Moto X vs HTC One: 4.7-inch Android 4.2.2 showdown

Moto X vs HTC One: 4.7-inch Android 4.2.2 showdown

We can all go ahead and stop calling the Moto X a mid-range phone now.

Everyone is guilty of it, myself included. You look at that specs sheet and the first thing you think is “how could this possibly cost as much on a new contract as something like the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One?” because the tech community has been trained to care about specs. As far as we’ve been told, the quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor is a better processor than the previous generation Snapdragon S4 Pro. We see these names and they are supposed to mean something.

While we’re not quite ready to give a full review on the Moto X, we have taken some time to compare the camera and general performance side by side with the HTC One. The truth is there’s nothing mid-range about the Moto X, and it is a fierce competitor against the HTC One (as well as the Galaxy S4).

The HTC One and Moto X are both 4.7-inch Android phones running version 4.2.2 with curved backs to better fit in the hand. The curve on the Moto X is a little more noticeable than on the HTC One, and as a result is a little more difficult to use when its on flat surface.

The Moto X is noticeably smaller than the One due to the lack of HTC’s BoomSound speakers and IR sensor on the top of the phone. As a result, the Moto X fits much better in my hand, but has its speaker on the back of the phone near the camera instead of the front. Meanwhile, HTC’s volume rocker and power button sit nice and flush with the aluminum unibody casing, while the Moto X button stick out a bit against the seam that separates the glass front and polycarbonate back.

Moto X
Display

The most important part of any phone is the part that lets you actually use it. This is an area that HTC has excelled in for a while now, and is an area in which the Motorola is lacking. In a side-by-side comparison, you can absolutely see the screen superiority of the HTC One. The 1080p display is crisp and clear, while the same image on the Moto X can look slightly fuzzy… if you look hard. You won’t notice the difference when you are playing games, but you’ll absolutely notice it when reading text.

If you’re not terribly picky about 720p vs 1080p, you have to choose between color accuracy on these two screens. HTC’s display shows color significantly cooler than the Moto X. The warm display on the X is great for looking at color, but on a flat white background the screen can offer a yellow twinge that can be bothersome to some users. On the other hand, the overly blue tint on the HTC One can be irritating in low light situations, so what you’re really deciding is which end of the color correction scale you prefer to be on since neither phone really does a good enough job of hitting the middle.

Performance

It’s a no-brainer, right? There’s no way that S4 Pro can outshine the Snapdragon 600. Only, that’s not exactly true. Both phones are incredibly snappy, and it’s not easy to compare glide and scroll performance because HTC Sense and vanilla Android deploy different movement principles to scrolling and bouncing, but in no way do either phone have problems. The animations on the Moto X are noticeably faster when entering and exiting menus, but when you are using these two phones side by side you’ll be unable to tell which  Android 4.2.2 phone is faster.

Complex tasks are where it is at, and there’s no greater real world test of raw performance on a Qualcomm phone than their own made for Snapdragon game. Reign of Amira is great for testing Snapdragon systems against one another because Qualcomm made this game in house with the specific intention of showing off how great their systems are for gaming. When running these two phones side by side, the Moto X is noticeably faster than the HTC One. In our video demonstration, you can see that the Moto X is a full second faster in loading the game, despite being a technically lesser processor.

Games aren’t the only hardware intensive thing you can do on an Android phone, but it is by far the most common. The Moto X gets a slight performance bump here because it only has to draw against a 720p display instead of a 1080p display, which helps explain why the animations and navigation feels just slightly faster sometimes. If you were to do something like transcode a video and share it via HDMI to a television, it is likely that the quad core processor on the HTC One would handle that better.

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Moto X vs Galaxy S4: Do you care about specs or experience?

Moto X vs Galaxy S4: Do you care about specs or experience?

The Moto X is finally official, and that means phone buyers will have to figure it into their calculations. The current king of Android by most measurements is the Samsung Galaxy S4, which just came out late in the spring. Let’s see how these two phones stack up, and if the first real Google phone is able to take on Samsung’s flagship.

