My Moto X Pure Edition Review

[THARD11]

The battery life is the thing that stopped me getting this phone earlier as I had an LG G3 which had really poor battery life at around 3 hours so 3.5 hours isn't much better but of course I know we all use them differently

I usually have my brightness set to around 75-80% if I moved that down some it would help to extend battery life I know. I can get through a whole day this way usually so I just leave it there to see screen better in daylight.

 

[Stanley Kubrick]

I still do not think it's the "phone" that is causing the high heat for some people. I think it's the battery. The battery is a chemical reaction that produces the electricity to run the phone. These devices are built to certain specs that have to be met or they will not function. The software out of the box "should" be identical as it's digital. That leaves the battery which is a combination of various elements and chemicals that interact with one another to produce electricity. If the chemical reaction is off one way or another then you will get excessive heat. If we could just swap the battery I believe this would prove my point. Besides, when we return these things due to overheating what do you think Moto is doing with them to resolve the issue so they can re-purpose them as refurb's? They are replacing the batteries first. If that fixes the issue - done. If not....then maybe they scrap them and right it off of their taxes.

 

[Jason Bringhurst]

It is a very, very lovable phone, isn't it? I just have to add that the screen is BRIGHT. I mean, it's one of the brightest displays I've ever seen. Turn off adaptive brightness and max the slider out and you'll see what I mean. I love that it's RGB stripe too, so it doesn't look like it's missing pixels like the 1080p Pentile AMOLED screen in the X2 (noticeable with Moto Display between the X1 and X2).

The front facing stereo speakers are awesome. The stereo separation is superb, which is crazy for a phone.

I got a 64GB as well with Ash wood, white/champagne, and champagne accents. It's beautiful. eMMC is made by Samsung and appears to be a 200MB/s read, 60MB/s write eMMC 5.0 chip. Stout performance.

I consistently achieved over 5 hours of SOT, with a high of 6h 22m.

 

[Josiah23]

Nice review! for some reason the Moto X Pure reminds me of the Nexus 6. I love phones that are unlocked and carrier bloat free!

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nice review! for some reason the Moto X Pure reminds me of the Nexus 6. I love phones that are unlocked and carrier bloat free!

Moto made the Nexus 6. The Moto X Pure Edition is not quite as wide as the Nexus 6, and I like that the Moto X Pure Edition is a bit more narrow.

 

[Josiah23]

I really like how you can customize it on moto maker! From storage, back cover to engravings and a greeting messages.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I really like how you can customize it on moto maker! From storage, back cover to engravings and a greeting messages.

That's something no other OEM is doing and is definitely nice.

 

[Josiah23]

That's something no other OEM is doing and is definitely nice.

Do you have any plans for customizing it or keeping the ROM, kernel, and recovery stock?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Do you have any plans for customizing it or keeping the ROM, kernel, and recovery stock?

Not at this point, but possibly later.

 

[rushmore]

I still do not think it's the "phone" that is causing the high heat for some people. I think it's the battery. The battery is a chemical reaction that produces the electricity to run the phone. These devices are built to certain specs that have to be met or they will not function. The software out of the box "should" be identical as it's digital. That leaves the battery which is a combination of various elements and chemicals that interact with one another to produce electricity. If the chemical reaction is off one way or another then you will get excessive heat. If we could just swap the battery I believe this would prove my point. Besides, when we return these things due to overheating what do you think Moto is doing with them to resolve the issue so they can re-purpose them as refurb's? They are replacing the batteries first. If that fixes the issue - done. If not....then maybe they scrap them and right it off of their taxes.

If the battery was defective to cause the heat, it would not maintain full capacitance. For lack of better less technical description, it would be like a short in the cells causing heat to build.

The heat seems mainly due to any app that tries to push 1440p with a GPU that is at it's ceiling pushing math to 1440p. This is why some apps and games do not run hot and others do. Some scale to 720p or 1080p and some do not, since the dev overlooked it or chose not to. 1440p res for a GPU to push on a phone display is overkill X4.

If the battery lasted just a few hours I would lean towards the battery as well, but seems enough anecdotal info now to lean to an over taxed GPU.

The GPU though could be adding to battery heat and that is not good either.

Good examples of apps that stress the MXPE's GPU is VR content (pushes native display res up to 1440p) and the game Guns for Hire. Guns for Hire pushes full native res and stutters badly. It plays smooth as butter on the Note 4 with 805 chipset and the Tab S with an Exynos chipset. Both have GPUs designed to handle 1440p.

