Hands on review

john30308

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Thought I would share my post from another forum:

Moto X4. Great phone. I got the Fi version. I've had Nexus 4, 5, 5X and 6P. This phone is right in there. Specifics:

Screen: great quality, I can't tell any difference in vibrancy, density, clarity, etc. It looks great. Larger than the 5X, smaller than the 6P. It's a great size. It is not as easy to read in full sun as the AMOLED on the 6P.

Speed: some early reviews were worried about it being slow, or slow to respond to touch, etc. I'm not seeing any of that. It's like butter.

Camera: again, I almost didn't buy the phone because some early reviews really trashed the camera app as slow and poor. It is not slow at all! I think the whole criticism was fake news - really. I like the phone features. As to quality, to me, it is like all my other Android phones. Good pictures, but not as good as iPhone photography (don't know what it is that Apple does to make their photos so damn good!) My only criticism is no Photosphere. I do use that from time to time. There must be a separate app somewhere that I can get to be able to continue.

Feel in the hand: Much easier to handle that my 6P, but still a handful. I'm a "no case" guy and the phone is slippery, but so was my 6P when I first got it.

Look: ehh. It's not bad, but nothing special to look at. Personally, I'm not a fan of the rounded corners and sides. The camera hump doesn't bother me at all. A little thing, but on the screen, the "Home" capacitive button, instead of a single circle, it uses two concentric circles, and I don't like it. I'm sure it will grow on me.

Calls: great phone! Phone earpiece is louder than my 6P. Handles calls beautifully.

Fingerprint reader: it's on the front bottom and I was worried I wouldn't like it, but it's a non-issue. I use my two thumbs instead of index fingers. Same - same as 5X or 6P.

Storage: It only comes in 32G. I have 133 apps installed. 22G used, 10G free. BUT - it has a SD card. :)

Software: Motorola did a good job in living up to the Nexus (AndroidOne) spirit. There are only 3 Motorola apps on the phone. One, their Home launcher (got rid of it in a hurry - love Nova). The other I love, which is a notifications app. As your hand goes over the phone when its locked and the screen is dark, it will light up with time, battery strength, etc. Very nicely done and optional. It also has options to stop the phone from ringing after you pick it up but before you answer it, or lay it facedown to put the phone in "do not disturb".

Overall: to me, it's definitely a major step up from the 5X. It's maybe a little step down from the 6P. But, the price was great, and since BOTH by 5X and 6P were casualties of the bootloop, I wanted to get what I thought was a better built, "tougher" phone - a Motorola. Don't know if that's true, but that's my perception.

So, no regrets! Love the phone. To me, it's the new Nexus.
 

Javier P

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Thanks for the review! A question, is one-button nav included in your model? How many options do you get in the Moto Actions?
 

john30308

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Not sure what you mean by on-button nav. Here are the moto actions available on it: quick screenshot, chop twice for flashlight, twist for quick capture, swipe to shrink screen (to make the screen smaller for one-handed use), pick up to stop ringing, flip for do not disturb, approach for moto display. Hope that helps, and thanks for the question. I didn't know there were so many options!
 

Javier P

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The one button nav is a Moto action that hides the navigation bar (home, back and recent apps) and let you use the fingerprint sensor to navigate. I wasn't sure if this option was available on your specific model.
 

Ry

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Looks like the new Android One is more than the original Android One.
 

chanchan05

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Honestly it's hard to swallow reviews for non flagship phones. It's like they're comparing it to flagships and not the same price range. Of course the camera would be poorer compared to the Note 8, Pixel, iPhone 8, v30, etc. But what about for the rest of the price range? People are looking at that phone because for one reason or another they're not willing to spend upwards of 600USD for a phone. They already know from the start it will be inferior to the flagships.

I've seen and handled a number of phones bashed by reviewers but end up pretty decent in everyday use.
 

Golfdriver97

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Honestly it's hard to swallow reviews for non flagship phones. It's like they're comparing it to flagships and not the same price range. Of course the camera would be poorer compared to the Note 8, Pixel, iPhone 8, v30, etc. But what about for the rest of the price range? People are looking at that phone because for one reason or another they're not willing to spend upwards of 600USD for a phone. They already know from the start it will be inferior to the flagships.

I've seen and handled a number of phones bashed by reviewers but end up pretty decent in everyday use.
To add to this....as long as it performs the functions people need, it should be fine.
 

editguy

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Good review. To add something that some people may not know, it has adoptable storage which means that the SD card can be used as if it's internal storage
 

1901Madison

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Thought I would share my post from another forum:

Moto X4. Great phone. I got the Fi version. I've had Nexus 4, 5, 5X and 6P. This phone is right in there. Specifics:

Screen: great quality, I can't tell any difference in vibrancy, density, clarity, etc. It looks great. Larger than the 5X, smaller than the 6P. It's a great size. It is not as easy to read in full sun as the AMOLED on the 6P.

