Today Google is unveiling its new flagship phone, the Moto X. But what do we know about it before it hits the market? Here’s an overview.
It’s Being Touted As Designed And Built In America
Google doesn’t care about margins and it does care about getting high-powered phones in as many hands as possible. As a result, expect to hear, a lot, about how this phone was designed and built by an American company. Google really wants to bear down on this as the Chinese assembly Apple uses has gotten it in some pretty serious PR hot water in the past.
It’s Customizable, On the Outside
You’ll be able to choose from a variety of colors on both the back plate and the trim edging the screen. Yes, it’s basically just like your old Nokia with the swappable faceplates.
It’s Heavy On The Voice Features And Interface Shortcuts
Verizon’s new Droids served as a sort of preview for the Moto X’s main features. Essentially, you can say “OK Google Now” and your phone will wake up, and you can issue it voice commands as well. So basically Siri, but more Googlerific. You can also just flick your phone to bring up the camera, which is… interesting.
Google Has A Lot Riding On This
Google’s buyout of Motorola Mobility raised a lot of eyebrows in 2011, and people have been wondering just what Google is going to be rolling out. Many are arguing that this is going to be Google’s attempt to establish an iPhone-like brand.
I’d disagree: I think that’s the Nexus line of phones, myself. But Google definitely wants something high-end, something that appeals to both tech nerds and the man on the street, something that can serve as a showcase. That is, decidedly, the Moto X.
We’ll update as more details drop.
UPDATE: Aaaaaand here are the details.
- It’s, unsuprisingly, similar to the Droids that Verizon just got. It has a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, a quad-core (!) graphics processor, one processor just for natural language, and another for contextual computing. So basically it’s got eight cores, just eight cores dedicated to various tasks.
- You can choose between two front colors, 18 back colors, seven “accent” colors, and have a message engraved on the back.
- Also, there are matching headphones. No, you shouldn’t buy them. Not because they’re terrible, but ask yourself if you really want to be “that guy.”
- Pricing for carriers is $200 for the 16GB and $250 for the 32GB.
- And yes, there will be a stock Google edition, but apparently this phone’s version on Android is pretty close to cherry anyway, so that probably doesn’t matter much.