Phones Moto X vs Nexus 5

[Southernboyj]

I find it hard to justify the Moto X.

It feels great in the hand, but the Nexus 5 has a bigger, higher quality screen. and has a much faster processor. All for the same (or less after the deal) price.

The active notifications are cool, but I actually prefer an LED notification light. There was an app in the Play Store that ported the Moto X's active notification to other AMOLED devices. I tried it on my Galaxy S4.

 

[mKTank]

I find it hard to justify the Moto X.

It feels great in the hand, but the Nexus 5 has a bigger, higher quality screen. and has a much faster processor. All for the same (or less after the deal) price.

The active notifications are cool, but I actually prefer an LED notification light. There was an app in the Play Store that ported the Moto X's active notification to other AMOLED devices. I tried it on my Galaxy S4.

Well honestly the Moto X has a better screen. The Nexus 5 screen might be sharper, but the Moto X's screen is more colourful (not unrealistically colourful, but it makes the N5's screen look faded in comparison) and has better viewing angles by far, not to mention better contrast and lower power usage. I can't see why the Nexus 5 would win in that category.

The faster processor means nothing when you actually compare real life usage speeds. It's pretty identical. Apparently the Moto X is even faster than an HTC One but I guess with all of the Sense stuff running, that makes sense.

The Moto X has better battery life, better camera, and a better antenna, too.

 

[Southernboyj]

Well honestly the Moto X has a better screen. The Nexus 5 screen might be sharper, but the Moto X's screen is more colourful (not unrealistically colourful, but it makes the N5's screen look faded in comparison) and has better viewing angles by far, not to mention better contrast and lower power usage. I can't see why the Nexus 5 would win in that category.

The faster processor means nothing when you actually compare real life usage speeds. It's pretty identical. Apparently the Moto X is even faster than an HTC One but I guess with all of the Sense stuff running, that makes sense.

The Moto X has better battery life, better camera, and a better antenna, too.

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To be fair, the Moto X is more colorful because its AMOLED. That doesn't necessarily translate to more accurate. And yeah, I agree in real world usage the processor doesn't matter much, if you upgrade your phone regularly.

For example, when the iPhone 4S came out, people said it wasn't improved over the 4 at all because they ran at the same speed. Fast forward, and now the 4S handles iOS 7 much better than the iPhone 4.

The Nexus 5 has better outdoor visibility and is brighter in general than the Moto X. It's just a thing about AMOLED. It has its pro's and con's over LCD. I actually just switched to a Nexus 5 from a Google Edition S4 and I'm actually preferring the LCD for its daylight visibility.

Can't argue with your statement on battery life though. Moto X is simply awesome on battery life.

 

[mattopotamus]

The sound is the only thing I feel the moto has on the nexus 5. The camera is actually worse IMO and the screen is nowhere near that of the N5. I really thought it would be a no brainer to keep the moto, but I actually find myself missing the n5. The touch less controls really do the same thing as "ok Google" on the n5. The touch less controls still make you interact with the screen just as much. I just feel let down b.c of the reviews. It may be because I had the n5 and was totally happy with it. The x feels like a downgrade in every way aside from sound quality. With the camera update on the way for the n5 it will only make it better. I will say active notifications are amazing. They make it so I have to rarely power the phone on. Also, I like the feel in hand of the nexus better.

Edit: oh and I get better battery on the n5, but anandtech review confirms that as well. Plus I don't need a laucher on the nexus but do on the moto for home screen deletion

 

[hashholly]

I ended up purchasing the Moto X, but i think i may also order the N5 so I can compare them both at the same time and see which I truly prefer

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Moto X. Better reception, battery life, speaker, screen, etc

Being the same price, I would take the moto x. ...Also battery life is incredible.

The Moto X has some things going for it, ...better battery life,

I would definitely prefer the Moto X but unfortunately not allowed...

...better battery

The Moto X has better battery life

Anandtech beg to differ - Nexus 5 beats Moto X for all battery tests (except charging speed)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7517/google-nexus-5-review/3

Pro's for Moto X: ...better camera

With the camera update on the way for the n5 it will only make it better.

