What would stop you from buying the Moto X?

[Sizzers]

I'm not too keen on the curved back and the lack of a MicroSD is a little bit of a concern, but the main thing would be build quality.

I buy all my phones SIM free so this is very important to me, but if it can at least match the build quality of my XT890 then I would be very happy.

 

[Roundpotato]

-Weak processor.
-Non-1080p screen.
-Too thick (If it doesn't have Maxx battery life).
-No multi-window (Ala Samsung) feature or indication that stock Android will implement this soon.

Software optimization only applies to its weak processor, but software optimization is greatly overrated, and demonstrably so. Having used multiple generations of Nexus devices and skinned devices, I can conclude that while there may be some slight performance edge (Much slighter than people wish to admit) in favor of stock devices in comparison to skinned devices of the same generation, the truly determining factor of performance is hardware. For example, the performance difference between the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 4 is greater than the performance difference between the Nexus 4 and the Droid DNA. The Nexus 4 is faster than the Droid DNA which is faster than the Galaxy Nexus, and the DNA has a 1080p screen at that.

So if this claim people wish to make is true, that the Moto X, which is perhaps two processor generations behind the curb, can through software optimization alone supersede the speed of a skinned top tier phone, then without question the Galaxy Nexus should be faster than the Droid DNA, given that the Galaxy Nexus is closer in generation to the Droid DNA than the Moto X will be to something such as the Galaxy S4, and given that the Galaxy Nexus is a more truly stock device than the Moto X. But alas, this is not the case to be found, and we may thus conclude through rational study of the empirical data that the Moto X will be slower than the giants its proponents wish to send it to battle against.

Also, the Nexus One didn't even make it to 4.0 and it came out with bleeding edge specs (Another testament to the power of specs against optimization), so good luck with your updates.

And I wonder how they'd even be able to hit a mid-range price point by building it in the US, if not from Google subsidizing it. It would be quite a laugh to see people defending it if it ends up being $600.

 

[karn101]

-Weak processor.
-Non-1080p screen.
-Too thick (If it doesn't have Maxx battery life).
-No multi-window (Ala Samsung) feature or indication that stock Android will implement this soon.

Software optimization only applies to its weak processor, but software optimization is greatly overrated, and demonstrably so. Having used multiple generations of Nexus devices and skinned devices, I can conclude that while there may be some slight performance edge (Much slighter than people wish to admit) in favor of stock devices in comparison to skinned devices of the same generation, the truly determining factor of performance is hardware. For example, the performance difference between the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 4 is greater than the performance difference between the Nexus 4 and the Droid DNA. The Nexus 4 is faster than the Droid DNA which is faster than the Galaxy Nexus, and the DNA has a 1080p screen at that.

So if this claim people wish to make is true, that the Moto X, which is perhaps two processor generations behind the curb, can through software optimization alone supersede the speed of a skinned top tier phone, then without question the Galaxy Nexus should be faster than the Droid DNA, given that the Galaxy Nexus is closer in generation to the Droid DNA than the Moto X will be to something such as the Galaxy S4, and given that the Galaxy Nexus is a more truly stock device than the Moto X. But alas, this is not the case to be found, and we may thus conclude through rational study of the empirical data that the Moto X will be slower than the giants its proponents wish to sent it to battle against.

Also, the Nexus One didn't even make it to 4.0 and it came out with bleeding edge specs (Another testament to the power of specs against optimization), so good luck with your updates.

And I wonder how they'd even be able to hit a mid-range price point by building it in the US, if not from Google subsidizing it. It would be quite a laugh to see people defending it if it ends up being $600.

How do you know the processor is weak? Proof? This happens to be a new-to-the-public processor and may just be a dual-core variant of the S600, rather than the dual cores of two years ago. Also, those leaked benchmarks have placed it with better results than the Nexus 4, so could you please point to a reference to prove your point?

Also, your logic of the Galaxy Nexus being faster than the Droid DNA is flawed, being that the Nexus 4 is closer in generation and should be used as a reference point, not the GNEX.

Where is the empirical data? How do you know the target audience that Motorola/Google are targeting with this phone?

