The exterior of this smartphone with a water-repellent coating is diversified by colored interchangeable panels. In the filling of the device, seasoned with "pure" Android, a capacious battery and an advanced 21-megapixel camera stand out. All the features of the "middling" Moto X Play were appreciated Vesti.Hi-tech

The legendary Motorola brand has returned to Russian retail after more than a 5-year break. Recall that this trademark is currently owned by a well-known smartphone manufacturer - Lenovo. Actually, only its graphic logo (a special outline of the letter "M") remained from the former brand, since we are now talking about a separate line of Moto products. The first devices that Lenovo introduced on the Russian market were the Moto X (Play, Style,) and Moto G series smartphones. After testing the flagship, we took a closer look at the device of the middle price segment ("higher middle class") Moto X Play.

Specifications

• Model: Moto X Play (XT1562)
• OS: Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
• Processor: 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939), 64-bit ARMv8 architecture, 4-core ARM Cortex-A53 (1.7GHz) plus 4-core ARM Cortex-A53 (1.0GHz)
• Graphics: Adreno 405 (550 MHz)
• RAM: 2 GB (LPDDR3, single channel, 800 MHz)
• Built-in memory: 16 GB, card slot microSD memory/HC/XC (up to 128 GB)
• Screen: 5.5 inches, IPS, Full HD (1920x1080 pixels), 401/403 ppi, up to 10 simultaneous touches, safety glass Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Cameras: main - 21 MP, Sony IMX230 Exmor RS (optical size 1/2.4 inches), aperture f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, dual LED CCT flash, 4x digital zoom, video (1920x1080 pixels)@30 fps; Slow motion [email protected] fps, front - 5 MP, fixed focus
• Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS HSPA+, LTE Cat.4 (150 Mbps), LTE-FDD Band (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 19, 20, 28); LTE-TDD Band (38, 40, 41)
• SIM card type: nanoSIM (4FF)
• Number of SIM cards: 2, Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS)
• Interfaces: Bluetooth 4.0 LE + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), NFC, USB-OTG
• Navigation: GPS/GLONASS, A-GPS
• Radio: FM tuner with RDS
• Sensors: accelerometer, light and proximity sensors
• Battery: non-removable, lithium-ion, 3630 mAh, support fast charging Turbocharger
• Case Feature: Water Repellent Coating
• Dimensions: 148x75x8.9-10.9 mm
• Weight: 169 grams
• Color: white, black

Design, ergonomics

One of the "chips" Moto X Play was the ability to change the appearance of the device thanks to the colored interchangeable panels. Generally speaking, this smartphone is initially offered only in white or black colors. For the test, we got the second option. At the same time, panels of a rather "boring" blue and purple color were also included in the set with him. The plastic base of these panels is coated with a soft-touch coating with an original textured pattern. Panels in other colors are said to be sold separately.

The main material of the smartphone case is polycarbonate, although some of the structural elements clearly imitate metal. A special water-repellent coating creates a barrier against splashes, drops and even light rain, but the device is not designed for complete immersion in water.

The rear panel of the case is curved in the form of an ergonomic "boat", so the thickness from the edge to the center grows from 8.9 mm to 10.9 mm. The same maximum thickness (10.9 mm) was received, for example, by the 5.5-inch case, whose dimensions in terms of, and weight, turned out to be slightly larger than that of the Moto X Play - 152.5x77.2 mm versus 148x75 mm and 170 g vs. 169 g.

The display of the novelty with the on-screen buttons "Back", "Home" and "Recent Applications" (in the form of icons "triangle", "circle", "square") is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protective glass with an oleophobic coating.

On the inserts below and above the screen, there are cutouts for two speakers - "voice" and "multimedia", respectively.

The left edge of the hull was left empty,

And the right edge was occupied by a volume rocker and a power / lock button. On the surface of the latter, a deep notch was made, which does not allow confusing these keys by touch with each other.

The microUSB connector for charging and synchronizing with a computer was placed on the bottom end.

The top end is occupied by a 3.5 mm audio headset connector and a slot, the key for which is included with the smartphone. On a special tray, on the one hand, there were places for two nanoSIM (3FF) subscriber identification modules, and on the other, for a microSD memory card. The solution is quite original and clearly demonstrates that the painful choice between installing two SIM cards or one SIM card and a memory card can be completely avoided.

The hole for the "conversational" microphone was moved to the center of the lower part of the removable panel. At the same time, the second microphone (for noise reduction) was hidden in its upper right corner.

For easy removal of the decorative panel in the lower left corner there is a small cutout.

Under the removable panel lies, alas, a non-removable battery.

On the stylish dedicated metallic plate there was a place for the main camera lens, a dual LED flash and an ergonomic recess ("under the finger") with the legendary logo in the form of the letter "M".

Pleasant tactile sensations of the soft-touch coating enhance the effect of the ergonomic shape of the case. The device does not slip in the palm of your hand, but lies in it quite comfortably and is relatively well controlled for its size with one hand, although it does not have any additional tools for this in the settings.

Screen, camera, sound

The Moto X Play deserves good words for its 5.5-inch screen, which received an IPS-matrix with a Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) that is not a record for today. At the same time, the density of pixels per inch, according to the manufacturer's calculations, is 403 ppi (theoretically, approximately 401 ppi). In addition to wide viewing angles, it is necessary to immediately note the high quality of the picture, excellent color reproduction and contrast.

The capacitive screen of the smartphone supports multi-touch, while the AntTuTu Tester program confirmed that up to ten simultaneous clicks are recognized. The smartphone has enough brightness margin for reading even in sunlight. The backlight level can be adjusted either manually or using automatic tuning according to the light sensor, which works quite correctly. The settings provide two modes for displaying colors, one of which - "Normal" - displays, as stated, realistic colors (read, IPS), the other, "Bright" gives more saturated shades (with a clear claim to color reproduction in the AMOLED style). Gorilla Glass 3 should guarantee the protection of the display from minor damage, and the oleophobic coating applied to it makes it easy to remove grease.

The new smartphone is a "cellmate" of the flagship, that is, it received the same main photo module based on a 21-megapixel Sony IMX230 Exmor RS sensor (optical size 1 / 2.4 inches). The camera is positioned as ZSL (Zero Shutter Lag - with zero shutter lag). There is also an f/2.0 lens and fast phase-detection (PDAF) focusing. A dual LED, so-called CCT, flash is necessary for the most natural color balance. Recall that the colors of light sources are characterized by two parameters - CCT (Correlated Color Temperature, color temperature) and CRI (Color Rendering Index, coefficient, or color rendering index). The CCT of a light source (say, an LED) is the temperature of a black body that has the "closest" color to this light source. For example, lamps with CCT 2 880-3 200 K have a yellowish ("warm") tint, with CCT 3 500 K - "neutral white", with CCT 4 100 K - "cool white", and with CCT - 6 500-10 000 K - bluish tint. But the color rendering index CRI is defined as a measure of the degree of deviation of the color of an object illuminated by a light source from its color when illuminated by a reference light source of comparable color temperature. In other words, how close to "true" the colors of objects will look in a given light. True, in technical specifications Moto X Play specific CCT and CRI values ​​​​for the flash are not indicated.

The maximum resolution of the main camera is achieved with the classic aspect ratio of the frame (4:3) and is 5344x4008 pixels (21 MP), and with widescreen (16:9) - 5344x3006 pixels (16 MP). You can see photo examples.

The front camera has a 5-megapixel sensor and a wide-angle lens with a fixed focus. The maximum selfie resolution is available with the classic aspect ratio (4:3) - 2560x1920 pixels (5 MP), and for widescreen gruff (16:9) - 2560x1440 pixels (3.7 MP).

Both cameras can record videos with Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) at a frame rate of 30 fps. At the same time, for four times slow-motion video (slo-mo), the main camera provides quality [email protected] fps (960x540 pixels), and the front one - [email protected] fps (1280x720 pixels).

