7 Days with the Moto X
Seven days ago I opened up the package with my shiny new Moto X 64gb Pure edition and shut down my iPhone 6+ for the last time (Well, I still have to pull photos off it and wipe it, but I wanted that to sound dramatic).
I haven't really looked back in those seven days. There are things I find I miss now and then, but nothing I miss more than what I've gained by switching to Android.
Notifications are better, notification center is cleaner, I have access to widgets on my various home screens, Google Now is a swipe away instead of finding the app icon and launching it, the card view multitasking is far superior to the completely asinine multitasking view in iOS, and the system is seemingly more responsive.
Going back to multitasking for a moment, maybe I have bad fingers, but on my iPhone I could never quit stuck apps easily, I'd think I was swiping up, but all the open apps would suddenly scroll across the screen instead of the app I was trying to quit simply going away. I'd have to hold the phone with one hand and deliberately swipe up with one finger.
I will admit that I do miss the classic grid view layout from Kit-Kat, but everything else gained with Lollipop makes that complaint fairly small in the end.
The fact that the Moto X listens all the time, unlike Siri which only listens when she's plugged in, has been one of my favorite things about this phone (I'll be saying that frequently I suspect). I love the fact that I can't remember where I put my phone, I go room to room and just say "OK Friday where's my phone." And she'll perk up and beep at me the second she hears me. I had named my phone Zelda to begin with, but after watching Age of Ultron I changed it to Friday (technically F.R.I.D.A.Y.)
Yes, I'm that much of a geek.
No, I'm not ashamed.
Moving on...
While manufacturers tend to put their own spin into Android, Motorola has decided to leave the Moto X mostly "pure." They've added some additional functionality, like Moto Voice which is what allows me to name my phone whatever I want, and Moto Display.
Moto Display is probably the most energy saving aspect of the phone. I credit this feature to as to why my Moto X lasts just as long on a charge as my iPhone 6+ even though the battery is significantly smaller than the iPhone 6+.
The display technology allows only the pixels that require lighting to light up. Wave your hand over the Moto X and it will display the time and let you know if you have any notifications.
I'm not going to bash iOS, it's a solid system that works in a particular way. It's difficult to set it up to do anything more than what Apple says it can do. I can't decide to change my default email app from Apple Mail to Outlook or Gmail, for example. Android lets me do that. Want to set up a different piece of software as your primary SMS app? Android will let you do that where Apple will not.
Android isn't for everybody, and up until version 4, I would say it wasn't really for anybody, but it's come leaps and bounds and has far outstripped what Apple is able to do.
Now I just wish these other phone manufacturers would stop futzing around with it and just let it be Android with a few extras added in over the top.
As I said in a previous post here, the Moto X is the best smartphone ever built - at least until the next one appears in the fall.
And to the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, you look pretty, but you still suck.
I haven't really looked back in those seven days. There are things I find I miss now and then, but nothing I miss more than what I've gained by switching to Android.
Notifications are better, notification center is cleaner, I have access to widgets on my various home screens, Google Now is a swipe away instead of finding the app icon and launching it, the card view multitasking is far superior to the completely asinine multitasking view in iOS, and the system is seemingly more responsive.
Going back to multitasking for a moment, maybe I have bad fingers, but on my iPhone I could never quit stuck apps easily, I'd think I was swiping up, but all the open apps would suddenly scroll across the screen instead of the app I was trying to quit simply going away. I'd have to hold the phone with one hand and deliberately swipe up with one finger.
I will admit that I do miss the classic grid view layout from Kit-Kat, but everything else gained with Lollipop makes that complaint fairly small in the end.
The fact that the Moto X listens all the time, unlike Siri which only listens when she's plugged in, has been one of my favorite things about this phone (I'll be saying that frequently I suspect). I love the fact that I can't remember where I put my phone, I go room to room and just say "OK Friday where's my phone." And she'll perk up and beep at me the second she hears me. I had named my phone Zelda to begin with, but after watching Age of Ultron I changed it to Friday (technically F.R.I.D.A.Y.)
Yes, I'm that much of a geek.
No, I'm not ashamed.
Moving on...
While manufacturers tend to put their own spin into Android, Motorola has decided to leave the Moto X mostly "pure." They've added some additional functionality, like Moto Voice which is what allows me to name my phone whatever I want, and Moto Display.
Moto Display is probably the most energy saving aspect of the phone. I credit this feature to as to why my Moto X lasts just as long on a charge as my iPhone 6+ even though the battery is significantly smaller than the iPhone 6+.
The display technology allows only the pixels that require lighting to light up. Wave your hand over the Moto X and it will display the time and let you know if you have any notifications.
I'm not going to bash iOS, it's a solid system that works in a particular way. It's difficult to set it up to do anything more than what Apple says it can do. I can't decide to change my default email app from Apple Mail to Outlook or Gmail, for example. Android lets me do that. Want to set up a different piece of software as your primary SMS app? Android will let you do that where Apple will not.
Android isn't for everybody, and up until version 4, I would say it wasn't really for anybody, but it's come leaps and bounds and has far outstripped what Apple is able to do.
Now I just wish these other phone manufacturers would stop futzing around with it and just let it be Android with a few extras added in over the top.
As I said in a previous post here, the Moto X is the best smartphone ever built - at least until the next one appears in the fall.
And to the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, you look pretty, but you still suck.
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