Moto X Review
by Brian Klug on August 26, 2013 1:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Qualcomm
- MSM8960
- Motorola
- Android
- Mobile
- Android 4.2
- Moto X
GPU Performance
By Anand Shimpi
Although there’s a CPU core count difference between the MSM8960Pro and the APQ8064 Snapdragon 600 platforms we’ve tested, on the GPU front both use the same IP block: Adreno 320.
The max GPU frequency on the Moto X is 400MHz, compared to 450MHz for the APQ8064 Snapdragon 600 based Galaxy S 4. The difference in GPU frequency is small, and Android games typically have a large CPU bound component so it isn’t totally unfeasible for the Moto X to be among the fastest Adreno 320 phones on the market.
Looking at 3DMark we see just that. The Moto X is the fastest Android phone we’ve tested here. The advantage has nothing to do with GPU frequency however, if we look at CPU frequency over time it’s clear what’s going on.
3DMark
The graphs below show a full 3DMark Ice Storm run, including demo, graphics and physics tests (in that order):
The Moto X’s CPU cores are running at 1.7GHz for all of the 3D tests, and only drop down to lower frequencies during the physics test. The SGS4 by comparison has more cores, running at ~1GHz for most of the benchmark. Given the more CPU bound nature of 3DMark, the Moto X manages to pull ahead.
GFXBench 2.7
BaseMark X and GFXBench 2.7 on the other hand shift the workload to a more GPU bound workload, and we see the Moto X take a couple of steps back.
Basemark X
Epic Citadel
Epic Citadel and other native resolution benchmarks benefit from the 720p panel, in addition to the CPU frequency advantages.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
105 Comments
View All Comments
Civilized - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
"...the network status logo and bars are also a different shade of blue than the battery and time icons adjacent to it."This one sentence perfectly sums up Anandtech.com's mobile reviews. Great job Brian and Anand, the reviews have been consistently fantastic here.
teiglin - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
I don't know that it says much about Brian's reviews (I mean, seems pretty obvious just looking at the status bar), but it sure as hell sums up US operator software quality. That is fucking surreal, that AT&T pushes its logo into the phone firmware without even bothering to check the RGB values of existing icons. I just don't even...I like the phone a lot and would love to use Moto Maker to make one--this is definitely a speak-with-your-wallet thing; I really want Motorola to be successful with this--but I'm not suffering a locked bootloader, especially with this sort of blatant software flaw. When Maker is available for tmo or the dev editiion it'll be worth a second look.
Impulses - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - link
Isn't the different blue just the same AT&T blue that they use on other devices regardless of the present color scheme? I'm not trying to excuse theirbehavior either way, just saying, it might be happenstance rather than neglect.Frankly the tweaking of the signal indicators bothers me a lot less than the ever present AT&T tag on the far left... Probably because a lot of carriers and OEM are guilty of the former (AT&T has even tweaked the untouchable iPhone's bars...) yet no other carrier splashes their name on your notification bar like that.
To be fair, I believe it does disappear once you actually have notifications, or it has on previous AT&T phones anyway...
SoC-IT2ME - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Charge time of the GS4 - it takes just over 2hrs for a full charge, not 2.8hrs as per your graph.The Moto X looks like a great phone, but now that SAMOLED has improved with it's colour saturation, this screen seems to garish and overblown.
Honest Accounting - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Who supplies the screen for the Moto X?APassingMe - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
"I’d posit that the optimal size is...."Typo maybe?
Galcobar - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Posit is correctly spelled, and used.bakedpatato - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Where did you guys get a box of 5.56 blanks? Anand's X does look quite nice.SomeGuyonaBike - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
This is the second review I've read in which AT&T's address book sync service is described as being a big annoyance... What are the problems with this service? Does it periodically bug you to use it even if you choose not to, or something like that?jeffkibuule - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Why should software you never use be on your phone?