The breakdown for non techies: should you buy the Moto X phone?
As you sit at your desk or in front of your television set, you may have heard that Motorola came out with a brand spanking new phone: the Moto X. Available across MULTIPLE carriers, the Moto X is the first official Google infused product to launch since the acquisition.
Now, for you non tech types, you care about the simple question: Should I buy it?
The answer: it depends on if you don't care about carrier add ons.
The Moto X will be built in the United States (Fort Worth to be exact) and available to customize 2,000 ways. It makes me happy that this phone will employ more people, creating more manufacturing jobs.
This customization comes with a caveat: only AT&T folks will be able to use the MotoMaker to make their new Moto X’s fab and fresh. It appears that this AT&T exclusive is ‘for now’, but no one knows how long ‘for now’ will last. Once you make the phone, you have 14 days to return the phone, should your Picasso-esque creation not match what you envisioned.
Other features of the phone that you may care about includes something called contextual computing. This means that you can talk to your Moto X phone via a series of commands, even when it’s asleep. For current Android users, you can do this today (ala Google Now), but you need to touch your phone to unlock the screen to handle voice commands.
Design. It’s small, compact enough for your pocket, but the screen real estate you get is solid. For the ladies out there, this phone should fit handily in your palm, versus the other Motorola phones that weren’t easy to navigate with one hand as you balanced a martini in the other (trust me, I tried).
Let’s not forget battery life. I’ve used many a Motorola phone and one area Motorola continues to excel is battery life. It’s safe to say that the Moto X will continue to rock that battery life bar more than many of the phones on the market today.
Would I buy the Moto X phone now? No. Why?
I am done with carrier contracts. Done. I am currently using a Google Nexus 4 device that I purchased directly from Google Play. From there, I use a no contract T-Mobile set-up. As much as I love the customization options of the Moto X, I wouldn’t buy the phone unless those same customizable options were available via a Google Play device.
If you are using a carrier today, the Moto X is a viable option, BUT:
>you can only customize your phone with AT&T
>the carrier versions of the phone will have their own custom carrier apps (like Verizon’s NFL app)
>when the phone is ready for updates, you have to wait for the carrier to approve the update before you get it (versus having a Nexus phone from Google Play...updates come as soon as they are made and approved by Google).
Bottom line, I would consider purchasing the Moto X once it hits Google Play.
If you don’t mind being tied to a carrier contract, then go for it, however, I don’t know how long it will take you for to get the custom build touted at launch.
Price point for carrier versions: $199 for the 16 GB, $50 more for the 32GB