Next phone? Coming from moto x pure edition

B

Bman123

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Messages
5,086
I've got a moto x pure edition. I've had it about a year now. Randomly the phone will overheat and the screen goes white with all colored lines running thru it everywhere. So I'd like to look for a new phone before this one takes a dump.

I don't have a contract, I use pre paid T-Mobile. So I'd be buying the phone outright.

Android updates are very important to me and I'd like to get the same or better performance wise then my moto x pure. 5.2 inch or bigger screen, larger is preferres. I'd love to get a pixel xl but can't justify the price when I'm use to buying Nexus phones.

I have no brand loyalty, expandable storage would be nice. What do you suggest
 
I went with the Motorola Z Force and am pretty happy with it. The SD card was the deal breaker for me and the reason I didn't go with the Pixel. I hate that it doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack but does come with an adapter that plugs into the USB-C plug. Battery life is great and performance is top notch. Software doesn't feel bloated. I use Nova Launcher and it works and looks great.

I wanted to upgrade from my Note 4 to the 7 but since it got killed this one seemed the best. The S7 Edge kinda bored me and I ain't crazy about the screen as it seems a little too vulnerable. I'm kinda rough on my phones so durability was a concern.

Overall I think it's an excellent phone and can recommend it.
 
I'll echo the Z Force, but also highly recommend the Z Play if you want to spend a bit less and want bat-shit insane battery life. I got one for my wife to replace her Note 5 (that she lost) and she's significantly happier with it, despite the drop in specs (that you wouldn't notice anyways other than maybe resolution). Her phone can consistently get 10+ hours of screen on time plus 3+ hours of talk time while connected to her BT headset all day. At least, that's what the Gsam battery app estimates since she has yet to come close to killing it within a day, but it seems accurate as most days she's around 40-50% with 4-5 hours SoT and 2-4 hours talk time.

What's almost as surprising is that this phone performs just like it's flagship counterparts in general UI tasks. There only time you might notice a difference is in highly graphical games. But it runs all the games I've played on my 6P just as smoothly or better (since the 810 in my 6P throttles quickly, this 625 doesn't seem to at all and keeps the phone cool as well). Now I wish someone would put this highly efficient SD625 SoC in a phone with otherwise flagship specs, because the significant advantage in power efficiency far outweighs the negligible performance hit in every aspect but benchmarks.

The only nitpicks I have with the phone is the camera isn't the best (still adequate though), the mods are a pain to use if you want to use a case on the phone, and while the 1080p display is great in all aspects, I wish there was a setting to up the DPI to fit more on screen, but that setting should come in the Nougat update in the UI tuner settings.

Moto has already updated the Z/Z Force to Nougat, so I would think the Z Play should get it soon too.

I got her phone barely used for a week on Swappa with an Incipio battery mod for $460 a month ago. It's the unlocked one that's fully compatible with T-Mobile's and AT&T's bands. It does not support Wi-Fi calling on T-Mobile (yet at least, hoping they'll update it) though.
 
Last edited:
Hope I don't come off as a complete ass... I love my Pixel XL... Granted, you're locked at 32 or 128GB, but the pixel comes with unlimited, uncompressed pictures and 4K video forever which will help with storage. I don't know if it will do wifi calling on T-Mo, but it works damn good on Google Fi. Camera is amazing and of course it's getting updated with all the latest goodies... Just got an OTA to 7.11. Like you said, I know the price is high, but so was the Nexus 6's price. Hit Swappa for deals or perhaps finance the phone through googleplay?
 
2 weeks now with my Pixel XL. I think I'm a customer for life. So much better than any other phone I've used. Best phone IMO if money is not an issue. Its pricey but after years of being seduced by bells and whistles and border line gimmicks, I'm all about user experiences, and there is just nothing cleaner, faster, and more satisfying.
 
I'm also on a Moto X Pure. While mine doesn't seem to be dying, it is definitely on the decline. My battery life has dropped by about 20% in the last 6 months, installs now take forever, and it has seen all of 1 security update (a tiny one) in the last year.

The Pixel seems roughly like what I want, but it's definitely not ideal. The regular one is slightly too small and the XL is slightly too big. The non-screen portion of the bezel also seems excessively large on both. Plus, that price tag is steep for an item we're all going to want to replace in 2 years.

I really hate that Moto's new direction under Lenovo negates a lot about what I liked prior to my purchase.

