Verizon Users: Moto X Feedback

[zetroc]

Verizon users who've already gotten theirs, can you share your thoughts on how the phone is performing in terms of battery? Did you have LTE on all the time? Did you have GPS or Bluetooth on? How long did you spend on WiFi? If you've had another recent device, how did it compare on battery? Etc. Thanks!

 

[imnotmikal]

I've been averaging 16 to 18 hours. LTE on all the time, WiFi and BT on even if not connected, auto brightness, touch less control and active display on.

I'm very impressed by the battery life so far.

 

[swantonbomboy]

Coming from a Galaxy Nexus I am very impressed with my Moto X. Touchless controls and active display on.

 

[zetroc]

Gosh I'm so excited about this phone... I may break down and get the 16GB... and then 3 weeks later (once I'm no longer able to return it), the 32GB model will be out, LOL!

 

[Clementine_3]

Well, go get one then, I'm waiting on the 32 so if you can hasten the process for me...

 

[dcorn]

Definitely happy with the battery life. Of course I've been playing with the phone more since it's new, and the battery hasn't even come close to dying after a full day. Always 4G, even some 3G at my parents house, hardly any wifi. GPS on all the time, no bluetooth though. Taking pictures whenever I can to test out the camera (meh).

I'd say the battery is 200% better than my Rezound, which would suck battery like crazy, even when I wasn't using it.

 

[GarnetHaze]

I purchased the Moto X from Verizon on Thursday. Got the expedited shipping and received it Friday morning. I've played around with it all weekend and I absolutely love this phone.

The active display is my favorite feature. I was at Disney on Sunday, and it was extremely convenient to simply pull the phone out to instantly check the time and to see if I had any notifications without hitting the power button. I even used the quick camera feature a few times over the weekend, which is also extremely convenient. I was able to pull out the phone and take a quick picture while walking in the crowd at Disney.

Each day over the weekend, I pulled the phone off the charging cable at around 7am. I never had to recharge at any point during the day and typically had about 30%-20% left when I went to bed that night. I was on 4g for a good portion of each day and even streamed music for about 2 hours while away from wifi. I would say that I had moderate use for most days. But that's the thing with this active display, I find that I end up turning on the phone less because of it.

My last phone was a Droid Bionic, and I nearly gave up on Motorola after that phone. I had the extended battery, which still didn't last as long as the Moto X. The phone was not nearly as smooth and responsive as the Moto X either. This phone may not have the latest specs, but the user experience has been fantastic. I really think Motorola nailed it on this one.

 

[Fadelight]

First day I had it, it was on Wifi all day. No bluetooth, no NFC. Got 1 day 11 hours, and the battery was down to 15%. Played with it here and there, but beyond setting it up, didn't get touched much.

Second day, I was playing heavily with it. 3h 50m of screen-on time, played real racing for an hour, downloaded a bunch of stuff, spammed friends on google hangouts. Wifi was on about 2 hours, Bluetooth was on about 3 hours. Battery went about 14 hours and went down to 23%.

Having come from the original Droid Razr Maxx, I was expecting to take a hit in battery life, but despite the 1,000mah smaller battery, it really isn't that much worse.


Touchless control is quite badass, but you have to make sure you are using "natural" speech when training your phone. If you speak to it like a robot, you're going to have issues with it picking up your commands later on.

The fact that the clock turns on whenever you move the phone is pretty awesome, as well. saves me from having to turn on the screen to check the time every 20 minutes.

Reading on it (Kindle, Aldiko, etc), if you use grey text with black background, it is amazing.

Camera seems pretty solid... providing you use it as a general point-and-shoot and aren't trying to replace your DSLR. (Yes, Ive read the reviews, and I roll my eyes at every review I've ever read about cameras on phones.) I haven't played with it in low light yet, so I won't comment on that part of it.

I DEARLY love the size of it. The screen is half an inch bigger than my maxx, and the overall phone size is smaller. It is very comfortable for me.

I will say... I am a nerd... I have a 7" Tablet and a 10" Aspire One netbook with me at all times, and I usually have one of my two laptops with me as well, so I DO NOT like big phones with big screens. A phone is a phone. Not a replacement for my 7" Tablet. Keep that in mind when reading my opinions on the size of the phone.


I could definitely live without the motorola bloatware, though. I've disabled most of it. The one thing I would've liked to have seen included was the 3 ring clock.


All of my other pet peeves are verizon related, so I won't bother mentioning them when talking about the phone.

Overall, I am absolutely in love with this phone.

 

[krouget]

Any comments on the reception?

