**Moto X 2014 Review: A Solid Flagship with Some Trade-Offs**

I've been using my Moto X 2014 for weeks now, and I have to say that it's still a great phone. The first place you'll notice it is in the price - at $99 on contract and $499 off contract, it's significantly cheaper than most high-end flagships. However, when you factor in the specs, it's not as impressive. Like last year's model, it's still only a "super high-end" phone technically speaking, which means it doesn't quite live up to the standards of its more expensive competitors.

One area where it shows is in the battery - a 2300mAh unit that's only a slight bump from last year's model. I've found that with my normal use, I get around two and a half hours of screen time, which is less than what I'd expect from other high-end flagships like three to four hours. The battery is also sealed in, so you can't replace it, which is a trade-off.

Despite the smaller battery, I've found that my normal use has adjusted slightly to make sure I don't run out of power too quickly. The phone's design is still very comfortable and similar to last year's model, with curves that match the previous iteration. It's not trying to be flashy or stand out from the crowd, which I think is a great approach.

The camera is where the Moto X 2014 falls short, unfortunately. While it has some interesting features like a new 13-megapixel sensor and a ring flash around the glass, photo quality can be hit-or-miss. In bright outdoors and normal indoor light, the camera can handle anything well, but in low-light conditions or when trying to take a picture with a foreground subject, it tends to miss more often than not.

The software is simple and easy to use, which I think is one of its strongest points. The phone runs on pure Android, and Motorola has stuck to their guns by avoiding unnecessary features and confusing menus. This means that the Moto X 2014 will get updates faster than some other high-end flagships, which is a big plus.

One feature that's still not quite right with the camera is when switching between 1080p and 4K video recording. If you switch to 4K and then close the camera app and reopen it again, the video reverts back to 1080p. It would be great if the camera could keep 4K on all the time.

Despite these trade-offs, I've found that the Moto X 2014 is still a great phone to use every day. The design is solid, the software is easy to use, and it's always pleasant to interact with the phone. It may not be as flashy or high-end as some of its competitors, but for anyone who wants a reliable, no-frills Android experience, this is definitely worth considering.

**Camera Specifications**

The Moto X 2014 has a 13-megapixel sensor with a ring flash around the glass. While it seems like a good number, the camera's performance can be inconsistent. In bright outdoors and normal indoor light, the photos are usually great, but in low-light conditions or when trying to take a picture with a foreground subject, the results are more often miss than hit.

**Battery Life**

The Moto X 2014 has a 2300mAh battery that provides around two and a half hours of screen time on average. While this is less than what I'd expect from other high-end flagships, it's still enough for most people to get through the day without needing a charge.

**Software**

One of the strongest points of the Moto X 2014 is its software. The phone runs on pure Android, and Motorola has stuck to their guns by avoiding unnecessary features and confusing menus. This means that users can expect fast updates and minimal bloatware, making it an attractive option for those who value simplicity and ease of use.

**Design**

The design of the Moto X 2014 is similar to last year's model, with curves that match the previous iteration. While it may not stand out from the crowd, I've found that this approach makes the phone feel more comfortable in the hand. The phone is also very easy to interact with, thanks to its intuitive interface and responsive hardware.

