2015 Moto X & Moto G

I've just come the conclusion that android phones need to be replaced every 12-18 months if you actually want to stay up to date or want current features.
 
King of Heroes said:
The biggest question is how quickly will it get Android M? Motorola was pretty fast with updates during the KitKat era but it seems that ground to a halt when everything moved over to Lollipop. The Nexii will get Android M out of the box and are guaranteed to be kept up-to-date for at least 3 years (Nexus 4 is coming up on being 3 years old and it got Android 5.1.1 a while ago). Unless Motorola can guarantee something similar the Nexii may still be a better buy over the long term, even if the specs aren't as good.
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I see your point, but it doesn't seem like hardly anyone who still owns a N5 is happy with it now less than 2 years later, software updates or no. Mid-range specs and an undersized, sealed battery are not a recipe for longevity, unfortunately.
 
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Optik said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/3k0jha/moto_x_pure2015_hd_video_sample/

4 hours SOT

1hr charge 0-100%
video looks a little compressed/noisy to me, but acceptable.
he also has pics in the g+ page.
Click to expand...

Thanks Optik,
Interesting reading the viewers' reactions posted on that reddit/Android link.
It's understandable that the compression was done for YouTube purposes.

Direct links to the YouTube Moto X Pure (2015) HD Video Samples.
Of particular interest are the questions posed to, and answered by, the author on the second of the below YouTube pages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=R2dLMkwRYYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LpYEG7l1k4

Author's Google+ page (pics)
https://plus.google.com/114472238099157406163/posts
 
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Got my Moto G (2GB version). So far I'm a fan.

Miss the AMOLED that was on my 1st gen X, but love the expandable storage, waterproofing, and 5.1 OS. Spotify, movies, and photos all go to my $12 Samsung EVO 32GB MicroSD card.

Cricket coverage is great so far (uses AT&T) and 5gb for $45 all fees included is fantastic IMO.
 
Have been using my Moto X play for about a week now, coming from a Nexus 4. It's perfect for my use and so far I have not noticed any slowdowns. Finally - a phone with battery life that will last through the day guaranteed (It's 6pm and I'm about to go home from work - just hit 75% battery).

I just don't see the need to have crazy high specs anymore. You used to need a flagship phone just to have a smooth experience in general use but that just isn't the case now.

The age of "good enough" really is here. For laptops, tablets, phones, even gaming rigs. It's really exciting how little $ you can spend to get so much utility from technology now.
 
TechnoBuffalo put up photos taken with the (2015) Moto X Pure.
The photos that you will see in the article window were resized.

Note that TechnoBuffalo added, "We had to resize the images above in order for them to play nice on the Internet, so there might be a slight degradation in quality. We uploaded the full resolution files to imgur, which you can see here."

Do check out all 25 of the full resolution photos. They were taken in 21 megapixel 4:3 and look significantly better.
 
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I wonder how the cell signal is on Verizon compared to the nexus 6. My signal on Verizon with the nexus 6 is terrible, it just bounces around non stop.

If it's better on the moto x I'll return this nexus to best buy and get one asap
 
I get the impression that the N6 and MXPE only support LTE on Verizon and can't fall back to CDMA, which probably makes coverage and signal quality/continuity questionable outside of big cities (and immediately around LTE towers). Not 100% sure on that though.
 
I can set my nexus 6 to CDMA only and I get signal but something with this phone makes the signal go all haywire. I've looked it up online and it seems like t mobile and Verizon users have the most trouble with this issue.

It will randomly drop and if I look in my battery stats yesterday I had 16% of time with no signal
 
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Unboxed my Moto X Pure Edition and I'm on day 1 here. I ordered the 32GB rubber black back with dark gray accents.

First impressions are incredible so far. I find the screen quality to be great, LCD screens never bothered me, the screen is crisp and clear. It's not as good as Samsung panels but it's nearly just as good for me.