I wish there were more OEMs that sold phones with stock Android. That's 1/2 the selling point of the Pixel to me. If LG or Samsung had stock launchers at least there would be some additional options, but there's no way I'm going back to their garbage.
 
If you're on T-Mobile, the LeEco LePro 3. http://www.lemall.com/us/phone/leeco_le_pro3/index.html $320 on sale (You just missed it for $300), works with VoLTE on T-mobile, and wifi calling was either just enabled or coming soon. Sorry, it's late and I can't remember.

LeEco is the company that just bought Vizio, and they're trying to make a big splash in the US.

Another option would be the HTC 10. Updates are fast & furious lately, and it just got Nougat last month. Great device, feels great in hand, I just wish it was Amoled. You can definitely pick it up used pretty cheap.
 
Last edited:
How is the LePro3 going to be with updates? That's the biggest thing that worries me. The battery is huge, good CPU and screen size. It looks like a really nice phone
 
Thanks for that link. I'll pass on that phone for now. I keep checking Amazon hoping to get a good deal on something but I'm striking out hard.

I miss the days of $400 Nexus phones
 
If you're looking for something in the $400ish range, the best phones IMO are the OnePlus 3 (or 3T for a bit more) and Moto Z Play. They will both get somewhat decent update support, at least compared to most other OEMs. OP3 Nougat update is a week or two away and would think the Z Play's should be too since the regular Z just got it.
 
T4rd said:
If you're looking for something in the $400ish range, the best phones IMO are the OnePlus 3 (or 3T for a bit more)
Click to expand...
It depends on how much you want pure Android... I like the look of the OnePlus, but it runs OxygenOS - a fork of Android... You can still use all the GAPPS on it and it's quite fast, but not pure like a nexus or pixel.
 
Rune75 said:
It depends on how much you want pure Android... I like the look of the OnePlus, but it runs OxygenOS - a fork of Android... You can still use all the GAPPS on it and it's quite fast, but not pure like a nexus or pixel.
Click to expand...

True, but I haven't seen anyone complain about its UI much and I think you can natively theme it to look just like stock Android if you want. If not, it's pretty mod friendly as well so you can throw a vanilla ROM on it if wanted and probably be able to apply security patches and updates much faster that way as well.
 
As a fellow MXPE owner, I've concluded there's simply no appealing upgrade path right now, at least if the Pixel XL is out of your budget.

The universal radio compatibility of our device (all 4 US carriers) is something I'm just not willing to give up, which greatly narrows the field right off the bat. Even the Moto Z line has reneged on this philosophy. The G4 remains universal, but it's a sidegrade at best. And regardless of all that, Lenovo's non-existent software updates have soured me on the brand anyway -- it's really the only reason I'm looking to dump the XPE in the first place.

Every OnePlus device is GSM only, which is a shame. They'd be worth considering otherwise.

What I've really wanted to do for awhile now is jump over to a 6P for a reasonably modest net price (after selling off the XPE). But that's not going to happen, as Pixel's asinine pricing never put any downward pressure on the 6P's, so now it's just a dinosaur whose limited remaining stock is selling essentially at the original MSRP from September 2015. I should've just gone 6P to begin with despite my misgivings about expandable storage, but now it's too late, as the value proposition (selling for $450-500 in December 2016) is far worse than it was at launch.

I'm pretty settled on just waiting for $400-500 XLs, even if that takes another year. :-/
 
I'd love a pixel xl but the pricing is crazy high. I can't justify $800 for a phone, especially when my moto x is giving me trouble just a year into it
 
Bman123 said:
I'd love a pixel xl but the pricing is crazy high. I can't justify $800 for a phone, especially when my moto x is giving me trouble just a year into it
Click to expand...

I guess it's out of warranty by buy now then? If not, it's worth RMAing if you can. A friend of mine RMA'd his X Pure a few months ago pretty easily, got it back in a week or so, I think.
 
T4rd said:
I guess it's out of warranty by buy now then? If not, it's worth RMAing if you can. A friend of mine RMA'd his X Pure a few months ago pretty easily, got it back in a week or so, I think.
Click to expand...
I presently have a Moto X pure with a two year accident protection plan and extended warranty.
When I had the same coverage on my Moto X 2nd gen, I received a new phone replacement in one week after dropping and damaging it.
 
Last edited:
Vermillion said:
Well considering the company is failing hard I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/1...losses-triggering-margin-call-on-ceos-shares/
Click to expand...

