Moto X Style impressions

With the upcoming Moto X Style coming up here are my impressions good and bad on Motorola's high end smartphone.

Fahim Ahmed

The new Moto X Style with a wooden backing at $399

The Moto X on paper looks like how a major company’s flagship smartphone should be, with beastly specs such as:

-          A 5.7” QHD display (with thin bezels – hooray!)

-          Snapdragon 808 (which works great with no overheating issues)

-          3000 mAh battery WITH Quick charge (the fastest in any smartphone – Motorola claim)

-          Adreno 418 GPU

-          Expandable storage up to 128 GB (such a rarity in smartphones these days)

-          IP52 certified – A water repellent coating

-          21 MP Camera (dual tone flash) plus, 4K recording

-          Front facing stereo speakers

-          NFC as well

The phone itself looks great there’s metal on the sides to grip on and this gives the Moto X a premium looks really nice even though it’s starting at $399 off contract which, is a fantastic price to rival others like Oneplus 2, Samsung Note 5 and, Apple^’s upcoming iPhone 6s. The thin bezels which I personally favour so the phone looks more compact and fits the small hands of people like me also, not to mention the Moto X covers almost a whopping 75% of its screen which is no doubt great. One con is to note that the Moto X Style has gone extremely bigger to when the 1^st gen Moto X came out at just 4.7 inches now, it is one whole inch bigger which, to me is quite painful as I would rather like the phone at max 5.5 inches but, oh well.

There is a lot more up on offer as you can customize the phone to your liking on Motomaker. There are various styles and changes you can add or create to tailor anyone’s needs. From changing the back to a wooden cover or a rubberised texture likewise you can change the camera band as well. So, you can really dig deep to make this your own luxury. Notice as well that it’s IP52 so it should be able to take some splashes but don’t go and taking it for a swim!

Moto X Style with the rubberised backing and metal edges

One certain part I like about the Moto X in the software and hardware department is that there is not much bloatware therefore the phone itself will look clean and hopefully runs smoothly. With almost no bloatware that Motorola have stuck with on previous generations. The quick and super performer of the Snapdragon 808 and Adreno 418 GPU will no doubt run with pretty much no stutters or hiccups. I think mainly the 808 was chosen instead of the 810 and 418 over 420 was to pretty much to cut costs but it still has to energy and power to perform well running on Androids Lollipop 5.1.1.

QHD at 520 PPI has been added to the new Moto X Style which makes the pixels look beautiful and crispy with the front facing speakers and luckily both speakers work instead of one on the previous Moto X furthermore, this should provide splendid experience when watching videos or playing games. This time there is no AMOLED display (Moto X 2^nd gen there was in 1080p) however, the screen does still look great with good viewing angles.

The camera last time out was a little bit of a disappointment and as shown on previous devices this is not Motorola’s strongest point. However Motorola have claimed that the camera has been bumped up and should look decent which I do believe has the potential to look good judging by some of the images but, I just don’t think it will live up to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G4 and iPhone 6 though, I do think the recording in 4K will be good and look pleasant when watching over.

Battery wise I think 3000 mAh is ok nevertheless surely, there could be some space to fit a little more. There is Turbocharge so this does compromise and it will give 10 hours of battery life in 15 mins the quickest in any smartphone, which is quite remarkable. I also realised the Moto X Style should last longer than a Note 5 which is the same size however, it uses the snapdragon 810, super AMOLED display and 4 GB RAM (Moto X Style is 3GB RAM).

Motorola have bring backed the Moto assist and Motorola’s gestures which I personally liked as it had quick shortcuts such as, double twist to open camera nifty and fast plus, just waving your hand over the phone is really cool and neat
to check notifications in my opinion.

Overall I am super excited and pumped for this smartphone just like the last one to be released in stores in the UK and get my hands on one and, just remember it has a lot to offer with features and capabilities just like or more than a smartphone at $700.