Moto X Pure: The death of a great brand.

[Papamalo]

(Letter I wrote to Lenovo/Motorola)

Dear Sirs:

After two years of using this MXPE, I am only hampered by it's poor battery life. I am getting the battery replaced tomorrow.

I was well on my way to buy the "next gen" moto x, when I discovered, after looking at specs, reviews and comments, that everything that was great about the Moto x pure, was dropped, and some critical functions were removed.

I saw in various forums, (android forums for one) that loyal users, felt that Lenovo was killng the brand on purpose, while trying to promote phones that have half the usabilty, one third the camera, and no significant increase in RAM.
For instance: Take the Brand new Motorola G5 plus as compared to the MXPE

Camera 21 MP down to 12 or 16? Fail.
Reduction of aperture from F2.0 to F1.7? Fail
Removal of Moto voice assistant? Fail
Shrinking screen? Fail
Removal of dust resistance? Fail
Removal of Digital image stabilization? Fail
Same lousey low-life time 3000 mAh battery? Fail

The only thing better is the octa-core snapdragon, and the extra gig of RAM but seriously?
You are trying to pass this off on the public as a new phone?
Loyal Moto x users could have really just an updated version with all the same functions but with more RAM and a better processor.

Your "Development" dept really dropped the ball on this one, and my employees and I (16 for whom I purchased MXPE phones as work phones to be used in the field) will most likely be switvhing to OnePlus 5 or other phones that reminds us more of our beloved moto x pure phones.
I am wondering if Lenovo was just trying to kill the brand.

I for one am really dissapointed.

 

[mikedt]

I never seen this particular phone myself, no Verizon around here, but a couple of points though. .

(Letter I wrote to Lenovo/Motorola)

Dear Sirs:

After two years of using this MXPE, I am only hampered by it's poor battery life. I am getting the battery replaced tomorrow.

I was well on my way to buy the "next gen" moto x, when I discovered, after looking at specs, reviews and comments, that everything that was great about the Moto x pure, was dropped, and some critical functions were removed.

I saw in various forums, (android forums for one) that loyal users, felt that Lenovo was killng the brand on purpose, while trying to promote phones that have half the usabilty, one third the camera, and no significant increase in RAM.
For instance: Take the Brand new Motorola G5 plus as compared to the MXPE

Camera 21 MP down to 12 or 16? Fail.

Megapixels are not everything, despite what marketers and salesmen might tell you.

Reduction of aperture from F2.0 to F1.7? Fail

In photography the lower the F number the better it is, And usually means a larger diameter lens which can gather more light.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number

 

[Hadron]

Agreed. I don't know the sizes of the 2 sensors (possibly the most important camera spec, but usually overlooked by reviews and marketing), but f1.7 allows 40% more light through the f2 (all else being equal) and for a small sensor as used on phones 12 Mpix is a better balance between resolution and noise than 21 Mpix. There is a reason why most manufacturers have reduced pixel count in recent years, with the Pixels, HTC U11 and Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 all using 12 Mpix sensors. So at least in terms of specs the newer Moto should have the better camera (I say specs, because it's possible to have good specs and a bad camera, and I've not looked at the images it takes).

Removing stabilization I agree is retrograde.

 

[zuben el genub]

I switched. I wound up using camera Fv5 rather than the default. Wasn't that impressed with controls. I like the default camera on the OP5.

I set up the phone according to a post on XDA - No Google. Found Moto to be just as annoying. Battery life wasn't bad.

I sold it to a friend, and he followed the Moto setup and all the personal controls went elsewhere.

It did comply with TMobile's volte, band 12 and wifi calling.

Megapixels are not everything. The larger the amount of pixels on a smaller sensor mean more noise and the camera app has to have some way of compensating. I managed to do some very decent 8x10 prints from the camera for a calendar using Photoshop. I somehow lost all the pics on the wifi card of my Canon SX60 and had to use the phone's pics. The only place where lower pixel counts can be a pain is if you want to crop and print. I crop even to send. Some MMS do have size restrictions.
800x600 for phone only does very well.

 

[Papamalo]

Thanks for educating me you guys.It's something i am not acquainted with.
So between aperture , sensor, and MP, what's the best combination of all those elements?
Thanks again.

 

[Hadron]

It also depends on the component quality and the processing, so you can't tell by specs alone. But as rules of thumb, larger sensor is better, wider aperture means more light (for a given sensor size), pixels is a balance but you can get an idea by looking at the pixel size (larger is generally better). Also sensor technology improves, so generally newer should be better, all else being similar.

The actual specs are constrained by space. A larger sensor requires a longer lens assembly to illuminate it, and hence either a thicker phone or the "camera bump" that some people get upset about. In practice phone camera sensors range in size from about 1/3" (small) to about 1/2.4". These are the diagonal lengths, so the actual area does depend on the aspect ratio too, but we are talking about 10% effects there.

Pixel sizes vary between 1 micron to about 1.5 microns.

The current top cameras are typically 1/2.6" sensors with 1.4 micron pixels - actually slightly smaller than the previous generation, mainly due to adding extra focussing features to the sensors. This combination gives you about 12 Mpix.

But there are so many other variables that I would always advise judging on results rather than relying on specs to tell you what will good or bad.

 

[Papamalo]

Damm. You broke it down. Thanks!