Motorola Moto X Phone

It was time for a new phone.  I often think it appears that to younger people today, phones are what cars were to me and my friends.  I still see a phone as a tool to do a job.  Since I am not a fan of talking on the phone, I see it more as a very handy mobile computer that can make the rare call.

My Motorola Atrix 4G had been faithfully serving me for over two years.  But, with the prevalence of LTE network, I wanted a faster phone.  I live in the sticks so often my phone is my internet connection (there is no DSL or Cable where I live).

Several phones looked intriguing, but the three that interested me the most where the HTC One Mini, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and the Motorola Moto X.  I was mostly interested in the two mini phones due to the size, not the slightly reduced cost.  The much larger phones with five-inch screens etc. are just too large.

As it turned out, the HTC One Mini became available first.  AT&T has the best coverage in my area and I was happy to stay with them.  When I looked at the HTC Mini, I thought it should not be called the Mini.  It really should be called the HTC One Still-Very-Large as this phone is only barely smaller than the HTC One.  This was fine, of the three phones, the HTC seemed to have the least going for it.

Samsung has been building very good phones, but the S4 Mini was ruled out by default.  First, Samsung's bloatware is too much.  Some of the extra features may be nice, but a lot of them are just extra bulk.  Second, there seems to be some resistance to selling the S4 Mini in the US.  It was available on Amazon and a few reputable Ebay places, but not from AT&T.  I would love to see an S4 Mini Google Play Edition.  That would be a dynamite combination of pure Android, small size, etc.  I have heard no rumors saying this was eminent.

This left the Motorola Moto X.  I can't say I'm disappointed with this.  As details leaked about the phone, many features seemed at least as if thought went into them.  I received emails from both Motorola and AT&T while on vacation saying the Moto X was available.  Once back at home, I headed to the AT&T Store.
As an aside, I may appear kind of crazy for going with the Motorola as my Atrix had a few peculiarities.  Notably, when I used the mobile hotspot, the battery drain was acceptably high due to the second radio, etc.  However, once the hotspot was turned off, the battery drain remained high until rebooted.  Sometimes the battery drain increased after turning off the hotspot until the reboot.  Also, the phone liked to sleep in and once in a while it would not automatically restart data after going in sleep mode for the night.  Data started immediately after any action on the phone.  I strongly suspect this second issue was due to a SIM card which was not behaving normally and may not be due to the phone at all.
These two issues where minor grievances and had my Atrix been an LTE phone, I would not even think of getting rid of it.
I had the choice of buying the Moto X in black or white and getting the instant gratification of going home with it.  Or, I could buy a small card, and order my "customized" phone on Motorola's web site.  I use that term lightly since the customization is largely cosmetic.  I wasn't really that interested in the customization, but decided since I wasn't in a hurry, that was the route I would go.

Once back at home, I logged on the Motorola's website and made my phone.  I opted for a blue back, silver accent, black front.  I didn't care about the wallpaper since it was going to be changed anyway.  I also opted not to have the message when I turned it on.  I wished I had it say, "Hey Dude" every time it goes on.  Oh well.
Surprisingly, Motorola said it was going to take almost a week to get the phone (it was a holiday weekend which no doubt contributed).  This is definitely not instant gratification.  As a happy surprise, the phone was shipped FedEx the next day and I received it the day after.
The phone looked just like I ordered it and it came with a free Skip, which is an NFC Tag that can be used to unlock the phone without hitting buttons.  I haven't found usefulness for this yet, but will probably set it up at some point in the future;  who knows, maybe it has utility.

After navigating around the much newer version of Android (Jelly Bean), I got the phone set up the way I like it.  I took this as an opportunity to not install many apps that I didn't use or weren't that useful on the Atrix.  There were a few glitches along the way, the built-in email program kept loosing sync which was frustrating so I installed MailDroid (this is a fantastic mail program - I'm not sure why I didn't just install it right away).

