Moto X (2nd Gen) By Motorola Review

You can quickly and easily access the Moto X’s camera with two quick turns of your wrist while holding the phone. The phone will vibrate while launching the camera. When using the camera, you can tap anywhere on the screen to capture a picture. To access the Settings menu, swipe your finger from the left edge of the screen inward. If you want to change the selective focus point of the lens, you can do so by enabling the focusing box in the Settings menu. To capture multiple shots quickly, simply press and hold the screen.

In the Settings menu, you’ll notice HDR and the flash are enabled automatically. You can also change video resolution, enable panorama mode, enable location tracking, and more through the Settings menu.

Our interactions with the camera on the Moto X were pleasant. The automatic focus worked well most of the time, and selective focus helped for most situations when the automatic focus didn’t get things quite right. The ability to capture multiple shots quickly by just pressing the screen is very nice, especially if you’re trying to capture a kids’ expression or sports moment.

For the most part, photos taken in broad daylight turned out well. The Moto X’s camera seemed to struggle the most in low-light situations and mixed-light situations. In low-light situations, pictures were often noisy. These are areas where other cameras struggle too. Overall, we’d say the Moto X’s camera is middle-of-the-road.

The Moto X is also capable of capturing 4K UHD video capture (2160p) or 1080p HD video (30 fps). Here’s a quick sample of a squirrel high in a tree captured using 4K:

Battery Life

The 2^nd gen Moto X has a 2,300 mAh battery which Motorola claims can provide up to 24 hours of mixed usage. This battery is fixed and not serviceable by the user. As mentioned previously, the phone utilizes Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 technology which makes it possible for you to get up to 8 hours of additional battery life from a 15-minute charge using Motorola’s Turbo Charger. 

In real world testing, we were impressed by how long the battery in the Moto X lasted. During light use, the phone had no problem lasting two to three days without a charge. Under moderate to heavy use performing typical everyday tasks such as checking email, browsing the web, placing phone calls, and taking pictures, the phone was still able to make it through an entire day without issue. Of course, battery life will vary depending on how the phone is used.

In an attempt to quantitatively measure the Moto X's battery life in a controlled benchmark environment, we side loaded and ran the AnTuTu Battery Test. For this test, we set the Moto X's display to 50% brightness, which is still plenty bright and easy on the eyes. Considering how well the phone performed in real-world testing, we were very surprised at the Moto X’s low score of 381 in this test.