To me this phone has easier handling then the iPhone 6 Plus and Note 4, and way way easier handling then the Nexus 6.. this is the most comfortable phablet i've ever used. Motorola really knows how to design their phones to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand, it feels great.

Speakers are excellent, very loud and crisp. Listening to YouTube videos and music easily filled my bedroom, I was very impressed

Performance is buttery smooth.. scrolling and opening apps is fast and fluid. I was never concerned about this.

The turbo charger included charges this phone RIDICULOUSLY fast, the cable is attached to the charging brick, but this doesn't bother me.. and I'm glad that they made the cord decently long this time around!

I love stock Android with the addition of Moto display and voice, Moto display is easily one of my favorite features on this phone.

Last year I had a serious showdown with the iPhone 6 and Moto X 2014, it was the closest call I ever made in my life between something I could never decide on, I know.. #firstworldproblems, but kidding aside, I think I ended up with the iPhone 6 because I wanted familiarity, in hindsight, I kind of wished I went with the 2014 Moto X last year, but I'm happy with both. I even loved the first gen Moto X, but at the time the iPhone 5S barely won it out for me too.

I have not had a chance to test the battery life, but from day 1 it feels about average, probably about the same as my iPhone 6, but you're talking to a guy that doesn't care much about battery life, I'm always near a charger. But from first perspective it seems like it will have no problem getting you through a day on moderate use.

I'm on Verizon and putting my nano sim into the phone from my iPhone 6 activated it instantly, everything worked without any issues. I logged onto my Verizon account online, and unfortunately right now it shows up as a dreaded "Non-VZW Device" which sucks ass, but I have a Droid Maxx as a spare phone I can throw my nano sim into and back into my Moto X if I need to make a change on my account such as a price plan or if I have a service interruption, it's a ghetto work around, but until Verizon "certifies" this thing, I'll have to do this for now, but I know all that work around stuff since I'm a employee (tech advisor).

Anyways, great phone and excellent first impression. I really think I'm going to stick with this over the 6S and 6S Plus this year. I love Nexus devices but I tend to like Motorola for the build quality and added Motorola bag of tricks, I want to get used to phablets so I need to stick with this for awhile.

My iPhone 6 is on FS/FT if anyone is interested, I'll take some pics of it tomorrow testing the camera. :)
 
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Really enjoyed reading your impressions of the Moto X Pure.

Am glad to see that the phone delivers so nicely in the hardware sectors.

I have a Moto X (2013) and Moto X (2014), and also love the Moto display and voice features. Am equally impressed with the Moto assist and Moto actions. The Motorola enhancements are really done well.

Enjoy your new Moto X Pure and keep your reports coming!
 
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Yeah, thanks for that Xan. I'm on Verizon too and am strongly considering this to replace my M8 since my battery seems to be completely dying now and it's impossible to replace without destroying the phone.

So you can't use the My Verizon app or something with a "Non-Verizon" phone? Not sure what the limitation is there.

Do you plan on rooting or anything? Thought I read that XDA already cracked the bootloader on this, which is nice since that's pretty rare in any Verizon phone now.

How does reception seem? One of the few things I haven't seen mentioned about it, which should be a good thing, but most of the time people just fail to cover.
 
Aside from UI performance how's gaming performance like Sky Force 2014 level 8 hard with tons of objects on screen? Does it maintain fps or is it laggy?
 
Xan433 thanks for the impressions. Only thing that concerns me is the battery size and battery life. Why can't we get these 5 things in the same phone

1440P Screen(HQ like LG4 or SG6 quality)
Front Facing speakers
True all day battery life(3500ish size battery)
Nokia quality camera
Stock Andriod

Is that so hard to ask for?
 
Vengance_01 said:
Xan433 thanks for the impressions. Only thing that concerns me is the battery size and battery life. Why can't we get these 5 things in the same phone

1440P Screen(HQ like LG4 or SG6 quality)
Front Facing speakers
True all day battery life(3500ish size battery)
Nokia quality camera
Stock Andriod

Is that so hard to ask for?
Click to expand...
A post went up today pointing to the Marques Brownlee video "On the Perfect Smartphone". Perhaps you may find that helpful or offer some solace.
 