The Camera app has a very clean interface. So, to take a picture, you should touch the screen anywhere. Zooming in the viewfinder is done by swiping up or down. If you quickly rotate your wrist twice, you can launch the camera from standby or switch between the main and front cameras. To manually adjust the focus and exposure, the "paper clip" on the viewfinder should be dragged to the right place, where it is easy to adjust the brightness of the image with the adjustment element. It is convenient to go to the gallery of pictures with a swipe to the left. Swipe to the right opens an arcuate bar with settings icons. It offers, for example, to select the flash mode, HDR, timer delay, slow or normal shooting, aspect ratio for photos, etc.

By the way, QR and barcodes are scanned automatically, you just have to point the camera at the corresponding object.

The "multimedia" speaker, located at the bottom of the front panel of the smartphone, boasts a fairly high volume, as well as a relatively clear and pleasant sound. It is a pity that a second speaker is not connected for stereo mode. So it's still better to listen to music through wired headphones, since such an accessory (unlike a more convenient Bluetooth headset) will also come in handy as a shortwave antenna for the built-in FM tuner.

Filling, performance

The Moto X Play is based on a platform designed for mid-range devices - Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939).

Recall that on such a chip, eight 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 cores, manufactured using a 28-nm process technology, are divided equally into two clusters. One of them is clocked at up to 1.7 GHz and the other at 1 GHz. Integrated graphics accelerator Adreno 405 received support for DirectX 11.2, OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenCL 1.2. The Snapdragon 615 architecture, including, in particular, the Hexagon V50 signal processor, provides for the implementation of GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 wireless interfaces, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, and a Multi-SIM modem with support for LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps). The basic configuration of the smartphone is supplemented with 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM (800 MHz), which is controlled by a single-channel 32-bit controller.

The hardware platform of Moto X Play predetermined the number of "virtual parrots" he collected on synthetic tests AnTuTu Benchmark and Vellamo benchmarks (Multicore, Metal).

For the main High Performance and High Quality settings (performance at the expense of quality and vice versa) of the Epic Citadel visual test, the results of the Moto X Play turned out to be quite at the level - 57.4 and 54.9 fps, respectively. But for the Ultra High Quality setting, at the same resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, the frame rate dropped quite significantly (30.6 fps).

On the 3DMark universal gaming benchmark, where the smartphone was tested on the recommended Sling Shot kit, a result corresponding to the average level of the platform was recorded - 374 points. Quite confidently, Moto X Play copes even with 3D games (for example, with the same Asphalt 8 races or Dead Trigger 2 shooter), but, as a rule, not at maximum settings.

The total number of points earned by the smartphone on the Base Mark OS II cross-platform benchmark was 806.

Of the 16 GB of internal memory of the smartphone, approximately 11 GB are available, and about 10 GB are initially free. You can expand the available storage with a microSD/HC/XC memory card up to 128 GB by installing it on the appropriate side of the tray in the combo slot. Once again, we note that this happens without prejudice to the installation of both subscriber identification modules (in nanoSIM format) on the other side of the tray. In addition, thanks to the support of USB-OTG technology, it is easy to connect a USB flash drive to Moto X Play as a drive.

Two nanoSIM (4FF) Subscriber Identity Modules working with one radio module provide Dual SIM Dual Standby mode. Both trays in the slot support 4G networks, but only one of the installed SIM cards will work with an LTE modem (Cat. 4, up to 150 Mbps). At the disposal of the other, at the same time, 2G (GSM) networks will remain. The choice of a SIM card for voice calls, SMS and mobile data transmission remains in the user's prerogative. Among the rather impressive number of available frequency ranges of the LTE-FDD Band (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 19, 20, 28) was the "Russian troika" - Band 3 (1,800 MHz), Band 7 (2,600 MHz) and Band 20 (800 MHz). Among other wireless communications, the novelty has Bluetooth 4.0 LE + EDR interfaces, 2-band Wi-Fi a / b / g / n (2.4 and 5 GHz), as well as NFC, which is usually uncharacteristic for the middle class.

Used for positioning and navigation satellite systems GPS and GLONASS, which is confirmed by the test program AndroiTS GPS Test. Coordination over Wi-Fi and cellular networks is possible through the support of A-GPS technology.

"Secret of longevity" Moto X Play - in non-removable lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 3,630 mAh. The manufacturer indicates that under certain conditions, the battery life of the smartphone can reach two days. The standard power adapter has two USB connectors, which, in principle, allows you to charge two devices from it at the same time. However, it is not recommended to do this together with a smartphone, since the process of filling its battery takes an unreasonably long time (more than three hours) anyway - after all, the maximum output current of the adapter is just over one ampere (1150 mA). Note that the fast charger (TurboCharger) must be purchased separately. It is said that it is able to fill a completely discharged battery with enough energy for 8 hours of battery life in 15 minutes.

On battery tests AnTuTu Tester, the device earned 7,304 points. At the same time, every hour of playback of test videos in MP4 format (hardware decoding) and Full HD quality at maximum brightness reduced the battery charge by an average of about 10% (8 hour evaluation interval).

The transition to power saving mode can be programmed in the settings when the battery level is 5% or 15%.

Software Features

Right during testing, Moto X Play offered to update the operating system with installed android versions 5.1.1 (Lollipop) to Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). The interface of this OS is familiar enough.

As you know, in "pure" Android there is nothing superfluous, and the necessary software from Google Play you can install it yourself. Among the branded preinstalled apps It is worth noting the Moto program, which takes care of actions (reaction to user movements), voice commands (Russian, alas, is not supported) and notifications displayed on the display. In turn, the Alerts app lets you feel safe by sharing your location with family and friends. But to connect Motorola accessories (watches, headphones, etc.) to Moto X Play, the Connect program will help.

Purchase, conclusions

The Moto X Play smartphone can undoubtedly be attributed to the most interesting representatives of the middle price segment. According to Yandex.Market, in large retail chains, at the time of testing, they asked for 29,990 rubles. For this money, a device is offered under famous brand with original design and quality components. Note that the color of the new device changes easily and quickly, thanks to replaceable plastic panels, and the water-repellent nano-coating of the case protects the device from accidental drops and splashes. A high-quality 5.5-inch display is adjacent to the Moto X Play with a flagship 21-megapixel camera and a fairly capacious battery. At the same time, the hardware stuffing is seasoned with "clean" Android and useful Motorola applications.

Unfortunately, the novelty cannot boast of record performance. In addition, the good autonomy of the smartphone is associated with a long process of filling its non-removable high-capacity battery. After all, a fast charging adapter is not included in the Moto X Play kit, alas.

Compared to another stylish long-liver from Lenovo, the new smartphone turned out to be slightly thicker (9.9 mm vs. 10.9 mm), but lighter (169 g vs. 13 MP), yielding, in particular, to the battery capacity (3,630 mAh versus 5,000 mAh) and the lack of a fingerprint scanner. Not available at the time of testing. However, Lenovo believes that each of the Vibe and Moto lines (and, therefore, the models in them) has its own audience.

The results of the review of the smartphone Moto X Play

Pros:

• Change body color with interchangeable panels
• Quality display
• Advanced 21 megapixel camera
• Good autonomy
• Water-repellent body coating
• "Pure" Android

Minuses:

• Average performance
• Non-removable battery
• Long process of filling the battery from a standard adapter
• The package with a smartphone does not include a device for fast charging (TurboCharger)

I think many still remember those times when our market mobile phones such giants as Nokia, Siemens and Motorola ruled. I myself was an adherent of the last of them. I owned both the T180 and the C650 and even the first MPx200 smart clamshell. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and I think it's no secret to anyone that we won't see any new phones under these brands in the near future. But enough about the sad, today the hero of our review - Moto X 16Gb Black - the latest device released by Motorola under the wing of Google. Let's see what results this cooperation has brought. Beware, there are a lot of letters in the review!

