The Moto X! Finally revealed by Google it represents a bid to revive the once mighty mobile tech giant. We here at QTOOTH remember having several Motorola phones over the years. We loved them. Durable with excellent call quality. Nothing else compared. The ultimate benchmark for quality was a Motorola phone on the Verizon network. We were huge, devoted fans. Remember those days?
And then the smart phone revolution began and Motorola was completely cut out of the loop. How they didn’t see it coming is a mystery. Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, LG, even Blackberry had at least something going on. But not Motorola.
So, after much hype and anticipation, Motorola Mobile’s new owner Google finally rolled out their new offering. The general consensus? Better luck next time. Overpriced, under-performing and laden with curious choices, including NOT including the latest version of the Android operating system. This has to be one of the biggest mysteries, after all, Google makes Android and Google owns Motorola. Why wouldn’t it be sporting you latest offering? Baffling…
The biggest feature that they are touting? It’s ability to come in different colors… after being special ordered… and taking at a few days to get to you. Really? When most people want a phone they want it immediately. They want to walk into a store and by it today. And in the end, who really cares what color your phone is when you are just going to cover it with a case or some type of protector? That’s where the real style choices happen, not with the phone itself.
The phone features a 4.7-inch screen device is aimed at the iPhone and the Galaxy S phones. The Moto X features “all-day” battery life, a choice of colors and materials, and an instant-start camera, the company said today at a press event in New York. The Moto X is priced starting at $199 with a two-year contract and will only be available on all AT&T by the end of August or early September. That’s about the same time that the new Apple iPhone is set to hit the market and will probably make the Moto X completely irrelevant.
The device is the first homegrown smartphone from Motorola since Google acquired the business last year for $12.4 billion, as the Internet giant ramps up its hardware ambitions against Apple and others.
There is some claim to being made in U.S.A. and are hoping to attract fans because of this. The reality is that it will only be assembled in Texas at a former Nokia factory and that this will mostly involve the customizing of the color options. Customers can choose the colors of the front, back and accents of the Moto X on the website Motomaker.com. Motorola guarantees phone delivery in four days. One of the custom options is to have a wooden back made from a choice of ebony, teak, rosewood, or bamboo. Only that last choice is remotely sustainable. So? Not exactly hi-tech and not exactly made in America. Unlikely that they will fool anyone with this ruse.
Here are a few good details:A curved, ergonomic back and 10-megapixel camera. Similar to the Motorola Droids on Verizon Wireless, the Moto X runs on a chip system known as X8. Motorola developed twin lower-powered chips to run alongside the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro main processor.
The multichip system is designed to conserve battery life by letting the processor sleep while the lower-power chips work in the background — sensing location, speed and message notifications, as well as listening for voice commands. As an example, even if the phone is locked, the user can say, “OK Google now,” to create and send a message, or open turn-by-turn navigation through Google Maps. And with two flips of the wrist, sensors will turn on the camera and be ready to shoot in 2 seconds, said Rick Osterloh, product chief for Motorola.
As we see it here at QTOOTH maybe Google/Motorola will make more of their investment back when they introduce it to the international market. Maybe they are just trying to establish value by charging $199 with a two year contract but it should be half the price, or less, for what it offers. We’ll take an iPhone 4s or a Galaxy S3 over this anytime. Also, maybe they have plans to roll out instant upgrades to the latest Android OS. Whatever their plans are, they better move quickly to save this phone from an early death.
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