**Conclusion**

Overall, the Moto X 2014 is a solid flagship phone that's worth considering for anyone who wants a reliable, no-frills Android experience. While it may not be as high-end as some of its competitors, it offers great value at its price point. The camera can be hit-or-miss, and the battery life could be better, but these trade-offs are minor compared to the overall positive experience of using this phone.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys MKBHD here and this is the 2014 Moto X or the new Moto X so if you remember the last Moto X this guy it was a pretty popular phone for a lot of people who were into Tech because it made us realize that not everything is about specs and you can make a really great phone that doesn't have the highest end specs so this didn't have a 1080p display it didn't have the most expensive fastest processor in the world but it delivered a pretty sweet experience that a lot of people liked and that's what it was famous for this new Moto X is again taking a very similar approach it's not the highest end phone in the world and it's definitely not the most expensive but it does a lot of things about the experience right at least in Motorola's opinion and they've made some subtle changes to the software and Hardware experiences with this second revision so let's take a look at if it's worth it and if it's better than the old Moto X now aesthetically just looking at the outside of the hardware this new phone will seem pretty familiar it has the same shape uh same lines same curves and same feel in the hand as last year's MotoX it even has that same dimple although this time it's bigger and it's made of separate pieces that fit together and for some reason the pieces in mind didn't quite fit together perfectly so the dimple moves around a bit I don't know if that's supposed to happen but anyway it's clear that we're working with essentially the same design here the button placement on the side is also the same as the old phone with a bit of added texture on the power button which is neat and it feels basically like a stretched out Moto X and it also looks that way but then there's the addition of all the the metal so all the way around the phone you now have this metal lining and it makes a huge difference for build quality and the way it feels holding it uh it's a bit heavier as well but that's a small price to pay for the fact that it feels so much better so much more solid in the hand and I love that uh the metal frame is now also housing some new antenna that were in the inside of the phone before and overall it's built just a lot better than its predecessor of course you can also have Moto Maker and a bunch of different color and material choices and accent colors from regular soft touch plastic to Wood to leather now one thing I want to recommend is I think we would want to stay away from the leather back one unless you really have to have it I mean this is the black plastic back so it's not the leather but the leather it's a softer material basically all of the leather Moto X's that I saw when I was playing with them in Chicago were very worn and I don't know how long they were using them but none of them looked like they were in any good type of condition leather is a softer material it wears much more easily and plus it's not exactly friendly when it gets exposed to water the soft touch plastic on the back actually almost feels the same as the leather until you start to press down on it and it doesn't have that genuine leather smell and I might not feel quite as premium but I think we'd be pretty satisfied with pretty much any of the plastic BS now on the front of the phone the Moto X has some interesting Hardware it's rocking a 5.2 in 1080P display uh it's an ammo Le display and much larger than the 4.7in of the old MotoX and it's a tiny bit warm and a whole lot saturated I've used I guess so many IPS displays lately that coming back to this AMOLED display uh just reminds me how well OLED stuff pops with massive contrast and awesome saturation so the colors are really Vivid here pops right off the screen and you can tend to make images look better than they really are on the screen so I like the display and flanking the panel on the top and the bottom are front-facing speakers well speaker uh it's a bit deceiving you have a grill on the top and a grill on the bottom but the top is only the earpiece for calls and the bottom is the only speaker so it means that you won't get that stereo effect of sounds moving across the screen like you would on a stereo phone like the HTC1 uh I mean they're still better than if it was a downward facing or rear facing speaker but uh it's not quite as good as I thought it would be and it's you know it's still quite loud it's decent better than average it's just a little awkward only having the sound come from half of the phun but also looking at the front you can't actually see these with your eyes but the camera picks it up anyway it's the array of red sensors across the front of the phone and as packing a bunch of these you can see them blinking in each corner and basically these are sensors that are talking with a chip in the phone to be able to tell when you wave your hand over the phone so it can show you your notification glance that's actually it that's what they're for I mean it's a seriously dedicated sensor array and you can even see them better in the white version of the phone because there are little holes behind the plastic at Each corner but yeah it's a software feature that Motorola felt was important enough to spend a little bit extra on but speaking of the software the story here is also familiar to the last Moto X in the best possible way last year Motorola tried really hard to keep Android as close to stock as they could and they did did you know they didn't add any unnecessary crap they avoided the bloat Weare they moved to updating as fast as they can a lot of stuff they move to the Play Store and this phone continues that Trend and I love it so so many companies are trying to add value to their phones via software which I get but the adjustments they make are sometimes just changed for the sake of