Moto X4 review: Motorola's 'basic' phone is a good value...
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Moto X4 review: Motorola's 'basic' phone is a good value for $400
I was ready to give the Moto X4 a middling to negative review when a colleague asked me about phone recommendations, specifically non-iPhones. Since the X4 was in my hand, I showed it to her. After showing her everything I liked and didn't like, I surprised myself when I actually ended up recommending it.
The reason I came around is really for one reason: the price. The Moto X4 (or moto x⁴, if you want to be all brand-y about it) costs just $400 -- that's $250 less than the Google Pixel 2 and $300 less than the iPhone 8. And if you buy through Amazon Prime, the Moto X4 costs just $330, which is getting close to the Moto G, Motorola's budget line.
Despite its affordability, the Moto X4 is a very respectable phone. Although it has a couple of annoyances, they're made up for by other features, some that are typically found only on premium phones.
The Moto X4 is the first phone to ship in the U.S. as part of Google's Android One program. Starting back in 2014, Android One began as an attempt for Google to bring some order to the rampant market of budget Android phones. In many developing markets (like India), Android phones had been in a "race to the bottom," with tons of cheapo handsets of questionable quality, giving the platform a bad name.
With direct Google involvement, Android One phones are guaranteed prompt software updates (the X4 ships with Nougat, with guaranteed upgrades to Oreo and Android P). They're also intended to run "pure" Android, with minimal carrier bloatware. On the Moto X4, that goes double since it's also the first Android One phone to work with Project Fi, Google's own cellular service (shaved off of Sprint's, T-Mobile's and US Cellular's networks), which is only available in the U.S.
I have to say, the lack of carrier bloat is one of the best features in the Moto X4. I genuinely don't understand why so many Android phone today still come preloaded with tons of carrier garbage when phones like the iPhone and Google-branded models have shown it's virtually all redundant garbage. You'd think at least T-Mobile, the so-called "un-carrier," would know better.
Motorola and Google also point to the Google Assistant as a major selling point of the Moto X4, though I don't really know why. The Assistant is available for any Android phone, and there's a major flaw in its execution on this device: If the phone is locked, you need to input your passcode for... every. Single. Query. At least Siri will respond to you for some queries from the iPhone's lock screen, but by default the Assistant won't even tell you the weather without a passcode, and I couldn't find a setting to change this. It's a really poor choice, though the Assistant works extremely well once you unlock the phone.
The Moto X4 is also supposed to be able to integrate directly with Amazon Alexa, letting you use it as an alternate assistant, but the Moto Alexa app wasn't ready in time for my review.
High-end looks
The Moto X4 definitely feels like a premium phone. The 5.2-inch screen is sharp (1,920 x 1,080 resolution, for 424 pixels per inch) and bright. Colors really pop on the IPS (in-plane switching) LCD, and pics and videos look excellent, even if you view them at off-angles.
The back of the phone is glossy and durable. I kept the Moto X4 in the same pocket as my house keys most of the time, and I can't detect a single scratch or ding, however minor. Both the screen and backside are fairly resistant to fingerprints, too -- a nice bonus. Three buttons are on the right side, two for volume and one for power. The power button has a finely indented pattern, making it easy to find just by feel.
Overall, the phone is on the heavy and thick side (5.7 ounces and 0.31 inch), but it's well within the definition of sleek. (For comparison, the iPhone 8 is 5.2 ounces and 0.29 inch.) It's also water- and dust-resistant (rated to the IP68 spec, even more hardy than the iPhone 8).
On the bottom is a USB-C port, and, yes, a headphone jack. The earpiece doubles as mono speaker, which I found to be impressively loud.
Right below the screen is the fingerprint reader. And that's all it is -- I was unpleasantly surprised to quickly discover that the oblong "button" isn't a button at all, and it doesn't function as a home button. Instead, the Moto X4 puts the standard Android Back/Home/Overview virtual buttons in a strip at the bottom of the display.
