The Moto X range of smartphones from Motorola have always been the company’s premium range of devices. The Moto X range is now back with style through the launch of the new X4. The phone boasts an all glass body, that screams “oomph” in every nook and corner.
The Moto X4 has an aluminum and glass design with IP68 dust and water resistance rating. On the front you will find a 5.2-inch, 1920-by-1080 IPS LCD that is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass. Just below the display, you will find the super-quick fingerprint scanner.
The left edge of the phone is void of any buttons. On the right edge though, you will find the volume rockers and the power button. On the top edge you will find the noise-cancelling microphone along with the SIM slot right next to it.
On the bottom, you will find the USB-C port for all your charging and data syncing needs and a 3.5mm audio jack. Turn the phone around and you will come face to face with a dual camera system. The dual camera system comes with a 12-megapixel primary camera with an f/2.0 aperture and PDAF, and an 8-megapixel secondary camera with a 120 degree field-of-view for wide-angle shots.
You can switch between sensors at any time with the dedicated button in the viewfinder. I loved how quick the sensor could focus on subjects, irrespective of the shot – whether it was a landscape or a macro. On the front, you also get a 16-megapixel camera that captures very good selfies under good lighting. Motorola also adds a front-firing LED flash to help you out at night.
Under the hood, the phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor. This chip has eight ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores with a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. The Snapdragon 630 also has some improvements such as a faster X12 LTE modem which supports a peak download speed of 600Mbps.
It also comes with additional features such as the aptX codec for high-quality audio streaming and Quick Charge 4.0. The Snapdragon 630 is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. In terms of connectivity, you get 4G support on both SIM slots. You also get FM radio, NFC, USB-OTG, Bluetooth 5, and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac.
The Moto X4 comes with a near-stock version of Android 7.1.1, with a planned Oreo update. In order to test out the performance of the Moto X4, we ran AnTuTu and Geekbench benchmarks, On AnTuTu, the X4 was able to score 71302 points, which good for day to day mobility needs. On Geekbench, the X4 scored 4112 points on the multi-core tests and 858 points on single-core tests.
The Moto X4 is a very good performer when it comes to the performance of the cameras. The camera interface is simple to use, and there’s even a pro mode if you want to fine-tune the settings. The Moto X4 captures excellent photos. Colours are neither over- nor under-saturated, and there’s surprisingly great detail in the phone’s captured images.
Overall, the Moto X4 is stylish and smooth. It really feels like an expensive phone despite its low price, largely due to the all-glass design. The Moto X4 also offers solid performance that should satisfy most people. The Moto X4 is definitely a smartphone to consider when out shopping for a new smartphone.
Price: AED 1099
