The New Motorola Moto X (2nd Gen) Review
by Joshua Ho on September 17, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola
- Android
- Mobile
GPU Performance
As said in the previous section, we'll look at game-based benchmarks to get a better idea of how the Snapdragon 801's Adreno 330 GPU performs.
Once again, there are really no results that stand out. I suspect that the metal frame helps to prevent thermal throttling in short benchmarks, but in most scenarios this doesn't really play out and there's no real way to establish long term performance as the GFXBench rundown test doesn't complete properly.
NAND Performance
NAND performance has been an ongoing issue since we first illustrated how poor NAND could easily become a massive detriment to user experience. While sequential reads and writes are generally at a good level these days, it’s the random read and write tests that can be incredibly poor, and these are often a good indicator of overall UI performance as something like installing applications can make a device unusable if storage performance isn’t good enough. In order to test this, we turn to Androbench with a few custom settings to best represent performance.
While the new Moto X doesn't quite top the previous Moto X in random write speeds, it's unlikely that the storage solution is worse. I found that the data and system partitions now use ext4, which means that the performance gains we saw with f2fs are gone. I'm not sure why Motorola decided to change back to ext4 given the performance gains that come with f2fs, but possible reasons include unforeseen conditions where f2fs could result in data loss compared to ext4 or difficulties in integrating f2fs support on Android. At any rate, the new Moto X is one of the best performers in this category, which should keep performance high after a year or two of use.
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masimilianzo - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
so basically we have to wait for the Note 4 gen display and a new stacked battery in order to have a truly compelling Moto X (hardware wise)olivaw - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
I am wondering why the CPU and GPU benchmarks don't show the original Moto X, specially since its dual core was exhaustively analysed in the original review.ithehappy - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
As an owner of the original X I was really looking forward to this one, just wished two things, a much improved camera and a great display, that's it. But both of them are below par and par with the competition.Looking elsewhere.......
Krysto - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
> While this would be risky in terms of engineering, RCBC seems to give the benefits of clear pixels without the drawbacks that come with RGBC, although it's hard to tell whether this is really true without a shipping implementation.I knew this from last year when reading about Aptina's previous-gen RCBC sensor. It was obviously better than Omnision's RGBC. Motorola should've gone with Aptina for the rear camera, too, and market ClearPixel more heavily.
Alexvrb - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
Interesting, I didn't realize Motorola made their own version of Glance. Anyway, seems like a good phone overall. Not exceptional in any one area maybe, but seems all-around solid and it's quite a bit cheaper than the big boy flagships.The only thing that really sucks is the lack of an SD card slot.
drew80 - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
Was the test model perhaps a dud? Reviews on other sites have been much more favorable to screen properties, performance, and battery life. In addition, the glitches a rebooting were not mentioned in any other review. Just curious about that.2disbetter - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
As someone who genuinely finds the moto x to be an absolutely amazing software and hardware integrated phone, I'm very happy with this newest generation x. I'm not crazy about a phone with amazing ergonomics getting bigger but I suppose it's inevitable now these days. If the Samsung didn't have a push button home button I think I'd get that. But as it is this is probably my next after my moto x now.soccerballtux - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
me tooerikiksaz - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
I wonder if the capacitive controller could also be for the Moto logo on the back. I have a 2014 X with me here, and the M button is substantial, it really feels like there's supposed to be another function to it.JoshHo - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
The Moto logo on the back has nothing electronic in it, judging by teardowns.