And your comment about the Nexus One is also lost without a comparison - have any phones of that generation also been updated to 4.0?

If it's $600, then I doubt any one would buy it. So I'd laugh with you, but we wouldn't have much to laugh at.

Basically, I think we should all just wait and see. Peace, love, and happiness.

 

[RenoD2010]

A large, angry gorilla.

Sent from my LG-E970 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Roundpotato]

How do you know the processor is weak? Proof? This happens to be a new-to-the-public processor and may just be a dual-core variant of the S600, rather than the dual cores of two years ago. Also, those leaked benchmarks have placed it with better results than the Nexus 4, so could you please point to a reference to prove your point?

It's dual core and it's rumored to be mid-range; that's all that unbiased and reasonable people will need to know it's weak.

Given the benchmark data it is likely the S400, and also given the benchmark data, though its score is slightly higher than the average Nexus 4, it is still within the class of a Nexus 4, making it one generation of power behind, which is equally compatible with the argument I made.

Also, your logic of the Galaxy Nexus being faster than the Droid DNA is flawed, being that the Nexus 4 is closer in generation and should be used as a reference point, not the GNEX.

Your claim of my logic being flawed is merely a non-comprehension of my argument. The reason that I do not use the Nexus 4 as my reference point is that I do not own any current generation devices of which to compare it to. But of course, this has little baring on my argument as I am making a general comparison of generational leaps of performance. You mistake having flawed logic with having non-ideal circumstances. The logic stands.

Where is the empirical data?

Empirical data is data born from experience and observation, so as to where the empirical data is, it's right before your eyes, in my post that states my experience and observations.

How do you know the target audience that Motorola/Google are targeting with this phone?

I imagine they're targeting those who buy mid-range phones. I never made any claims about their target audience. I was only responding to the OP's request, which was to state the reason(s) why I personally wouldn't get this phone.

And your comment about the Nexus One is also lost without a comparison - have any phones of that generation also been updated to 4.0?

My comment about the Nexus One doesn't require comparison, as the Nexus One was the ideal update device, being bleeding edge and ordained by Google itself, and it didn't even make it 2 years before being cut off. That is all one needs to know to understand the fate of the Moto X in comparison.

If it's $600, then I doubt any one would buy it. So I'd laugh with you, but we wouldn't have much to laugh at.

Oh I think there would be much and many to laugh at, but we shall see.

Basically, I think we should all just wait and see. Peace, love, and happiness.

There will be no peace nor love nor happiness, not until I find a proper phone to update to, which at this point will likely be the Galaxy Note 3, much to my detest at its disgusting and offensive aesthetic hardware and software design.

 

[Rule9]

Serious courtroom melodrama over a smartphone guys, way to turn a forum thread into a trial.

 

[Aquila]

Is the argument that the Nexus One wasn't upgraded enough?

The Nexus One launched with Eclair and was upgraded to Froyo and Gingerbread officially. Additionally, being that it is a developer phone, it's not hard to find ICS or JB ROMs for it. Either way, getting two full generations of upgrades from your device is generally viewed as acceptable in terms of software obsolescence. It 6 had API level increases (started on 5, officially ended on 10, dev community has it on 17)

If the Moto X launches with JB, gets KLP and gets whatever 'L' is at the end of 2014 (assuming that update would happen in early 2015) then you have 18 months of updates, and I think that most people would be happy, on an inexpensive device such as this, to have it be fresh for an average upgrade cycle.

If we want to compare it to the Galaxy Nexus, it started on API level 14 ICS and will be on API level 18 4.3 in a couple of weeks, API level 19 by Christmas and I think it, the Nexus 4, 7 and 10 are probably the most valid comparisons to Google's thoughts on software obsolescence relative to upgrade cycles as contrasted with Motorola's previously independent practices.

 

[drhill]

I'd still curious to know, outside of games (and even then...), what apps people are running that peg two cores at 100% with more than two active threads?

 

[NoYankees44]

Locked bootloader.

No available fully stock android/cm variant. (dev version acceptable as long as it is fully working and no serious radio hacks)

It have the rumored specs and features, but not the rumored low price. Why would I pay the same for this as something with better hardware and features?

No off contract reasonably priced Verizon version.