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I got the nexus 6 last Sunday at best buy when it went on sale for $350, I used it for 5 days. I had the worst signal bug in history with that phone on verizon. The signal would go from 2 bars to no signal at all. It was so bad id have 12-20% of no signal in my battery stats and i got awful battery life. I unlocked it, rooted it and installed numerous radios trying to find a fix. I returned it to best buy and bought the only moto x pure they had in stock today.

It is the black with black rubber back, only 16gb but who cares. It cost me $54 to switch from the nexus.

I love this phone. The screen is bright and crisp, no problems with the screen at all. The speakers are amazing, loud and clear. It feels way smaller then the nexus in hand and I love it. I can one hand text on this phone, which is surprising since so many people think it is huge but I had a note 2 before and it feels similar in size.

The signal is amazing, I always have 2 to 3 bars of signal now, and lte in the house which I didn't get with the nexus. Battery life seems pretty damn good on my first charge. Right now I'm at 68% with 2 hours of SOT. That's on WiFi with me all over online, here anandtech and xda posting away.

So far I am really happy with this phone, its a keeper for sure. This is my first moto phone ever so hopefully moto is quick with updates, I'd imagine they would be considering its unlocked.

I haven't done any gaming on it yet, I don't game much honestly so I have no clue about gpu performance.

The phone is super fast tho with zero bloat and the moto features are really nice to have. I put my page plus sim card in it and it found the network fast, no troubles at all getting it going.

If you have any questions just ask I'll do my best to help
 
Supersnake said:
A post went up today pointing to the Marques Brownlee video "On the Perfect Smartphone". Perhaps you may find that helpful or offer some solace.
Click to expand...
I understand this, but all the major manufactures have the ability to make the perfect smart phone...
 
Okay, I'm 4 days in.

I don't really play games on my phone or root ever, to reply to the above posts.

Reception has been great. I've never had a problem with this on Motorola phones.

So now using the phone I have run into some occasional lag and drop in frames, primarily when browsing in chrome and on certain other forums, the whole phone will stutter and sometimes I have to reload the browser entirely to fix it.

While I love the Moto display feature, it's definitely taken a hit this year with the LCD screen. In the dark especially when the screen lights up, the entire screen lights up now with a slight gray hue, and to be quite honest it looks really tacky to me, it looks more like a gimmick then how it was with the amoled display.

The design is good but the phone is still a bit unwieldy to me, and something I've personally ran into is I don't like the fact it doesn't lay flat on a table. I really miss that from my iPhone 6, and it's one of those things that has really surprised me.

The battery life has been absolutely terrible. I can barely get past 3 hours of SOT, and trust me I am not a heavy user. This is just with texting, web browsing, phone calls and very light YouTube use. The battery drains before my eyes, even last years Moto X was a little better then this, I'm really glad there is turbo charging because this battery is not good. I really think this LCD screen is killing the Moto X this year. I just find it really strange that a phablet has bad battery life, I guess maybe I'm viewing it wrong but one of the trade offs I see as taking a hit in mobility is having a good battery life.

Anyways, just some of my negatives. I'll keep using it a few more days and see what happens.
 
+1 about the screen and moto notifications. AMOLED was much better suited for it (I have the save complaint a couple posts up).

No hitching and battery has been great on my G, but that may be because it's only a 720p display.

I did unlock the bootloader and root so i could get Xposed and prevent YouTube ads.
 
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I don't know how your having battery trouble. I've got 44% battery left, screen on time is at 3 1/2 hours and the phone has been on for 7 hours already.

I've been up all night because of my back that needs fused next month reading and posting on forums, watching YouTube, emailing and texting. I've also got shit signal where I live, granted it's not time without signal bad but its far from good.