The Verge has been told by Google that a fix for the Nexus 5 camera is coming out in the next few days. The Verge, previously one of the biggest critics of the Nexus 5 camera had this to say:

IN ONLY FIVE WEEKS, GOOGLE MASSIVELY UPGRADED THE NEXUS 5'S CAMERA

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5175568/fixing-the-nexus-5-android-4-4-1-improves-camera

 

[mattopotamus]

Anandtech beg to differ - Nexus 5 beats Moto X for all battery tests (except charging speed)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7517/google-nexus-5-review/3





The Verge has been told by Google that a fix for the Nexus 5 camera is coming out in the next few days. The Verge, previously one of the biggest critics of the Nexus 5 camera had this to say:



http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5175568/fixing-the-nexus-5-android-4-4-1-improves-camera

I own both now and have better battery on the n5

 

[hashholly]

I own both now and have better battery on the n5

which gives you better reception? Carrier?

 

[mattopotamus]

which gives you better reception? Carrier?

Honestly I got the same on both. This is with Att.

 

[mKTank]

Anandtech beg to differ - Nexus 5 beats Moto X for all battery tests (except charging speed)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7517/google-nexus-5-review/3





The Verge has been told by Google that a fix for the Nexus 5 camera is coming out in the next few days. The Verge, previously one of the biggest critics of the Nexus 5 camera had this to say:



http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5175568/fixing-the-nexus-5-android-4-4-1-improves-camera

Well all of these websites beg to differ:

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/nexus-5-vs-moto-x-1204258
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/galaxy-s4-vs-lg-g2-vs-htc-one-vs-moto-x-the-best-android-phone/
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Nexus-5-vs-Motorola-Moto-X_id3484/page/4
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/526995/20131203/google-nexus-5-vs-moto-x-major.htm
http://blogs.computerworld.com/smartphones/23135/nexus-5-vs-moto-x
http://www.examiner.com/article/a-comparison-between-the-google-nexus-5-and-the-moto-x-1

I wasn't cherry-picking either. Aside from Anandtech (and I don't know how those guys managed to get more battery out of the Nexus 5 in their tests, but oh well), I copied and pasted all of the links before I even visited them, and they all already said that the Moto X battery lasts longer.

Worth also mentioning that something seems horribly off with their battery life stats.

Just to point out a few areas of weirdness:
- iPhone 5 gets better battery life than the Moto X? Than the Note 3? Than the 5S? Than the identically specced 5C? No it doesn't.
- HTC One on Verizon gets worse Wifi battery life (an hour difference) than the AT&T variant despite identical specs
- 4S gets better battery than the Moto X? Yeah okay, they did something completely wrong there.
- As much as I like the HTC One, I really don't think it gets a whole hour more than the S4 in usage time (or >2 hours for the magical Verizon one).

It's pretty clear that their battery tests are very badly inconsistent and seem rather inaccurate, so (despite the rest of their reviews being spot-on usually) I'd take their battery life tests with half a grain of salt.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/nexus-5-vs-moto-x-1204258
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/galaxy-s4-vs-lg-g2-vs-htc-one-vs-moto-x-the-best-android-phone/
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Google-Nexus-5-vs-Motorola-Moto-X_id3484/page/4
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/526995/20131203/google-nexus-5-vs-moto-x-major.htm
http://blogs.computerworld.com/smartphones/23135/nexus-5-vs-moto-x
http://www.examiner.com/article/a-comparison-between-the-google-nexus-5-and-the-moto-x-1

You want to know the one thing in common with al those reviews and their comments regarding battery? Not a single one of them attempted any sort of formal testing with the battery, none of them did any variable controlled timings - they had no methodology whatsoever. They seemed to have stuck the phones in their pockets and used them for a couple of days and one "felt" longer than the other.

My favourite was the techradar one:

Initial reviews of the Nexus 5 weren't so forgiving when it came to assessing its battery performance. However, we've found that over time, the Nexus 5's batter isn't bad at all, and it's very much comparable to other high-end Android devices like the HTC One.

However, it still doesn't quite keep up with the Moto X, whose battery can easily last an entire day and then some depending on your usage.
Nexus 5 vs. Moto X

If we had to estimate just how much more life, on average, the Moto X gets over the Nexus 5 in terms of juice, we'd say that the Moto X can get up to 4-8 hours more on a single charge than the Nexus 5

If they had to estimate? They shouldn't have to "estimate".