Choice

It all started with the fact that I was a little tired of my Jiayu G2S, which I bought a year and a half ago in the vastness of Ali Express. Yes, and there were complaints about his work: terrible GPS, slowdowns, lack of support from the manufacturer, problems with touching when heated, etc. All these are typical problems of Chinese devices that release dozens of new models a year and do not have time to properly debug them. By the way, I would like to express my gratitude to the Russian community w3bsit3-dns.com, which, in fact, do their work for the Chinese and eliminate their flaws.

Based on the foregoing, I decided to take a device from a well-known manufacturer, always on Qualcomm SoC and with LTE support. Also, an important requirement for the phone was compactness within certain limits: no less than 4.5 and no more than 4.7 inches. I don't support the gigantomania that has plagued almost all mobile phone manufacturers in the last year, I just want a mobile phone to fit comfortably in a jeans pocket. I don’t really play games and I don’t chase cores either. Well, the last selection criterion is the price with delivery no more than 15,000 rubles. Many would have answered me - “take the Nexus 4 and don’t worry”, I would have taken it, but I accidentally came across a review of Moto X and, as they say, hooked it, or struck me as nostalgic. Since then, I have not looked at other devices anymore.

Acquisition

In total, Moto X is available in 7 versions with support for various networks (WCDMA/CDMA/LTE). The amount of memory can be either 16 or 32 GB.
I will not describe everything in detail, I will leave only my recommendation for choosing a model and a pivot table with.

XT1052- European version of the device, without locks. But also the most expensive of all. LTE works in Russia.
XT1058- version for America, can be locked to the operator (AT&T). LTE works in Russia. For the AT&T operator, the device is assembled in the USA.
XT1053- differs from XT1058 in other LTE frequencies. LTE will not work in Russia. 3G is working.
XT1060- just like XT1053 does not support our LTE frequencies, 3G works.

pivot table

One of the features of Moto X was the ability to customize the device by the buyer through the MotoMaker.com service. The user can choose from various design of the phone, which even includes 3 options for finishing the cover under the tree. There you can put an inscription on the back cover. There is only one problem: ordering a phone from there directly will not work - the store only accepts cards issued in the USA. Although, with a strong desire, you can find an intermediary or a friend and assemble the device for yourself. Personally, I was satisfied with the standard design of a black device with a gray carbon back cover. It is also worth noting that the XT1058 model is assembled exclusively in the USA, unlike other models assembled in China.

I decided to order the device on ebay, I chose Moto X 16Gb Black with a radio module locked under AT&T. On the one hand, it is cheaper, but the AT&T unlock is always expensive and there is a chance that they will not be able to help you. It's up to everyone to decide whether the game is worth the candle or not. Personally, I was lucky, although I still had to be a little nervous.

Delivery

The seller sent the goods by service. For those who are not in the know, this is a way when the goods are sent to an Ebay postal address in the United States, and he, in turn, through several courier services, delivers the goods to you personally. In Russia, delivery is handled by SPSR-Express, which also asks you for passport data and draws up the goods at customs. They delivered it to me in 17 days, and 4 of them I was waiting for delivery in the region. Initially, the track can be viewed on Ebay and then tracked on the SPRS when they send you the invoice number.

Appearance and equipment

The parcel reached me safe and sound, the box without dents or damage. Initially, the phone comes in a retail box. In addition to the phone, the kit includes a USB cable and Charger 1A with 2 USB outputs. Unfortunately, I got the phone in a non-native box from AT&T with a 0.6A left charger. The phone itself was protective film without traces of use. The seller also put a car charger as a bonus. I didn’t even print out either one or the other.

Appearance

P.S. I didn’t take pictures right away, the phone is already unlocked in the photo.

Characteristics

The phone fits comfortably in the hand thanks to the curved back cover. Although the device has the designation Black, but in fact the cover is made “under carbon” and has a gray color. The surface is slightly rough to the touch, but not textured. Hand marks remain, but are easily removed. The bezels on the screen are narrow, but there are no accidental clicks on the edges of the screen. The display is covered with Corning Gorilla® Glass 3 with a good oleophobic coating and an effective light filter.

Comparison of dimensions with iPhone 4S

The phone is built on the company's own chip - Motorola X8. This SoC includes:
2 CPU cores Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro
4 GPU cores Adreno 320
1 L-NLP (Noise Reduction and Speech Recognition Processor) core
1 CCP core (processor for processing data from sensors and other calculations)

It's essentially a dual-core Qualcomm with Motorola's tweaks to keep proprietary features like Touchless Control, Active Display, and Quick Capture running while reducing power consumption.

LP-DDR2 RAM in the device is 2 GB, internal memory in the device is 16 GB, where "out of the box" about 11 GB is available to the user.

I ran the device in several popular benchmarks.

Test results

The results are quite normal, I think the performance is enough for most modern games. The weakest link, as expected, was two nuclear processor. This factor does not affect the operation of the device, after all, the processor frequency is decent, and the optimization from Google is worth a lot. Although, it's a little pity to see a 2-core solution in the flagship of the company.

The screen resolution is 1280 by 720 pixels, which is quite enough for a 4.7-inch display. Personally, I don’t notice individual pixels and consider this resolution to be optimal for this size. The screen is made using AMOLED technology with excellent dynamic contrast ratios and (like everyone else) slightly oversaturated colors. At angles, the image does not fade, and in daylight the screen remains quite readable.

Photo display

The smartphone is equipped with a Wi-Fi module operating in the range of 2.4 and 5 GHz. The reception is confident, it sees access points that my Chinese device did not even find. See the signal level to the router located in the next office behind a brick wall under the spoiler.

WiFi signal strength

In addition to WCDMA networks, my model supports LTE Band 7, at the frequency of which 4G networks are being deployed in Russia. Below is an example of his work, where the smartphone acted as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. Photo from a laptop screen, I apologize for the quality of the picture.

Speed ​​on LTE

The battery in the device has an average capacity of 2200 mAh. In my usual mode of use, it lasts for one and a half - two days. It is worth noting that I work outside the city and the loss of communication with the device is a common occurrence here. On weekends, the device lives quietly for two days with average use. At the same time, Bluetooth and LTE are turned on 100% of the time.

Battery consumption

my typical day

Navigation on the smartphone works great. Below is the result of testing in the GPS Test. I measured the work, standing at the window facing the north side. At the same time, the Internet was turned off, but the A-GPS data seems to have been used after all.

To perceive information about the world around you, your smartphone is equipped with various sensors. For a complete set, only an ambient temperature sensor is missing.

List of sensors from Antutu

The main camera in the phone has a resolution of 10.5 Mpx, frontal 2.1 Mpx. Video is recorded in Full HD H.264 at 17.2 Mbps at 30 frames per second. The native camera application does not allow you to change the quality and resolution of pictures. The LED flash is single, but powerful enough. It also features HDR and Slow Motion.

There are NFC and Miracast in the device, but, alas, it was not possible to check the performance.

Firmware and software features

Initially, in 2013, the smartphone was released with Android 4.2.2 on board. Later it received an update to the latest version 4.4 KitKat. Moreover, the release of new updates directly depends on the specific modification, and if the latest version for XT1058 AT & T is 4.4.2, then for XT1053 T-Mobile it is already 4.4.3. According to official statements, the release of the recently announced Android 5.0 L on Moto X is also planned.

The phone came to me with firmware 4.2.2, which I updated to version 4.4 via OTA. Official firmware not multilingual and no Russian language support.

Android Version

Installation same unofficial firmware on the XT1058 is hampered by the fact that it has a locked bootloader. It is possible to partially correct the situation if the device has root rights, however, after such changes it is impossible to update the firmware “over the air”. So the best solution would be to switch the locale to Russian through the Morelocale2 program.

Now let's dwell on Motorola's proprietary technologies implemented in the smartphone.