The nexus 6 I had was the shit battery life phone, for some reason it couldn't hold onto signal. I was getting 12-20% time without signal and 3 hours of SOT from a full charge to 5% left
 
the display has better black levels than my ip6+

easier to handle too, but a little heavier.


i can take some questions of anyone has them.

(motox pure) that is
 
I'm at 10% battery left and 5 hours 20 minutes screen on time, phone has been off the charge for 17 hours now. I'm loving this phone
 
I got 3hrs of SOT with wifi only straight out of the box, so it wasnt even fully charged.

Cant see anyway i dont get 4hrs of SOT with LTE (still on verizon unlimted) once everything is settled in.
 
Optik said:
I got 3hrs of SOT with wifi only straight out of the box, so it wasnt even fully charged.

Cant see anyway i dont get 4hrs of SOT with LTE (still on verizon unlimted) once everything is settled in.
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What apps did you install and was the backlight on retina searing brightness? Poor behaving apps and jacked up brightness are the only combo I've seen killing phone in three hours. Sucks when you can't figure out then cause though.
 
ocellaris said:
What apps did you install and was the backlight on retina searing brightness? Poor behaving apps and jacked up brightness are the only combo I've seen killing phone in three hours. Sucks when you can't figure out then cause though.
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well considering the phone started off at like 70% battery and i pushed through about 7gb of data on wifi, i'd say that 70-0% with 3hrs SOT is very good.

brightness was about 35%. this thing gets very bright, and im not a big fan of autobrightness, i just like to keep it at 20-30% depending on the phone and adjust it when i want.


I dont need crazy SOT, 4hours on LTE @ 20% brightness is more than enough for me. And with this charger, i'll basically never run into a battery life issue.

One funny thing about the ip6+ is that sure, in a 24hr span it is literally impossible to kill the battery but it also led to some bad habits. there were quite a few times where i got caught up in something on day2 and looked down at my battery at 35% and went: "shit, shouldve charged it last night, now i have to manage it to get through the day". With quick charge, i dont think i'll ever have that problem.


I'm very happy back with android. As a power use (note: i am not a heavy user) it's nice to have control back with the native file system. It's even better that i can use the web browser without any crashing on desktop mode.

the only thing about going back to android this time is that i wont root my phone. So i'm going to lose out on some extra battery life, but i cant have everything i suppose.
 
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I ended up at 5hrs 46 minutes screen on time when I plugged the phone in at 1%
I'm very happy with the battery life and like others have said the turbo charger juices you back up fast
 
Optik said:
I got 3hrs of SOT with wifi only straight out of the box, so it wasnt even fully charged.

Cant see anyway i dont get 4hrs of SOT with LTE (still on verizon unlimted) once everything is settled in.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem when I first started using the Moto G. Battery life was really bad until I noticed the brightness was cranked to 100% and adaptive brightness was turned off. Turning on adaptive brightness fixed the problem.
 
i got 4 hrs of SOT with about 15% left strictly using LTE today. very happy about it because my phone is basically set up last night.
 
King of Heroes said:
Pocketnow just posted a Moto X Pure Edition vs. Nexus 6 video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j2yu9l6OaM

Moto X pretty much wins in everything except software update speed (no Android phone can beat a Nexus in that). The video and camera samples were VERY impressive.
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Well I remember when Kitkat came out, I'm pretty sure the original Moto X beat the Nexus 4 getting the update, hah. But that was before Lenovo owned them too.
 
After using this phone for a solid week, I have decided that I will be returning it. As much as I enjoy the Moto X series, I just feel like this year is not for me. I'll first start off with the good:

- I like how Motorola sticks with their core statement on delivering a stock Android phone with additional enhancements, they stuck with that this year and it's the same Moto X software experience I'm used to.

- The Turbo charging was very nice this time around, and when plugging in my device it was always charged up in no time.

