Introduction

This comparison is to take a look at the Moto X and see how it stands up to the newer smartphones hitting the market, in this case the OnePlus One, and remember, this is still Motorola’s and Google’s first collaborated effort on a ‘flagship’ device of a different nature – more affordable, lesser specs, but still a wonderful user experience with great speed and smoothness.  Looking over the specs, it is obvious that these two devices do not have much in common – neither one offers a microSD slot for expansion, however, both do offer a 16GB version.  Both are now running Android 4.4 KitKat even though the Moto X was shipped with 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, however, Motorola uses a MotoBlur skin that is so ‘thin,’ when it came time to updating to KitKat, the Moto X was probably only second to the Nexus devices in receiving their update.  Please take a look over the specifications below to see how these two devices stack up to one another and then we will look at what features makes each smartphone different from each other and then we will choose a winner of the comparison.

Specifications

OnePlus One

The OnePlus One is a new model, and one that the tech world is excited about…if it will ever get here – last announcement we were told to expect it sometime in June.  The One is a great looking device with a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS LCD Display, 1080p resolution.  It has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at a blazing 2.5GHz with 3GB of RAM. Like the Moto X, there is a 16GB internal storage model, but then jumps to 64GB – the Moto X jumps to 32GB.  The six lens, 13MP camera should deliver top-notch pictures and the 5MP front facing camera (FFC) should deliver a great video chat and terrific selfies.  The One is a large device compared to the 4.7-inch Moto X and it weighs in at 162 grams – 32 grams more than the Moto X.  Availability is the worst feature about the One and at $299 and $349 for the 16GB or 64GB, respectively, the off-contract pricing is great.

Moto X

Motorola’s Moto X is the first device sold that had that ‘Google’ influence and was really unlike any other smartphone up until this point.  They wanted to show us that there was no need for the top-flight processor or even the best display available to have a great user experience – and isn’t that what it is all about…being able to enjoy using your device.  The Moto X has only a 4.7-inch HD display at 720p resolution.  There is no Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor here – we are looking at a Snapdragon S4 Pro dual-core clocked at 1.7GHz.  One surprising note is that Motorola chose to put in 2GB of RAM rather than just 1GB or 1.5GBs – that is still lower than the OnePlus One’s 3GB of RAM.  The battery life is great, but when it comes to photos, like most Motorola cameras the 10MP shooter is nothing to get too excited about.  The Moto was the also built right here in the U.S. and allowed the user to customize their device with different colors and even offered the choice of real wood for the back.  Motorola did include some great software, such as Touchless Control and Active Display that are being used on other smartphones today as well as teaching us that optimizing the software with the hardware can make a huge difference.

…and the Winner is…

 Summary

As nice a device as the Moto X is, and even though the One is not yet available, we have to choose OnePlus One as the winner based on its awesome specifications.  It may be a little large for some users with smaller hands, but with the Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 3GB of RAM, beautiful display, stereo speakers, much larger battery and great camera, the One should satisfy all of your techie desires.  The Moto X was a great device, but is starting to show its age when up against the new flagships…and that is okay – it is older, but it still shows the world what can be done with the right parts and software.  Please let us know on our Google+ Page what you think of these two devices…as always, we would love to hear from you.