Touchless Control - the device constantly listens to the surrounding background while waiting passphrase OK Google. At the first start, he learns to recognize the voice of the owner and then reacts only to him. In fact, this is an add-on for Google Now, and when you install the Russian language in the search, it can, for example, execute the command “Write SMS to your Beloved - I will be home soon” without touching the phone. All this is available with the Internet, however, Touchless Control also has its own teams that work anytime and anywhere. It is very convenient to find out the current time and information about missed calls using the “Wat's Up” command. Or, for example, the phone will beep if you say the phrase “Find my phone”.

Active Display - the phone perfectly understands when it is picked up. If this happens, it displays the current time on the screen and offers to unlock the device. This is very convenient - taking it out of your pocket, you can immediately unlock the screen without pressing the power button. In addition, the function periodically notifies you of missed calls or new SMS. The list of programs that are allowed to display information on it can be edited in the settings.

Quick Capture - this function allows you to start the camera without unlocking the screen by double-swinging the device along its vertical axis. Just like in the case of the Active Display, there were no random triggers.

Motorola Connect - allows you to view SMS and a list of incoming phone calls through Chrome browser on the computer. While hands did not reach to test this chip of the device.

Conclusion

Motorola turned out to be an ambiguous product, alas, in terms of its parameters, it does not reach the flagships of 2013, such as the Samsung S4 or HTC One M7. The blame for everything is the long development of the device, in which, according to rumors, Google has invested a lot of time and effort, but has not caught up with the market leaders. In addition, the smartphone was originally focused on the North American market, for which the devices were assembled at home. However, such an advertising move did not give the expected results - soon the US factory will be closed and all new Moto X will be assembled in China.

pros
- high build quality and materials
- work in 4G networks
- great screen
- 2GB RAM
- support from Google
- proprietary technologies from Motorola

Minuses
- 2-core processor
- lack of Russian language
- no slot for memory cards
- poor equipment
- no support for wireless charging

In the bottom line, we have an excellent phone for those who care about quality and who are not chasing cores and megapixels. For these people (including me), using this phone will bring real pleasure. An updated Moto X + 1 model is expected soon, where these shortcomings should be eliminated. Thank you all for your attention!

Contents of delivery:

• Smartphone
• Instruction
• micro USB cable
• USB adapter for 220V network

Introduction

In August 2011, a deal was announced between two powerful companies: Google and Motorola. The first bought the mobile division of Motorola - Mobile Devices, which in the future was called Motorola Mobility LCC. The acquisition was completed in May of the following year, and already in 2013, Google officially introduced a new logo and assigned a new name to MM. Now Motorola Mobility is called simply: "Motorola - a Google Company."

The Moto X is the first smartphone entirely assembled and built in the USA. It is also the first device developed since Google's acquisition of Motorola's mobile division. The main feature of this gadget is that even before the purchase, the design of Moto X can be changed a little: on the official website, MotoMaker is presented, with which you can customize the colors of the back panel, buttons and camera frames, and also select materials. For example, there are only 18 versions of the back covers, there are even wooden ones, but so far they are not available on the site. Unfortunately, the smartphone itself is sold only in the US, ie. in Russia, it is really possible to buy it only from dealers of "gray" devices, and even then in a limited color variety. You can read a little more in our separate material on Moto X.

Design, dimensions, controls

I think that you read about the appearance, body color options, materials and other things by clicking on the link above. We tested the simplest version, it seems to me: the white back plastic side, the black front, the buttons and the frame of the camera are silver. The edging is made of glossy black plastic, protrudes slightly above the screen, probably - additional protection from external influences. The back cover is made of porous material, pleasant to the touch, does not slip in the hands at all. Despite the fact that the surface is flat, visually it seems that the panel has a relief in the form of a three-dimensional wicker structure. Looks great and plays beautifully in the light.

The upper part of the back side is slightly beveled, there is no "braid" on it, and it is also absent on the edges of the case.

The shape of the body is rectangular with beveled corners. From the edges to the center of the rear side there is a thickening (from 5.7 mm to 10.4 mm), creating the effect of a curved phone. Therefore, the smartphone lies perfectly in the hands, especially if these hands are not “shovels”.

The dimensions are as compact as possible for a device whose diagonal is 4.7 inches - 129x65x10.4 mm, the weight is also within reasonable limits - 130 grams. Frame top - 14 mm, bottom - 10, left and right - 3.5 mm each.

Another small but nice feature is a round recess below the camera, which is engraved with the letter "M". The fact is that while using the phone, the index finger involuntarily lies precisely in this hollow.

The gadget is non-separable, but no problems were noticed during the operation: the rear panel does not play, does not creak, does not crunch when squeezed in the hand and does not bend to the battery. The quality of the materials is also high: not a single scratch appeared on the screen (by the way, it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass), and the body, according to some reports, has a water-repellent coating (unfortunately, it does not provide the IP67 standard).

Overall, the design ergonomics of the Moto X is, in my opinion, perfect!

On the top of the front panel is a speaker. It is framed with a metal edging. The loudspeaker volume is high, the interlocutor is heard very well and legibly, mainly low and medium frequencies are heard, which cannot but rejoice. No interference and extraneous noise or overload. The sound is pleasant, velvety and does not hit the ears at high volume. I can say for sure that the Moto X uses one of the best speech speakers comparable to the Samsung Note 2, Note 3 and partly the Galaxy S4.

To the left of the speaker are a light sensor and a proximity sensor. Both work correctly. On the right is the front camera. The buttons are on-screen, so the manufacturer was able to minimize the distance from the bottom end to the screen, i.e. shrink the frame. Thus, the device has become more compact. The microphone is located under the display to the left.

At the bottom - microUSB, at the top - 3.5 mm and a second microphone for recording sound in stereo. On the left is a “sim card” for nanoSIM. Yes, it's nano, not micro. Strange decision. Most likely, again, the calculation is that lovers of "apples" migrate to "andryukha". On the right is the power button (it protrudes slightly above the body, it is well groped with fingers, the stroke is minimal, a quiet click is heard) and the volume rocker. It is thin and short, and the tactile sensation is the same as that of the lock/unlock button.

Recessed camera eye, single-section flash, speaker speakerphone located on the back of the device. There is another small hole, but nothing is said about it anywhere. Perhaps this is another microphone for noise reduction. I do not rule out the reset button.

Comparative dimensions:

Moto X and Nokia Lumia 1020

Moto X and Meizu MX3

Moto X and iPhone 5

Moto X and HTC One

Display

In this case, the manufacturer did not pursue the dimensions of the screen diagonals, so the Moto X uses a 4.7-inch display with HD resolution. The physical size of the matrix is ​​56.5x102.5 mm, the density is 312 dpi. Naturally, at such a density, pixelation is invisible. The matrix is ​​made using SuperAMOLED technology and has a special structure without the notorious PenTile (AMOLED RGB screen). The picture quality is above all praise: the brightness and contrast are high, the colors are saturated (but not oversaturated, not "vigorous"), the viewing angles are maximum, and the bluish tint when tilted (a common occurrence in SuperAMOLED matrices) is almost imperceptible.

Moto X screen matrix

Below is a comparison of the displays of Nokia Lumia 1020, Motorola Moto X, Meizu MX3 and LG G2.

The best result at a right angle, according to my feelings, came from the Nokia Lumia 1020, followed by the Meizu MX3 and LG G2. But Moto X has a lot of red colors. When tilting the displays away from you, Nokia is again better, then Moto X, LG G2 and lastly - Meizu. At other viewing angles, the screens behave approximately the same, except for the LG G2, in this model the matrix either turns yellow or violet. This suggests that LG has not installed the highest quality matrix in its flagship device.

Moto X screen viewing angles

Battery

This model has a non-removable battery. Its capacity is 2200 mAh (Li-Ion). Typical for most devices with small screen sizes. Therefore, the operating time is also standard: about 10 hours, provided that the data transfer was turned on, the brightness was “Auto”, about 10-15 minutes of talks, an hour of taking photos and videos. If you watch a movie in 1080p resolution at maximum brightness and sound volume in headphones, then the battery will run out after 4-4.5 hours. The Antut Tester battery test program gives out 525 points, which once again proves the average “survivability” of the Moto X battery.