- For a phablet it's pretty comfortable to hold and use. After a week of review, I would say the iPhone 6 Plus has a advantage in being a flat design instead of curved (I like being able to lay the device flat on a table), your preference will vary here.

The bad:

- The LCD display just killed active/moto display for me, the fact that the whole screen lights up is just awful, and you notice it too! It looks terrible, and it doesn't seem quite as responsive as before, also its much harder to see it in the dark then light. This feature just meshes perfectly with a amoled display.

- Which brings me to my next point, while the display was nice and bright, the color and overall quality of the display is just not there for me. It not BAD, but other flagships spank it in comparison.

- The battery was terrible for me, not one single day I was able to hit 4 hrs SOT. I know I said I don't care much about battery, but this is just exceptionally bad for me, keep in mind I am a light to moderate user, most of this use was with the display on 25% brightness with texting, calls, browsing and YouTube.

- I ran into a few more stutters and slow downs then I would of liked to.

- Overall the phone is just too large for me, and phablets in general. I tend to really enjoy them in my home, setting them up and using them.. but in everyday use going back and forth to work, running errands, being outside in general or using more core functions like texting and calling, they're a pain for me. I like a phone that I can pick up and one hand, that fits comfortably in my pocket. When I'm at home I do almost 90% of everything on my computer, my phone is my phone I guess.

Unfortunately I don't have my iPhone 6 anymore, so this is my last day with my Moto XPE, I'll be sending it back to amazon and activating my Droid Maxx I bought as a backup on Swappa several months ago, it will tie me over until I make a decision, but it will most likely be a 6S.. but we'll see. :)
 
To each his own but I had my ip6+ display side by side with the mxp and there was no question to me that the mxp was superior in black levels. My ip6+ was way too cool and there was no mid range in colors compared to my mxp which seemed more balanced.
 
Went to bestbuy to actually see and play with the phone, but it wasn't there. They just have it in stock buried somewhere. I would have probably purchased the phone. Anyways, there was a new Moto G that I played with. It really made my 2013 Moto X look bad against it. It's fast, butter smooth, great display, size, but no nfc.. I guess I am stuck with the original moto.
 
hmz said:
Went to bestbuy to actually see and play with the phone, but it wasn't there. They just have it in stock buried somewhere. I would have probably purchased the phone. Anyways, there was a new Moto G that I played with. It really made my 2013 Moto X look bad against it. It's fast, butter smooth, great display, size, but no nfc.. I guess I am stuck with the original moto.
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Same deal here... called multiple Worst Buys within 15 miles and no dice, at least on a display unit. In one case the salesman asked me "which carrier?" and I said unlocked, to which he replied: "we don't carry any unlocked phones."

As far as I can tell, these new unlocked-only Moto devices are exclusive to BB among brick-and-mortar retailers... and they can't even be bothered to throw up a display unit.

Unquestionably the best phone on the market for under $450, at least from a reputable manufacturer with a proven record, and it's doomed to failure due to ignorance and likely a concerted effort by the Big Carriers to undermine anything that doesn't pass through their filthy hands. This country gets the cellular service and devices it deserves, I guess.
 
My local store didn't have a display model and I returned my nexus 6 and bought the moto x without even seeing it. The phone really is nice and if anyone is on the fence about it I suggest buying it and giving it a shot. If you don't like it you have 14 days to return it at best buy, that's more then long enough to give it a trial run.

The Moto X really is better then the nexus 6 and well worth the extra $50 price tag.
 
So I had a chance to briefly play with a co-worker's Moto X Pure. In ways it really makes me miss my old OnePlus One. Feel in hand is absolutely excellent (alot of that is due to the backing material he chose), and the screen is really beautiful. Really sharp and colorful. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Moto G, but the stark difference in screen quality just isn't obvious until its staring you in the face.
 
Just bought a Moto X Pure for me and a Moto X 2014 for my wife. We both had 2013 Moto X, she still has hers, but I dropped mine, caught it with my foot, but it absolutely shattered anyway, go me.
 
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