

Motorola Announces the New Moto X - amardeep
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8491/the-new-moto-x-intial-impressions-and-hands-on

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eloisant
That sucks, the Moto X was the only high-end Android of a reasonable size.

So what's left for someone who wants an Android with good specs, not too big,
and not tainted by manufacturer poop?

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coldpie
God, yes. I chose the Moto X earlier this year exactly because of its screen
size. At 4.7 inches, it's still a little too large for my tastes. I think 4
inches is ideal. But 5.2 is way too big, and I won't be upgrading to the Gen 2
Moto X.

I think those of us with human-sized hands have to take a step down to mid-
range phones to get a decent sized phone, even if we're willing to spend the
money for high-end specs. I was really hoping Motorola would corner the
reasonably-sized market, but I guess they're just jumping on the phablet train
with everybody else.

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gcb4
count me on as well.

i endured with my nexus one until last year (4yrs!) because no flag ship phone
could be used with one hand.

i finally gave up for a moto x and i can barely press the top left corner
without moving my hold.

~~~
cbhl
I find this comment confusing. Do you hold the phone in your palm?

I use my fingers to support my Nexus 5 and have no trouble reaching any of the
corners.

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sliken
Sigh, another disposable phone with the planned obsolesce due to kick in at
around 700 charges.

You'd think if they bothered to let you have a dozen designer backplates they
might got the extra mile and let you change the battery.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
I just read the iFixIt article on changing a Moto X (current model) battery.
It requires 25 steps and 5 specialty tools such as a spudger, a T3 torx
screwdriver, micro sim extractor, etc. You have to heat the back to weaken the
adhesive. It's hard to imagine a service center doing all this manual work at
a fee low enough to make it worthwhile.

I'd like a phone where you can pop out the battery in 2 seconds, like a
typical point-and-shoot camera can. For that matter, I want a memory slot as
per a camera. I can live with an extra couple of mm of thickness and have a
less-sexy handset in exchange for vastly expanded longevity and capacity. Am I
in such a tiny minority?

~~~
vidarh
Buy mid range phones from Aliexpress or similar. My latest phone was about
$250 - a Kingzone K1 -, and is an octa-core MTK based phone (so per core
performance is not stellar, but more than good enough unless you're doing
heavy 3D stuff), 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, SD card slot, 5.5" 1080p IPS display.

Pretty much all of these phones are thin (7mm or so for my current one),
decent to great build quality (my current one has a metal back plate), and
easily replaceable battery. Most of them also have dual SIM slots.

There are some things to look out for, like bad sellers and models with poor
GPS (MTK phones are notorious for that - my current model works great).

The increased risks and increased hassle if having to deal with returns is
more than compensated for by the prices. I'm pretty much expecting to replace
my phone up to once a year on average at that price. In practice, my 3 last
phones have all been good quality and I've had few problems (GPS being the
only issue...)

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khc
I broke my nexus 5 AND my old nexus 4 in the span of 4 days while traveling in
Hong Kong. I am seriously considering getting this when I return to the US
later this month.

The only thing that bothers me now is that the nexus 5 is already a little
big, and this is even bigger (4.95" vs 5.2"). Unfortunately my hands don't
grow as fast as phones anymore.

I wonder if this is something I can get use to though, since everyone in Asia
is using giant phones, and I did feel the nexus 4 a little small for the 4
days I was using it again.

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eli
Is Google still planning to release a new Nexus phone later this year?

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torgoguys
I'm an existing Moto X user. I guess I'm in the minority here. I like it in
_spite_ of its small size, not because of it.

The bigger screen on the new model is a good thing, IMO. I can still one-hand
most everything and the only thing I need to reach the top left corner for can
usually be accomplished with a swipe from the left. Better resolution, more
screen real estate, still manageable size. What's not to love?

(If you've got small hands, I feel for ya, but just buy something else. Don't
hate on Moto for appealing to the larger market preference.)

~~~
kelnos
_If you 've got small hands, I feel for ya, but just buy something else._

You mean... _normal_ hands? I have fairly average-sized hands (as determined
by the highly scientific method of having compared hand sizes with many
friends over the years), and the Nexus 4 with its 4.7" screen is uncomfortably
large. I can reach the top left corner with my right thumb, but I always feel
like I'm going to drop the phone when I do it.

~~~
torgoguys
You chopped off my next sentence which was the point of my post.

Anyway, I just did a run around the office and with a sample of 12, I'm
tentatively concluding that I have average-size adult male hands. The way I
hold my MotoX, I can hit the top left if I have to. (Again--I wonder how often
people actually have to, assuming they know to left swipe for the most common
use case.)

Investigating more--without realizing it until now, the way I hold the phone I
actually adjust my grip on it to hit the far _bottom_ left. I even adjust my
grip slightly for the back button. It's still a one handed thing. You train
yourself, withing limits, to adjust as needed. (I'm left-handed. Perhaps I
should start complaining that no one designs a UI for us.) It's still very
usuable and it's not a big sacrifice _if you appreciate a bigger screen,_ like
most people apparently do. If people didn't like bigger screens, manufacturers
wouldn't be steadily bumping sizes up. I assume the market (i.e., actual
sales) will correct the error when they go too big.

~~~
kelnos
Your next sentence wasn't particularly useful, as there _aren 't_ any other
choices. If I want what I consider a reasonably-sized phone (~4.2"), I have to
settle for something with crap specs.

I use a few apps that poorly implement the top-left button such that left-
swiping doesn't do anything. Sigh.

Yeah, just playing with mine, and noting how I readjust my grip to do various
things. I just always feel like I'm about to drop my phone when I have to do
that.

And I just realized: I've _never_ dropped and broken the screen on a phone
until I got my Nexus 4 (which I've broken 3 times). My Nexus One and Nexus S
lived happily break-free (well, ok, my S broke because someone [accidentally]
violently elbowed it out of my hand, but that's hardly due to the size of the
phone).

We'll see if the market "fixes" this. I'm skeptical, as phones have been
larger than my preference for at least 2 years now, and they're still growing.

