Moto X: The Phone That Really Listens to You

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  A Smartphone for the Masses

  The Moto X, coming to five U.S. carriers at the end of the summer, is Motorola's stab at a mass-market smartphone. Its exterior can be customized to order, and its design is very friendly, but its specs aren't quite as good as some competitors.

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  Large Screen

  The Moto X has a relatively large 4.7-inch screen, but the design makes it feel like a smaller phone. The resolution is 1,280 x 720.

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  Touchless Control

  Once calibrated, the Moto X will respond when the user says the phrase, "OK, Google Now." It works even when the phone is in standby mode.

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  Active Notifications

  Notifications use only a few pixels, thus saving battery life.

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  Peek View

  When you tap and hold a notification, you can peek at what it says without unlocking the phone.

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  Trusted Devices

  Once you pair the Moto X with a device via Bluetooth, you can designate the device "trusted." That means the phone will stay unlocked as long as that device stays in range.

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  Double Charging Plug

  Great idea: two charging ports in one plug, letting you juice up a pair of gadgets simultaneously.

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  Left Side

  The left side of the phone is bare except for the SIM card slot. Note the curved back.

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  Bottom

  You'll find the microUSB port on the bottom.

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  Right Side

  Power and volume buttons are on the right side.

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  Top

  The Moto X's curved back is most obvious when viewed from the top, which has the headphone jack.

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  Back View

  The curved back is made of composite material that feels good and grippy in the hand.

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  'Chromeless' Camera

  Motorola took out any camera controls that users don't care about. You take photos by tapping the screen.

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  Camera Controls

  Swipe in from the left to see the (very few) camera controls.

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  Voice Calibration

  You need a "seriously quiet" room to calibrate Touchless Control.

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  Notifications Information

  The phone tells you about Active Notifications at startup.

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  Google Now

  Like other Motorola and Nexus devices, you can call up Google Now by sliding up from the bottom of the device.
  

  The Moto X is my favorite Android phone right now. Motorola, working as a Google company, has done its best to build a smartphone for everybody — from power users to casual texters — aiming for that sweet spot filled with practical features but doesn't veer into the dangerous territory of overkill (well marked by Samsung).

  Let's be clear, though: There's a difference between "favorite" and "best." There are other phones that have better specs and can do more than the Moto X. Creating a mass-market product is more like cooking a group meal than hitting a bulls-eye. Too spicy and you'll marginalize your audience. Too mild and no one will remember it.

  In other words, in creating the Moto X, Motorola had to make compromises to ensure it could appeal the widest possible audience. Its 4.7-inch display is big but not too big. The 1,280 x 720 screen isn't the sharpest either, but it helps the device's battery life, which is excellent. The processor may not be as fast the chips in other flagship phones, but it also enables some differentiating features.

  Its through those features that the Moto X makes its case to be your next phone. That, and a captivating design that's the best I've seen in a big-screen phone. The fact that the color you want can be made to order — in the U.S.A., no less — is really more of a gimmick than a feature (and it's only on AT&T at start anyway), but it's worth noting that no other phone offers it.

  Designed to Please

  From a distance, the Moto X looks like a typical smartphone, but when you pick it up you can tell it's something new. The curved back betrays that it's no iPhone (although it's not significantly larger, overall), and its very grippable texture is nothing like Samsung's plastic backs. It's no Kevlar, like in Motorola's new Droids, but it's slightly friendlier to the touch.

  The best part about the Moto X design is that it's a big-screen phone that doesn't feel like one. Motorola clearly labored to make the bezel as thin as possible: The top and bottom only have just enough room for the sensors, microphone and front-facing camera, and on the sides the bezel almost disappears.