Moto X review (2nd Gen 2014) – Android 5.0 update due

MOTO CONNECT

One of the Moto X’s biggest new features is Motorola Connect. Taking inspiration from Apple’s Continuity feature in iOS 8, Motorola Connect lets you send and receive text messages from your PC using the Motorola Connect Chrome extension. This is something you can’t do in Continuity just yet (text support is still in beta at time of writing), and it’s the first time we’ve seen this kind of feature on an Android phone, giving the Moto X a big advantage not just over the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but also every other major Android handset.

It worked extremely well when we tried it out for ourselves. As well as a list of your most recent message threads, the extension’s pop-out window also shows your most recent incoming and outgoing calls, the Moto X’s remaining battery life and how strong the connection is between the phone and PC.

It’s a shame you can’t answer calls on your PC, as you can in Apple’s Continuity, but you can opt to either ignore the call or reply with a text message when the notification box appears and your PC starts ringing. It’s very clever, and it’s something we hope to see more phone manufacturers taking up in the future.

MOTO X APPS

This isn’t the Moto X’s only party trick, though, as you can also silence calls and snooze alarms by simply waving your hand over the screen. It will only register your hand up to 15cm away, but it’s very handy if you’re in a meeting and want to quickly dismiss a call. Of course, if you really want to remain undisturbed, you can always enable the Moto X’s Assist options so it goes into silent mode automatically when you’re at home in the evening or in a meeting.

These Assist settings are another feature that’s been carried over from the original Moto X, but now they’ve been integrated into Motorola’s new Moto voice launcher app, putting all the Moto X’s smart features in one place. In addition to going into silent mode, the Moto X can be set to send auto-reply text messages to any of your starred (favourited) contacts trying to get hold of you, or to any contact who calls twice within five minutes. A similar feature is also available in the Moto’s Sleep settings where the phone can be set to ring if a starred contact calls, such as a family member, while remaining silent for other calls.

The Assist settings give you plenty of hands-free options as well, both in the car and at home. By using the phone’s location, microphone, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, it will recognise where you are and adapt accordingly. At home, for instance, it will read text messages aloud, while in the car it will also announce who’s calling and play music over Bluetooth via Google Now’s voice control. You can even use voice commands to make calls and check your voicemail when the phone is locked, so you don’t have to worry about fiddling with the phone’s display or turning it on while you’re busy.

MOTO X CAMERA

You don’t even have to unlock the phone to use the Moto X’s rear camera, as you can activate it simply by twisting your wrist and the phone twice in quick succession. It’s remarkably fast and works reliably. Like the new Moto G, Motorola’s finally included an option to shoot in 4:3 (as well as a screen-filling 16:9), letting you take full advantage of its 13-megapixel sensor.

In our outdoor test shots, colours were bright and vibrant even in very cloudy, overcast weather. The contrast between light and dark areas was particularly pronounced, giving our photos a much more dramatic appearance that really made the dark rain clouds stand out against lighter objects and buildings in the foreground.

^ The amount of detail present on the Moto X is excellent, showing each individual brick rather than a mass of muddy pixels

^ Even in overcast weather conditions, dark clouds really stood out against the foreground

Admittedly, some of the photos we took on the Moto X didn’t look quite as natural as those we took on the Galaxy S5. Colours had a tendency to look a little too rich in places, and looked oversaturated as a result. However, Samsung’s somewhat excessive noise-reduction made everything look a little too smooth for our liking and photos looked less detailed when viewed at their native resolution. The Moto X, on the other hand, produced much sharper, crisper pictures despite the increase in noise. 

The new Moto X also has a HDR mode. This brightened up our moody, overcast scenes quite considerably, but it also made them look that much more artificial. Colours still looked natural, though, and we could really pick out the detail in the brickwork and paving stones of our test shots.

^ HDR mode could make photos look a little artificial, but on the whole colours still looked reasonably accurate

^ We lost a lot of contrast in HDR mode, but we’re still pleased with how it coped with the challenging lighting conditions

MOTO X CONCLUSION

With its large range of innovative apps, excellent AMOLED screen and top of the range performance, the new Moto X is the flagship Motorola handset we’ve been waiting for. It doesn’t rewrite the rulebook for high-end smartphones in quite the same way as the new Moto G did for budget phones, but there’s still plenty to like here.

Not only is it by far one of the smartest and most user-friendly phones we’ve tested this year, but it’s also one of the most beautifully designed and desirable handsets we’ve ever seen. It may not be able to last quite as long as either the Galaxy S5 or the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact, but we think its clever, useful apps more than make up for any deficiency in battery life. Moreover, at £420 SIM-free or around £26.50-per-month on contract, it’s also roughly the same price as many of the older flagship smartphones released earlier this year. This makes it fantastic value, so it wins a Best Buy award.