change or some crazy features that people will never use Motorola has done basically none of these the few adjustments that they have made have also been really helpful one of them is now the ability to name your phone anything so you had to say Okay Google now before that doesn't wake up my phone because I've actually told it to respond to okay Jarvis and uh I think that's a neat little touch another adjustment versus last year is in the peak notifications so instead of only being able to see one at a time you can now SC sideways and Peak between more than one notification that by itself is awesome and Motorola has rebranded and simplified a lot of their other commands so that Moto assist and Moto actions and Moto display all kind of work in the background for you so for example it'll read your texts out loud when you're in a moving car uh instead of you know some of the crazy outlandish features other guys are doing and another benefit of being so close to stock Android is the performance is damn impressive it might not be the highest end processor in the world it's a SN Dragon 801 uh it might not be the most Ram in the world it's you know 2 gigs and it might not be the best graphics chip in the world but the performance of this phone is right up there with the best in the world of all the Android phones I've used and I've used a lot uh smoothness and the graphics and fluidity of the Moto X is right up there in like the top three with the Google Play edition 1 M8 and the OnePlus One and even beating out Nexus 5 I mean this thing is really smooth so if you couldn't already tell I'm a huge fan of the software experience on the new Moto X and I'm pumped to see how it'll do running Android L hopefully really soon the other only problems you have and they're not even really problems they're more like tradeoffs are the battery life and the camera and I say these are trade-offs only because even though this is technically Motorola's highest end phone and their Flagship showcasing the best they have to offer it's still only a $99 phone on contract and $499 off contract so again it's technically speaking not super high-end and the first place it shows is the battery it's meh you know it's only a slight slight bump from last year it's a 2300 mAh battery now but like the screen is so much bigger and higher resolution now that you would think they'd bump the battery more and I feel like with a phone this thick they'd have room for it but no just 2300 so I'm getting 2 and 1 half hours of screen on time uh with my normal use where I typically get three to four on other high-end flagships uh and it's a sealed in battery so you can't replace it so again it's it's not really a problem it's not like it's dying before the end of the day or anything but it's a trade-off to the point where I start to alter my use towards the end of the day to make sure I don't run out and also I mentioned the camera so it has that Nifty little twist to open gesture that I use all the time I love that and similar to last time some very very simple software just tap the viewfinder to take a picture you know the menus are super simple he can swipe them in and out really easy to get to uh the viewfinder takes up pretty much the whole screen but the Optics are a little bit interesting so it's a new 13 megapixel sensor that seems like a good number uh and it has this ring flash around the glass now which is supposed to be in theory I guess a bigger flash spread but it's too small to actually matter it's really just two LEDs inside a ring-shaped reflector but when it comes to photo quality the number doesn't really mean much this phone is super hit or miss I've been taking photos for weeks now with this guy and a lot of times the pictures are really not bad you know in bright outdoors and even normal indoor light this camera can handle anything well it looks a lot of times like a photo that came from an LG G3 or another high-end phone uh but most of the misses and it does Miss quite a lot are coming from when you try to take a picture with like a foreground subject and you tap the screen to focus but then it just takes the picture instead of refocusing and another Miss is low light basically anytime you think you might need a flash forget about it it's not good in low light uh it just isn't taking good images I found I've tried many different ways that won't do it but the 4K video on the other hand is actually pretty pretty good I was comparing it side by side with another phone that shoots 4K video and they looked about the same so that was encouraging but one thing about 4K though is if I switch to 4K and the camera to shoot and then close the camera app and then open the camera right back up again it's back to 1080p I actually want to be able to keep 4k on all the time but I can't either way the camera is just not a high point on this phone it's definitely not going you know overall to take quite as good images in the same range of conditions as other high-end smartphones and like I said the battery isn't quite as good either so they're trade-offs because as Motorola is high-end phone this Moto X is going to be compared to other company's highest end phones and those are the areas where it falls short but really when it comes down to it I just really like using this phone I love that they didn't try to do too much with the software they're sticking to their guns of that pure Android experience and I think that'll help them get updates faster that'll help you know not have so much unnecessary confusing crap uh and that's great and so that plus a similar to design to last year and curves that match last year's phone this is a very comfortable step forward doesn't really stick out too much not too flashy it just it gets the job done it's a great phone solid Flagship for Moto just don't forget the price when you go comparing it to the other guys that's my Moto X 2014 review it's still an awesome phone and I would still recommend it for anyone who likes what they see in review videos like this but good luck finding it and I hope you get your hands on it if you really want it so either way that's been it thanks for watching and if you enjoy this video