Staring you right in the face on both phones are AMOLED panels. This technology is a favorite of Samsung and Motorola because they use no power on black pixels and are extremely thin. Motorola chose to go with a 4.7-inch 720p AMOLED screen, which is unusual for a headlining device these days. The Samsung has a 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED.


GS4

Even at 720p the Moto X manages 317 pixels per inch. That’s respectable, but Samsung’s flagship clocks in at 441 pixels per inch. The Samsung device is going to be crisper, but it will also suck up more juice.

Inside, these devices have similar origins, but take different approaches to provide a smooth user experience. The Moto X uses the new X8 mobile computing platform, which is a combination of a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro and a pair of special processing cores elsewhere on the board. The natural language and contextual computing processors enable the always-on software features and save battery life.

Samsung went with a faster ARM chip — the quad-core Snapdragon 600 (in the US). This is a better option in terms of raw power, but it lacks the neat always-on features. Still, it makes the GS4 a powerful device. If the Moto X with its optimized software can keep up, it might have the edge here. Both phones are equipped with 2GB of RAM.

Motorola chose to go with a 10MP camera with an RGBC sensor for better low light performance. The Galaxy S4 does OK in low-light, but its 13MP camera takes incredibly detailed images. It might edge out the Moto X in daily use.

x green

As for software, Samsung relies on its enormous mountain of features, some of which work well and other not so much. You have to hand it to Samsung for being innovative with features like Smart Stay, Air Gesture, and all the other “Smart” stuff. This phone runs Android 4.2.2 with a fairly heavy skin designed by Samsung. Some users are okay with it, but other find it a bit garish.

The Moto X runs software that could easily be confused with stock Android, but it isn’t quite. Motorola made very few changes to the UI and fundamentals of Android. The magic comes from the custom silicon and the extra feature that enables. The Moto X can pull up voice search any time it hears you say the trigger phrase — even while it’s asleep. The AMOLED display is also used to display notifications while the phone is asleep.

Aesthetics are highly personal, but the Galaxy S4 has a reputation for feeling rather cheap and slippery. It’s made of slick white or black plastic, with a handful of other colors available in limited markets. The Moto X is well-put-together and can be purchased in a wide variety of custom colors.

X Colors

The Samsung Galaxy S4 and Moto X are going to cost $199 on-contract for the 16GB version. There are occasional sales on the GS4, so you might be able to get a deal there. It’s a close call, but the Moto X deserves some serious consideration, even though the GS4 has slightly better specs

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and smartwatch reveal may happen September 4

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and smartwatch reveal may happen September 4

The Galaxy S4 was released back in April, but many Samsung fans are still waiting patiently for the Galaxy Note 3 to arrive. If you’re waiting on the bigger, stylus-packing phablet to make your next purchase, mark September 4 on your calendar.

That’s when Samsung will be announcing the Galaxy Note 3, according to a Korean media report. It’s a date that makes sense when you look back at Samsung’s two previous Note reveals.

Both were on display at the IFA trade show in Berlin — the original Note in 2011 and its successor in 2012. The fourth is actually two days before the show officially kicks off, but alone doesn’t make the prediction any less believable.

The Galaxy Note 2 was unveiled the day before IFA last year, giving Samsung a little time by itself in the spotlight. There’s every reason to believe the company would follow the same plan this year –and for months tech pundits have been musing that’s when the Galaxy Note 3 would finally break cover.

We’ve already seen rumored specs of the new Note, too. Originally thought to have a 6.3-inch display, it’s more likely to arrive with a 5.7-inch, 1080p AMOLED screen. A Snapdragon 800 chip, 13MP camera (possibly with 3x optical zoom), and Android 4.3 may also be in the mix.