Communication options

The device works in GSM / GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSPA and even 4G LTE networks, and in Russia too (non-fast versions of the devices). There is Bluetooth 4.0 (LE + EDR), Wi-Fi has a standard not only b / g / n, but also AC. There is an NFC chip.

Memory and memory card

Traditionally, not the most top-end smartphones are still installed with 2 GB of RAM. Of this volume, about 1.2 GB is free. In fact, not very much, given that it uses bare Android, and the resolution is not FullHD.

Built-in memory is 16 GB or 32 GB. It all depends on the version you will purchase. In the US, the difference is minimal - only $ 50, with us it can be from 5 to 15 thousand rubles. The review was a version with 32 GB of Flash, just over 26 GB free. There is no slot for a memory card in this gadget.

Camera

Lately almost all manufacturers decided to hit the marketing designations of cameras that use supposedly special image processing technologies, huge matrices, superpixels, and so on. In general, Moto X also decided to get confused and call the 10 MP camera module (by the way, 1.4 µm pixel size, F2.4 aperture) CLEAR PIXEL (RGBC-matrix captures 75% more light than standard RGBG).

As a result, it turned out as always: the picture quality is not the best, especially when compared with the current flagships Samsung Note 3, LG G2, Sony Xperia Z1 or Nokia Lumia 1020. Everything is fine with color reproduction, the viewing angle is relatively wide, the focus is quite accurate, almost no mistakes , but detail suffers. Possibly bad post-processing. With an insufficient level of lighting, color artifacts “crawl out” in the photo.

The video shoots Moto X in 1080p resolution (you can’t do less with a regular application) at 30 frames per second and with auto focus. There is a slow motion mode. The number of frames becomes about 120 (the video slows down), the resolution decreases to 720p, the sound is turned off, the focus remains.

There is an HDR mode. Works very well in my opinion.

The camera can be launched in two ways. The first is standard: you need to unlock the screen and click on the "Camera" icon. The second one is the most convenient and unusual: to activate it, you need to quickly turn and turn the screen away from you twice, i.e. make a rotating motion with the hand. This function works even when the screen is locked.

Interface

Everything is very simple. On the screen below on the right is video recording, on the left is the launch of the front camera (2 MP, video writes 1080p). Swipe from left to right calls up the settings: HDR (auto, on or off), flash, touch focus, SLO (Slow Motion), panorama, geotagging, turn the sound on or off, activate the camera by turning the smartphone. Swipe from right to left - open the gallery. To use the digital zoom, you need to slide your finger from the bottom up (zoom in) or from the top down (zoom out) on the screen.

EXIF information from a photo file

Video file characteristic:

• Format: MP4
• Video codec: AVC, 17,000 kbps
• Resolution: 1920x1080, 30 fps
• Audio codec: AAC, 128 Kbps
• Channels: 2 channels, 48 ​​kHz

Feature of SloMo video file:

• Format: MP4
• Video codec: AVC, 5000 Kbps
• Resolution: 1280x720, 15 fps

Examples of HDR photos:

Examples of photos on the main camera:

Sample photo on the front camera:

Performance

The manufacturer claims that this device is built on the original architecture called "Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System". But in fact, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro is used: two Krait cores at 1.7 GHz, 28 nm, ARMv7. The main thing is not to confuse it with APQ8064, it has 4 cores, and here it is MSM8960T. The company is talking about software optimization of this chip.

“In addition, there are several processors for other tasks. In particular, a voice processor that allows you to "talk" with the device even when the screen is off, as well as a low-power processor used by the smartphone to display only necessary notifications in standby mode (Active Display). If I understand the description of this mode correctly, then Moto X will be one of the first Android smartphones with a normal notification system, which Nokia used to have on the S60, for example. That is, you have a smartphone in standby mode, the main notifications are displayed on the screen, but the energy for this is almost not consumed due to the fact that a separate processor with minimal power consumption is used for this task.

Adreno 320 is responsible for the graphic part. Screenshots from Asphalt 8:

The smartphone turned out to be “lightning fast”: the interface works very quickly, programs and games are launched, during testing no brakes or “glitches” were noticed, there were no interface lags either.

"Feature phone" among modern smartphones

After Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility (now "Motorola - a Google Company"), the launch of the Motorola Moto X was arguably the mobile veteran's first major step. For a long time, the mysterious Google X Phone has been surrounded by many rumors. The situation was clarified at the D11 conference, where CEO Dennis Woodside not only confirmed the release of the flagship, but also announced that Moto X will be the first smartphone assembled in the United States. Note that it is in the United States that Moto X smartphones assembled in the United States are sold, but in other countries, such as Canada, devices assembled in China are sold.

On August 1, Motorola Moto X was officially presented, and it turned out that the details covered on the D11 are by no means the most interesting side of the device. Other features of the top-end smartphone look much more interesting. Firstly, this is an opportunity to purchase Moto X in your own design, combining various body elements. Second, built-in voice control, which is always active and awaits commands even when the screen is off.

Key Features of Motorola Moto X (XT1058)

• Single-chip system: Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System based on Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T
• CPU: 2x Krait 300 @1.7GHz (ARMv7)
• GPU: 4 cores Adreno 320 @400 MHz
• operating room android system 4.2.2 Jelly beans
• Display: AMOLED, 4.7″, 1280×720, 312 ppi
• RAM: 2 GB
• Internal memory: 16/32 GB
• GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz communication (AT&T version)
• Communication 3G UMTS HSPA 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz (AT&T version)
• 4G (LTE) Bands 2, 4, 5, 17 (AT&T version)
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE+EDR
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5 GHz)
• NFC, MHL(?)
• A-GPS/Glonass
• Temperature and pressure sensors
• Rear camera: 10 MP, autofocus
• Front camera: 2 MP
• Battery: non-removable, 2200 mAh
• Dimensions: 129.4×65.3×10mm
• Weight: 132 g (weighted in editorial)

More information about the filling of Motorola Moto X can be found in our news. The 32GB flash version officially costs $530 in the US (no contract).

		Google Nexus 4	Sony Xperia SP	LG Optimus G	HTC One
Screen	4.7" AMOLED	4.7" IPS Plus	4.6″	4.7" IPS Plus	4.7″ S-LCD3 (IPS)
Permission	1280×720, 312 ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi	1280×720, 319 ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi	1920×1080, 469ppi
SoC	X8 Mobile Computing System @1.7 GHz (2 cores, ARMv7 Krait 300)		Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro @1.7GHz (2 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 @1.7GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)
GPU	Adreno 320	Adreno 320	Adreno 320	Adreno 320	Adreno 320
RAM	2 GB	2 GB	1 GB	2 GB	2 GB
Flash memory	16/32 GB	8/16 GB	8 GB	32 GB	16/32/64 GB
Memory card support	No	No	microSD	No	No
Operating system	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1
SIM format	Nano SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM
Battery	non-removable, 2200 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh	non-removable, 2370 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh	non-removable, 2300 mAh
cameras	rear (10 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP; video - 1080p)	rear (8 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)	rear (8 MP; video - 1080p), front (0.3 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)	rear (4 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP)
Size	129×65×10 mm	134×69×9.1 mm	131×67×9.9 mm	132×69×8.5mm	137×68×9.3mm
Weight	132 g*	139 g	155 g	145 g	143 g
Average price (Y.Market)	32 GB: T-10451529	16 GB: T-8490976	8 GB: T-9328668	32 GB: T-8461088	32 GB: T-9281443
Motorola Moto X offers (Ya.Market)	L-10451529-10

*weighted in editorial

Motorola has another model in its range, very similar in characteristics to Moto X - Droid Ultra, presented a week before our hero. Its main difference lies in the larger diagonal of the display by 0.3 inches. The resolution is the same.

