For those who are let down...

[Rule9]

Not only that, but remember that Google is eating the margin on the Nexus line. Imagine how other Android OEMs would react if Motorola suddenly started selling their phones will little concern for profit margin? It could tear apart the ecosystem and leave Android much worse off. Now I do expect Motorola to try and push down prices and decouple the process of buying a phone from carriers (Moto Maker anyone???), but you can't really expect them to do it all at once without repercussions.

Nice I theory except for one thing. It has mid range phone specs. Therefore mid range pricing was expected. The X is not priced at mid range. It's not over 600 but Motorola has done the age old sales tactic of skating as close as they could to it so that the difference is negligible.

 

[Aquila]

Nice I theory except for one thing. It has mid range phone specs. Therefore mid range pricing was expected. The X is not priced at mid range. It's not over 600 but Motorola has done the age old sales tactic of skating as close as they could to it so that the difference is negligible.

But many of these threads contain the explanation as to why this is not a mid range device and is actually priced accurately, once you attempt to understand the hardware performance and pricing strategies relative to the competing models. Mid range is incredibly misleading and seems to be predicated upon the screen resolution and number of cores, not on the merit in terms of performance nor on actual component costs.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Rule9]

But many of these threads contain the explanation as to why this is not a mid range device and is actually priced accurately, once you attempt to understand the hardware performance and pricing strategies relative to the competing models. Mid range is incredibly misleading and seems to be predicated upon the screen resolution and number of cores, not on the merit in terms of performance nor on actual component costs.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Fair enough. If the X matches the One pound for pound in performance with things like the most demanding hi def games over the next year then I'm willing to buy that argument.

 

[Rule9]

If Googorola really wants this phone to be taken seriously as an android phone to appeal to the general masses - ie. "experience rather than specs" to take on the iPhone, another thing I'd expect is for this to be the first non Nexus, non GE phone to get rapid updates. But since they partnered with the carriers on this I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Fair enough. If the X matches the One pound for pound in performance with things like the most demanding hi def games over the next year then I'm willing to buy that argument.

If Googorola really wants this phone to be taken seriously as an android phone to appeal to the general masses - ie. "experience rather than specs" to take on the iPhone, another thing I'd expect is for this to be the first non Nexus, non GE phone to get rapid updates. But since they partnered with the carriers on this I'm not holding my breath.

Still waiting on Phil to play some games, but it has more than enough horsepower to handle them. Early benchmarks (I know, I know) show it having plenty of power.

Also, I'm still not sure the general masses care about updates all that much. But you're right about one thing, the carriers well treat this just like any other phone.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[mcelmeel17]

For the love of god...how about waiting till the dust settles and we see how well it ACTUALLY PERFORMS?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[JudH]

The reasons I would buy it instead of the One:

1. Motorola radios
2. Motorola battery life

That reputation used to be true back in the StarTac flip phone days but I'm not convinced it's still true. We've got a Samsung S3 and a Motorola Atrix2 both with every piece of bloatware disabled that can be on non-rooted phones.

In our weak signal area at the house (no LTE) the S3 blows the Atrix2 out of the water--it will usually have at least 2 bars of signal while the A2 will have a no signal red triangle. Same is true in the car around the county--the S3 consistently has a better signal. The S3 also beats the A2 in the sound quality during a call--sometimes a night and day difference.

Even with it's larger screen the S3 also beats the Atrix2 in battery life. Only by adding an extended battery and bump-out back did I get the Atrix2 to last an entire day something the S3 has no problem doing (after bloat disabled that is).

But I still carry the Atrix2--because it's SMALLER. Some of us have small hands and the larger S3 is borderline. Larger ones are totally out of the running for me. I was really hoping the Mot X would be my next phone--have to wait and see about battery life but my first opinion the lack of ext sdcard may be a show stopper for me.

 

[hodan]

But many of these threads contain the explanation as to why this is not a mid range device and is actually priced accurately, once you attempt to understand the hardware performance and pricing strategies relative to the competing models. Mid range is incredibly misleading and seems to be predicated upon the screen resolution and number of cores, not on the merit in terms of performance nor on actual component costs.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I agree with your logic. And it's true that specs do not necessarily = performance, the iPhone is the absolute example of this. However, geeks value specs, always and forever, so that's definitely obvious on these, and other android forums. Even the more mainstream tech blogs have jumped on the hater bandwagon.

Marketing will be the only saving grace for Moto. If they're really putting $500 million into marketing, then they'll sell a ton. The S3 catapulted Samsung into prominence partly because of features and partly because of marketing. People now know there are two smartphones - Galaxy and iPhone.

I cannot WAIT to see the reviews, here, Anandtech, theVerge, I'm excited!

 

[hodan]

Processor costs don't fluctuate much, they're around $20 for the S600, $28 for the Exynos, this X8 is probably in the $15-$25 range. The 16GB Qualcomm S4 costs about $234 to build, while the 16GB Moto X is projected by Goldman Sachs to be $225. That $9 difference isn't playing out in the margins the same way people think it is. Clearly Samsung has more potential for profit on their $649 device than Moto is on their $575 device.

I appreciate the details on the parts cost, and completely understand that the parts cost is negligible. Isn't the iPhone 5 around $180? My point was that they could have put the latest and greatest - but chose not too. Maybe for battery life, maybe for cost, maybe for some reason that is beyond my puny knowledge of engineering.

 

[ultravisitor]

That reputation used to be true back in the StarTac flip phone days but I'm not convinced it's still true.

I am.

But I am also carrying a Galaxy Nexus, which hasn't given me the best experience with Samsung compared to my previous phone, the Droid X.