The Note 3 won’t be the only device Samsung has on hand, either. The same Korean report says that the company’s oft-rumored smartwatch will make an appearance, too. By the time IFA 2013 rolls around, Apple might be ready to show off its first wearable.

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Review: Moto X is the phone Android needs right now

Review: Moto X is the phone Android needs right now

Not too long ago, Google bought a smartphone manufacturer. Instead of making another Nexus, the first true Google-Motorola phone is a bundle of experiments that the the company hopes will turn out to be popular. Meet the Moto X, the first Android phone targeted at the average consumer

We’ve been hearing about The New Motorola ever since the Droid Razr HD launch last year, but this smartphone is the first one to be entirely designed by Google. “The first phone from the new Motorola” as they put it. This phone has been highly anticipated with more leaks than we typically see from even the most popular announcements these days. In the days before the unveiling, those who had been paying attention were left with the impression that this would be a mid-range phone. This didn’t turn out the way everyone expected.

After some preliminary comparisons to the current Android heavyweights, the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One (Read: Moto X vs Galaxy S4 and Moto X vs HTC One), we were all reminded that what we read on a specs sheet and how a phone feels in the real world are two very different things.

Motorola promises that this phone will create a unique experience geared for everyone, and not just the hardcore Android power user. While the phone it not without flaws — some of them easily deal breakers for certain groups of users — the X is an impressive first step from The New Motorola.

Moto X rear
Hardware

Motorola is no stranger to the “flat black slab” design, having made more than a few of them over the past few years. The Moto X is quite different… or at least the back half of it is. The phone feels like two different concepts that have been awkwardly pressed together in order to create a single device. On the front half you’ll find nothing but glass, which bleeds over the edge and down the side. The glass around the edge of the phone is opaque, serving as both the trim and the bezel. As a result you’ll find very little on the front of the phone that is not the display, outside of the normal phone bits like microphone, speaker, and front-facing camera. For a phone with a 4.7-inch display, it feels smaller than any other high-end Android phone sold today.

Considering that is uses a 720p RGB AMOLED display, the Moto X looks great, as long as you are OK a warmer-than-average color temperature. When the brightness is way down on the X you can see the yellowing in areas that are supposed to be true white. This works well for images, but can be less than ideal for reading text. The 316ppi display doesn’t hold a candle to some of today’s 1080p IPS displays, especially in direct sunlight, but you won’t be able to see pixels or pentile line fragments. Overall, the Moto X has a decent display that won’t eat your battery just by existing, but it certainly isn’ going to win Motorola any awards.

Moto X

The other side of the Moto X is wildly different. The polycarbonate backing, which is currently only available in a black or white that closely resembles the kevlar designs Motorola has deployed in the past, curves in a dramatic fashion. The phone tapers from 10.4mm at the thickest point just above the center of the device to the 5.6mm at the base and just barely thicker than this at the top and sides of the device. It’s almost as though the Motorola symbol on the back of the phone is being pulled away from the phone, and the back has warped out as it happened.

Ergonomically speaking, your finger naturally rests on the concave spot on the back (where the Motorola logo is), and it doesn’t feel as though you are stretching your thumb to reach the other side of the phone when trying to use it with a single hand. The end result is a phone that feels very comfortable in your hand, but a little wobbly and clumsy when trying to use it as the phone rests on a flat surface.

These two sides don’t meet well in the middle. As a result of these two different materials there is a seam in the middle of the phone that is both awkward to look at and to feel. The glossy glass bezel and matte polycarbonate meet with a rough edge that is uncomfortable to run your fingers across and quite noticeable if you are looking for it. This was likely made worse by my decision to review the white version of the phone, as the seam also causes a black line around the two sides that makes it really clear when the edges don’t line up perfectly.

All in all the Moto X feels solid and looks nice when you’re looking at one side or the other, but it’s far from the most aesthetically pleasing smartphone available today.

