When we first reviewed the Moto X it ranked as one of the best Android phones of the year, despite a lackluster spec sheet and a camera that could only be called mediocre on good days. Motorola claimed they were committed to improving the Moto X user experience, and the Android 4.4 update has proof of that all over the place.
It’s important to start this off by explaining how incredibly blurry the lines are between Google and Motorola right now. While Google owns Motorola, supposedly Motorola was being left to its own devices when it came to most day-to-day decisions. As such, the Moto X lacks some of the things Google has been pushing for the last couple of years, like a notification light and wireless charging. It’s not totally clear how much influence Google’sAndroid team has over Motorola’s hardware or what level of access Motorola’s software team has to Google’s Android team.
Motorola managed to release the Android 4.4 update to the Moto X before Google or HTC were able to release the update to the Nexus 4 or Google Play Edition variant of the HTC One. Samsung has still yet to release and Android 4.4 update to their Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition, and has made very little noise regarding when it can be expected to be released. It’s seems like Motorola must have had early access to Android 4.4 in order to make the update happen so quickly, but it’s also possible that we’re seeing the long promised results of the Google Platform Developer Kit making updates smoother for hardware manufacturers. Either way the update is here, and it’s fantastic.
Android 4.4 on the Moto X takes a fair bit of the experience we’ve seen from the Nexus 5, but makes sure to maintain its own identity. [Check out our comparison of the Moto X vs. the Nexus 5 for more.] The Moto X doesn’t have the Google Experience Launcher from the Nexus 5, instead keeps largely the same experience from before. The home screens do have the same full screen wallpaper found in Android 4.4, but this isn’t quite as big a deal on the Moto X homescreens as the launcher here was already transparent. Still, even though it’s a small change on the outside it does enable the full screen features of Android 4.4 and that makes a lot of apps look much nicer.
The Moto X was already a snappy phone, despite being technically underpowered when compared to the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4. With Android 4.4, it really flies. When compared directly to the Snapdragon 800-powered Nexus 5, the Moto X was able to slide around and launch apps just as quickly. Chrome, Facebook, and several other apps loaded with nearly identical performance. The only place where there was a clear advantage when it came to launch performance was the camera app, in which the Moto X was nearly two full seconds faster.
Launch time isn’t the only thing the Moto X camera is doing better these days. Motorola has done an amazing job taking care of nearly all of the launch day issues with the camera. The autofocus is now much faster, the HDR far less blurry, and there’s now a dramatically improved tool for manually seletcing focus and exposure. While it’s not quite tap to focus like we’re used to, the new technique allows you to drag a reticle to where you want focus applied. Once you have the focus and expose you want, you can tap anywhere to take the shot. This mode isn’t quite as efficient as what we see in HTC’s software for focus and exposure, but the end results are now dramatically improved.
For a quick compare, we shot the Nexus 5 and Moto X side by side. This was just a quick test to see how the new camera app handled indoor and outdoor using both HDR and non-HDR. The Moto X is one of the few cameras with an “autoHDR” for a default, so we forced HDR on and off for these shots to make sure we knew what we were looking at. In the camera compare, the Moto X HDR is fantastic at delivering nice bright colors that are realistic and sharp. Compared to the Nexus 5, which even Google has admitted is in need of a software update, the Moto X camera is terrific.
All together, Motorola really pulled out the stops for this Moto X update. It’s a huge positive step for them, and now that the Moto G is in play you can expect this same level of dedication in the budget space. This is the kind of thing that will quickly gain Motorola favor among the enthusiasts, which can only mean good things ahead for the company.
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