Pros and Cons of Google's new Moto X

Motorola's Moto X, an American-made smartphone, can be built-to-order. Examine the best and worst features of the device.

The Moto X is the first Motorola smartphone to be assembled in the US and the first big release since Google took over the company. 

The Moto X is touting out of the box customization, choose one of 18 back colors and designs, colors of the phone buttons and the ring around the lens of the camera. 

The X is powered by a Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.7 GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and Android 4.2.2. It also features a 4.7-inch 720p AMOLED display and comes in 16GB or 32GB versions.

Pros

1. Moto X has one of the smoothest and fastest Android experience you'll have with any smartphone today.

If you're coming from a non-nexus smartphone, you'll definitely feel that. Everything just works in Moto X. It's the smartphone with the nearest experience of an iPhone in terms of speed and smoothness.

2. Moto X feels great in hand. It has the perfect size for a smartphone. 

3. Screen size is perfect, you can reach every corner without a hassle. 

Although some users might feel the difference coming from a bigger screen, you'll definately get used to it in no time.

4. Good materials, it feels like you're holding a really well made product. Not just plastic stuff.

5. Twist to fast access to camera is great.I'm still getting used to it, but accessing the camera without even touching the screen is very handy. I thought it would be too much of a hassle to do that movement every time, but it turns out you get used to it very fast, and that's pretty easy.

6. Touchless Control.

Although it's almost useless here in Brazil, I'll include that because is it's really useful for the main languages that it includes. I still use it to showoff though.

7. The speaker is one of the best I've listened so far.

It's one of the loudest, its quality is pretty good. Basses are good too.

8. Battery life is superb.

It lasts for your entire day and even a little bit more. Compared to my last phone, a S3, I can really feel the difference.

9. Battery charges really fast.

Within 2 hours or so, my Moto X charges from 0% to 100% with stock wall charger. Considering its battery time, it's an amazingly fast charge: 2 hours charge for a 24h+ usage. My S3 used to charge in 5h+

10. Fast updates.This is not something that will certainly happen, but it seems Motorola is committed to bring us Android OS updates and improvements updates really quickly. Although it has not been released for my Moto X here in Brazil yet, it's been released for the Moto X faster than the Nexus devices. Let's hope they keep it like that for some years, and not just because it's the momentum smartphone. 

Cons

1. Onscreen buttons takes too much space.

Although Moto X screen size is perfect, its virtual buttons takes a lot of that space, and you might feel a big hit when coming from a 4.8/5" phone that has its entire dedicated screen.

2. Camera is terrible.

Coming from a S3, I definitely felt a big hit here. Camera takes a big time to shoot photos; it takes too long to focus; it takes pics with different tonality every time, it's even hard to shoot 2 similar photos from 2 different angles. Below is an example of that.

Camera software is not the best aswell. We don't have night mode, quality/px choice, effects, and so on.

3. Touchless Control doesn't work everywhere.

For example in Brazil, not all the commands are available and it's just useful to call for someone and check weather predictions. Despite using it to call for someone, we don't get audio feedback for any of the commands.

The Positives and Negatives of new NOKIA X Series

Nokia X is the first android phone from Nokia, but its not like regular android phone as its not a google certified device so it does not have google apps like Gmail, Google Maps and other google services but it is capable of getting all other third party apps from Nokia X store.

Nokia X Quick Specs 

Display Size: 4 inch IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution 

Processor: 1 GHz Cortex A5 Dual Core Processor 

RAM: 512 MB 

Software Version: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) OS 

Camera: 3 MP FF camera. 

Secondary Camera: No 

Internal Storage: 4 GB with 2 GB approx. available 

External Storage: Expandable up to 64GB 

Battery: 1500 mAh battery Lithium Ion 

Connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, aGPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio 

Others: OTG Support – No, Dual SIM – Yes, LED Indicator – No 

Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity 

Box Contents

Handset, Warranty card, battery, charger with micro USB connection, red color standard headphones and no microUSB cable for data syncing.

Physical Dimensions and Build Quality

It has a weight of 128 grams with physical dimensions of 115.5 x 63 x 10.4 mm which makes it similar to Asha phones in terms of looks and build quality is also similar as the material being used is also the same.

Design, Looks and Form Factor

Nokia X looks like enlarged version of Nokia Asha 501, it has a matte finish on the back cover and glass on the front, but the front display glass does not have any protection. The form factor of the phone is good as it can fit inside your palm and its light in weight and both of these things makes it fairly portable to carry.

Camera Performance

The rear camera is 3 MP Fixed Focus which is just average in photo quality, it lacks focus so details in the photos will be missing but the overall quality of colors is decent in daylight but in low light photos come out very average, please don’t expect much from the camera on this phone.

Display, Memory and Battery Backup

It has a IPS LCD display at 480 x 800 pixels resolution, the display is good but the viewing angles are not that wide but still its looks decent in colors department. In built memory of the device is 4 GB out of which around 2 GB is available to the user, but good thing about this device is that it has MicroSD card slot and you can move apps from phone to SD card and can also install apps on SD card. The battery on the device is 1500 mAh which can last upto 3-4 hours on heavy usage and on moderate usage you will get around 1 day or more as usage time.

Software, Benchmarks and Gaming

The software UI which runs on top of android is inspired from Nokia Lumia and Asha series phone, as it has icons which looks and behave like tiles. The UI is good but laggy and can be slow at times but that’s mainly because of limited 512 MB of RAM. It can play medium graphic intensive games and casual games like Temple Run 2 and subway surfer runs smoothly but heavy games may not run, if they run they will lag a lot this device is not designed to play HD games or heavy graphic intensive games.

Benchmark Scores 

Quadrant Standard Edition: 

Antutu Benchmark: 

Nenamark2: 

Multi Touch: 

Conclusion and Price

Nokia X is available for a price of approx. Rs. 8300 in the market, its MOP – Market Operating Price not the MRP. It is the first android phone from nokia which is really good for one handed usage, great form factor and awesome build quality with great water resistance but the hardware on the phone specially RAM and Camera seems underpowered for the price you pay for it. But both of these points are not a deal breaker as the overall performance of the phone is satisfactory.

Nokia X is available for a price of approx. Rs. 8300 in the market, its MOP – Market Operating Price not the MRP. It is the first android phone from nokia which is really good for one handed usage, great form factor and awesome build quality with great water resistance but the hardware on the phone specially RAM and Camera seems under powered for the price you pay for it. But both of these points are not a deal breaker as the overall performance of the phone is satisfactory.