Moto X camera compare
Clear Pixel camera

Motorola’s smartphone cameras have historically never been anything particularly special. They get the job done, and their apps have always kept up well enough with the pace of the rest of the industry, but over the last few years there’s clearly not been anything driving the Motorola team to deliver a one of a kind camera experience. The Moto X includes the world’s first RGBC sensor in a phone, with the hope that it will deliver a high end camera experience that also offers a great lowlight experience. Alongside of this the new camera app looks to strip as many buttons from the experience to allow the user to take a photo as quickly as possible, even going so far as to include a wrist flick gesture that launches the camera app from any point in the OS.

Motorola’s Clear Pixel camera does exactly what it advertises it will do. In low light situations the camera easily competes with the HTC One and Nokia Lumia 928 when it comes to the sensor being able to “see” in low light. When capturing images it does a great job demonstrating color accuracy, and the AutoHDR function does an acceptable job balancing the light if there’s ever an issue with the environment you are trying to take a picture in. Unfortunately, in our tests with the camera the truly great shots produced were few and far between. This isn’t because the camera isn’t capable, but because the software often misses the mark in focusing on the correct thing in the photo.

The camera app in the Moto X has autofocus on by default that really struggles to quickly focus on things that are within a couple of feet, typically preferring to focus much farther away. There’s a tap-to-focus feature that you can enable, but the camera takes the photo regardless of whether or not it focused correctly after you tap. There’s no pause in between focus and capture, and so the camera misfires frequently. This happens less frequently with the front-facing camera, though as a 2MP shooter you won’t be doing much other than face shots which are relatively easy to optimize for. When you do get that clear photo, it’s usually a pretty great shot.

HDR is set to Auto on this phone, which also contributes to a poor photography experience. HDR in general on this phone is great from the perspective of someone who plans to edit the photos later. There seems to be almost no post processing done when the photo is taken, so while the end result often looks more washed out than something like the HTC One which tends to over-processes photos. Turning HDR off seemed to generate the best all around photos, while HDR on served as a great tool for photos that will be edited later. With Auto HDR on, it takes much longer to get from capture to capture. The delay from taking one photo to another can often be two seconds, unless you’ve decided to hold your finger on the screen and capture a series of photos via the burst shot feature. (For more on the HTC One read our low-light camera shootout.)

Video seems largely unaffected by the focus and HDR issues found in the camera app, and the single button press required to capture video is a welcome change from the often overcomplicated third party Android camera apps. The camcorder function on the Moto X does a great job capturing 1080p video or 720p slow motion video. You can tap the screen anytime you are recording video and capture stills, which often end up looking better than just trying to take a normal photo.

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Google to bring 10x faster WiFi to all 7000 US Starbucks locations

Google to bring 10x faster WiFi to all 7000 US Starbucks locations

Starbucks seems to be on a mission to improve the technology inside its coffee shops recently. Yesterday we heard about wireless charging pads being integrated into tables at Silicon Valley Starbucks locations, now the company has done a deal with Google to provide much faster WiFi access.

The collaboration will see Google deliver up to 10x faster WiFi to not just a few, but all 7,000 Starbucks-operated locations across the US. And better yet, if any of those Starbucks fall within a Google Fiber area, Google is aiming to increase speeds 100x.

Upgrading 7,000 locations is quite the undertaking, but Google believes it can get the job done over the next 18 months. After that, visit any US Starbucks and you’ll apparently get to enjoy much faster access.

Google says it is investing to help the Internet grow stronger. It also points to Starbucks web access as being important not only for students and people who choose to work from such locations, but also because they can act as key communication points during a disaster such as when Hurricane Sandy hit.

Indeed, Google isn’t new to the idea of investing in Internet infrastructure for no real monetary gain. You may remember back in 2009 the search giant decided to offer free WiFi access across 47 US airports.

While these upgrades may be great news for coffee drinkers, they could cause Starbucks a bit of a problem. If you’re offering faster Internet access than people get at home for free, free gadget charging, and all it costs is the price of a coffee, why would anyone want to leave? We could see a lot more people testing how long a tall coffee can last just to sit there surfing the web all day.

