Moto X4 review: This is what a world without MotoMods looks like

Motorola Moto X4
  • Motorola Moto X4
  • Motorola Moto X4
  • Motorola Moto X4
  • Expert Rating

    3.00 / 5

Pros

  • Shiny without the usual drawbacks
  • Versatile camera

Cons

  • Lack of MotoMods
  • Performance falls short

Bottom Line

Though its perfectly servicable for the most part, the Moto X4 is defined more by the things that are absent from its feature-set rather than those that are present.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 699.00 (AUD)

The Pitch

The target audience for the Moto X4 is a bit of a weird one, given the brand’s recent pivot towards MotoMods. At a certain price-point, modern Motorola handsets make this jump from being just “another Android smartphone" to being a modular one. Where LG and Google flirted with the idea of bringing a modular smartphone to market, Motorola have made it their crowning glory.

The pitch for the Moto X4? Pretend that pivot never happened. This genuinely feels like the kind of smartphone Motorola would be making if they hadn’t gone all in on the marketable modularity of MotoMods. It’s by no means a poor device - but it’s almost-absolutely lacking in any sense of brand identity. Amidst the colorful fun of the devices around it, it sits out like a sore thumb.

Specs

The Moto X4 features a 5.2-inch FullHD display (441 ppi) and packs in a Qualcomm Snapgragon 630 processor. Under the hood, it’s powered by a 3000mAh battery, 4GB of RAM and Android 7.1.1 Nougat. It’s also got 64GB of on-board storage and supports MicroSD cards.

The Moto X4 is IP68 rated against water and dust damage and comes equipped with a dual lens cameras (12-megapixel f/2.0 and 8-megapixel f/2.2) on the back.There’s also a 16-megapixel shooter on the front (f/2.0).

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Read more on these topics: Motorola, Moto, Android smartphones, Moto X4, Hello Moto
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