The Moto X Style is one of the Motorola’s flagship phones released in September 2015. It comes with Android 5.1.1 and upgradeable to Android 7 (Nougat). But the upgrade is so slow that in September 2017, they still haven’t covered many countries. Some of the specifications of the phone are as follows;
Network: GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE
Memory:
- microSD, expandable up to 256GB
- Internal 16/32/64 GB, 3GB RAM
Camera: 21MP back camera, 5MP font camera with flash
Processing:
- Hexa-core (4×1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 & 2×1.8 GHz Cortex-A57)
- Qualcomm MSM8992 Snapdragon 808
- GPU Adreno 418
As it can be seen, the phone has a very good specification. One of the feature that I like about this phone is the fact that it has two stereo FRONT speakers! Yes! I pretty much enjoy watching episodes on Netflix right from my phone.
The other feature that I like is the fact that when the phone is on a desk, the screen illuminates by just passing my hand over the screen to see if there are any notifications. However, other phones have a dedicated LED light showing notification (which also exists on the Moto X Style, however needs rooting and programming the phone to use the LED for notification. The only time I have seen this LED turning on is when the battery is completely dead and the phone is attached to the charger.)
Another interesting feature about this phone is the way to turn on the camera. Yes, you just shake the phone and you have the camera open. I almost never found error in the sensors and always picks up the camera whenever I shake the phone.
All these and other interesting features are useless if the phone has a bad battery. Yes, the phone comes with a very bad battery. It’s less than 2 years since I had this phone and it is already messed up. For an expensive phone like this one (500 euros in October 2015), it’s unacceptable to have a very poor quality battery. Some of the weird characteristics of the phone in relation to the battery are as follows:
- Phone shuts down even if the battery is above 25% and won’t start unless it’s attached to the charger
- The moment the charger is attached, the battery shows 25% (or above)
- The phone shuts down even if the battery is above 60% when the camera (or an app using the camera) is opened
- If you let the phone off for a while, it finally will open (as if it wants to cool down)
Since it was a weird characteristics, I didn’t think it was a battery problem. I assumed it was software issue (either some apps or the platform itself). I reset the phone and didn’t see any improvement. That’s when I decided to change the battery. I bought a kit with several screwdrivers and a non-OEM battery. I removed the back cover, unscrewed 19 of the 20 screws and had a stripped-screw on the last one. Tried for a couple of hours to unscrew this damn screw to no avail. So finally screwed back the 19 screws and attached the back cover again. Probably will try again soon when I have time.
Conclusion, the phone is very good. It has good spec, good usable features. Camera is good, screen is big and has good resolution. But, the battery sucks. It’s also impossible to get the OEM replacement battery. Therefore, unless you’re fine with carrying a power-bank all the time, I would not recommend buying this phone.
Cheers!
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