Moto X Play: Good but nothing very special

Thankfully, the Moto X Play has just the right display output to renew our faith in FullHD screens.

As for form, both devices are distinctive and appealing in different ways. There’s nothing in between you and the thing you want to capture, and when you do decide to look in the settings it can be navigated entirely by your thumb without moving around.

My favorite features are the always-on screen, which is something I personally find very convenient and distinctive from my Apple Watch.

Simply slide down the notification bar from the top of the display (swipe twice, or once with two fingers) and tap the round gear-shaped settings icon near the top right. They work with steel casings, which are available in black, silver, rose gold, and gold.

The Moto G3 was the first one to come out, following which, the Moto X Play has now been released.

Motorola is offering the device is two flavors – 16GB and 32GB internal memory.

The front camera also gives you decent selfies both in low-light and good light conditions. LCD typically has cleaner whites, but our sample of the Moto X Pure Edition has a slight magenta tint.

Owners can lock the Moto X, erase everything in case of theft, or even make it ring if it’s lost somewhere in your house, all using the Android Device Manager site from a PC, another phone, or a tablet. Not only can you summon voice control without touching your watch (“OK, Google”), but you can also scroll through your alert cards just by flicking your wrist.

Here, we’re reviewing is a Moto X Pure Edition.

I previously covered what was included in the the latest version of Android Wear so all of these features are included on the Huawei Watch out of the box. Many thought the new release would get rid of it but for some reason the company has not been able to.

We’ll have to take Motorola at its word that this Moto X has stereo speakers, because at this size, the effect is hard to discern. However, Moto G is more customizable this year due to Motorola’s Moto Maker program. The original Moto X only had a 4.7 inch screen, 720p resolution, the Snapdragon S4, all powered by a small 2,200 mAh battery.

There is a little difference on the displays the two use. This goes up against the 64-bit HiSilicon Kirin octa-core processor on the Huawei P8. Regardless, it’s a solid camera that takes sharp, colorful images. The Moto X pays a slim price for the bigger battery, pushing the center of the back case out by 5/32 of an inch while keeping the edges at about the same thickness as the iPhone 6s Plus. Those who have a similar charger can use it for the Moto 360.

Moto X Pure Edition looks like your average smartphone. The Motorola is selling the Moto X unlocked so it can be used on all major USA networks. It has a 5.7-inch Quad HD display, a Snapdragon 808 processor, up to 64GB of internal storage with microSD expansion, a 3000mAh battery, 21-megapixel camera with 4K video capture, Android 5.1.1, water repellant nano-coating, NFC and quick charging. Unfortunately, if you want one of these modes to stick around you’re out of luck. The device measures 153.9 x 76.2 x 11.06 and weighs in at 179 grams. It also starts at $400 off contract, and works on just about every United States carrier. Hardware-wise, the Moto X Pure Edition easily competes with expensive flagship devices and trumps similarly priced devices by quite a bit.

Voice is also a big part of the experience, allowing users to control the Moto X without needing to touch it. The really cool thing about it is that you can train it to your voice, and you can customize the prompt, too.

However, on SunSpider, the performance is much better; in fact, the Moto X Style bests Samsung and HTC’s efforts, and is only trumped by Apple’s iPhone 6 in pure Javascript performance. It should have a much better camera experience for taking your main photos, and has dual front-facing speakers that will blow the coil out of the P8.

Motorola has also made available a 42mm option, which is a bit smaller than our 46mm variant. Moreover, since it is a Motorola device, you will get to experience the company’s very own range of apps like Connect, which helps you to track all your devices, Migrate, which helps switch your devices, and Moto that enables hands-free control when driving.