Motorola Moto X4 Review: This Phone Flatters to Deceive

The latest Moto X phone from Motorola offers front camera with LED flash.

Moto X4 is another mid-range contender. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Motorola has taken a different market route ever since Lenovo bought them over. Earlier, Motorola had clarity with its product range; E, G, X and Z. But since then, you’ve also got the C and more can be expected in the near future.

But let’s talk about the Moto X4, their latest product in the market for now. Priced starting from Rs 20,999 the Moto X4 sit between the G and the Z series as its mid-range contender. The X4 is also their first to pack dual rear cameras, but is that enough for buyers now? We find out here.

Pros:

• Compact form factor, elegant design
• Bright display contrast
• Reliable performer
• IP68 for dust and water resistance
• Decent battery life with fast charging

Cons:

• No X-factor on offer
• Average cameras at the back
• Hard to justify its value

What’s Good?

Motorola has gone with its tried-and-tested formula of going for basics. The Moto X4 gets a smaller screen size compared to the Moto G5s Plus, but along with its glass body design element, the phone fits nice in your palm and looks the part.

The physical button at the bottom (yep, no 18:9 ratio screen for X4), houses the fingerprint scanner, and you get soft touch button to navigate across different parts of the device.

The use of a 5.2-inch Full-HD display results in bright contrasts, and the screen being usable even under bright sunlight. Motorola claims that by using an LTPS panel, they are doing justice to the phone’s battery life, but does that come at the cost of limiting the viewing experience, we’ll let you decide on that.

The 5.2-inch Full-HD display gets an LTPS panel. (Photo: The Quint)

Powered by an effective Snapdragon 630 processor with 3/4GB RAM, ensures that the Moto X4 never runs out of stamina to give you decent performance. It’ll keep you ticking throughout the day without major quibble.

This Moto phone comes with a fingerprint scanner. (Photo: The Quint)

It’s good to see that even with minor changes in place, Motorola continues to keep the durability quotient of the Moto X series intact. With IP68 protection, water and dust resistance keeps you going worry-free.

Glass body finish does add a design element. (Photo: The Quint)

The camera manages to click detailed images in broad daylight, with fast processing in tow. The use of a wide lens for the first time lets you play around with the camera on the Moto X4, and personally, we’d prefer the use of wide lens over the monochrome one.

Photo clicked in daylight from the Moto X4. (Photo: The Quint)

And finally, there’s no change in the size of battery on the Moto X4 (same as the G5s Plus), but with turbo charging (patented by Motorola), you won’t have to worry about running out of juice, and even if you do, fast charging is here to the rescue.

What’s Bad?

Now, we’ll look at the parts where the Moto X4 doesn’t really add the X-factor that the previous iterations had. The Moto X4 packs dual cameras at the back, embroidered around a ring design, as claimed by the company.

But keep the aesthetics aside, and you’re left with a half-baked camera that struggles to hold its fort where a lot of us expect mid-range phones to nowadays. The duo of 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel sensors with f/2.0 and f/2.2 aperture respectively, can’t stand up to our low-light photography demands.

The ring design camera set up at the back looks different alright. (Photo: The Quint)

This also become evident when the Snapdragon 630 along with the stock Android in tow fail to collectively offer anything worthwhile. Now, we don’t know if this a hardware flaw, or something that can be fixed via an update. We’re hoping for the latter, and if that’s the case then Motorola should get going right away.

The stock camera interface on the Moto X4. (Photo: The Quint)

Most times when a Moto phone is launched, we end up comparing them specs-to-specs, but they perform differently during our tests. This time, the Moto X4 tries to play the same game, but at a price point that has become increasingly competitive over the last 10 months.

Shot clicked in dim light with the Moto X4. (Photo: The Quint)

And any weakness can bring down its value for sure. The lack of X-factor on the Moto X4 (and the under-performing rear cameras) leaves us wanting more.

Why Buy It?

The Motorola Moto X4 is everything that we expect from a mid-range Moto phone, and some things which we feel can definitely improve.

For a price tag of Rs 20,999, you’re getting a phone that runs on stock Android, comes in a compact and elegant form design, and will prove to be an effective workhorse.

Moto X4 needs some improvement. (Photo: The Quint)

But the rear dual cameras didn’t impress us with its overall quality, and we hope Motorola can fix those chinks real soon. The phone will find takers and we’re sure of that, but those improvements are warranted asap.

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