Moto X4 review

Once Motorola’s premier smartphone, the Moto X lineup has been neglected for the better part of two years. The Moto X was the first phone Motorola produced after being acquired by Google, and we gave it a glowing review. But under Lenovo’s leadership, the company focused more on the modular Moto Z series, as well as the Moto E and Moto G budget smartphones. Now, after all those ups and downs, the Moto X is finally back — and it’s certainly worth a look if you don’t want to shell out $600 or more for a smartphone.

In our review, we found the new Moto X4 offers a lot of phone for an affordable price. But know that there are two versions: A Moto X4 Android One on Google’s Project Fi wireless carrier and the regular Moto X4 sold by Motorola and other retailers. We’ve now fully tested the Moto X4 Android One and the official Motorola model, and there are a few differences between the two.

ALL-GLASS DESIGN, IP68 WATER-RESISTANCE

If you remember the well-received and popular design of the Moto X (and its 2014 and 2015 successors), you may be a little disappointed with the new Moto X4. Its metal frame is sandwiched by fingerprint-attracting glass, and there’s an unnecessarily-large circular bump on the back of the top center that holds two cameras and the flash. A Motorola logo sits in the center, and an “Android One” label is at the bottom if that’s the model you opt for. The Motorola model looks exactly the same, minus the label.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

We like the minimal rear design, and light reflecting off the glass makes it look like the X4 is shifting colors. No matter what, you really do need a micro fiber cloth on you at all times to get rid of the fingerprints and keep the phone looking sleek. We almost always prefer no camera bumps on phones, and we were continuously worried about scratching the camera glass when putting the X4 on a flat surface, or even just sliding it around on a desk. The phone will rock side-to-side if you push down on one of the edges because of the camera bump, which can be frustrating for those of you who like to use phones flat on a desk. To be fair, a good case would solve both of these issues.Once Motorola’s premier smartphone, the Moto X lineup has been neglected for the better part of two years. The Moto X was the first phone Motorola produced after being acquired by Google, and we gave it a glowing review. But under Lenovo’s leadership, the company focused more on the modular Moto Z series, as well as the Moto E and Moto G budget smartphones. Now, after all those ups and downs, the Moto X is finally back — and it’s certainly worth a look if you don’t want to shell out $600 or more for a smartphone.

In our review, we found the new Moto X4 offers a lot of phone for an affordable price. But know that there are two versions: A Moto X4 Android One on Google’s Project Fi wireless carrier and the regular Moto X4 sold by Motorola and other retailers. We’ve now fully tested the Moto X4 Android One and the official Motorola model, and there are a few differences between the two.

ALL-GLASS DESIGN, IP68 WATER-RESISTANCE

If you remember the well-received and popular design of the Moto X (and its 2014 and 2015 successors), you may be a little disappointed with the new Moto X4. Its metal frame is sandwiched by fingerprint-attracting glass, and there’s an unnecessarily-large circular bump on the back of the top center that holds two cameras and the flash. A Motorola logo sits in the center, and an “Android One” label is at the bottom if that’s the model you opt for. The Motorola model looks exactly the same, minus the label.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

We like the minimal rear design, and light reflecting off the glass makes it look like the X4 is shifting colors. No matter what, you really do need a micro fiber cloth on you at all times to get rid of the fingerprints and keep the phone looking sleek. We almost always prefer no camera bumps on phones, and we were continuously worried about scratching the camera glass when putting the X4 on a flat surface, or even just sliding it around on a desk. The phone will rock side-to-side if you push down on one of the edges because of the camera bump, which can be frustrating for those of you who like to use phones flat on a desk. To be fair, a good case would solve both of these issues.

Overall, the Moto X4 is stylish and smooth. It feels like an expensive phone despite its low price, largely due to the all-glass design. We’d love if this glass served a purpose other than making the phone more fragile, such as support for wireless charging, but it doesn’t.

