We found the focus issue a few times, usually when we were trying to get a close up or a different focus point that the Motorola disagreed with us on, and when we touched the screen, the Moto X chose to give us blurry photos rather than the sharp shot we were actually going for.
You can change the focus so that it becomes something you select rather than letting it pick for you, but even this doesn’t offer the exact result you’re after, and much of the time with this setting on, the Moto X’s camera refused to focus on some things for us.
The camera isn’t helped by a flash which is designed like a macro ring, but yet functions nothing like one. Either it produces too much light or isn’t working with the camera in a capacity beyond a giant torch, because the Motorola X generally just adds too much artificial light and doesn’t feel like a flash ring should.
In low light, the Moto X camera doesn’t offer the best result you can find, either, with quite a lot of darkness and very little available light dug up. Certainly, some of the image stacking techniques used by other smartphone cameras can result in better jobs, so we’re a little surprised to see Motorola not embracing these methods.
It’s a shame, too, as Motorola has such a brilliant little camera app, with a simple “touch to fire” mechanic that makes the camera feel like such a top entry. The camera app is also very fast, resulting in quick pictures at the best of times. Sadly, though, it is let down by a mediocre camera that doesn’t always nail the image you’re looking for.
The battery could also be better, managing merely a day of life for regular users, and less for the more power hungry out there. We found that with phone calls, taking photos, sending and receiving emails, listening to music, playing the odd game, web surfing, social networking, and generally using the phone, with the battery being consumed in the course of a day.
Motorola’s Active Display can help with this a bit, but it is only so useful, so don’t expect it to help keep the Moto X surviving for longer than a day, unless you never check your phone altogether.
Water-resistance is also here, but while this might seem like a positive inclusion, it’s not the sort of resistance we’re going to do a lot of testing on. Rather, this might survive a splash, but we’re not confident of putting this phone through the same rigorous tests other ruggedised phones manage, and that exposed and open microUSB port isn’t going to help here, either.
We suspect Motorola is using a nano coating here for the water-resistance, which doesn’t come with a rating, and means a splash or two, a chance encounter with a few drops of beer, but don’t read “water resistance” as to “let’s go swimming”, because while Motorola could have made that possible, that’s not what you get on the X.
We’re also saddened to see fixed memory, another thing from the 2013 Moto X that has stuck around, and for no good reason.
Motorola probably does have a good reason for this, mind you: Google doesn’t do expandable memory in any of its Nexus products, so this is likely just Motorola matching Google’s design spec for phones and tablets.
That said, Motorola is competing with Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC, Huawei, Oppo, and so many other brands, all of which have flagship phones sporting that microSD slot for taking the storage higher. Even if you don’t subscribe to following what other companies are doing, providing a phone with only 16GB of storage seems a bit of a shock, especially when barely 10GB of it is available to you when all is said and done.
Smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z3, the Samsung Galaxy S5, LG’s G3, and HTC’s One M8 can all get around the 16GB inclusion with a microSD card, but not the Moto X, which is just plain stuck at fixed storage.
We can get around the camera with a replacement for the app that focuses in a more timely fashion, and we can even move past the battery by charging it up nightly and pulling back on the Bluetooth gadgets, but the storage is one issue we’re just stuck on, like the storage itself, and until Motorola moves past this frustrating inclusion, there’s just no way we’d consider the Moto X.
Conclusion
Motorola’s latest X smartphone gets close, and you can see in this handset that the design teams have really worked hard to make the handset a better all-round product.
The design is lovely, with a metal edge that exudes sturdiness, and a choice of rear materials that not only makes the phone lovely to look at, but also brilliant to hold, as well, with rubber, leather, and wood. We like the software and Motorola’s Active Display technology has to be one of the best power reducing concepts we’ve ever seen, and we wish more companies used it.
But the camera, battery, and memory leave us wanting, they really do.
If Motorola includes a microSD card slot, we could excuse more on the phone, but with fixed memory on a device that sports a camera with 4K video capture and 13 megapixel images, not to mention how big apps and games are getting, it’s really hard to forgive.
That said, if you’re good at keeping your phone backed up and on a storage budget, you’ll probably love the Moto X, but we’d really consider looking at the competition, because the storage issue and battery pull this phone back in scores.