Good to know, thank you!

Next suggestion - The ZTE Axon 7. $350 at Newegg right now, and it's the same specs as the LeEco Le Pro 3. Has VoLTE but unsure about wifi calling on T-Mobile.

As for the OnePlus 3, if you don't like Oxygen OS, there's plenty (PLENTY!) of AOSP ROMs available for you to install. Honestly it's hard not to go with an OP3 right now.

Another option would be the Galaxy S7. You can pick up a Sprint version for about $450ish (new) now, and flash the T-Mobile firmware on it, to get full T-Mo support and features. VERY hard to pass that up, it's still an absolutely fantastic device and ticks all your boxes.
 
Had my ZTE Axon 7 for two weeks now on T-mobile. This is a great phone I got for ""$350"" from Amazon with a 2 year US-based warranty where they fix anything you physically break, regardless of how, for $80 (and even have pre-swap as long as you have a credit card). The key info here is the $350 new pricetag.

So major pros:
- Small overall size for a 5.5 screen --> I like larger screens, but not giant bezels that add even more girth. This thing is much smaller than most 5.5 inch screen phones.
- Awesome Samsung QHD Amoled screen --> It's not quite as well implemented as the Samsung screen on a Samsung top-tier phone (like top brightness levels), but it's within 95% and still far better than most every other screens regardless.
- Great front stereo speakers --> This thing is in the top two of all current phones for built-in speakers in terms of loudness, richness, and clarity.
- Great DAC/Amp inside --> Has enough power to drive higher impedance headphones and still sound good. Lower impedance earbuds can get blisteringly loud.
- Fast as any other Qualcomm 820 equipped phone implementation
- 3250mah Battery life is great --> With same usage patterns, I get home with 50%-60% after work compared to 20-25% I had left with my S6.
- Fingerprint reader good - faster and more accurate than my S6, not quite as fast as my daughter's iPhone7
- Build quality feels/looks good --> This is a solid phone
- Base 64GB storage with up to 128GB more through SD card --> 128GB expansion size is the official spec, don't know if bigger cards work or not. I use a little 8GB card simply to fill the hole as I can't even come close to filling the native 64GB:)...

Cons:
- Cell reception not as good in comparison to my Samsung S6 (which isn't the best either) --> hopefully will get better after more updates as it has improved over the last couple of updates.
- Native OS launcher sucks --> Simple fix with Nova, the rest is very lightly skinned, nothing too offensive.
- No wireless charging --> I personally don't like wireless charging, but I know many people love it.
- Not many cases/accessories yet
- Native software apps are not polished (not so much as in buggy, but more about lacking)--> Easily fixable with 3rd party apps or might get better with updates
- Camera is not near a good as my S6 overall -> Good with bright slow shots. Not very good for all others. Hopefully will also improve with further updates
- No T-mobile Wifi calling yet. --> "Supposed" to be in the Nougat release scheduled around January... We'll see. If you need this now, it's currently a deal breaker. I don't luckily.

Pro/Con -- Bootloader unlock and rootable, but breaks warranty :-(.

For $350, not much can come close... but it's still a $350 phone so to compare to the polish of $700+ phones is kind of unfair. This phone still NEEDS software updates to be close to par with other flagships. If it gets them, it will truly be an awesome cheap flagship killer. If not, it's merely a great $350 phone. The only other I considered at this price point was the OnePlus 3, but coming from a QHD Amoled screen from my S6, I couldn't go back to the 1080P LED on the OnePlus. LePro without a headphone jack was not even in the running. Most of the other nice, but cheap Chinese phones don't support band 12 T-mobile, so they were not in consideration..
 
I am the fan of the 2013 Moto X. Best phone ever. Owned it for three years until it died.

I don't like the current Motorola phones. They are simply different. Didn't like the Nexus 6p either. I am using the OP3 now and love it! The phone is very nicely build and the OxygenOS is very smooth.
 
Just got my Honor 8 today. Way faster than my LG G3 and battery life should be alot better since it's only 1080 vs G3's 1440P.


Edit:

Ran linpack on it vs my boss' iphone 7.

I got 450 vs his 470. So yea, good value imo.
 
Last edited:
cvinh said:
and battery life should be alot better
Click to expand...

Mine will get me upwards of 36+ hours, if not 2 full days. Moderate use - I don't game much or stream endless videos though.

1384002.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: cvinh
like this
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top