feel free to give a thumbs up down below it would help and also there's a subscribe button below for if you want to see more videos like this as soon as they come out thank you for watching I'll talk to you in the next one peacehey what is up guys MKBHD here and this is the 2014 Moto X or the new Moto X so if you remember the last Moto X this guy it was a pretty popular phone for a lot of people who were into Tech because it made us realize that not everything is about specs and you can make a really great phone that doesn't have the highest end specs so this didn't have a 1080p display it didn't have the most expensive fastest processor in the world but it delivered a pretty sweet experience that a lot of people liked and that's what it was famous for this new Moto X is again taking a very similar approach it's not the highest end phone in the world and it's definitely not the most expensive but it does a lot of things about the experience right at least in Motorola's opinion and they've made some subtle changes to the software and Hardware experiences with this second revision so let's take a look at if it's worth it and if it's better than the old Moto X now aesthetically just looking at the outside of the hardware this new phone will seem pretty familiar it has the same shape uh same lines same curves and same feel in the hand as last year's MotoX it even has that same dimple although this time it's bigger and it's made of separate pieces that fit together and for some reason the pieces in mind didn't quite fit together perfectly so the dimple moves around a bit I don't know if that's supposed to happen but anyway it's clear that we're working with essentially the same design here the button placement on the side is also the same as the old phone with a bit of added texture on the power button which is neat and it feels basically like a stretched out Moto X and it also looks that way but then there's the addition of all the the metal so all the way around the phone you now have this metal lining and it makes a huge difference for build quality and the way it feels holding it uh it's a bit heavier as well but that's a small price to pay for the fact that it feels so much better so much more solid in the hand and I love that uh the metal frame is now also housing some new antenna that were in the inside of the phone before and overall it's built just a lot better than its predecessor of course you can also have Moto Maker and a bunch of different color and material choices and accent colors from regular soft touch plastic to Wood to leather now one thing I want to recommend is I think we would want to stay away from the leather back one unless you really have to have it I mean this is the black plastic back so it's not the leather but the leather it's a softer material basically all of the leather Moto X's that I saw when I was playing with them in Chicago were very worn and I don't know how long they were using them but none of them looked like they were in any good type of condition leather is a softer material it wears much more easily and plus it's not exactly friendly when it gets exposed to water the soft touch plastic on the back actually almost feels the same as the leather until you start to press down on it and it doesn't have that genuine leather smell and I might not feel quite as premium but I think we'd be pretty satisfied with pretty much any of the plastic BS now on the front of the phone the Moto X has some interesting Hardware it's rocking a 5.2 in 1080P display uh it's an ammo Le display and much larger than the 4.7in of the old MotoX and it's a tiny bit warm and a whole lot saturated I've used I guess so many IPS displays lately that coming back to this AMOLED display uh just reminds me how well OLED stuff pops with massive contrast and awesome saturation so the colors are really Vivid here pops right off the screen and you can tend to make images look better than they really are on the screen so I like the display and flanking the panel on the top and the bottom are front-facing speakers well speaker uh it's a bit deceiving you have a grill on the top and a grill on the bottom but the top is only the earpiece for calls and the bottom is the only speaker so it means that you won't get that stereo effect of sounds moving across the screen like you would on a stereo phone like the HTC1 uh I mean they're still better than if it was a downward facing or rear facing speaker but uh it's not quite as good as I thought it would be and it's you know it's still quite loud it's decent better than average it's just a little awkward only having the sound come from half of the phun but also looking at the front you can't actually see these with your eyes but the camera picks it up anyway it's the array of red sensors across the front of the phone and as packing a bunch of these you can see them blinking in each corner and basically these are sensors that are talking with a chip in the phone to be able to tell when you wave your hand over the phone so it can show you your notification glance that's actually it that's what they're for I mean it's a seriously dedicated sensor array and you can even see them better in the white version of the phone because there are little holes behind the plastic at Each corner but yeah it's a software feature that Motorola felt was important enough to spend a little bit extra on but speaking of the software the story here is also familiar to the last Moto X in the best possible way last year Motorola tried really hard to keep Android as close to stock as they could and they did did you know they didn't add any unnecessary crap they avoided the bloat Weare they moved to updating as fast as they can a lot of stuff they move to the Play Store and this phone continues that Trend and I love it so so many companies are trying to add value to their phones via software which I get but the adjustments they make are sometimes just changed for the sake of change or some crazy features that people will never use Motorola has done basically none of these the few adjustments that they have made have also been really helpful one of them is now the ability to name your phone anything