Hands On With Motorola's Stunning New X and G Phones

Motorola came ready to impress with two powerful new phones.

Motorola is rapidly climbing up the smartphone market-share charts, and there are a few reasons why. According to the company, its bargain-priced Moto G is the best-selling smartphone in company history (the title of bestselling phone goes to the Razr, of course!). But beyond bargain prices, the Lenovo-owned company is gaining ground on Apple and Samsung because it actually listens to what people want.

Take the new Moto G and Moto X Pure Edition, which are made for two completely different types of buyers but share the same ethos. They ditch bloatware in favor of near-stock Lollipop and a few generally useful Moto add-ons thrown in. They’re being sold unlocked for decent prices, because people generally hate carrier contracts. They have decent battery life, good cameras, expandable storage, and customizable designs. And they are both destined to be very good, very popular, hot-selling phones.

"It seems like the name Pure Edition sort of embodies that," says Jim Wicks, SVP Consumer Experience Design at Motorola. "There's no bloatware, there's no extra stuff on the back end that you get with carrier requirements. We just felt the name embodied the spirit of the product. People want battery life, they want a camera, they want clean, fast software, and that's what we've been trying to drive. Let's not bring in all those extra bells and whistles."

Tim Moynihan

Though it’s the cheapest phone in Motorola’s new lineup ($179 for an 8GB model, and it’s on sale today), the Moto G has the coolest trick: Open ports be damned, it’s fully submersible in water thanks to nanocoatings and internal water seals within its headphone and USB charging ports. Just as impressive, its 5-inch touchscreen reacts quickly and accurately even when it’s soaking wet.

"The nanocoating means that if water gets inside the device, it repels it, and it can drain out," says Wicks. "We're also sealing the phone on the inside so that consumers don't have to deal with it. That's very difficult to do. Other phones would use an external seal so the user would have to put in a grommet."

In terms of speed and specs, the camera on the new G is impressive. Shots fire off quickly, and it has the same main 13-megapixel shooter as the Nexus 6. That kind of resolution seems problematic for a phone with just 8GB of internal storage, but rest assured that there’s a MicroSD slot in this thing just like the higher-end Pure Edition.

Although the Moto G’s 720p screen certainly looks less sharp than its upper-tier stablemate, it’s still very usable, and you probably won’t even notice the difference unless there are fancier phones nearby. There’s a new metallic accent on the back, but the phone itself feels lighter and more plasticky than most. Still, it is an incredible bargain: Near-stock Android, a nice camera, a waterproof body, expandable storage, and a solid 2,470 mAh battery that should last you all day, all for less than $200 (for the 8GB version) off-contract.

Clear on the other side of the hand-feel spectrum is the Moto X Pure Edition ($399 unlocked for the 16GB model), the new flagship phone framed in metal and premium materials. Wake it up from sleep, and the thing that immediately hits you is how compact it feels in your hand despite its whopping 5.7-inch QHD display. This is for two reasons: It has less of a bezel than most phones so the front is practically all screen, and its edges feel skinny despite its curved back.

"We feel that the display-to-body ratio is very important," Wicks explains. "It's really near and dear to our design strategy. People gain a lot of value from a larger screen, but they don't always feel comfortable holding it. For us, it's about squeezing the borders and then taking all the fattest and biggest components—the battery, the imager, the flash—and put them right down the middle."

The result is a phone with a curvy back that peaks in the middle, and there’s a nice, pleasant weightiness to it. To my hand, the volume controls and power button on the right edge of the phone felt like they jutted out a bit too much—and they’re kind of sharp—but I’d probably appreciate that while trying to operate it in my pocket.

Battery life and charging time is a huge draw. Motorola says you should easily get a full day out of its 3,000mAh battery, and the company also says the TurboPower charging is the fastest in the smartphone domain. The battery can take on a 34-percent charge in just 15 minutes.

That big, high-resolution screen looks predictably gorgeous, with tack-sharp detail on photos and text. Motorola also claims that the X Pure Edition’s 21-megapixel camera is the best in the premium smartphone class, citing a DxO Mark rating that puts it ahead of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It’s definitely fast. If anything, all those megapixels will give you a lot of room to zoom digitally and crop without affecting image quality, although they’ll also take up a lot of space on the phone.

Tim Moynihan

Unlike the Moto G, the Moto X Pure Edition doesn’t have a removable back plate. It still has expandable storage, though: There’s a pop-out tray next to the headphone jack on the top of the phone that houses both the SIM card and the MicroSD slot. And, of course, you can customize that back plate through the Moto Maker site, with some great-looking options such as red, black, cognac, or natural Saffiano leather and bamboo, ebony, walnut, and charcoal ash wood.

You’ll have to wait until September to buy the higher-end Moto X Pure Edition, but it may be worth the wait. If you're willing to be a little patient, rest assured it looks like it will be one of the best—if not the best—Android phones on the market.