With the Galaxy Nexus the reception is almost always spotty, which aside from the display, results in a major drain on the battery (and at times heat). If we're looking at something which reliably provides LTE service in areas where VZW says it should (...), I think I've effectively checked off all the boxes with this device.

 

[zetroc]

Any comments on the reception?

With the Galaxy Nexus the reception is almost always spotty, which aside from the display, results in a major drain on the battery (and at times heat). If we're looking at something which reliably provides LTE service in areas where VZW says it should (...), I think I've effectively checked off all the boxes with this device.

I am interested to hear on this, too!

 

[GarnetHaze]

So far, the reception has been great. The phone calls seem clearer than the Bionic, but this could simply be due to my bias towards the Bionic now. I live in an area that has great reception and great 4g coverage.

One other item I noticed. The Motorola Assist app that is preinstalled does not easily recognize when you are in a meeting so it then silences the phone. This was one of the features I was looking forward to. I use Google Calendar, but I found that I had to have a guest invited to the meeting in order for it to work correctly. I was able to work around this by inviting another email account of mine and then accepting it. Kinda weird, but it worked.

 

[Booya]

Just got mine today! I am loving it so far. Coming from a Gnex, the X is a tad smaller. It a good size phone for me. If you have huge hands, this phone may not be for you. Wifi & Verizon 4G is blazing fast. The phone itself is really snappy. I love the active notifications. Reception seems to be good.

Minor question though. At home, I am using a Verizon network extender, the phone only shows one to two grey bars. When I call #48, it says I am using the extender. I hear the beep that tells you are using the extender when placing a call. Is this normal for the X? In about phone settings, it doesn't say network extender.

 

[imnotmikal]

I've been averaging 16 to 18 hours. LTE on all the time, WiFi and BT on even if not connected, auto brightness, touch less control and active display on.

I'm very impressed by the battery life so far.

Managed to get 25 hours yesterday. Same settings as above quote, numerous texts/calls/emails and about 2 hours of music over 4G. No gaming or videos.

 

[jwbeeler]

Just got mine today! I am loving it so far. Coming from a Gnex, the X is a tad smaller. It a good size phone for me. If you have huge hands, this phone may not be for you. Wifi & Verizon 4G is blazing fast. The phone itself is really snappy. I love the active notifications. Reception seems to be good.

Minor question though. At home, I am using a Verizon network extender, the phone only shows one to two grey bars. When I call #48, it says I am using the extender. I hear the beep that tells you are using the extender when placing a call. Is this normal for the X? In about phone settings, it doesn't say network extender.

Is your extender 3G only? Does anyone know if there is a 4G extender?

 

[doogald]

Minor question though. At home, I am using a Verizon network extender, the phone only shows one to two grey bars. When I call #48, it says I am using the extender. I hear the beep that tells you are using the extender when placing a call. Is this normal for the X? In about phone settings, it doesn't say network extender.

When you are near the extender, do you see a little house icon flashing above the signal bars? That's what happens on the Droid Maxx with my extender.

Extender range is not all far, so I'm not surprised that bars are shorter. The call quality is still good for me. To get the actual signal, go to settings, about phone, status, tap network type and strength (I have a Droid Maxx; I assume that the X is the same), and it will tell the actual signal (the voice part of the extender is the 1x signal that's reported.) It will be a negative number, and the larger (less negative) the number, the stronger the signal. Anything in the negative 90s or better is good enough for a call; anything weaker than -100 dbM may give you trouble.

 

[GandalfTehGray]

If someone really wants to be nice try out the Kingdoms at War app and tell me how long you can play before it kills the phone. Or play til 90% and I can guesstimate.

 

[brandonhutch]

Settings: Wifi and Bluetooth always on even if not connected. LTE preferred network. Brightness set about 65% all the time. Active Notifications enabled. I'd say I'm a moderate user: Heavy texting. Moderate phone call activity. Moderate web use. No streaming of audio or video.

The most important features for me:

Reception ... Very solid. However, coming from the Gnex, almost anything would be an improvement. In places where I used to struggle to get any sort of signal from the Gnex, the Moto X gets great reception ... which, for me, was mainly at work. Problem solved.

Speed: ... fantastic. Even after using Motorola Migrate to import ALL of my text conversations ( I keep nearly all text messages ), photos, videos, and whatnot ... it's still snappy as ever. Very satisfied.

Camera: ... I have yet to really put it through its paces, but it seems to be just fine. I don't need a DSLR-style camera for my everyday shots. Is it the best camera on a phone out there? Probably not. But more than sufficient for my everyday needs.