 

[roadkizzle]

That reputation used to be true back in the StarTac flip phone days but I'm not convinced it's still true. We've got a Samsung S3 and a Motorola Atrix2 both with every piece of bloatware disabled that can be on non-rooted phones.

In our weak signal area at the house (no LTE) the S3 blows the Atrix2 out of the water--it will usually have at least 2 bars of signal while the A2 will have a no signal red triangle. Same is true in the car around the county--the S3 consistently has a better signal. The S3 also beats the A2 in the sound quality during a call--sometimes a night and day difference.

Even with it's larger screen the S3 also beats the Atrix2 in battery life. Only by adding an extended battery and bump-out back did I get the Atrix2 to last an entire day something the S3 has no problem doing (after bloat disabled that is).

But I still carry the Atrix2--because it's SMALLER. Some of us have small hands and the larger S3 is borderline. Larger ones are totally out of the running for me. I was really hoping the Mot X would be my next phone--have to wait and see about battery life but my first opinion the lack of ext sdcard may be a show stopper for me.

I think the Atrix 2 was one of the worst sequel travesties. I used the Atrix 4g for about 1 year, and loved it. I had great reception, call quality, and battery life. The Galaxy S2 I had later was a step down in most cases, but I put up with it because my wife needed a phone to replace her iPhone and only wanted one that I had already figured out its quirks.

The Atrix 2 seems to have had worse radios, had a worse battery, less memory, no fingerprint scanner, and a larger form factor. It's only "upgrades" were a non-Tegra processor and 4.3" screen. There was no way I was going to "upgrade" my Atrix 4G to that.

I would like to point out that in your example you are comparing a Fall 2011 phone with a mid-2012 one.

 

[BecomingDeath13]

My biggest issue is their track record for carrying their phones. Considering this is a big deal to moto, I can't see them pulling a Motorola Photon 4G and Never updated the phones os, but come on... How long are they actually going to carry it with upgrades? I'll honestly be surprised if it gets more than one os update after launch.

No offense to anyone that likes Motorola or is hyped up for the Moto X. I'm not pumped for it, but I'm curious to see how successful it becomes and if Motorola/Google will give it the attention it deserves to have for the long haul.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 4

 

[ultravisitor]

My biggest issue is their track record for carrying their phones. Considering this is a big deal to moto, I can't see them pulling a Motorola Photon 4G and Never updated the phones os, but come on... How long are they actually going to carry it with upgrades? I'll honestly be surprised if it gets more than one os update after launch.

I think there's going to be greater incentive to keep this phone updated as it's going to be on all the carriers.

For what it's worth, my Droid X got two updates. It launched with Eclair, got Froyo two or three months later, and then got Gingerbread.

Perhaps part of the problem with the Photon was that it was on Sprint, so not as many people had it.

 

[BecomingDeath13]

I think there's going to be greater incentive to keep this phone updated as it's going to be on all the carriers.

For what it's worth, my Droid X got two updates. It launched with Eclair, got Froyo two or three months later, and then got Gingerbread.

Perhaps part of the problem with the Photon was that it was on Sprint, so not as many people had it.

That could be the case but I believe it launched on another carrier too though with a slightly different name. Identical otherwise.

I definitely see the need importance of keeping this phone up to par with the current os releases. I just hope they come through.

The phone I have now got supported up to 4.1.1 and it's ancient lol. About as old as the HTC Evo I believe? Granted it is a Nexus device and was Google's flagship phone, but meh.

Here's hoping with how they've hyped up the X that they deliver. Specs aside of course.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 4

 

[Honestabebread]

After seeing this and the One side by side, I decided on the X. I want a little bit bigger than my RAZR M. The X is perfect. Sexy round body, manageable. More than enough power. 16GB is fine. The design language of the new Droids is gross.

I'm holding off for VZW to get Moto Maker for some yellow or wood action. Hopefully VZW will get the 32GB version when they get Moto Maker

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Rule9]

I'll take a wait and see on updates. I was also on the Atrix 4g bandwagon when it launched and one thing I discovered to my chagrin was that when it came to updates, Motorola cared very little about the owners of that phone who weren't American. Even their support forums to this day are structured as US support and non US

 

[moosc]

Interesting videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVEeGZIQhh4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

 

[maxman1]

Interesting videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVEeGZIQhh4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

Here's my take. As I see it, there's no other phone on the market in this price range that can exceed the performance of the Moto X to any appreciable degree. Motorola's approach might not be truly revolutionary it but on the other hand, it is certainly demonstrating out of the box forward thinking on the new cores chip design and the resulting performance boost.

Here it is in a nutshell. Moto has delivered a product to market that is substantially different from its peers. It has a gorgeous look, an ergonomic grip design with configuration options never before seen and, not just "new" features but useful, cutting edge features added as well. Every benchmark I've seen ran and every side by side/head to head comparison with the likes of the HTC1 & S4 the Moto has shined in performance indicative of Motorola's separate chip configuration model being the right approach - and all the while, pulling less power while pumping out performance to equal or better the "best of breed" it's most often compared to. To me, it's main competitors are the Droid series especially, the Maxx.

Sent from my Droid RAZR MAXX using Tapatalk2

 

[Nothavingit]

The price is the only disappointing thing for me.


waiting on Moto Maker for VZ is also a bummer but only because I lack patience.


I want it meow

right meow

 

[bryantest]

Geez.

Ok..

If you want to label this as a mid-range device performance wise...wouldn't it make perfect sense for you to

a) Take time to understand how these 8 cores work with each other
b) After point A, make then a legit argument on why this is just "midrange"?

I've seen TOO MANY posters in in various Android-centric fora whining and biyatching even though nobody has really taken into account this X8 architecture whenever they post their "Moto X midrange blah blah" arguments.

*DOUBLE FACEPALM*