loved it every time.
If you'd like to focus your shot, or turn off HDR (high dynamic display) and flash - and even try panorama or slow-mo - just swipe from the left to bring up the power tools. Conversely, once you've taken a picture, swipe from the right and then tap once to bring up a trio-of-rings icon on the bottom left. Select this icon to see photo-editing tools like filters, frames, cropping, exposure, sharpness, curves, and more. There's an option for everything. It's like an Instagram and paired-down version of Photoshop Mobile in one. Very cool.
Software
This is stock Android, for the most part. The Moto X ships with Jelly Bean 4.2.2, and it's quite similar to the Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play Edition. There is a bit of bloat, though. Our Verizon handset had NFL Mobile, Voicemail, Verizon Tones, VZ Navigator, QuickOffice, My Verizon Mobile, Caller Name ID and Mobile Hotspot. And they couldn't be uninstalled, just disabled.
Battery
The Moto X might not come with all the bells and whistles of other high-handsets, but we found it to be perfectly capable. Project Butter's 60fps effectively eliminates the possibility of performance lag and serves up swift transitions, fast loading and seamless app launching. However, the Moto X's ability to handle power-user consumption and intense graphics is nothing compared to its battery life.
The 2,200mAh battery lasted about 12 hours after a ton of gaming and YouTube-ing. And we mean a ton. With normal use, we could picture most people getting an entire day's worth of life without any battery-saving adjustments.
Motorola says the American customized phones, which will eventually be offered by other carriers as well, will be assembled at its new facility in Texas and shipped to U.S. customers within four days.
Pheew! What a phone! Thinking about having one now.
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