This entire "justify the price" mentality? I don't get it.
I looked at the S4 and could not come to the conclusion that I would use any of its so-called features. Among the people I know with one, none of them used any of the gimmicks after the first day or two when they got tired of showing it to their friends.
When I look at the last generation or two of phones, I see a hardware race that does not transfer to the real world. Touchwiz and such suck up resources, they get laggy, the battery life is always a major complaint, etc., but the actual phone does just what it did last year. The innovation that I liked best was the front mounted speakers on the HTC One. To me that was a useful feature as well as was the camera light sensor which probably needs to be improved from some of the outdoor shots I saw. On the other hand, it was getting a bit bulky in size even tho' I love big, good screens.
The X caught my intention because Motorola tried to address the battery life issue intelligently by optimizing performance thru dedicated processors to handle low level loads rather than firing the entire processing system up to look if you have a message, mail, whatever.
It also tried to take the phone in a different direction where it addressed the normal user issues by providing useful tools that people would continue to use rather than trying to "out spec" the other guy. I suspect we shall see a lot of copy cats trying to do the same now that relatively new ground is being broken. No doubt there is a certain percentage of buyers out there that buy the latest and greatest specs so they can sit around and compare them with their friends, but, this does nothing to really provide more user benefits when it comes to daily use.
People gripe about the screen is only 720 and not 1080 but there are not many people out there that have good enuf eyes out there to tell the difference at a normal viewing distance. Scientific studies have proven that back in the days of HD tvs. Viewing distance trumps all. It sure makes it easier to add battery life without increasing weight and size.
When one reads reviews, the conclusion is that the perceived performance is as good, and sometimes, better than the so called "high end" spec'd phones. The on and off screen graphic tests are revealing. Some are determined to tar and feather it with an old processor label, but Motorola has revised it plus added a reworked gpu and the other two processors to form an integrated "processor system" that assists in reducing heat and extending battery life. Seems intelligent to me but I understand others don't see it that way.
Motorola and Google have set a new course by trying to make the phone a better tool for the average user-not the spec hound who may play with the phone a lot but does not really "use" it all that much as a phone.
I am probably in a minority as I live in the boon-docks and the actual phone talk performance is important because I am not always close to a tower plus I am old and deaf and I want to be able to hear it going down the road 75 mph in a less than quiet truck. Motorola has generally had pretty good phone performance over the years.
I am a bit disappointed in the camera performance but after looking at a number of comparisons, it is not as bad as I thought it would be from the early reviews. After all, the average phone buyer probably never even thinks about the picture quality when they are snapping their kids, or whatever. I hope they tune the software up in the updates.
All in all, I think this is a high end phone based on real world performance and utility. If their marketing campaign is worth a damn it will appeal to a large percentage of phone buyers but probably not to the people that want to talk about the speed of core processor.
Justify the price? I might be in the minority but $50 difference in price would never influence my own decision. I always buy what I think is the best phone for me. Fortunately in the real world, we are not required to justify our own purchases to others when we are doing the buying instead of someone else as long as the purchase fills our perceived needs.
The only thing I fear is that in a year there will be big advances in the direction that Moto has taken and I will want the next one in the trend
No matter what your desires may be in a phone, that is inevitable...
I looked at the S4 and could not come to the conclusion that I would use any of its so-called features. Among the people I know with one, none of them used any of the gimmicks after the first day or two when they got tired of showing it to their friends.
When I look at the last generation or two of phones, I see a hardware race that does not transfer to the real world. Touchwiz and such suck up resources, they get laggy, the battery life is always a major complaint, etc., but the actual phone does just what it did last year. The innovation that I liked best was the front mounted speakers on the HTC One. To me that was a useful feature as well as was the camera light sensor which probably needs to be improved from some of the outdoor shots I saw. On the other hand, it was getting a bit bulky in size even tho' I love big, good screens.
The X caught my intention because Motorola tried to address the battery life issue intelligently by optimizing performance thru dedicated processors to handle low level loads rather than firing the entire processing system up to look if you have a message, mail, whatever.
It also tried to take the phone in a different direction where it addressed the normal user issues by providing useful tools that people would continue to use rather than trying to "out spec" the other guy. I suspect we shall see a lot of copy cats trying to do the same now that relatively new ground is being broken. No doubt there is a certain percentage of buyers out there that buy the latest and greatest specs so they can sit around and compare them with their friends, but, this does nothing to really provide more user benefits when it comes to daily use.
People gripe about the screen is only 720 and not 1080 but there are not many people out there that have good enuf eyes out there to tell the difference at a normal viewing distance. Scientific studies have proven that back in the days of HD tvs. Viewing distance trumps all. It sure makes it easier to add battery life without increasing weight and size.
When one reads reviews, the conclusion is that the perceived performance is as good, and sometimes, better than the so called "high end" spec'd phones. The on and off screen graphic tests are revealing. Some are determined to tar and feather it with an old processor label, but Motorola has revised it plus added a reworked gpu and the other two processors to form an integrated "processor system" that assists in reducing heat and extending battery life. Seems intelligent to me but I understand others don't see it that way.
Motorola and Google have set a new course by trying to make the phone a better tool for the average user-not the spec hound who may play with the phone a lot but does not really "use" it all that much as a phone.
I am probably in a minority as I live in the boon-docks and the actual phone talk performance is important because I am not always close to a tower plus I am old and deaf and I want to be able to hear it going down the road 75 mph in a less than quiet truck. Motorola has generally had pretty good phone performance over the years.
I am a bit disappointed in the camera performance but after looking at a number of comparisons, it is not as bad as I thought it would be from the early reviews. After all, the average phone buyer probably never even thinks about the picture quality when they are snapping their kids, or whatever. I hope they tune the software up in the updates.
All in all, I think this is a high end phone based on real world performance and utility. If their marketing campaign is worth a damn it will appeal to a large percentage of phone buyers but probably not to the people that want to talk about the speed of core processor.
Justify the price? I might be in the minority but $50 difference in price would never influence my own decision. I always buy what I think is the best phone for me. Fortunately in the real world, we are not required to justify our own purchases to others when we are doing the buying instead of someone else as long as the purchase fills our perceived needs.
The only thing I fear is that in a year there will be big advances in the direction that Moto has taken and I will want the next one in the trend
No matter what your desires may be in a phone, that is inevitable...
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