I found this a poor choice, partly because it took a while to get used to ignoring the fingerprint reader when looking for the home button (anyone switching from iPhone will especially have trouble), but mostly because this is a waste of screen space; Samsung figured out long ago the virtues of capacitive buttons -- what's the deal, Moto? (Though, yes, the strip does go away when watching video in landscape.)
In any case, the fingerprint reader works reliably and quickly. In fact, I would say the same about the entire experience, which was a relief. Powering the Moto X4 is an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor, along with an Adreno 508 graphics processor. While that's a tier down from the flagship-worthy Snapdragon 835, apps and the OS never felt slow. Booting up is a little slow (clocking in at just under 40 seconds), but you don't reboot your phone often enough for it to matter.
Something that was on the slow side and regular enough to matter is "raise to wake." That's when your phone's lock screen comes alive just by picking up the phone. Whereas on the iPhone, the display reacts nearly instantaneously, the Moto X4 takes just a hair longer. It also goes dim after a second if you don't unlock the phone whereas the iPhone does a better job of knowing when you're staring at, say, a notification.
I got impressive results from the battery, regularly seeing 50% or more capacity when I went home after a day of moderate use (admittedly mostly on Wi-Fi). The capacity is 3,000 mAh, which is the same as the Samsung Galaxy S8. Of course, the Moto X4 doesn't have to drive the same number of pixels or as powerful a chip as the Samsung does, and it shows.
A weighty camera
One feature the Moto X4 shares with phones twice its price is a dual-camera system. It combines 12- and 8-megapixel cameras, one with an ultra-wide-angle lens, to capture higher quality photos than it could with just a single lens. The two lenses also enable tricks like an adjustable bokeh effect (a la the iPhone 8 Plus's Portrait Mode) or turning the background -- but not the subject -- black and white.
I like the Moto X4 camera quite a bit, although it does have its shortcomings. First, you need to select the "Depth enabled" mode before you shoot if you want to use selective focus and other tricks. I also found the actual photos to have somewhat colder hues and more contrast than photos taken with the iPhone 8.
Here you can see some photo comparisons between the Moto X4 and the iPhone 8. You can see the difference in colors in the outdoor pic.
To test the camera in low light, I shot a pile of firewood in my garage. You can see an impressive amount of detail in shadows in the X4 pic, so props to Moto for creating a great low-light camera at this price point. But overall the pic looks more artificial than the iPhone's.
I also checked out the selfie cam. In the same lighting conditions, the Moto X4 made my face look much more well-lit than the iPhone 8, even without the flash (also: there's a flash!), although details weren't quite as sharp.
I also checked out the selective focus feature on the Moto X4. It's a fine trick, but it definitely has its flaws. When I took a picture of an Imperial Stormtrooper figure and turned on the effect, it did a terrible job of figuring out what was background and what wasn't. The effect is definitely intended just for portraits, and even then only carefully composed ones.
Also, compared to the iPhone 8 Plus, the depth effect just isn't as good. The colder hues and wide angle of the Moto X4 camera made for an inferior pic, although some of that can be fixed with composing or cropping. I also liked that you can select the degree of blur after you take the pic as well as the other fun effects, like "selective black and white," although they're far from perfect.
Overall, I ended up liking the camera for the cool stuff it did. Although I wasn't a fan of the colder hues, I could live with them if it meant selective focus and impressive low-light performance.
If you were to pick the Moto X4 as your phone, though, what you'd really need to accept is just how, well... basic it is for 2017. While today's flagships phones boast edge-to-edge displays, wireless charging, and advanced biometrics, the Moto X4 has none of those perks. It's clearly grounded in the present, not the future.
However, the Moto X4 also epitomizes many of the best parts of our mobile present. If you spend less than $400 on a phone, you can't have everything, but when you take stock of what you do have, the future starts to look overpriced anyway.
Moto X4
The Good
Premium design
Dual-lens camera takes quality pics
Good value
The Bad
Camera tricks like selective focus need work
Google Assistant requires passcode
Lack of capacitive buttons means wasted screen space
The Bottom Line
Despite a few annoyances, the sleekly designed Moto X4 gives you a lot of bang for not that many bucks.
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