Then again, games that scale 1080p are smooth: GTA 3, Vice City, Nova 3, MC3, 4 and 5, Dead Effect 2 are just a few that play smooth. Apps that push 1440p choke the MXPE. Video content though at 1440p does not push the GPU since no real math to calculate. The GPU calculations pushing 1440p is what probably causes the main heat concerns.

 

[Stanley Kubrick]

Yes, but there are people complaining of excessive heat while the phone is doing NOTHING with the GPU!
My phone NEVER gets hot...maybe slightly warm but nothing like what some are experiencing. In fact, unless they are not complaining, I believe that the majority do not experience any heat related issues at all. So what is it that is making "some" experience excessive heat if all the phones have the same hardware and software out-of-the-box? I still believe it's the battery.

 

[Localprez]

Nice review. I m a newbie here and have been reading as much as I can about the MXPE. You may have just pushed me off the fence to buy it.

 

[rushmore]

Yes, but there are people complaining of excessive heat while the phone is doing NOTHING with the GPU!
My phone NEVER gets hot...maybe slightly warm but nothing like what some are experiencing. In fact, unless they are not complaining, I believe that the majority do not experience any heat related issues at all. So what is it that is making "some" experience excessive heat if all the phones have the same hardware and software out-of-the-box? I still believe it's the battery.

Could be. More the reason I wish the MXPE had a replaceable battery. The design would have worked great with one and less total repair cost, since way easier replacing a battery than a device- for both the customer and Motorola.

 

[LongbranchPennywhistle]

Yes, but there are people complaining of excessive heat while the phone is doing NOTHING with the GPU!
My phone NEVER gets hot...maybe slightly warm but nothing like what some are experiencing. In fact, unless they are not complaining, I believe that the majority do not experience any heat related issues at all. So what is it that is making "some" experience excessive heat if all the phones have the same hardware and software out-of-the-box? I still believe it's the battery.

There always is the potential of a bad battery here and there, and I do agree. Honestly my biggest complaint with the phone would be the lack of a removable battery. If there was anything that I would change, that would definitely be it.

In a way, I think part of the reason for the current setup of a non-removable battery is due to the fact that all of the "custom backs" that you can get on moto maker are literally glued to the back of the phone. If they weren't glued, some other solution would have probably been used. I get the feeling that the easiest and cheapest option was what we have, they sacrificed easy access to the battery for customization and a simple and cheap manufacturing process. Just slap the custom back on and done.

I personally would have preferred a better solution, but it is what it is.

 

[readhpr]

Nice review. I love my 2013 Moto X, which I plan to replace in a few weeks when my contract runs out. I've been torn between the Moto XPE and the Nexus 6P. Kind of leaning toward the XPE but still not completely decided.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Laineyc]

Nice review. I love my 2013 Moto X, which I plan to replace in a few weeks when my contract runs out. I've been torn between the Moto XPE and the Nexus 6P. Kind of leaning toward the XPE but still not completely decided.

Posted via the Android Central App

I replaced my 2013 Moto X with the Pure Edition and I love it. Doesn't overheat, battery time is great. I think you'll be pleased if you go with it.

 

[andy a]

Moto X Style is what I will be ordering as the 6P was the other one I was thinking of getting but for me there are too many cracked rear screens, bent chassis, yellow screen issues, paint peeling off reports from various 6P forums and I just have a feeling the 6P won't be a durable phone at all!

 

[Ryaan Johnson]

Yes, but there are people complaining of excessive heat while the phone is doing NOTHING with the GPU!
My phone NEVER gets hot...maybe slightly warm but nothing like what some are experiencing. In fact, unless they are not complaining, I believe that the majority do not experience any heat related issues at all. So what is it that is making "some" experience excessive heat if all the phones have the same hardware and software out-of-the-box? I still believe it's the battery.

My mxpe does not get hot at all

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ffejjj]

My mxpe does not get hot at all

Posted via the Android Central App

Same here.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ezvv]

Mine gets a little warm with heavy usage and its about 100° in the am when I take it off the turbo charger from the night. I was getting some pretty bad battery life the last month or so and finally today looked into it some more and it was the my T-Mobile app killing the battery, according to gsam anyway. After uninstalling that and recharging its been pretty good all day since,hopefully that was the killer since I switched to them in the last month. Other than that the mxpe is by far my favorite phone I've ever owned.

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