No software features that are actually new and different and show some sort of intelligent effort. I am sorry but you can't give me cheap hardware for a cheap price and automatically sell me. You need to show me that you thought out this device and are going to give me lasting value. (The voice control I will wait to see before I judge, but it's not looking good)

Sent from my SCH-I535

 

[Woosh]

If it doesn't run T-Mo 4G then I might not buy it. If its priced too high then I might not buy it. I'd prefer wireless charging and IR blaster but I don't think those are deal breakers unless something better came out before I end up grabbing the Moto X.

 

[NoYankees44]

I'd still curious to know, outside of games (and even then...), what apps people are running that peg two cores at 100% with more than two active threads?

The question is not really how many now, but how soon will there be a prevalent need. Heavy multithreading is coming in mobile code, don't let anyone tell you different, but how soon will it make a difference in the average apps? Very recently desktop programs have really started heavily optimising for high thread counts. I don't thing mobile processing will take long to follow for efficiency reasons alone, but I am not a dev and don't know. I would ignorantly say that the moto x will be fine for its foreseeable life, but who knows. I definitely think that it will be one of the last to get away with dual core without better architecture or optimization.

A good example of the rise of multithreading is in the amd 8 core processor. It has been out a while, but is now performing much better in newer games and programs than it has ever before with its heavily multithreading friendly architecture.

Sent from my SCH-I535

 

[Rule9]

The question is not really how many now, but how soon will there be a prevalent need. Heavy multithreading is coming in mobile code, don't let anyone tell you different, but how soon will it make a difference in the average apps? Very recently desktop programs have really started heavily optimising for high thread counts. I don't thing mobile processing will take long to follow for efficiency reasons alone, but I am not a dev and don't know. I would ignorantly say that the moto x will be fine for its foreseeable life, but who knows. I definitely think that it will be one of the last to get away with dual core without better architecture or optimization.

A good example of the rise of multithreading is in the amd 8 core processor. It has been out a while, but is now performing much better in newer games and programs than it has ever before with its heavily multithreading friendly architecture.

Sent from my SCH-I535

There's a big race on right now between Intel and Qualcomm to capture the mobile market, but I agree with you, it isn't likely to come to full fruition in mass production on smartphones until after 2014 at the earliest. Then you'll be waiting for the mobile apps to be coded appropriately. Which means a 1.7 dual core will be fine for the time-frame it's intended for.

 

[Demur]

I'm really curious to see if this thing includes full USB OTG (e.g. powered) and MHL. I was close to recommending the Nexus 4 to someone, but the galling lack of USB On-The-Go (especially in light of its limited internal storage and lack of card slot) was a dealbreaker for me. F' that.

Also curious to see how much of the context aware features you can disable. When hardware / software companies try to outsmart their users and take control away, it's usually (always?) a disaster. My feelings about it are similar to those voiced here in user aicom's comment.

I'm also wondering, if the phone is supposed to be always on and responding to voice commands, what will happen if person A has the phone and person B issues a voice command, e.g. to dial someone, either because they also have the phone, or intentionally to command person A's phone.

 

[mech1164]

I'm also wondering, if the phone is supposed to be always on and responding to voice commands, what will happen if person A has the phone and person B issues a voice command, e.g. to dial someone, either because they also have the phone, or intentionally to command person A's phone.

Well that depends on a few things.

1: How far away are they. If say they are at the same table and B barks out a command to his phone A's phone might respond to.

2: The command may be understood but not completed. As in your example, B issues a call someone to his phone. A's phone picks that up and tries to do the same thing. Only the person B was trying to get is not in A's contacts. Then the A's phone would just burp with non compliance.

 

[Aquila]

The phone knows your voice from others.

Transmitted through spacetime.

 

[Armada]

A good example of the rise of multithreading is in the amd 8 core processor. It has been out a while, but is now performing much better in newer games and programs than it has ever before with its heavily multithreading friendly architecture.