And it is precisely because of the permission that we cannot put the Motorola Moto X on a par with the flagships of other manufacturers. One could turn a blind eye to a slight difference in the diagonal, but when 1080p has already established itself as the standard for top models, 720p immediately throws our hero on a par with the middle class.

Equipment

Motorola Moto X comes in a white cardboard box with colorful triangles and a flip-top lid.

The smartphone package includes only the essentials: a network adapter with two USB inputs, a cable, as well as a tool for installing a SIM card and an information booklet.

The Spartan set of accessories is diluted by the presence of two USB connectors on the AC adapter. With an output current of 1150 mA, it is quite capable of coping with charging two batteries at once. mobile devices. You can expand the complete set of Moto X by ordering a smartphone with your own design.

Moto Maker

When buying a Motorola Moto X with an AT&T carrier contract, users can design a smartphone with their own design and equipment.

The greatest variety is available when choosing the color of the back panel - 18 colors are available here (including two fabric textures). Then, from seven shades, the buyer chooses an "accent" - the color of the rim of the rear camera and mechanical keys. In addition, you can choose the color of the front panel, but here we are not spoiled - black or white.

The screen has good viewing angles. True, the white color at a deviation at relatively large angles takes on a slight tint, but the black color is just black at any angle (although the reflection from the black areas at some angles has a blue "metallic" tint). so black that the contrast parameter in this case is simply not applicable. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is excellent. Switching the state of the matrix elements is actually instantaneous, but there may be a step (or two) 16.7 ms wide at the turn-on front (corresponding to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects, but in normal use it is almost impossible to see these artifacts. Rather, on the contrary, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “twitchy” movements.

The gamma curve constructed from 32 points did not reveal any blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is 2.30, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve deviates little from the power dependence:

Note that due to the dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image (on average bright images, the brightness decreases slightly), the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential full screen grayscale output.

The color gamut is much wider than sRGB:

The spectra show that the primary colors are well separated:

As a result, the colors on this screen are oversaturated and somewhat unnatural. The color temperature balance is good: shades of gray have a color temperature close to 6500 K, which changes little over the entire part of the gray scale that matters (the range close to black can be ignored, since color reproduction is not so important in it, and the measurement error of color characteristics is high ):

The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is less than 10, which is considered a good indicator for a non-professional device, and also changes slightly from shade to shade:

Above is the best internet connection test result that we got in places with excellent LTE reception in the Megafon network. The ping value and transfer rate clearly do not correspond to the 4G LTE range; at best, it's HSPA+. Further searches on the Web confirmed that the frequency of 700 MHz for Russian LTE is not yet available, and at best in our country we can hope for HSPA +.

For calls and SMS, Moto X uses the standard Google interface. It is complemented by the Google People and AT&T apps. The reception quality is good, we did not notice any sudden "drops" from the network during testing. Crystal Voice technology and two almost imperceptible microphones are responsible for the quality of communication. They do their job very well.

The list of wireless communication protocols also includes dual-band Wi-Fi, which works not only in standard b / g / n protocols, but also ac. Unfortunately, in our office, the smartphone did not see the 5 GHz network; it seems to support other channels. The connection speed of 2.4 GHz shows that the smartphone has one antenna for Wi-Fi, operating in single-channel mode. In addition, Motorola Moto X has GPS and Glonass support, as well as NFC.

Camera

Motorola Moto X is equipped with two cameras. The front has a resolution of 2 MP (1920 × 1080). You can check out a sample of her photo below:

The 10 MP rear camera is activated with a gesture that is complex enough not to accidentally trigger in your pocket - you need to turn your wrist twice and return it to its previous position. At the same time, the smartphone will emit an increasing vibration signal.

The list of camera options is short: HDR, flash, manual focus and panoramic shot. They appear if you move the screen to the right. The opposite gesture opens the gallery. Up and down movements are responsible for the zoom; 4x is the maximum.

work Motorola cameras Moto X commented Anton Solovyov:

	Many of the inscriptions are quite readable. In general, the fore and middle grounds worked out well.
	In HDR mode, the camera does not converge shots very smoothly, so the sharpness “walks” randomly around the frame field. However, the numbers of the nearest cars are clearly distinguishable.
	To distant plans, the sharpness drops a little.
	The effect of walking sharpness is especially good in the camera in low light, although in general the picture does not look so bad.
	But in good lighting, the camera copes normally, noise appears only in the shadows in the background.
	There is no drop in sharpness towards the edges, but sharpness in the center is not so good either.
	Macro shooting in low light is spoiled by noise.
	The flash improves things a lot.
	The text is worked out well, without noticeable damage.
	Night shots are good enough for the camera.

In addition to "field conditions", we also tested the camera in the lab:

	≈1300 lux. The camera performs relatively well.
	≈460 lux. When shooting finely detailed objects, the camera is already losing a lot.
	≈240 lux. Contrasting objects still work out well, but everything else is spoiled by strong noise.
	≈240 lux, flash. The flash allows you to achieve the original resolution.
	<1 люкс. В темноте камера не справляется.
	<1 люкс, вспышка. Вспышка по-прежнему значительно улучшает ситуацию.

The camera turned out to be quite balanced. She is not outstanding, but there are no significant failures in her work. The program as a whole works reasonably, however, colored noise is noticeable in places, suppressed only by half. In some places, it even recycles, as a result of which, when lighting deteriorates, the camera demonstrates an improvement in resolution. However, these are only numerical results; visually, the resolution drops very quickly.

The camera module is clearly not the best, as evidenced by the results of shooting the stand, but the optics and the matrix are quite consistent with each other. Special attention deserves the work of the flash, which copes well with its task even in macro photography.

Perhaps the camera is not so bad, especially if the requirements for it are low. It is suitable exclusively for documentary shooting, and when shooting texts and macro in low light, do not forget about the presence of a good flash.

Motorola Moto X is capable of shooting video, and in two modes - normal (MPEG-4 AVC video ( [email protected]), 17.1 Mbps, 1920×1080, 29.929 fps; sound AAC LC, 128 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels) and slow motion, no sound (MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), 5002 Kbps, 1280×720, 15,000 fps). The video quality is at a good level, the camera adapts well to lighting conditions and demonstrates a good fps level.

Software

Motorola Moto X runs on Android 4.2.2 operating system. We tested an unlocked version of the AT&T operator with the latest firmware version at the time of this writing, 139.12.54.ghost_att.ATT.en.US. By the way, recently it became that Google is preparing an Android 4.4 update for the Moto X.

Motorola didn't add much variety to the operating system. In addition to a wide range of standard OS creator programs, the smartphone has only a few Motorola and AT&T utilities on board. Among them, we note Motorola Assist. It puts the phone into customizable Meeting mode (if available on the calendar), Driving mode (if GPS is signaling active movement), and Sleep mode (at a set time every day).

By default, 26.33 out of 32 GB of phone memory is available to the user. In relative terms, this may not be too small, but the fact that the mobile OS takes up more than 5 GB is not encouraging. It will be difficult to improve the situation, since root rights are not granted to the user. Turning on the phone takes about 20 seconds.

There is no Russian in the list of available system languages, but on the Web you can already easily find instructions for Russifying a smartphone.

Voice control, active display and PC integration

Let's move on to the most interesting. Motorola Moto X, along with Droid Ultra, Mini and Max, supports voice control of the phone, including when the screen is off.

The Touchless Control function is activated by the phrase “OK Google Now”, which must first be recorded in order for the smartphone to recognize your command.

The set of commands perceived by the phone is very extensive, and the phone sensitively picks them up. We had no problems with recognition within the same room. Perhaps the voice is easily picked up from the next room, but the change in timbre does not allow Moto X to determine the phrase heard as a key one. In conditions of normal hearing, the smartphone determines the owner’s timbre well and responds to the voice, even if the command was pronounced a little differently. But it’s not so easy to deceive a smartphone: during testing, ten people unsuccessfully tried to do this.