The phone has many nice features.  First, even though I wasn't too enamored with the customization, it was nice being able to pick my own colors.  The screen is large and bright and everything runs smoothly.  There has been some criticism that the phone is "only" 720p.  I'm not sure I'll believe that the most eagle-eyed person out there can tell the difference between 720 and 1080 on a 5 inch screen.  The real difference is barely detectable on anything smaller than the larger flatscreen TVs.  The touchscreen is very responsive without being too touchy.
One of the things I like the most about the phone is the Active Notifications.  I thought I would miss the blinky light of my old phones, but all I have to do is lift the phone to look at it and I can see not only if I have a notification, but how many of what kind.  And, I can preview them as well.  This is a really nice feature.
I haven't used the camera too much yet, but the camera takes pictures that are as good as should be expected from a cell phone.  The quick access to the phone by twisting the camera as if using a screwdriver works well, but I'm not sure it is really that much faster since I have a shortcut to the camera on the first desktop anyway.  This can also leave the camera on if not careful.
Battery life of the new phone is really good.  So far, I can easily get a full day of use without recharging.  To illustrate, last night I forgot to plug in my phone after being on for well over a day.  It was down to less than 10% this morning, but still functioning showing that 36 hours is possible.

My SO got the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active near the same time I got the Moto X and this allows for a pretty fair comparison.  Between the two, the S4 comes with more functionality, but it doesn't seem as well thought out and much of the extra functions can be overcome with free apps if desired.  Perhaps more importantly, the performance of the two phones is different.  Since I live in the sticks, my reception can be spotty at times.  The Atrix got reasonably good HSPA+ signal.  I was worried the Moto X wouldn't be as good..  However, the Moto X got better reception than the Atrix, and even gets a reasonably good LTE signal most of the time.  The S4 Active got an OK signal in the right spots, but the performance was not nearly as good as the Moto X.  For friends who have IPhones, however their radios suck and are stuck with weak HSPA+ signals or (gulp) Edge.

There are a few things I'm not to enamored with on the Moto X.
I still think the phone is too large.  I actually like the size of the 4-inch screened Atrix better.  The Atrix fits easily in the pocket and unobtrusive in the Seidio holster.  The Moto X is slightly larger but can still fit OK in the pocket.  I'm working around this by not getting a case for it - at least for now.  I'm hoping a silicone bikini skin may be available in the future.
The other thing that I have to work around is the shape.  The curved shape of the phone fits in the hand great.  I'm surprised what a difference the subtle changes makes for the ergonomics.  But, the curved bottom makes it wobbly on a flat surface.  I often keep my phone on the kitchen counter.  When I get a notification and check it, the wobbliness is a bit annoying.

I've only had the phone for about a week, but am very happy with it so far.  It gets great reception, looks good, and feels good in the hand.
Speed of the phone is noticeably better than my older Atrix and better than the S4 Active in the house.
Also, with the Motorola trade-up program, Motorola will buy back my Atrix for $100.  And the Moto X is made in the USA.
Good things all around.

A belated edit, after the September 10, 2013 Apple Announcements:
Not to beat on Apple too hard, but they just announced the iPhone 5S and 5C.  Let see...
5S main features include a fingerprint scanner - my Atrix had this functionality and it worked well (but wasn't my choice for unlocking) so a bit of a ho hum.
The A7 processor to do many functions like monitor motion, etc. with less battery power - sounds a lot like the processors built into the Moto X that allows Active Notifications and automatically turning on driving mode if desired.
More built-in Apps - read bloatware (and Apple is less friendly about turning off some of this crap).
The 64-bit processor is a pretty big deal, if a bit unsung.  I'll have to wait until someone I know gets one of these to see if there are real improvements to the radio in areas with weaker LTE signals.  I'll put money on this being a more fundamental issue.

And the 5C:  New colors.  OK, neat - not sure if that is a major selling point.
Cheaper:  Apple is very confused on the definition of cheaper.

Again, not to beat on Apple too much, but the features on this version of the iPhone really aren't that new.  And in this case, the Fruit Company is not quite the trend setter it was several years ago.