Motorola just took the wraps off its 2015 range of phones, and the headline is a real gem – the Moto X Style goes toe-to-toe with 2015’s most beautiful “premium” flagships yet promises to come in at an affordable price – though it seems Motorola’s not quite ready to tell us what that price is just yet.
Motorola’s coming to the premium materials party that’s defining the 2015 smartphone landscape with a “premium phone that’s stylish and feels good in your hand”. We haven’t held one yet, but it’s certainly looking the part and I for one can’t wait.
The Moto X Style has Motorola’s now-signature curved back along with a coated silicon rubber soft-touch back that gives the device warmth and appeal while also ensuring that any of the bright colours you choose won’t wear out over time. As its the premium phone, you’ll also be able to upgrade beyond the standard materials to wood and Saffiano leather finishes.
The front of the phone boasts a 5.7-inch Quad HD display with some of the narrowest borders yet seen on a smartphone – Motorola says it’s got a 76% screen-to-body ratio around front, and they’ve managed to fit two front-facing speakers into that remaining space. They’re using the words “edge-to-edge”, and that’s probably pretty accurate.
Motorola also wants you to know they’ve listened to criticisms of the 2014 Moto X and have paid special, close attention to the camera this time around. They’ve had the Moto X Style’s camera out for review at a number of independent publications and have been told it’s one of the top three smartphone cameras in the world, besting the iPhone 6 and 6+ (we’ve also had two other devices that have held that mantle recently, so I guess it’s no surprise who the other two phones in that top three are likely to be)
Still, Motorola’s made quite the effort this year. The Moto X Style comes with a 21MP camera with a dual LED flash, but falls slightly short on the Galaxy S6 and LG G4’s aprerture at f/2.0. Still, aperture isn’t everything and they flashed up a few impressive sample shots during the presentation. The front of the phone features a 5MP selfie camera with an 87-degree wide angle lens, and a front-facing flash that wasn’t called out in the presentation but does feature on the spec sheet. The quick launch wrist gesture remains, as does the camera’s tap-to-capture feature.
Inside there’s a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB RAM and 4G LTE “universal banding” – there’s a huge number of LTE bands on offer in the Moto X Style, including the big Australian 4G and 4G+/4GX frequencies.
Powering the show is a 3,000 mAh battery that Motorola says is good for 30 hours of “mixed use”. I haven’t met a battery that can go the whole day in that capacity range yet, but we’ll have to wait until the Moto X Style lands on the test bench to determine that. Still, the battery bests the Galaxy S6 and that’s not nothing.
On the software side, it’s good to see that Motorola continues to beat the “pure Android” drum even after making the change from Google to Lenovo ownership. The Moto X Style comes with Android 5.1.1 along with Motorola’s Moto Voice, Moto Assist, Moto Display and Moto Actions features.
Getting charge into that battery should be pretty interesting – Motorola’s Turbo Power technology promises to make the Moto X Style the fastest charging phone, and in a sped-up demonstration video against the Galaxy S6 it had a 34% charge after just 15 minutes on the charger while the Galaxy S6 lagged a little behind with 26%. In reality though the turbo charging is a very welcome spec, regardless of exactly how fast it actually charges the phone. We’re hoping to see a significant improvement in battery life over 2014’s Moto X, which ended up proving quite divisive on the battery front.
Finally, there’s a water-repellant coating on the device, bringing it an IP52 rating. It’s not the most waterproof phone out there (it’s not meant to survive full immersion), but it’s likely to at least be splash-proof. It’s good to see companies bringing this feature to their premium phones.
The Moto X Style hasn’t been announced for an Australian release yet, with Motorola promising to confirm local availability, pricing and distribution plans in the near future. The phone’s official launch is September, although we haven’t heard about the countries in which it’ll launch. Still, September is but a month (and a bit) away.
Also launching in the US is the still-US-only Pure Edition, offering an unlocked off-contract experience. Motorola’s US site currently pegs the Pure Edition as “starting at $399.99” (about AU$550) with Fall 2015 availability (so anywhere from September to November). The Pure Edition had some moderate popularity with the import crowd last year, so we might see a repeat of this in 2015, especially if the phone delivers on its other promises.
Motorola seems to have delivered a welcome response to the 2015 premium flagship smartphone range. If they can get the Moto X Style to market here in Australia in a timely fashion and at a decent price point (they’re promising $200-300 less than the flagships in the US) then they might have a contender on their hands for my next smartphone.
Moto X Style
- 5.7” TFT LCD 1440p Quad HD (1440×2560) 520 ppi display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Motorola Mobile Computing System including a 1.8GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 with hexa-core CPU (MSM8992)
- Adreno 418 GPU
- 3GB DDR RAM
- 16GB/32GB/64GB with Micro SD Card support (up to 128GB)
- 21 MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, Dual Color Correlated Temperature (CCT) flash
- Phase Detect Auto-Focus (PDAF)
- Closed loop processing
- Quick Launch Instant On
- Tap (anywhere) to capture
- 4X digital zoom
- Burst mode
- Night Mode
- Auto HDR
- Panorama
- Drag to focus & exposure
- Video Stabilization
- 1080p HD video (60 fps)
- 4K video (30fps)
- Slow Motion video
- Video HDR (1080p and 4K)
- 5 MP Front Camera with f/2.0 aperture and Wide-Angle lens
- 1.4um pixel for better low light
- Night mode
- Flash
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/b/n/ac + MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, GPS, NFC
- Radios:
- UMTS GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
- UMTS/HSPA+ (800, 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz)
- 4G LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 20, 25, 28, 40, 41)
- IP52 certified
- 3000 mAh, mixed usage
- Android™ 5.1.1
- 153.9×76.2xCurve: 6.1 – 11.06 mm @ 179 grams
Will you be looking to put a Moto X Style in your pocket later this year? Will you import a Pure edition from the US? Tell us in the comments!