~~~
torgoguys
As I alluded to in my first post, if the trend of "bigger is better" doesn't
work for you or your hands, I feel for ya. I really do. These are devices we
use constantly so it is good to invest time to find something that works well
for you. (I'm preaching to the choir here, I'm sure.)

Small flagship phones might be hard to find (although the Moto X was never
top-of-the-line in specs either), but they are quality options out there,
admittedly more in the 4.7-inch range than 4.2. The just-announced Galaxy
Alpha might be one to look at. As is the new Sony Z3 Compact. Probably others
too, but I haven't followed the market super-closely. Good luck!

~~~
kelnos
Thanks for the well-wishes. The Z3 Compact ("compact"? really?) is 4.6", but
I'm expecting if I want a phone with reasonable specs, I'm going to be stuck
with something like that. Oof.

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chrisblackwell
I'm glad to see the bump up to 1080p. I know some people don't care of think
it matters, but I would just love this to be standard. It would make things a
lot easier on Developers to have only a few different resolutions to worry
about.

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higherpurpose
Shame that some are already moving to a new resolution - 1440p - isn't it? And
next year, some will adopt 4k in smartphones. Why would they do that, it
doesn't matter. What matters is that they will.

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aftbit
Great, another 5.2 inch phone like everyone else.

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roye
the Xperia Z3 Compact looks like a nice option for a hand sized phone:
[http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6097817/the-
xperia-z3-compa...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6097817/the-
xperia-z3-compact-is-sonys-true-new-flagship-phone) And no, I don't work for
Sony.

~~~
kelnos
I find it ridiculous that 4.6" is considered "compact". I clicked the link
hoping for something around 4".

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allegory
Not sure I can keep hold of something that big to be honest without dropping
it and smashing it.

I think a 4.5 - 4.7 is about my limit.

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DCKing
Observing the sameish discussions over the years, that size limit preference
you are talking about seems to be steadily rising.

I'd hypothesize that if you analyzed tweets and comments about screen sizes,
the ideal screen size per year would look something like this:

2011: 4.0 inch

2012: 4.3 inch

2013: 4.5 inch

2014: 4.8 inch

2015: 5.0 inch (projected)

2016: (median size for high end phones in 2015)

Eventually we'll get to something that is the most practical in use. I think
4.7 inch is pretty good, but of course I'm biased towards my current phone,
and I'll probably update my preference with my next phone.

~~~
coldpie
I have a Moto X at 4.7 inches and it's a little too big for comfort. It's
usable, and you do get used to the size, but I can't reach the top of the
screen from every hand position. The HTC Incredible 4G I used to have, at 4
inches, remains my ideal screen size. Unfortunately, that means I have to
compromise on performance, since there are now no reasonably-sized high end
phones.

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DCKing
> I can't reach the top of the screen from every hand position.

Well, I think that is not a self-evident bad thing. As a result of Android and
Windows Phone design guidelines, by far the most interactions happen on the
bottom half of the screen. I think that as long as you can reach the
notification bar, there's a pretty good argument to be made that the
additional screen estate is more beneficial.

Furthermore, just because you're used to it on your current phone should not
necessarily imply that you _need_ it on your next. That is a line of reasoning
I'm also seeing a lot, but that just sounds like people being conservative to
me. It's a fine preference to have, but such a slightly different way of using
a new phone may not always be a bad thing either.

I'm not arguing that bigger screens are better, but I don't think that there
are clear objective constraints to screen size. You could even wonder why
people think one-handed usability is important at all.

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gcb4
wrong.

the top left corner is very high on usage. on newer android without the menu
button, the top right is very high too.

now, android added lots of unsatisfactory work arounds for the very fact that
almost everyone can't reach those corners. such as sliding from the left to
simulate the top left corner touch. or even the failed fire phone with screen
tilt to do the same.

it's all lame work arounds for the problem. the real solution is smaller
screen sizes.

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4ad
Even bigger phone, just great.

Edit: there are 7 comments now, and _all_ complained about the bigger size.
That means something, doesn't it?

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harshreality
It probably means they're iPhone owners, and that they swear they won't get
the bigger of the two iPhone 6 models. That is, until they discover that they
can, in fact, adapt to a slightly larger phone, as everyone in Asia has
already realized.

I thought allegory's comment that 4.5-4.7" is the limit was particularly
funny. Was that limit chosen specifically so that the smaller of the iPhone 6
models won't break that limit, but pretty much all high-end android phones do?
I don't know, but it's awfully convenient.

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aroch
Instead of bending everything to fit your wished narrative so you can be
dismissive why don't you actually read the comments or ask them?

Many of them, like myself, use "last years" flagships that were in the 4.7"
range (e.g. I have an HTC M7) and don't want the screen size bump.

But I guess "lol iSheep" is easier and makes you feel superior.