Anandtech had each of these phones performing the same automated tasks under the same conditions, using a consistent testing methodology which was used to test each device. Oh, and unlike the others, they actually got the stop watch out to time things.. crazy I know! Perhaps they should have used their intuition, or a magic 8ball or whatever it was the others used to get their "feeling" and their "estimates"??

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It's pretty clear that their battery tests are very badly inconsistent and seem rather inaccurate, so (despite the rest of their reviews being spot-on usually) I'd take their battery life tests with half a grain of salt.

Translation: I have a Moto X and so to feel good about my purchase, I don't agree with their results. I, just like the "sources" i've linked to, can't offer any alternate battery times to contradict AT, just my highly honed sense of intuition.

 

[mKTank]

You want to know the one thing in common with al those reviews and their comments regarding battery? Not a single one of them attempted any sort of formal testing with the battery, none of them did any variable controlled timings - they had no methodology whatsoever. They seemed to have stuck the phones in their pockets and used them for a couple of days and one "felt" longer than the other.

My favourite was the techradar one:



If they had to estimate? They shouldn't have to "estimate".

Anandtech had each of these phones performing the same automated tasks under the same conditions, using a consistent testing methodology which was used to test each device. Oh, and unlike the others, they actually got the stop watch out to time things.. crazy I know! Perhaps they should have used their intuition, or a magic 8ball or whatever it was the others used to get their "feeling" and their "estimates"??

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Translation: I have a Moto X and so to feel good about my purchase, I don't agree with their results. I, just like the "sources" i've linked to, can't offer any alternate battery times to contradict AT, just my highly honed sense of intuition.

I actually had both and decided to sell the Nexus because its battery wasn't as good.

All of those sites saying that the battery was better is enough proof that it is. Numbers of some specific type of test vs real world usage testing? I'll go with the 5+ sites, thank you very much.

Feel free to stick to one source and say that the potentially 10+ other sources are wrong, I really don't care.

And Anandtech's battery tests are inaccurate for the reasons I outlined above, like two identical phones (HTC One) having an hour difference in battery life and the iPhone 5 apparently being much better on battery than the 5S, something anyone who's owned both phones will tell you is completely inaccurate. You still want to trust that their tests are representative of reality? Go right ahead, and again I really don't care. The fact is: the Moto X has a better battery life, and all reviews aside from ONE (which conveniently happens to be your favorite one) back me up. I feel pretty confident in my beliefs, and owning both phones has proven the same thing: the Nexus 5 is really nice but doesn't last as long on a single charge as the Moto X. Take it or leave it, your opinion won't change the facts.

 

[scott craft]

I haven't read the Nexus 5 review but it's hard to argue with the battery tests anandtech performs. They are pretty standardized in their methods. For me I'd be satisfied with the Nexus 5 or the Moto X battery life, but I'm on Verizon so I don't have the option of getting the Nexus.

 

[mKTank]

I haven't read the Nexus 5 review but it's hard to argue with the battery tests anandtech performs. They are pretty standardized in their methods. For me I'd be satisfied with the Nexus 5 or the Moto X battery life, but I'm on Verizon so I don't have the option of getting the Nexus.

I would have believed them if not for the points I outlined above. There are some wild inaccuracies there that make these tests hard to believe. Having a strict way of testing does not reliably sufficiently exclude any chance of bias. Unless you can tell me why the Verizon One is magically an hour better than the regular One on WiFi despite being identical. And that the 4S is apparently better than the Moto X with battery (lol). Its just a load of crap and I won't believe it just because they used numbers and an apparently strict methodology.

Rather, I'll choose the statistically sound option and choose to believe a large sample size of tests, all of which favor the Moto X. These guys test phones for a living so I'll believe them (10+) over one source. Everyone wants to be an armchair battery engineer but a large sample size rarely lies.

 

[OhHaiThere]

Just to point out a few areas of weirdness:
- iPhone 5 gets better battery life than the Moto X? Than the Note 3? Than the 5S? Than the identically specced 5C? No it doesn't.

First of all, let me say that I'm not an expert on iPhone 5 vs 5c, however, I don't believe they have the same hardware. From a quick search, the 5 has a larger battery than the 5c (http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Apple-iPhone-5c,Apple-iPhone-5/phones/7983,7378) and the 5c has a different LTE radio with more bands.

According to AnandTech, the radio is the second largest battery draw after the screen.