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Samsung caught rigging phones to boost benchmark results

Samsung caught rigging phones to boost benchmark results

It has always been my firm belief that benchmarks, specifically mobile benchmarks, were a waste of time and could never offer the same information as actually holding the device in your hands and trying it for yourself. Samsung has helped demonstrate just how true that is after being caught intentionally boosting performance on their hardware in order to deceive popular benchmarking tools.

It was only a matter of time before smartphone manufacturers started trying to optimize their hardware to suit benchmarks. There’s a lot of curious double talk about hardware amongst mobile OEMs right now, some going as far as giving their processors entirely new names to make them sound great to a casual observer. PC manufacturers have been doing it for years, and there’s never really been anything anyone can do to stop them from behaving this way.

With a smartphone, the CPU and GPU benchmarks do little more than complete numbers on a chart or add another line to a graph. You can’t use a CPU or GPU benchmark to tell you which of the smartphones will offer you a better experience in your day to day activities. In theory, you could use GPU benchmarks to tell you which device would give you a better gaming experience if you played a lot of high performance mobile games, but now it would appear that even this is no longer true.

After receiving a tip that some benchmark apps were behaving a little oddly on the octo-core variant of the Galaxy S4, the guys at Anandtech did what they do best and performed a thorough analysis on the phone. According to their research, this variant of the Galaxy S4 contains specific code that boosts the clock speed of the CPU and GPU when specific benchmarking apps are running on the phone.

The app responsible for this behavior, TwDVFSApp.apk, will push the GPU from 480MHz to 532MHz, and as far as anyone can tell that clock speed is only possible on the phone when the specific benchmarks being called out in the app are being run. This list includes AnTuTu, Benchmark Pi, Linpack, and all versions of the Quadrant apps. Each of these are popular, well known Android benchmark apps that can be installed in most cases for free from the Google Play Store.

The frustrating thing about this isn’t that Samsung is rigging their own hardware to get better benchmarks, but that those clock speeds aren’t available to users when playing games. There’s no way to enjoy the Exynos 5 Octa at 532MHz, even though your benchmarking app tells you that’s what you should expect. It’s possible there’s a good reason that users aren’t allowed to use the higher clockspeed. This may be a heat management issue, as every version of the Galaxy S4 has some temperature issues after an extended gameplay session.

Whatever is going on here, though, it’s clear that benchmarks really aren’t to be trusted on mobile hardware any more than they are on traditional computers.

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Alienware 14 Haswell gaming laptop, 63% off antivirus

Alienware 14 Haswell gaming laptop, 63% off antivirus

 

It took a little while, but we have finally got our first discount on the Alienware 14 in the form of a 10% off coupon for any “14? model. For your hard-earned coin, you are getting yourself one of the fastest — and definitely the coolest — 14-inch Haswell laptop on the market today.

Everyone we’ve asked loves the new “stealth bomber” inspired design, with its smooth surfaces and sharp angles. It’s complemented by the AlienFX fully-customizable LED lighting system, which now allows you to light up the touchpad too.

Even the base model has high performance parts and a ridiculous level of standard features, starting with the quad-core Core i7-4700MQ Haswell processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard drive. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750M 1GB graphics power up your fragging via the 14-inch HD screen. It also sports a slot-loading DVD burner, and has high performance Killer NIC brand wireless-n and gigabit ethernet connectivity.

Of course it wouldn’t be an Alienware without extensive upgrade options, and the first box we could tick is the 1080p IPS display upgrade, followed by the GTX 765M 2GB graphics card to ensure smooth fragging on the high-res panel. All of these options are of course 10% off as well, so for those with a little more budget, don’t be shy to make the most of that 10%.

    Alienware 14 Haswell Core i7 gaming laptop for $1,079.10 plus free shipping (reg. $1,199)

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