Motorola Moto X features and specs

By Alex Angove

Last updated 02 August 2013

The much-awaited, much-hyped Motorola Moto X has finally been unveiled in the US. The Moto X is unique in that buyers can either buy a standard black or white model from a retail store, or design their own custom device from a suite of highlights and colored rear plates.

But is there more to the Moto X that just coloured plastic battery covers?

Always Ready

One equally useful and creepy feature of the Moto X is that its voice-interface is always listening out for your commands. A problem with voice-activated functionality is that it still requires a button or option to be physically selected before it is activated. As such there’s usually little difference between speaking to your phone or using it normally, seeing as you’re already touching it with your hand anyway.

The Moto X’s Google Now voice service is activated any time it hears you chime in with “Ok Google Now.” This has the potential to make voice-input useful for a change, although may lead to confusion if multiple people in the same room are trying to have a chat with their handsets.

Camera

The Moto X sports a new camera-activation method called Quick Capture. The 10MP shooter can be activated with a quick double-flick of the wrist, even from locked mode.

If done correctly, the phone will vibrate once to indicate that the camera is launching. From there, the user can tap anywhere on the screen once. This will cause the phone to focus on the area and then snap of a photo without need for another command.

If this works as the advertizement shows, it could be the fastest way to go from lock screen to image capture to date. The shake command can be done while you’re lifting the phone up to your eye-level, cutting down on potentially valuable photo-opp time.

Active Display for notifications

Active Display is probably our favorite new software feature of the Moto X. Similarly to Windows Phone 8, the Moto X doesn’t always display just a blank screen when in standby mode.

When blank, all one needs to do is nudge the Moto X and it will display a simple view of time and pending notifications. Even better, if the phone is in your pocket or face down this mode won’t activate, saving battery.

This is a great feature in WP8 and we’re happy to see it coming to Android. We expect to see it pick up in popularity now that the gap has finally been bridged.

Moto X specs

Hopefully the new phones will have improved specs over the Moto X. The 720p display and dual-core CPU feel a little outdated compared to the premium prices being asked. Admittedly, we’re yet to try out this new X8 Mobile Computing System http://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/News/Motorola-unleash-three-new-Droids-for-Verizonthat Motorola is touting, so perhaps the CPU will be up to scratch after all.