The other thing to consider is that some of these phones were tested with the OSes they were shipped with, not the ones they've been updated to. So these numbers likely fluctuate.

I would consider anything AnandTech writes as gospel compared to the likes of IBITimes and others.

 

[scott craft]

I would have believed them if not for the points I outlined above. There are some wild inaccuracies there that make these tests hard to believe. Having a strict way of testing does not reliably sufficiently exclude any chance of bias. Unless you can tell me why the Verizon One is magically an hour better than the regular One on WiFi despite being identical. And that the 4S is apparently better than the Moto X with battery (lol). Its just a load of crap and I won't believe it just because they used numbers and an apparently strict methodology.

Rather, I'll choose the statistically sound option and choose to believe a large sample size of tests, all of which favor the Moto X. These guys test phones for a living so I'll believe them (10+) over one source. Everyone wants to be an armchair battery engineer but a large sample size rarely lies.

I see your point about some of those phones being tested but anandtech does test each phone the same way. For me I'm more concerned about how a phone does on reception so I rely on user experience on forums such as these. Most of the high end phones out now get much better battery life than what I have now so that's not the most important factor for me when looking to purchase a phone.

 

[mKTank]

I wonder if Anandtech's Moto X still ran 4.2.2? Because KitKat really improved battery life.

Edit: yeah it did. So much for treating it like "gospel," their chart is outdated.

Also to the person justifying the 5S and 5C being worse on battery: I was referring to the WiFi chart so the LTE antenna has nothing to do with it. And the 5C has a larger battery by 40mAh (according to your source!). So you can see why their chart seems wildly wrong to me.

 

[OhHaiThere]

I wonder if Anandtech's Moto X still ran 4.2.2? Because KitKat really improved battery life.

Edit: yeah it did. So much for treating it like "gospel," their chart is outdated.

Also to the person justifying the 5S and 5C being worse on battery: I was referring to the WiFi chart so the LTE antenna has nothing to do with it. And the 5C has a larger battery by 40mAh (according to your source!). So you can see why their chart seems wildly wrong to me.

You said 5, not 5S.. was that a typo? Were they running the same software? Both iOS 7?

 

[mKTank]

You said 5, not 5S.. was that a typo? Were they running the same software? Both iOS 7?

I meant how the 5C and 5S had worse WiFi battery life than the 5. The 5S part by itself is wildly wrong, and the 5C one is also weird. But now that you mention it, I suppose the 5's battery figures were from when it had iOS 6.

So basically the chart is meaningless because it compares entirely different iterations of the OS. Moto X on 4.2.2 vs Nexus 5 on 4.4 isn't a fair comparison. 4.4 is now out on the Moto X but they didn't update their chart nor the review. So given that, I think I'll still stick with those other sites I posted.

 

[OhHaiThere]

I meant how the 5C and 5S had worse WiFi battery life than the 5. The 5S part by itself is wildly wrong, and the 5C one is also weird. But now that you mention it, I suppose the 5's battery figures were from when it had iOS 6.

So basically the chart is meaningless because it compares entirely different iterations of the OS. Moto X on 4.2.2 vs Nexus 5 on 4.4 isn't a fair comparison. 4.4 is now out on the Moto X but they didn't update their chart nor the review. So given that, I think I'll still stick with those other sites I posted.

Yeah, ok... whatever helps you sleep better at night

 

[mKTank]

Yeah, ok... whatever helps you sleep better at night

Knowing my battery reliably gets me through the day indeed makes my days less stressful, thanks!

 

[hashholly]

Just got both the nexus 5 and moto x in the mail today,
So far I prefer the bigger size of the nexus, and the screen... the moto x screen is way too saturated.

Will test GPS, reception, and battery life over the next week and decide which to keep.

 

[mattopotamus]

According to the dude from Motorola on Live Chat just now, the contract-free AT&T version is still locked to AT&T.

Thanks. I was interested in the t-mobile verison, which is SIM unlocked. I really see no reason why anyone would buy the att version unless they were getting it on contract. It is locked to att/branded and has to go through att for updates.

 

[mattopotamus]

This was today with light usage on my n5. It's far from a poor battery.

 

[yinz]

This was today with light usage on my n5. It's far from a poor battery...

Is this consistent. The problem I hear with the Nexus 5 is that the battery does not consistently perform well. It does so on occasion.