But there’s one part of the design that makes up for everything: An IP68 water-resistant rating. That’s a slightly better rating than the iPhone 8 and the Google Pixel 2. It means, like the Samsung Galaxy S8, that the Moto X4 will survive underwater up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. That’s seriously impressive for the price of this phone, as IP67 and IP68 water-resistance is typically reserved for expensive flagship phones, or overtly rugged devices. Hopefully its inclusion in the Moto X4 means that we’ll see it becoming a standard in more mid- and budget-range phones next year.The X4 doesn’t have the snazziest design, which probably goes to the Essential Phone, nor does it pack a fancy high-end processor. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 powers Motorola’s Moto Z2 Force and several other flagship 2017 Android phones, but the Moto X4 utilizes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 630 chipset with 3GB of RAM (there’s a 4GB RAM variant available in other international markets).

We didn’t run into major issues with performance. Swiping through the interface was quick, though apps often took a few extra seconds to fully load. We did notice some sluggishness when we were downloading and updating a lot of apps at the same time, and the occasional stutter wasn’t uncommon.

The phone stuttered a little more when scrolling through apps like Twitter or on webpages on Chrome, and sometimes with multitasking. There were no glaring problems using split-screen mode, but as we mentioned earlier, apps took two to three seconds to fully load up.

Take a look at some of the Moto X4’s benchmark scores:

• Antutu: 70,217
• 3DMark Sling Shot: 840
• Geekbench 4 CPU: 867 single-core, 4,127 multi-core

The OnePlus 5 received an AnTuTu score of 181,599, and the Moto G5 Plus scored 63,190. You’re not going to see an impressive jump in performance from the $280 G5 Plus, but you will if you spend $80 more for the OnePlus 5.

Still, games like Maximum Car and Tiny Archers played smoothly without any issues, and the Moto X4 also handled the graphically intensive Transformers: Forged to Fight well. It wasn’t as smooth as we’ve seen the game on Snapdragon 835 devices, but it was perfectly playable.

Overall, the Moto X4 offers solid performance that should satisfy most people. As heavy mobile users, we acceptably got by with the X4, but avid mobile gamers may want to look at Snapdragon 835 devices.

SO WHAT’S ANDROID ONE?

Android One is Google’s software platform to bring the pure, stock Android experience to budget phones. That means you get stock Android without any “theme” or “skin” from the manufacturer. There’s no bloatware — only Google apps are pre-installed — and you’ll get Android and security updates as soon as they are released, as with the Google Pixelsmartphones.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Google has largely pushed Android One phones internationally in developing countries; the Moto X4 is the first Android One smartphone available in the U.S. Sadly, you can purchase this specific version only from Google’s Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator. Fi uses the Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular networks to give you the best coverage wherever you are, and it offers plenty of other perks you can read about in our Project Fi guide.

The Moto X4’s software is uncluttered, simple, and a pleasure to use. Swipe up to access apps and right to find the Google feed. Only Google apps are on-board, as well as the Project Fi app to manage your service. It runs Android 7.1.1, but Google said an update to the more recent Android 8.0 Oreo will arrive before the end of the year. Interestingly, that update will also improve Bluetooth from version 4.2 to version 5.

There are some small, Motorola-specific features that are genuinely useful, namely Moto Actions and Moto Display. Moto Actions offers up gestures you can make to trigger certain actions, such as a chop gesture twice to turn on the flashlight; or twisting the phone back and forth twice to launch the camera. Moto Display adds a blue-light filter at night so you get a better night’s rest, and notifications will fade on and off the screen in standby mode.

We’ve loved these Moto Actions since they debuted on the first Moto X, and Moto Display continues to be helpful. We’re happy to see them here in tandem with stock Android.

Google confirmed to Digital Trends that if you purchase the Android One Moto X4 on Project Fi and then cancel Fi service, the X4 will still work on any other major U.S. carrier.

WHAT’S DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE MOTO X4 ANDROID ONE AND THE OTHER MOTO X4?

While we generally prefer stock Android to many other manufacturer’s skins, there are plenty of great reasons to opt for the regular X4 over the Android One model.

First, you can purchase it without a Project Fi subscription. The regular Moto X4 will cost the same amount, and you can buy one from Amazon (with a Prime account) for as low as $330 with lockscreen ads and offers.