Motorola Moto X: a perfect balance
The Motorola Moto X is an Android smartphone with 4.7-inch Super AMOLED screen HD, 16 GB of storage and a SoC Motorola owner.
With improper delay, Motorola has decided to import even in the old continent his Moto X, marketed in the U.S. since August 2013.
It is an Android smartphone to medium-high offered on the European market with the latest OS version (4.4.2 Kit Kat) already installed and comes with some very interesting technical solutions, starting with the Motorola SoC owner.
Unboxing
The package accompanying the Motorola Moto X is very thin, with the usual microUSB adapter from the wall and the small clip for the extraction of sim (DWARF format). Insufficient earphones
The first contact is definitely nice: the terminal is compact and easy to handle. The materials, although plastic, are of excellent quality and did not show particular yokes. In the USA it is possible, when ordering, personalize your smartphone through the online service Motorcycle Maker which allows you to choose some details such as the back cover or colors. In Europe, unfortunately, none of this is possible and we must be content to choose between two colors: black or white.
The particular shape, slightly rounded at the rear of the Motorola Moto X, facilitates grip. The size (129.3 × 65.3 × 10.4 mm) are reduced. During use you appreciate also the line, even if not very original, and low weight, about 130 grams, which makes it a very discreet presence.
The 4.7-inch HD screen occupies most of the front section is completely devoid of physical buttons, while the sides are the classic buttons for volume, the stand-by mode and the microUSB connector on the bottom.
Hardware
The element of Motorola Moto X which arouses curiosity of all is the SoC X8. It is a proprietary solution designed by Motorola itself and based, in total, on 8 cores.
The first two are of Snapdragon S4 Krait Pro 1.7 GHz and represent, in fact, the basis of the system. In addition to these four core GPU Adreno 320. So far the situation is quite traditional and not too attractive from the point of view of performance as well. The last two core low power consumption are the only element that makes the Moto X in the current landscape. These two units designed by Motorola and dedicated itself to voice commands and speech recognition. The SoC, while not spouting sensational results in terms of benchmarks, it proves definitely very balanced and with total consumption certainly interesting in relation to the features offered.
The presence of 2 GB of RAM, now an almost standard equipment on Android terminals of a certain level, it helps to achieve a certain fluidity of the system. In addition, the imported version in Italy offers 16 GB of storage for applications and data, maybe a little ‘just when you consider that the terminal does not have a memory slot. Too bad it is not available the 32GB version, choosing instead offer the American market.
The sensor section is comprehensive and integrates everything that is legitimate to expect from a terminal of this class: GPS, brightness, accelerometer, proximity, barometer.
Even the radio is certainly not complete. The Motorola Moto X is, in fact, a GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), UMTS / HSPA + (850/900/1800/1900/2100 MHz) and LTE (800/1800/2600 MHz ) with download speed up to 42 Mbps is equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/b/n/ac dual-band, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
The screen chosen by Motorola is a panel SuperAMOLED 4.7 inches with a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels and with glass Gorilla Glass 3 for protection against normal scratches. The visibility is very good and also the color reproduction is very faithful (including white, a little ‘the Achilles’ heel of AMOLED).
On the multimedia side, the Moto X has a camera with a resolution of 10 megapixels with LED flash classic that is capable of good quality shots and Full HD movies, even if the management software seems a bit ‘limited in functionality that puts available to the user.
The voice assistant and the active screen
Should be examined separately the two main features, linked also to hardware choices taken.
The Motorola Moto X does not have a LED for notifications, but he exploits the screen: applications that can access this system notifications are customizable and the whole system appears to be well studied. The screen, in fact, is always on, but lights up only in certain conditions, for example when it is grasped, but not when it stays in your pocket.
The ‘voice assistant, called “Hands-Free Control”, is the most striking novelty and advantage of the additional cores of the SoC X8 above. It is always active and waiting, and saying “Ok Now Google” server wakes up, even when the phone is in standby mode with the screen locked. The system is based on Google Now and its set of commands: You can make appointments, initiate calls, write messages, browse the Internet, but also to control the reading of received messages starting with the phone turned off and without touching the screen. The system is very responsive and very helpful, especially the steering wheel or in those situations where it is not possible or is not recommended, tap the screen.
Conclusions
The Motorola Moto X performed well in our tests. It appeared responsive, very smooth and well balanced in all its segments. The solution from Motorola hardware choice turned out to be a pleasant surprise and hardly brings delays in the system, surpassing even in this avversarsi much more muscular.
The sound quality during calls and the reception are of high quality, according to the high standards typical of Motorola. The ‘autonomy is certainly commendable, and with normal use, the Moto X fails to complete a normal workday without too many worries. The use of multimedia is penalized by only 16 GB of storage is not expandable.
The Motorola Moto X is available at the official price of 399 Euros, but looking good, it is not difficult to save a few tens of Euros. The amount requested, although largely justified by the quality of the smartphone, it seems a bit ‘high if you think that some top-seller of the same range as the Nexus 5 , are offered at significantly lower prices.