Read all about Motorola’s 2015 device launches
What would pick you between Asus zenfone 2 ze551ml or OnePlus Two or Motorola moto x style pure edition? Taking price in to consideration.
Zenfone 2 is pretty good. OnePlus 2 does skimp on certain specs in some places, Moto X seems to tick most of the boxes. Comes down to price and availability, we may have more on Moto X AU pricing in a week or two.
Thanks Daniel. Yeah, I am also thinking the same. Since I got my tax return done, I had my mind set on a phone under $500. The Zenfone 2 was my first choice. Since OnePlus 2 came out, I was stuck between the two. But once I heard of the Moto X, like you said it ticked all boxes. For me I would have liked it with 4GB RAM like the others but 3GB is ample. This bring up my next question, since the moto x has universal LTE support. Will I be able to use an US version for… Read more »
Short answer: Sort of. Long Answer: Moto X Pure comes with : 4G LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 38, 41) Of these bands, Telstra, Vodafone and Optus use Band 3 (1800MHz) for the majority of Australia, and it comes with Band 5 (850MHz) for the Vodafone refarmed spectrum, What the Moto X Pure Edition misses out on is the Band 28 (700MHz) support used by Telstra and Optus. It’s also missing Band 40 (2300MHz) that Optus uses in Canberra and as part of their 4G+ network. So, in short…sort of. If you’re… Read more »
Want. Now.
I want that one
As an update to my previous post, I also asked Motorola Australia if the new Moto X phones, which are from what’s been reported due to be available in a few weeks time, whether there will be interchangeable coloured back covers. As has been the case lately with phones such as the Moto G. Again the reply from Motorola Australia was that they don’t know!?! The phones were announced worldwide almost a week ago, due for release around September, and Motorola don’t know about their own latest devices or their accessories? Shame about that, think my enthusiasm is fading now.
Was so glad to see Motorola finally gave their flagship Moto X SD card storage! However for some reason it seems they are not placing the SIM & SD cards under the back cover next to the battery, as with the Moto G 4G. Instead those cards are kept in a tray, similar to the Razr HD, and you’ll need a fiddly little pick instrument to access it. Not a major problem, I just thought it an odd way to do things. I did ask Motorola Australia if now the new phones have been announced, will Australians finally have use… Read more »
“5.7” TFT LCD 1440p Quad HD (1440×2560) 520 ppi display”
So… Not AMOLED or IPS? That’s a bit disappointing… It’s just big.
Comparing the Motorolla AU X Style page and the US version, it looks like we may miss out on moto-maker again.
AU page does not contain:
“Backs
Choose from 18 different inlays. Colors, materials, and availability vary by market.
Accents
Choose from 7 different accents. Colors and availability vary by market.”
I actually asked Motorola Australia if now their new phones have been announced worldwide, would Australians finally have access to Motomaker? They replied they don’t know!?! New Moto X phone being released within a few weeks, and they don’t know! I was as disappointed as I was unimpressed with that response from them.
Just because they say they ‘don’t know’ doesn’t mean something isn’t happening. Customer Service reps are often the last people told in the grand scheme of things.
Put down the pitchforks and flaming torches and we’ll wait and see – if we miss out again, i`ll personally lead the charge to storm the castle.
What? Pitchforks and flaming torches?! Why would you say that, I didn’t even think or imply such a thing! You can lead the charge all you like. If Motorola don’t do the right thing by their Aussie supporters, I will be buying some other brand of phone!
“34% charge after just 15 ” that too on a bigger battery….awesome 🙂
wonder what sensor are they using for their camera ?
The 5in flagship phone is now on the endangered list.
I would’ve been all over this at 5.0-5.2 but 5.7 is way too big. I’m surprised they are staying so big with the flagship after the flop of the Nexus 6
Yep, agreed. As far as I can tell the S6 is now the smallest big brand flagship Android phone, despite the M9 having a smaller display.
was a fan of 5.0 display and now been using note 4 for a month and i was in love with batttery life which i didn’t get from my nexus 5….i miss the one hand comfort 🙁
Did I miss any big brand Android flagship phone?
5″ phones are too small imo. 5.5″ – 5.7″ is the sweet spot, so kudos to Moto. Now I really want one. 5.2″ was too small for me to consider.
This looks pretty hot.
Will be competing with Nexus for my money.
Interesting. Wasn’t expecting much from Motorola though they have thrown a spanner in the works with the Moto Style. I’m looking to buy a new phone in the next 2 months or so. I think I definitely prefer this to the recent OnePlusTwo that was announced.
How’d they skip USB type C for this? Seems like a slam dunk.