Recognition is not perfect, but generally good. Alas, Touchless Control does not understand Russian: now the list of supported languages ​​includes American versions of English and Spanish, Canadian version of French and Brazilian version of Portuguese. But the application is constantly updated, learning at least new commands. For example, in the latest version at the time of writing, the smartphone has learned to understand the replica “Find my phone”, in response to which it starts to give shrill signals.

Touchless Control requires a network connection, of course. And if you also take into account that the microphone is always on in this mode, power consumption immediately becomes a burning issue. In the corresponding section, we will definitely evaluate how wireless control affects the duration of the smartphone.

Due to the fact that AMOLED matrices consume little power when displaying black, Moto X uses a display instead of LEDs for notification in sleep mode. This feature is appropriately called Active Display. While in sleep mode, the smartphone periodically displays the time, and with it the icons of events that deserve attention. In the Active Display settings, you can limit the list of applications that can send alerts in this way.

Active Display also uses the phone's sensors. As a result, time and alerts pop up on a black display only when the user picks up the phone. The indication works quickly, even before the finger reaches the unlock button.

The Active Display settings hide the third know-how that deserves no less attention - Motorola Connect. It allows you to view call and SMS history through the Chrome extension, send messages, and receive sound and graphic notifications in a pop-up window for incoming calls and SMS. Of course, Motorola Connect requires you to be signed in to the same Google account on Android and Chrome on your PC to use it.

By the way, if the capabilities of the Motorola Moto X are impressive, but for some reason you are not going to buy it, some special features of the novelty can also be used on another Android smartphone.

Performance

The Motorola Moto X is based on the Motorola X8 Mobile Computer System platform. It consists of three elements:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T SoC:
  • CPU: 2x Krait 300 (ARMv7) @1.7GHz
  • GPU: 4 cores Adreno 320 @400 MHz
• Processor for contextual computing, working with sensors and camera, but in idle mode capable of taking over the functions of the main processor
• A natural language processor that works with sound and, in particular, with noise reduction and voice control

We encountered a similar filling when testing the Sony Xperia SP - the only difference was the absence of an additional pair of processors. And the RAM of the Sony smartphone was half as much.

Let's move on to benchmarks:

Synthetic tests show that Motorola Moto X outperforms mid-range smartphones based on similar platforms. Based on the fact that in Geekbench 2, which does not use graphics, the advantage disappears, we can assume that the additional processor of the Motorola platform is involved in the corresponding scenarios.

Antutu X Benchmark:

In new benchmarks, we compared the Moto X to several competitors based on Qualcomm's more advanced platform, the Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064. Despite the fact that they all have twice as many cores, the Motorola smartphone is second only to them in Geekbench 3.

In the MobileXPRT test suite, we also pitted the Moto X against the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N900, which is vastly more powerful than our hero. Logically losing in performance tests, Motorola snatched victory in the work with the interface. The status of "a Google company" is obvious.

Let's move on to gaming benchmarks. Here, for a more revealing comparison, we included the top-end LG G2 based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 platform:

Yes, modern smartphones are already gradually growing out of the Epic Citadel test. But note that the Moto X outperformed the LG G2 in it, and even in the most difficult mode it did not reach the VSync frequency by just 2 fps. It will be much more interesting to look at the results of the demanding T-Rex HD scene:

		LG Optimus G	HTC One	Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Offscreen)	15 fps	8.3 fps	15 fps	26 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Onscreen)	26 fps	11 fps	13 fps	26 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z24MS4 Onscreen)	—	—	—	—
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Fixed time Offscreen)	14 fps	8.0 fps	14 fps	25 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Fixed time Onscreen)	24 fps	10 fps	13 fps	25 fps
GFXBenchmark Egypt HD (C24Z16 Offj screen)	41 fps	21 fps	37 fps	68 fps
GFXBenchmark Egypt HD (C24Z16 Onscreen)	51 fps	29 fps	33 fps	54 fps

To recap, the Moto X at its 720p resolution is capable of delivering the same number of frames per second as the mighty Samsung at its top Snapdragon 800 at 1080p.

Browser testing was done on Chrome as there are no other browsers installed on the Moto X. In the competition on the same platform, the standard Android browser suffers a crushing defeat:

In conclusion, let's try a couple of games: dynamic slasher Dungeon Hunter 4 and demanding racing simulator Asphalt 8. No problem.

Video playback

Despite the fact that on some resources on the Web there is a mention of the presence of an MHL interface, we did not find it or Mobility DisplayPort in this smartphone, but perhaps we needed to make more attempts. As a result, I had to limit myself to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"). Screen shots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with different parameters: the resolution varied (1280 × 720 (720p) and 1920 × 1080 (1080p) pixels), as well as the frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frame/s). In tests, we used the MX Player video player in the "Hardware" mode, since the "Hardware +" mode did not work quite correctly. The results of this test are summarized in the table:

File	Uniformity	Passes
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	not playable
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	poorly	many
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	Okay	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Okay	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Okay	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Great	No

Note: If both the Uniformity and Gaps columns have green ratings, this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and frame skipping will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the frame output criterion, the playback quality of video files (except (1080p with 50 and 60 fps)) on the screen of the smartphone itself is high, since frames (or groups of frames) are displayed with a more or less uniform alternation of intervals and there are no frame drops. However, uniform frame interleaving is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes cause the correct interleaving of intervals between frames to periodically fail. When playing video files with a resolution of 1280 by 720 (720p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed along the borders of the screen, one by one in pixels, so the real clarity is exactly the same as the original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen is slightly out of the standard range of 16-235, because in the shadows the few shades of gray closest to black are indistinguishable from black, but in the highlights all shades are displayed.

To evaluate the decoding capabilities, we traditionally use five files of the most common formats on the Web:

Format	container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Regular video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280x720 3000Kbps, AC3	Hardware+
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280x720 4000Kbps, AC3	plays fine with decoder Hardware+	Video plays fine, no sound¹
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920x1080 8000Kbps, AC3	plays fine with decoder Hardware+	Video plays fine, no sound¹

¹ Audio in MX Video Player only played after switching to software decoding or new mode Hardware+; The regular player does not have such a setting.

Battery life

The Motorola Moto X smartphone is equipped with a 2200 mAh non-removable battery. To begin with, we tested the performance of the phone in three modes:

How does voice control affect battery life? We tested the smartphone for two hours in reading mode with and without Touchless Control enabled. Touchless Control had almost no effect on the results: the difference was a few minutes (in terms of battery power). Therefore, the power consumption of a natural language processor is a tiny fraction of the total power consumption of a smartphone.

It takes about three hours to fully charge the phone using the included AC adapter.

Conclusion

Moto X is the first fruit of Motorola's work, fully grown on the rich soil of Google. Juicy, ripe and appetizing. Fans of chasing numbers can pass by: today is not their day. By creating Moto X, "a Google company" was able to comprehend the magic of the main competitor and released a smartphone that you want to own. And this desire does not arise from scratch. An interesting and convenient design, original additional functions, a very good display, excellent sound and communication quality, as well as a logically excellent operation of the operating system - the list of advantages is really pleasing to the eye. Although the battery life does not break records, it looks decent against the background of smartphones in the middle price segment. As for the camera... if it has a very high priority, then, of course, it is better to join the "number chasers" in search of something better.

Separately, it is worth noting the possibility of creating your own design. Motorola has been a pioneer in this area, which looks very interesting and promising against the backdrop of repetitive updates in the style of "faster, higher, stronger." But...

But, unfortunately, the overall picture will be incomplete without factors that appear on the other side of the scale. Motorola Moto X does not support Russian LTE bands. Convenient voice control does not support Russian. And most importantly: the smartphone is not officially delivered to Russia, and there is no news on this matter yet. Nevertheless, if you are on a short footing with English, are not afraid of thematic forums and, moreover, are ready to sacrifice additional time / money to purchase a smartphone, then the new Motorola product can be safely recommended for purchase.

