So here's an interesting contradiction. The Moto X spec sheet describes the audio as "Front-facing and at bottom." This suggests it only has one speaker at the bottom, and thus not stereo. Phil says as much in his hands-on write-up:
- The new Moto X looks like it has stereo speakers out front like the Moto G. But in fact the top one's merely the earpiece, and the bottom serves as the speaker. Both are raised slightly. And they're part of the trim color you'll choose in Moto Maker, as is the ring around the Motorola logo in the dimple on the back.
- That single speaker is pretty good, and pretty loud. But it's still not as good as what you get from HTC's BoomSound. (But what is?)
Over at Gizmodo however, Brent Rose
claims they are stereo, loud, and compared side-by-side with the HTC One M8, just as good:
"The audio is absolutely fantastic. Moto did a ton of work on the two front-facing speakers and they are simultaneously very loud and very clear. The Moto X started shouting turn by turn directions at my on a loud, crowded Chicago street, and not only could I hear it clearly, but I kind of jumped a little. I listened to some music on the new Moto X and compared it to the HTC One (M8), which had the best sound of any smartphone. As far as I could tell, the Moto X was at least as good, and maybe even better. Really killer."
So are they stereo? Or has Moto just tweaked the audio software to give that impression? Honestly it doesn't really matter to me just as long as they're loud and clear, which seems to be the case. It's certainly possible that Gizmodo is mistaken, but I find it a little hard to believe that a tech journalist would get such a feature so wrong, especially when comparing it side-by-side with a device known for its excellent, stereo speakers. But maybe that's why I prefer AC for my Android coverage.