Motorola’s recent devices have been fairly well received, being the Moto G, the mid-range offering, the one that sells best because of the combination of features and the relatively low price. As for the Moto X, the company has released a few devices targeted to different audiences but always focusing on the customization of its hardware. The first generation included somewhat dated specs and the second generation included some of the best specs at the moment of its release. Now, Motorola has introduced two Moto X models, none of them with the best specs available, but they still offer highly customizable hardware and the Moto X Style has better specs than the Moto X Play.
Every generation of Moto X had been severely criticized for the cameras they included, being this one of the reasons that held back some potential buyers, so with the new Moto X devices, the company will focus on including what Motorola considers “best in class” cameras. The Moto X Style includes Sony’s recent IMX 230 sensor, which is a 21-megapixel 1/2.3-inch sensor with a fast F2.0 lens. We first heard about this sensor last year as it had new technologies like the 192-point autofocus system and plane phase detection auto focus that make it very fast when capturing photos.
Now, a report from Digital Photography Review, shows some samples in various conditions. The first ones were taken under bright sunlight and the images show impressive levels of detail, natural colors and a good level of sharpness. Indoors photographs under artificial light showed a little more noise, but the results were still good. Under low-light conditions, the illuminated parts offer a good amount of detail and a balanced level of noise. There are also special modes like HDR which offers natural looking tones but slight less sharpness. Night Mode makes the shutter speed faster to reduced blur, but images are reduced to 5 megapixels.
So far, results seem good enough to attract some users who have an awareness for imaging, but it’s still unknown if the phone is able to capture images in RAW format, perhaps further updates could bring support for this format. The Moto X Play includes the same sensor, so the regions where this phone will be available now know what to expect from that phone as well.