[vi-android] Motorola X Review
- From: "Christopher gilland" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 14:38:29 -0500
First of all, if you are on a screen reader that will let you do it, you can
navigate this e-mail message heading by heading to jump to the different
sections that I cover.
Introduction
Though I won't bore you all with the details specifically, I just recently
received a white 16GB Motorola X Android handset through AT&T wireless. I've
only had the phone now for about 24 hours, so keep in mind, this review is
quite fresh. By that I just mean, I'm basing all these things only on a day's
worth of use, so if something appears inaccurate, give me a break, I'm just
starting to use the phone, so things could change as I make more discoveries
along the way. Disclaimer out of the way, let's get started. And oh, by the
way, if anyone wants to put this review on their blog, go for it! Just be sure
you credit me as the author.
Look and Feel
Once I received the phone, I noticed that the box appeared to be taped shut.
Not that this really is an issue, but when I say taped shut, I mean this sucker
was taped! I don't feel I have the motor skills in my hands to be able to slit
the tape with a knife or scissors. Thus, I just kind a went at it little by
little with my fingernails. It took quite some effort, but eventually, I
managed to get it opened. It may not actually have been taped shut as I
suspect, but boy did it feel like it was!
Once I got the box opened, I noticed that on the front of the phone, not just
on the screen, but on about 95% of the front of the phone, there was a plastic
cellophane covering that I had to break and tear off the screen to expose it.
This could of just been due to me hardly having any nails, but I couldn't for
the life of me get the thing off. Finally when I did, it was all bubbled up,
and wrinkled. It looked absolutely disgusting! Not that it was a big deal,
seeing it was coming off anyway, but had that been an actual screen protector,
I would a been screwed.
Once I held the actual pone in my hand completely opened and ready to go, I
noticed something right up front. The phone is slightly wider than an IPhone
going horizontally from the left side to the right side of the phone. It's not
enough to be a problem though. the IPhone has a 4 inch screen. This handset
is a 4.7 inch screen, so it's just barely below an inch bigger. So, we're not
talking a 7 inch Note here. This thing's definitely! not a phablet!
I also noticed that the volume and power/lock keys were over on the right side
of the device. I sort of like this, but it can ge a bit annoying if the phone
is in my pocket, and I'm trying to dig my hand in my pants to lock the screen
or to reject a phone call etc. What tends to happen is, I'll go to reach for
the lock button, and in the process I'll bump the screen with my finger, and
sometimes do really undesired things. No, I've not managed yet to call 9 1 1,
god forbid. LOL! Just kidding. I'm sure my day's a cummin though. LOL! The
other reason I don't like it is, I tend to have a very heavy, and believe me, I
do mean heavy! touch/grip. With this said, sometimes when I'm holding the
phone, I'll grip it a little two high up on the side edges, and thus will wind
up mashing the volume buttons without meaning to. I don't normally do it to
the point where it gets turned down all the way, as usually I realize I'm doing
it, then lighten up on my grip before it's too late. This problem is rare, and
for most people, I don't perceive it as being much of an issue, so don't let
that turn you off. My guess is, it's probably just the nature of how I hold
the phone in my left hand in combination with how I grip the thing with my
fingers.
Unlike the IPhone, this phone isn't made out of metal/glass. I mean, ok, yeah,
the screen obviously is glass, duh, but, I'm saying, the rest of the phone is
not. Actually, now that I feel it as I'm writing, the edges might be metal,
but I don't think so. I don't have quite enough vision to really fully tell.
Sorry about that. What I, can! tell you though is, the back of the phone is a
real hard very nice, and very heavy duty polly-carbon plastic. If you ever
have seen the older white mac books, not the aluminum pro's, but I'm talking
about just the plain standard mac books, then you'll know exactly what I'm
talking about. It's basically the same type glossy material as those units.
Granted, you'd think the smooth glossiness would make the phone harder to grip,
but I'm actually very impressed. It really doesn't, believe it or not. The
other real nice thing is, the back of the IPhone is totally flat. There's no
angle in the thing. this kind a makes the IPhone feel very deck of cardish. I
dono... some may like that, but me personally, I found it a bit annoying. the
Moto X on the other hand is ever? ever! so slightly convexed. by this, more
directly put, what I mean is, it's kind of jutted out a little ways. It's very
suttle, but it's just enough to tactally be able to tell. I! love this, as it
makes it way way easier for me to hold up to my ear. Normally, the way I hold
a phone of any kind is I wrap my thumb on thn one side of the phone and let my
middle and ring finger gently grasp the other side of the phone. Then I let my
pinky do nothing. It's totally out of the way, not even in contact at all with
the phone. then my index finger is raised and in the dead back center of the
handset acting as a rest/anker to kind of guide the phone to say up to my ear.