Battery Life ... UN. BE. LIEVABLE. Again, take with context ... but the battery on this puppy is great. Again, coming from the Gnex, I was very concerned with how the Moto X would perform. Where I rarely was able to get one full day out of my Gnex, now I can get two without recharging. I'm sure the better radios have something to do with that, but if I can kill two birds with one stone ... all the better.

 

[Booya]

When you are near the extender, do you see a little house icon flashing above the signal bars? That's what happens on the Droid Maxx with my extender.

Extender range is not all far, so I'm not surprised that bars are shorter. The call quality is still good for me. To get the actual signal, go to settings, about phone, status, tap network type and strength (I have a Droid Maxx; I assume that the X is the same), and it will tell the actual signal (the voice part of the extender is the 1x signal that's reported.) It will be a negative number, and the larger (less negative) the number, the stronger the signal. Anything in the negative 90s or better is good enough for a call; anything weaker than -100 dbM may give you trouble.

Nope. No flashing house icon. I checked the signal level and it 103 right now.

 

[Funnyusername]

I don't think people are going to have problems with the battery. The features do a great job of saving battery, it doesn't use a crazy display that drains your battery, and it runs a dual core processor. All these things will give you a much better battery experience. I just feel like the active display feature is saving me like 25% of my battery each day.

I use my 4G the most and I don't notice a huge drain. I just hope this battery doesn't have a huge drop in performance 6 months down the road.

 

[kjschaaf]

I got mine on Thursday, and I've been nothing but impressed with the X so far. I switched from an HTC Rezound, and the X is an upgrade in every way I can think of.

Battery life is outstanding, in my opinion. I had to charge my Rezound 2-3 times daily, just to get through the day (and that's with a replacement battery from HTC that was only ~6 months old). I easily get through a day with the X, and I'm using it constantly (with Wi-Fi, LTE, NFC, GPS, Active Notifications & Touchless Control always on). I'm at around 20% or 30% capacity when I go to bed at night, which is all I can ask of it.

Since this thread is specifically about the battery, I'll mention that speed/responsiveness is outstanding, and leave it at that. Granted, I've only had the X for a few days, but my opinion thus far is that Motorola has done a great job with this phone!

 

[mruno]

has anyone tried running google maps or Waze to navigate with? Does it get hot after using it for > 30 minutes (not in the sun)?
My Gnex gets really hot using maps and ends up either going real slow since the cpu is getting throttled or reboots.

 

[Fadelight]

Nah, not really. A bit warm, but no cause for alarm.

 

[kingfroman]

Just got mine today from best buy. Coming from a gnex and htc one. Feels pretty much like a souped up gnex with no lag and much better battery life. At 87% where normally my gnex would be in the 60s% . Compared to the HTC one. I would say battery life is the same. Hardware wise definitely htc one. Software wise vanilla android Is a lot easier to navigate for me

 

[Valyrian]

Just got mine today from best buy. Coming from a gnex and htc one. Feels pretty much like a souped up gnex with no lag and much better battery life. At 87% where normally my gnex would be in the 60s% . Compared to the HTC one. I would say battery life is the same. Hardware wise definitely htc one. Software wise vanilla android Is a lot easier to navigate for me

So since you came from the phone I have, and the other contender for an upgrade (HTC One) I have one question that is hard for me to get an answer for. I have a VERY hard time hearing or feeling my Gnex when I get a text or phone call, even at full volume. Obviously the HTC One will be plenty loud and I've even seen in reviews that the HTC One was like a bomb going off in their pocket. What I can't find is if the Moto X is louder and has a more powerful vibration than the Gnex. I love everything about the Moto X, but if I'm going to upgrade I want a phone I can actually hear and feel when it rings! Can you, or anyone else, speak to the notification volume and vibration?

Thanks!

 

[zetroc]

So since you came from the phone I have, and the other contender for an upgrade (HTC One) I have one question that is hard for me to get an answer for. I have a VERY hard time hearing or feeling my Gnex when I get a text or phone call, even at full volume. Obviously the HTC One will be plenty loud and I've even seen in reviews that the HTC One was like a bomb going off in their pocket. What I can't find is if the Moto X is louder and has a more powerful vibration than the Gnex. I love everything about the Moto X, but if I'm going to upgrade I want a phone I can actually hear and feel when it rings! Can you, or anyone else, speak to the notification volume and vibration?

Thanks!

I can't speak as to the volume when it rings, as I keep mine on vibrate, but I feel that the speakerphone is satisfyingly loud (for instance when I watch a YouTube vid, or listen to music).

As for how it vibrates, I honestly thing it's doing the most, lol. I think the vibration is strong. And certainly noticeable.