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

Name: Moto X4 review: This is what a world without MotoMods looks like
Item: Moto X4 review: This is what a world without MotoMods looks like
Rating: 3.00
Author: Fergus Halliday

Fergus Halliday

PC World

@Cvamped

23/10/17

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?

Yes 80
No 25

Price
$ 699.00 (AUD)

Performance

When it comes to the everyday performance side of things, the Moto X4 holds up well - but not too well by comparison. The combination of a Snapdragon 630 processor, 4GBs of RAM and relatively-pure build of Android Nougat mean that it performs everyday stuff really well. For most things, it feels fast enough even if it’s not flagship fast.

In the benchmarking chart below, we compared the X4 to both cheaper and slightly-more expensive phones just to gain a better insight into the space it occupies. While it kept-pace with phones like LG’s G6 Plus during some benchmarks - the gulf between it and handsets running Snapdragon 830+ chipsets was pretty night-and-day.

That said, our testing also highlighted the differences (and sometimes lack thereof) between it and budget-powerhouses, the Moto E4 and Huawei Y7. Aside from the 3D graphics tests, where the X4 fell particularly short of the mark, it’s pretty clear what the extra $450 gets you. Unfortunately, it's not as much as that $450 would get you with other brands. $699 could just as easily get you an Oppo R11, Huawei Mate 9 Samsung A5, LG V20 or Sony Xperia XZ.

The last thing to note here is that the Moto X4 does run on Android 7.1.1. There’s nothing wrong with this, per-say. However, given the identity crisis that sort of plagues the X4, it would have been nice to see Moto make the jump to Oreo. At least then, it would have something more than being last to the dual-lens camera party to brag about.