With this said, that convexed curve in the back of the phone feels really
really nice against my index finger. It kind of gives me a little resistance
on that finger. That probably doesn't make sense, but I don't know how to
explain it. Trust me though, it really does feel very very hnice.
When I tried pluggin earphones into the phone, they made a very definite
snap/click which was both felt and heard very very easily. The USB cord was
even cooler! One side of the end of the cord that goes into the phone is a
little bit lipped. It's a little bit concaved, whereas the other side is
completely flat. the side that is a little concaved needs to be faced up
toward the ceiling when you plug the cord in. Again, it's suttle, but it's
definitely also very noticeable. I also really like the fact that it takes
quite an intentional pull in order to remove the cord from the phone. It's
pretty snugged, so you don't really have to worry about it falling out.
The sound quality and volume of this phone when turned up all the way is
amazing! Even with my hearing loss, which is quite profound in some ways, this
phone is incredible! Even all the way up, it doesn't distort in the least!
That was impressive! I could a sworn it would clip really really badly all the
way up, but unlike the IPhone, especially the 5S, and the 5C, it doesn't
distort at all. I even put a TTS engine which has a really really loud voice,
naturally, on the device, and though it was so loud that it was almost
earsplitting, it wasn't distorted at all. Don't get me wrong, all the way up
isn't deafening, nor earshatterring, but it is extremely loud. believe you me,
you'll hear it! for those with the Nexus 7 tablets, either the 2012, or the
2013 models who've complained that the volume was really soft even all the way
up, you won't have this issue with the Moto X, I promise! The Moto X goes
about 3 and a half to 4 times louder than the Nexus 7 tablets. It is amazing!
that's no exageration either on the amount calculation! I'm being dead
seriously literal! You gotta hear it for yourself to appreciate it, but it's
really good! And, not only this, but it's in full stereo! It's not even mono!
In fact, I can't prove this, but somewhere, I read, though don't quote me on
this, it's actually quadrophonic! I hear there are speakers in all 4 quadrant
corners of the device. Again, that may not be true. I'm not totally sure.
I'm only going there by what I've read online.
Vibration Motor
One thing I also noticed was that the vibration motor in the Moto X is
wonderful! I'm not much of a fan of vibration, as I feel it normally feels too
mooshy and just over all, kind of, ehh, to me. I dono, I can't explain it. I
can't put my finger on it exactly, but something about vibration normally just
gets on my nerves. I just don't like the buzzing effect in my hand. But then,
I've never liked things buzzing in my hand. Creepy? Crawly? Firry? scratchy?
LOL! Just kidding. No seriously, I just don't really care for it. This said,
I found the vibration on the moto X is actually, somewhat tolerable! I dono,
it just seems to feel more definite. I know, I'm just weird like that.
The back facing camera
You know... I've not had a chance yet to play any with the camera, front, or!
back facing, so I really can't vouch for the quality quite yet, but I know the
rear camera is 10 meggapixils, which should mean that it would be very very
good. It would be interesting with something like Google Goggles, or the like,
to see what it does, if anything. I've never had much luck with those apps on
any Android device, so I can't really say. My milage may vary, and so may
your's.
The screen digitizer
Unlike my Nexus 7 tablet, where sometimes gestures don't quite work, I've found
that the digitizer in the Moto X doesn't seem to have this issue at all. All
my gestures are seeming to register just fine. Now, this said, I did remap the
up then right gesture for the local context menu, as for some weird reason, not
only did this gesture not work out of the box on my Nexus 7, it's not working
either on my Moto X. This may be a Talkback bug, as I've heard of some who can
consistently get it to work without changing it, but I've heard of others like
myself who try as they may, can't get it to work either. So, yeah, YMMV.
Aside this though, it seems to work perfectly.
Talkback's Two Circular context Menus
I have found that the context menus in Talkback work a little bit better on my
Nexus tab than on my Moto X. I don't think this is an issue of the phone or of
Talkback though. It's probably just that on the phone, you have less screen
real estate to work with than on the tablet, thus, the options going around the
circle are smaller, and are a bit more smished closer together, thus, making it
slightly harder to slide around and find the option you need. Being they're
smaller, it also thus means that the circle is a bit more sensitive. The
slightest little movement, and you'll move from one option to another. I'm
finding that I gotta be really careful when I lift my finger, as if I'm not,
I'll wind up lifting up on the wrong option.I kind a wish they'd make that
screen where you gotta double tap to activate the option. I see their logic
though of why they didn't do that. Why add more unnecessary gestures?