Speed: some early reviews were worried about it being slow, or slow to respond to touch, etc. I'm not seeing any of that. It's like butter.

Camera: again, I almost didn't buy the phone because some early reviews really trashed the camera app as slow and poor. It is not slow at all! I think the whole criticism was fake news - really. I like the phone features. As to quality, to me, it is like all my other Android phones. Good pictures, but not as good as iPhone photography (don't know what it is that Apple does to make their photos so damn good!) My only criticism is no Photosphere. I do use that from time to time. There must be a separate app somewhere that I can get to be able to continue.

Feel in the hand: Much easier to handle that my 6P, but still a handful. I'm a "no case" guy and the phone is slippery, but so was my 6P when I first got it.

Look: ehh. It's not bad, but nothing special to look at. Personally, I'm not a fan of the rounded corners and sides. The camera hump doesn't bother me at all. A little thing, but on the screen, the "Home" capacitive button, instead of a single circle, it uses two concentric circles, and I don't like it. I'm sure it will grow on me.

Calls: great phone! Phone earpiece is louder than my 6P. Handles calls beautifully.

Fingerprint reader: it's on the front bottom and I was worried I wouldn't like it, but it's a non-issue. I use my two thumbs instead of index fingers. Same - same as 5X or 6P.

Storage: It only comes in 32G. I have 133 apps installed. 22G used, 10G free. BUT - it has a SD card. :)

Software: Motorola did a good job in living up to the Nexus (AndroidOne) spirit. There are only 3 Motorola apps on the phone. One, their Home launcher (got rid of it in a hurry - love Nova). The other I love, which is a notifications app. As your hand goes over the phone when its locked and the screen is dark, it will light up with time, battery strength, etc. Very nicely done and optional. It also has options to stop the phone from ringing after you pick it up but before you answer it, or lay it facedown to put the phone in "do not disturb".

Overall: to me, it's definitely a major step up from the 5X. It's maybe a little step down from the 6P. But, the price was great, and since BOTH by 5X and 6P were casualties of the bootloop, I wanted to get what I thought was a better built, "tougher" phone - a Motorola. Don't know if that's true, but that's my perception.

So, no regrets! Love the phone. To me, it's the new Nexus.

Great review! How is battery life on the X4?
 

john30308

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dby2011
How's the headphone jack sound quality?

I'm not fussy about music on earbuds - it's not how I listen to music - so I can't really comment. But in general, it works fine. No different than my other phones. It's loud enough and people hear me fine on calls.
 

john30308

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To the question on battery life. Superb so far. You can imagine the use a NEW phone gets in the early days of ownership. So far, I've finished every day without a recharge no problem. And, it may be obvious, but it fast chargers using the fast charger from my 6P as well as the one that came with the phone. Motorola called it "turbo" charge, not fast charge, so I wasn't sure they would be compatible, but they are.
 

1901Madison

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To the question on battery life. Superb so far. You can imagine the use a NEW phone gets in the early days of ownership. So far, I've finished every day without a recharge no problem. And, it may be obvious, but it fast chargers using the fast charger from my 6P as well as the one that came with the phone. Motorola called it "turbo" charge, not fast charge, so I wasn't sure they would be compatible, but they are.

Very nice. I was worried about battery life after the Android Central review, but that's good to hear.
 

ca_steve

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Thanks for the hands on review. I'm curious about outdoor visibility as you say it's worse than the 6P. Is it a brightness issue or glass reflections/coatings? Because, the 6P is reviewed as having max brightness of ~340 nits and the x4 is ~510.
 

captainkirkw

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Thanks for the review. I have ordered the Amazon Exclusive version to give it a try since it is only $329. If the ads really bother me but I like it enough then I will just return it and order the regular unlocked version.
 

editguy

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Thanks for the review. I have ordered the Amazon Exclusive version to give it a try since it is only $329. If the ads really bother me but I like it enough then I will just return it and order the regular unlocked version.

I think Amazon allows you to pay the difference and get the ads removed.
 

captainkirkw

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I think Amazon allows you to pay the difference and get the ads removed.

Yeah, I watched a video with this phone showing the ads and it was not as bad as I though. As long as you can delete most of the bloatware then it should be fine. If you pay the difference then you might as well just buy the unlocked version. I did just get a discount offer from Motorola so I have that option if I don't like the Amazon version.
 

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