Sent from my SCH-I535

Yeah, but the average PC or laptop consumer ends up with some janky 4 core AMD or Intel Core i3 and just uses it to browse Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit and listen to Spotify all day. All they care about is "will my computer be slow?", which is quite honestly on the storage media but as long as Internet Explorer doesn't take more than a second to load a page no one cares. And this is what the Moto X is aiming to do. If you try to explain phone specs to my mother or father they wouldn't know. My sister seems to grasps "more cores and RAM is faster," but faster doesn't matter when it comes to price. If the Moto X launches at a rumored low off contract price and low subsidized price it'll succeed.

In fact, I wouldn't have a problem buying it because I just don't do anything besides use Chrome, Hangouts, and Facebook. Also two cores does not make it a dead-on-arrival phone that will lag into the sunset. It's an improved architecture, and unless you're doing benchmarking or serious number crunching on your phone you won't notice a difference. Just like how my sister won't notice a difference between a Core i3 and i5. Moto is unlikely to abandon it, seeing as even the darn Droid Bionic managed to get to 4.1. Even if it gets stuck software-wise Moto has done trade-up programs in the past. I certainly trust them a heck of a lot more than HTC (any other Bolt users feel burned still?) There's a lot more to consider than specs when it comes to the Moto X but hype probably hurt it in the eyes of the power users.

 

[Clocks]

The phone knows your voice from others.

Transmitted through spacetime.

That's probably a good thing. Otherwise it would be fun to walk into a moto event with a megaphone and yell "hello moto magic".

 

[Clocks]

Yeah, but the average PC or laptop consumer ends up with some janky 4 core AMD or Intel Core i3 and just uses it to browse Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit and listen to Spotify all day. All they care about is "will my computer be slow?", which is quite honestly on the storage media but as long as Internet Explorer doesn't take more than a second to load a page no one cares. And this is what the Moto X is aiming to do. If you try to explain phone specs to my mother or father they wouldn't know. My sister seems to grasps "more cores and RAM is faster," but faster doesn't matter when it comes to price. If the Moto X launches at a rumored low off contract price and low subsidized price it'll succeed.

In fact, I wouldn't have a problem buying it because I just don't do anything besides use Chrome, Hangouts, and Facebook. Also two cores does not make it a dead-on-arrival phone that will lag into the sunset. It's an improved architecture, and unless you're doing benchmarking or serious number crunching on your phone you won't notice a difference. Just like how my sister won't notice a difference between a Core i3 and i5. Moto is unlikely to abandon it, seeing as even the darn Droid Bionic managed to get to 4.1. Even if it gets stuck software-wise Moto has done trade-up programs in the past. I certainly trust them a heck of a lot more than HTC (any other Bolt users feel burned still?) There's a lot more to consider than specs when it comes to the Moto X but hype probably hurt it in the eyes of the power users.

Yeah that nails it.

I want chrome to open fast, I want messaging to open fast. I bought gta and played it for 10 minutes, but that's not really what I do. The moto x is a spec bump from the gs3 and if the price is right it's all most people need right now. For people who want/need more, there's a $649 phone for them.

 

[elotrolado]

For me "mid-range" is not an epithet. I am not interested in games/gaming, and will rarely run multiple apps, so don't need top spec CPU and graphics. I figure a mid-range phone for 2 years will be just right, as then there will some other great improvement I'll want at that time (even though I hate participating in this throw-away culture creating toxic materials on the planet). Getting the latest OS updates is also very important to me and I would like to know whether Motorola, as a Google company, will now be first in line with Nexus to receive updates? Also, bigger is worse, NOT better. I want a 4-4.3" screen in a pocketable phone; if the Moto is larger, I won't buy it. Other deal breakers: poor call quality, underperforming speakers. I'm leaning toward the HTC Mini at the moment, though wary of not getting OS updates from HTC, but I have a couple months to decide.

 

[ultravisitor]

Yeah, but the average PC or laptop consumer ends up with some janky 4 core AMD or Intel Core i3 and just uses it to browse Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit and listen to Spotify all day. All they care about is "will my computer be slow?", which is quite honestly on the storage media but as long as Internet Explorer doesn't take more than a second to load a page no one cares. And this is what the Moto X is aiming to do.

Real talk. I will not lie: my desktop has a Core i3 and guess what folks? IT'S FINE. It's all I need along with a huge hard drive for storage. I knew that when I bought it.