The phone dialer
I like the phone dialer a lot, however, one thing that is really taking me some
getting used to is, on the keypad screen before you're in an active call, the
numbers like, 1, 2, 3, are horizontally fine, however, going 1, 4, 7, star, or
2, 5, 8, 0: in other words, going virtically, are very very close together.
They're smished really tightly on the screen. And, the fact that to dial, you
basically do just like you do with your keyboard. You touch type the numbers.
So in other words, you slide your finger to the number of your choice, then you
lift your finger, and the number is pressed. I've found myself fat fingerring
and dialing incorrectly quite often. Yeah, there's google Now, where I could
voice dial, and I do use that sometimes, but I don't necessarily wanna use that
as a crutch. You know what I mean? It's a tool/aide, not a servant, if you
will. LOL! OK phone, go dial for me, bee och? LOL! Just kidding! I do!
like that under settings>accessibility, I have the ability of making the
lock/power side button be my hang up key. That is awesome!
Typing on the beast
Watch it! this is the only negative thing I'm probably gonna say. Typing on
this thing is absolutely disgusting! I don't just dislike it, I flat out hate
it! Even with the Nuance Google Swipe keyboard, it's terrible in my opinion!
I find that the placement of the keys, regardless the keyboard of choice, makes
it extremely! difficult to type. Now, I have fairly big hands, and decently
big fingers, plus remember, in all fairness, I have mild cerebral pausy in both
my hands, which causes my hands both to trimmer a bit. for this reason, it
makes it more so difficult, as the ever ever! ever! so slightest bit of
movement will result in either me sliding off the key I need, or will make me
type the wrong character, or sometimes, at worst, both. I also don't like
where they put the delete key. Both on the default google keyboard as well as
on the Swype keyboard, it's near the bottom right side of the keyboard, instead
of like on my tablet, where it's on the top most row of keys, on the far far
righthand side. I know why they didn't put it there though. There would have
been no room for it. the p, l, and delete keys on the far right side, as well
as the q, a, and shift keys are so damn flushed, (parden my language,) with the
edge rims of the phone that you literally almost have to use the sides of your
finger tips to hit the letters. I mean, when I say they are flushed with the
edge, I mean they are fee lushed! Frankly, it's enough to almost make me
scream! I want to think positive, that I'll eventually get used to typing on
this thing, but it's not looking very promising at the moment, I'll confess. I
hope that I wind up eating crow, and am wrong in the long run.
Proximity sinsor
What can I say about this thing... Simply, put, amazing! Oh my god! This
thing is simply gorgeous! the fact that I can wave my hand in front of the
thing to silence speech? Oh man! that is nice! Keep in mind, for a lot of
you, you're probably looking at me going, well, yeah? what's so cool about
that! You've been able to do that since ancient of days! No? Not really!
Keep in mind, I have a tablet. Tablets don't have proximity sinsors, so, I was
left out in the cold as far as that went. Back in the days, I had an Android
2.2 phone, but that thing wouldn't do that natively with the sensor, and with
the app to make it do it, it wasn't always very consistently reliable, so for
most, this is old news, but for me, this is absolutely wonderful!
Touchless Gestures
You know... I see everyone's argument that you never know what audio is being
transmitted and to where with this feature enabled. I have this concern too,
bigtime. this is why I normally don't have it turned on. However, that being
said, there is something nice about being able to wake up in the morning, not
even yet roll out of bed, and just say: OK google now! Do I have voicemail?
OK google Now! What time is it? OK google now! Do I have any missed calls?
OK google now: turn on my ringer. OK google Now! turn off my alarm. OK
google now: Text mom: Let me get dressed, and I'll be downstairs for breakfast
in just a few minutes. Etc. All of this, not even once touching my phone
physically. I also like that google has this feature disabled by default, and
you always can opt out of using it at any time if you so choose, and doing so
will not cause you down the road to have to retrain it, if you change your mind.
Data usage
This phone not only can do 3G/4G, but if you have coverage for it, it'll also
do LTE, which is excellent!
Conclusion
I think that just about covers it. So over all, would I recommend this phone?
Heck yeah! Darn straight I would! This phone is absolutely awesome! It comes
with KitKat out of the box, no modding or rooting needed. If, you happen to
get an older Moto X handset that has Jellybean on it after unboxing, though
that now adays is unlikely, don't worry. There is indeed an over the air
update, regardless your carrier in most cases, which will let you push it to
KitKat 4.4.
Chris.
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