The Moto X4 revives the Moto X line, but it's not the Moto X we once knew. Now it has become a mid-range phone and to be perfectly honest, the only thing the Moto X4 has to do with the Moto X from the past is the name. In all other respects, this is a completely different device of a new direction. But can the new phone live up to our expectations? Find out in our full review!

Moto X4 design

Unlike previous phones in the Moto X line, which had customization options with a choice of back panel materials and color details, you won't get anything like that with the Moto X4. Instead, the design of the Moto X4 almost completely matches the design of the Moto Z series devices, with the exception of the Moto modules. The Moto X4 is made predominantly of glass, like most modern phones, with Corning® Gorilla® Glass glass panels on the front and back, and a sleek anodized aluminum metal frame surrounding the device. The corners are nicely rounded and the back side is slightly tapered at the edges, which allows the phone to fit comfortably in your hand.

A lot of glass phones look pretty boring, but Motorola used an interesting trick to make the device more attractive. Looking at the back of the Moto X4 under a magnifying glass reveals microscopic arcuate grooves on the back of the glass panel - this creates a 3D surface effect that is much more complex than it actually is, causing light to refract. Therefore, if you view the Moto X4 in bright light, the highlights will bend on its surface. Of course, this is best seen on the model in silver-blue, but the black version also looks impressive. A similar effect is used in the design of the camera module, which, thanks to the radial reflections, resembles the dial of an expensive watch.

The phone isn't that big, so it's much easier to use in one hand compared to most other phones on the market. Of course, the glass back means it will pick up fingerprints, so if you're concerned about keeping your device looking clean, I'd recommend carrying a cleaning cloth with you.

Otherwise, there is nothing extravagant about the design of the Moto X4 as it looks pretty standard in other aspects. The bezel around the edges of the display is medium in size, and the camera on the back protrudes like on other Moto devices, except here it's just a design element that serves no purpose like on the Moto Z line.

Moto X4 display

The Moto X4's screen doesn't stretch from edge to edge and doesn't have curved edges or rounded corners. This is an ordinary smartphone without frills. This is a 5.2-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels or Full HD and a density of 424 PPI. It's not a display that will blow your mind, but it's great for daily use and I didn't have any major complaints about the screen during my testing.

Colors are quite pleasing for an LCD, viewing angles are good, and visibility wasn't an issue even in bright sunlight. However, black levels are not as good as on AMOLED displays. This is to be expected, but the Moto X4 didn't have common LCD issues such as uneven lighting around the edges of the screen.

Moto X4 performance and hardware

The Moto X4 falls into the mid-range category and is therefore equipped with a Snapdragon 630 processor and either 3GB or 4GB of RAM for running apps and multitasking. We had a 4 GB version from Europe. It might not be the most powerful phone on paper, but as far as the display is concerned, it's more than enough. The Moto X4 performed admirably in everyday use with no lag or lag.

Apps launched quickly, multitasking worked great, and graphics-intensive games like Need For Speed: No Limits or Marvel's Contest of Champions ran quickly and smoothly.

In terms of hardware, the Moto X4 offers standard features for Android devices. There are versions with 32 GB and 64 GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot provides up to 2 TB of additional space. For the review, we used the European version with 64 GB and support for two SIM cards, but like other Motorola phones, the Moto X4 received a combo slot, which means that you can only install a second SIM card by refusing a memory card. The fingerprint scanner is in the typical Motorola position at the bottom of the screen, and it works with sufficient reliability and speed. I also like that it can be used to put the phone to sleep or in place of the navigation buttons like on other Moto phones with a fingerprint scanner.

Unlike the Moto Z series smartphones, the Moto X4 has a headphone jack located on the bottom of the phone, so you don't need an adapter to use your favorite headphones. The Moto X4 is the first Motorola phone to be certified IP 68 water and dust resistant, which means the device can be submerged up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. Considering most flagships in 2017 received water and dust resistance, this is a fantastic feature for a phone at this price point.

The Moto X4 has a pretty decent 3,000mAh battery, and while its battery life isn't phenomenal, it's good enough for everyday use throughout the day. Just don't expect active screen time to be incredibly high, as I've never been able to get more than four hours, and those numbers are likely to be lower if you're playing heavy video games or watching videos.

The Moto X4 uses the new Wireless Sound System software developed by French startup Tempow, which allows you to play music simultaneously on up to four Bluetooth-enabled devices. The software is built into the Moto X4's operating system, which means the phone can stream music to any new or old Bluetooth device as long as it supports the A2DP music profile or equivalent.

Moto X4 camera

The dual rear camera is the main feature of this year's smartphones and with the Moto X4, Motorola is bringing this dual camera into a more affordable device. , but unlike the Moto Z2 Force, the Moto X4 has an additional wide-angle module, while the Moto Z2 Force has a monochrome sensor.

The main module received a 12 megapixel sensor and an f / 2.0 aperture lens, and the additional one received an 8 megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens with a capture angle of 120 degrees and an f / 2.2 aperture with phase detection autofocus. Unfortunately, none of the lenses have optical image stabilization. The low resolution add-on is also quite unfortunate as the difference in quality is easily noticeable, but this wide angle lens provides more interesting landscape shots and makes it easy to capture large groups of people.

The wide-angle lens of the Moto X4 has quite a lot of distortion around the edges of the frame, which makes the photos taken with it look like shots from a GoPro camera, which I personally find quite interesting.

The Moto X4 also uses a secondary camera to create a background blur effect in portrait mode like other competing smartphones, and I love that Motorola's software lets you use cool effects like cutting out the subject in the foreground and replacing the background or changing the background to black. white image.

However, the depth effect does not work as effectively as on many other smartphones. On the Moto X4, the results don't look very convincing. When it comes to image quality, in good light you can achieve excellent results with accurate color reproduction. But without optical stabilization, photos taken in low light do not have high definition, and the white balance can be distorted.

However, when shooting with the main lens, the pictures are quite decent, which cannot be said about the wide-angle lens. As expected, in low light, the wide-angle lens is much worse than the main lens, and photos tend to be noisier. This is due to the fact that the lower resolution of the camera and the larger aperture.

On the front is a 16-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture and 1.0µm pixel size, which allows you to capture excellent selfies when shooting in low light, thanks to an adaptive Low Light mode designed specifically for this.

Both the main and front cameras can shoot 4K video at 30fps or 1080p video at 60fps.

Moto X4 Software

Motorola has always offered simple and clean software with few actual additions. The Moto X4 runs Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box, hopefully the update to Android 8.0 Oreo won't be long in coming. Like other phones in the Moto series, X4 also supports Moto Actions, Moto Display and Moto Voice.

Moto Actions offers a quick screenshot that can be taken by tapping the display with three fingers, navigation using scanner taps - swipe left to go back and right to open the recent apps list, or vice versa, depending on your settings. A double swipe turns on the flashlight, and a swipe with the brush turns on the camera. A gesture is supported to reduce the screen, although with a diagonal of 5.2 inches this is not entirely true. Turn off the ringer by lifting and activate the Do Not Disturb mode by turning the phone over. And finally - access to the Moto Display, which can be launched by reaching out to the phone.

The Moto display offers a customizable Night Mode that fades blue levels and fades in and out without turning on the notification screen.

Another cool feature of Moto Key is that you can securely sign in to apps, websites, and unlock Windows devices with your fingerprint scanner.

Summing up

In general, in our opinion, Motorola turned out to be an excellent sub-flagship - simple, compact, reliable and affordable, and with minimal additional colors. The Moto X4 is great for anything, and you won't find many smartphones at this price point that give you dual camera capability, IP68 water resistance, great specs, and fast software updates. It may be a big step away from previous Moto X phones, but the Moto X4 is certainly still worthy of your attention.

You can buy the new Moto X4, the first Moto X device in over two years, in both single-SIM from the US and dual-SIM with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage from Germany!