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I've stuck with Samsung, but my wife decided to get the Moto X, and I have to say, I'm impressed. And it's not the hardware, but the Moto software that is cool

I've stuck with Samsung, but my wife decided to get the Moto X, and I have to say, I'm impressed. And it's not the hardware, but the Moto software that is cool. Which is funny to me, because I've always been a giant hater of brand software (Dell,HP,Sprint). It's little things like if you bump the phone, it displays the time. On my Samsung, I have to press the power button, and it takes a second or two before I can see the date/time, and then I have to remember to press power button again or risk butt-operating the phone as I put it back in my pocket. With MotoX it's basically as good as a watch. It detects when you are driving in the car and it does a few really cool things. If you get a text message, it reads it out loud to you, and you can verbally respond back. If you get a call, you can verbally respond to take it or not. And it has an option in the drag down menu to turn it off in the case you are riding passenger, but my wife still uses the voice commands when she is riding passenger because it's so convenient/nice.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago
I'm glad you're enjoying your phone, but stuff like this sounds extremely gimmicky and just leads to phones being abandoned because there's such a great cost for the OEM to provide updated ROMs, support, etc for these custom OEM-only features. Many android users get maybe one update and, in a lot of cases for lower-tier phones, none. Buying a non-flagship phone more or less guarantees a dead end pretty quickly. What android needs is an iOS-like system where everyone runs "stock" Android and these features are released as apps that are installed by default, instead of cooked into the ROM. Then OEM's should relinquish updates to Google, just like Google does with the Nexus line, its Play Store versions of certain phones, and now - all Android Wear devices. Funny how the "my god we need to differentiate our OEM devices" argument doesn't work for Android Wear devices. They all run the same software and everyone is happy. Now OEMs need to focus on looks, battery life, display, etc instead of putting in gimmicks and gaudy themes that are UI nightmares. Meanwhile, you're suffering through Touchwiz on your Samsung, your wife's phone will never get another update after x date (especially with the recent Lenovo purchase), etc while iOS and Windows Phone keeps chugging along. I switched from the Galaxy series to the Nexus series and am very happy. Its a totally different experience. Google has its "stock" Android product which reflects only a small bit of the Android market, but is vastly superior to the custom ROMs by the OEMs. Its a shame that Android has become such a fragmented mess of abandonware, especially with recent revelations about the AOSP browser's massive privacy bug which will literally never be patched. Even if google did a backport fix, no OEM or carrier is pushing it out to phones manufactured years ago or sold recently with a 3+ year old ROM. edit: -4 downvotes? Reply to my comment if you disagree instead of abusing the downvote system.
- nicpottier 12y ago
  Though I agree with you on principle for other manufacturers, Samsung being one of the worst, this is a funny criticism for Motorolla. They have bucked the trend in that they run a near vanilla Android and the add ons they have are largely userland apps so they rev with Android very quickly indeed, not much behind Nexus's. Certainly if you get the "pure" version of the X then you'll be good to go for a while. They have an excellent track record on unlocked Moto G's and even E's so far. Carrier 'locked' phones may have different schedules though, on this you are right.
  - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
    Actually Motorola's older Android "blur" phones were known for their lack of updates. Its only now that Google owns Motorola that we're seeing this lighter OEM skin and better update policy. This is great, except Lenovo is soon going to own Motorola. So now we're going to see how that company's culture changes things and what they feel is an appropriate update schedule. As someone who buys dozens of Lenovos a year for work and immediately wipes the crapware filled factory partition for our own image, I don't really see them as forward thinking as a google-owned property is.
- danieldk 12y ago
  I'm glad you're enjoying your phone, but stuff like this sounds extremely gimmicky and just leads to phones being abandoned because there's such a great cost for the OEM to provide updated ROMs, support, etc FYI: nearly all of Motorola's extensions are apps that are pushed through the Play store and thus separated from Android OTA updates. Besides that, they seem to have a good reputation for updates. The X is a year old now and will get Android L, which gives at least another year of mileage. That's at least two years. Isn't Google's guaranteed update window 18 months? (Although Nexus 4 seems to get Android L.)
  - tcoppi 12y ago
    There is no guaranteed upgrade window for Nexus phones/tablets.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

I'm glad you're enjoying your phone, but stuff like this sounds extremely gimmicky and just leads to phones being abandoned because there's such a great cost for the OEM to provide updated ROMs, support, etc for these custom OEM-only features. Many android users get maybe one update and, in a lot of cases for lower-tier phones, none. Buying a non-flagship phone more or less guarantees a dead end pretty quickly. What android needs is an iOS-like system where everyone runs "stock" Android and these features are released as apps that are installed by default, instead of cooked into the ROM. Then OEM's should relinquish updates to Google, just like Google does with the Nexus line, its Play Store versions of certain phones, and now - all Android Wear devices. Funny how the "my god we need to differentiate our OEM devices" argument doesn't work for Android Wear devices. They all run the same software and everyone is happy. Now OEMs need to focus on looks, battery life, display, etc instead of putting in gimmicks and gaudy themes that are UI nightmares. Meanwhile, you're suffering through Touchwiz on your Samsung, your wife's phone will never get another update after x date (especially with the recent Lenovo purchase), etc while iOS and Windows Phone keeps chugging along. I switched from the Galaxy series to the Nexus series and am very happy. Its a totally different experience. Google has its "stock" Android product which reflects only a small bit of the Android market, but is vastly superior to the custom ROMs by the OEMs. Its a shame that Android has become such a fragmented mess of abandonware, especially with recent revelations about the AOSP browser's massive privacy bug which will literally never be patched. Even if google did a backport fix, no OEM or carrier is pushing it out to phones manufactured years ago or sold recently with a 3+ year old ROM. edit: -4 downvotes? Reply to my comment if you disagree instead of abusing the downvote system.

nicpottier 12y ago
Though I agree with you on principle for other manufacturers, Samsung being one of the worst, this is a funny criticism for Motorolla. They have bucked the trend in that they run a near vanilla Android and the add ons they have are largely userland apps so they rev with Android very quickly indeed, not much behind Nexus's. Certainly if you get the "pure" version of the X then you'll be good to go for a while. They have an excellent track record on unlocked Moto G's and even E's so far. Carrier 'locked' phones may have different schedules though, on this you are right.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  Actually Motorola's older Android "blur" phones were known for their lack of updates. Its only now that Google owns Motorola that we're seeing this lighter OEM skin and better update policy. This is great, except Lenovo is soon going to own Motorola. So now we're going to see how that company's culture changes things and what they feel is an appropriate update schedule. As someone who buys dozens of Lenovos a year for work and immediately wipes the crapware filled factory partition for our own image, I don't really see them as forward thinking as a google-owned property is.
danieldk 12y ago
I'm glad you're enjoying your phone, but stuff like this sounds extremely gimmicky and just leads to phones being abandoned because there's such a great cost for the OEM to provide updated ROMs, support, etc FYI: nearly all of Motorola's extensions are apps that are pushed through the Play store and thus separated from Android OTA updates. Besides that, they seem to have a good reputation for updates. The X is a year old now and will get Android L, which gives at least another year of mileage. That's at least two years. Isn't Google's guaranteed update window 18 months? (Although Nexus 4 seems to get Android L.)
- tcoppi 12y ago
  There is no guaranteed upgrade window for Nexus phones/tablets.