so you had to say Okay Google now before that doesn't wake up my phone because I've actually told it to respond to okay Jarvis and uh I think that's a neat little touch another adjustment versus last year is in the peak notifications so instead of only being able to see one at a time you can now SC sideways and Peak between more than one notification that by itself is awesome and Motorola has rebranded and simplified a lot of their other commands so that Moto assist and Moto actions and Moto display all kind of work in the background for you so for example it'll read your texts out loud when you're in a moving car uh instead of you know some of the crazy outlandish features other guys are doing and another benefit of being so close to stock Android is the performance is damn impressive it might not be the highest end processor in the world it's a SN Dragon 801 uh it might not be the most Ram in the world it's you know 2 gigs and it might not be the best graphics chip in the world but the performance of this phone is right up there with the best in the world of all the Android phones I've used and I've used a lot uh smoothness and the graphics and fluidity of the Moto X is right up there in like the top three with the Google Play edition 1 M8 and the OnePlus One and even beating out Nexus 5 I mean this thing is really smooth so if you couldn't already tell I'm a huge fan of the software experience on the new Moto X and I'm pumped to see how it'll do running Android L hopefully really soon the other only problems you have and they're not even really problems they're more like tradeoffs are the battery life and the camera and I say these are trade-offs only because even though this is technically Motorola's highest end phone and their Flagship showcasing the best they have to offer it's still only a $99 phone on contract and $499 off contract so again it's technically speaking not super high-end and the first place it shows is the battery it's meh you know it's only a slight slight bump from last year it's a 2300 mAh battery now but like the screen is so much bigger and higher resolution now that you would think they'd bump the battery more and I feel like with a phone this thick they'd have room for it but no just 2300 so I'm getting 2 and 1 half hours of screen on time uh with my normal use where I typically get three to four on other high-end flagships uh and it's a sealed in battery so you can't replace it so again it's it's not really a problem it's not like it's dying before the end of the day or anything but it's a trade-off to the point where I start to alter my use towards the end of the day to make sure I don't run out and also I mentioned the camera so it has that Nifty little twist to open gesture that I use all the time I love that and similar to last time some very very simple software just tap the viewfinder to take a picture you know the menus are super simple he can swipe them in and out really easy to get to uh the viewfinder takes up pretty much the whole screen but the Optics are a little bit interesting so it's a new 13 megapixel sensor that seems like a good number uh and it has this ring flash around the glass now which is supposed to be in theory I guess a bigger flash spread but it's too small to actually matter it's really just two LEDs inside a ring-shaped reflector but when it comes to photo quality the number doesn't really mean much this phone is super hit or miss I've been taking photos for weeks now with this guy and a lot of times the pictures are really not bad you know in bright outdoors and even normal indoor light this camera can handle anything well it looks a lot of times like a photo that came from an LG G3 or another high-end phone uh but most of the misses and it does Miss quite a lot are coming from when you try to take a picture with like a foreground subject and you tap the screen to focus but then it just takes the picture instead of refocusing and another Miss is low light basically anytime you think you might need a flash forget about it it's not good in low light uh it just isn't taking good images I found I've tried many different ways that won't do it but the 4K video on the other hand is actually pretty pretty good I was comparing it side by side with another phone that shoots 4K video and they looked about the same so that was encouraging but one thing about 4K though is if I switch to 4K and the camera to shoot and then close the camera app and then open the camera right back up again it's back to 1080p I actually want to be able to keep 4k on all the time but I can't either way the camera is just not a high point on this phone it's definitely not going you know overall to take quite as good images in the same range of conditions as other high-end smartphones and like I said the battery isn't quite as good either so they're trade-offs because as Motorola is high-end phone this Moto X is going to be compared to other company's highest end phones and those are the areas where it falls short but really when it comes down to it I just really like using this phone I love that they didn't try to do too much with the software they're sticking to their guns of that pure Android experience and I think that'll help them get updates faster that'll help you know not have so much unnecessary confusing crap uh and that's great and so that plus a similar to design to last year and curves that match last year's phone this is a very comfortable step forward doesn't really stick out too much not too flashy it just it gets the job done it's a great phone solid Flagship for Moto just don't forget the price when you go comparing it to the other guys that's my Moto X 2014 review it's still an awesome phone and I would still recommend it for anyone who likes what they see in review videos like this but good luck finding it and I hope you get your hands on it if you really want it so either way that's been it thanks for watching and if you enjoy this video feel free to give a thumbs up down below it would help and also there's a subscribe button below for if you want to see more videos like this as soon as they come out thank you for watching I'll talk to you in the next one peace\n"