We were expecting at least one new Moto X handset at today's Motorola launch event, but little did we expect that Motorola would go and announce a pair of them on top of a new 3rd Gen Moto G. Dubbed the Moto X Play and Moto X Style, Motorola hopes these two smartphones will offer the same premium features as the 2nd Gen Moto X (plus a few new ones) at a price that's much kinder to your wallet.
Both phones are quite different beasts, but they do have a couple of features in common, so we've put both phones head-to-head to help break down what's different and which phone you should be queuing up for based on our initial impressions. We'll bring you our final verdict on each smartphone as soon as we get review samples, but for now, here's everything you need to know about the Moto X Play and Moto X Style.
Design
The Moto X Play and Moto X Style share the same basic design. Like the 2nd Gen Moto X, both have a curved rear which sits comfortably in your palm and the same elongated metallic accent which runs between the rear camera and Motorola dimple. They both have a metal frame, too, but the Moto X Play has a removable back cover, while the Style has a sealed unibody chassis.
^ The Moto X Play (right) is essentially a 'lite' version of the Moto X Style (left)
Of course, the Moto X Style is a fraction bigger than the Moto X Play in order to accommodate its larger 5.7in screen. Measuring 153.9mm high and 76.2mm wide, the Moto X Style has an almost identical footprint to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but its curved back makes it slightly fatter overall, measuring 6.1mm at this thinnest point and 11.06mm at the centre.
The Moto X Play, on the other hand, measures 148mm high and 75mm wide, with the rear tapering from 10.9mm down to 8.9mm. This is the same size as the LG G4, making it one of the more compact 5.5in handsets on the market. This is great for those who want a large screen without the extra bulk of, say, the iPhone 6 Plus, as Motorola's economical use of the front panel means there's hardly any extraneous space, making the screen appear larger than it really is.
It made a real difference when we held both phones in our hands, too, as the 5.5in Moto X Play felt much more comfortable and easy to grip than the 5.7in Moto X Style. For us, the Moto X Style was just a stretch too wide for our liking, but we did appreciate the slightly narrower, more angular edges round its chassis. The smoother, more rounded corners of the Play, for instance, felt slightly cheap by comparison, making the Style feel like the more premium product. Both phones are beautifully designed, though, and we suspect those with larger hands will find the Style perfectly manageable.
^ The Moto X Play will be available with a wide range of interchangeable shell grips
Both phones can be customised using Motorola's Moto Maker service, too, allowing you to add leather and smooth wood rear finishes in addition to a range of other colours. The Moto X Style will have 18 different inlays to choose from, while the Moto X Play will have 14 different backs.
However, the basic model of the Moto X Style has a unique silicon rubber coating that's been specifically formulated to resist colour degradation, which should hopefully let your smartphone stay pristine for longer. The Moto X Play, on the other hand, has a plainer rear, which you'll be able to personalise with a wide range of colourful shells and flip cases.
Display
As mentioned above, the Moto X Style has a 5.7in screen, while the display on the Moto X Play is 5.5in. However, the Moto X Style has a much larger 2,560x1,440 resolution, giving it a massive overall pixel density of 515ppi - the same as the Note 4. The Moto X Play, on the other hand, only has a 1,920x1,080 resolution, giving it a lower pixel density of 400ppi.
^ Lighting conditions aren't ideal, but even here you can see the Moto X Style (right) has warmer whites than the Moto X Play (left)
You can't really tell the difference, though, when you've got both phones side by side, as app icons and text looked equally sharp on both handsets. Both displays looked equally bright and vibrant, too, but we did notice that the Moto X Style had a warmer colour cast compared to the cool Moto X Play. Our first suspicions led us to believe that the Style must have an AMOLED display, as Motorola failed to mention what type of panel each phone had during its presentation.
We were later told by a Motorola representative that both phones actually had LCD displays, but we'll wait and see what our calibration tests reveal once we get both phones in for review. It would be a shame if neither new Moto X had an AMOLED display, as this would be a bit of a step backwards compared to the beautiful, rich AMOLED panels on both its 1st and 2nd Gen predecessors.
Specifications
Both phones might look very similar from the outside, but inside they're very different indeed. Starting with the Moto X Style, this is clearly Motorola's flagship device for 2015. Powered by a hexa-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor and 3GB of RAM, web browsing on the Moto X Style was much faster and smoother than the Moto X Play, which has an octa-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chip and 2GB of RAM. Still, this is to be expected considering the difference in chipset.
Camera
Each phone has a 21-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture, but Motorola's given the Moto X Style some considerable enhancements over the Moto X Play. Motorola says the Style has the best camera it's ever made, for instance, and its phase-detect auto-focus, closed loop processing and dual colour correlated flash should help it take faster, more accurate looking shots than its Play sibling.
^ The Moto X Style's 21-megapixel rear camera is much more advanced than the 21-megapixel snapper on the Moto X Play
The Moto X Style also has a dedicated night mode - the first we've seen on a Moto X handset - on top of the usual burst mode, auto HDR and panorama modes. It can also capture Full HD at 60fps and 4K video at 30fps, both with and without HDR. There's even a slow-mo mode as well.
The Moto X Play, on the other hand, only has a dual LED colour balancing flash and lacks 4K video capture. It does, however, have the Style's night mode, along with auto HDR, panorama and burst modes, as well as slow-mo video.
Battery Life
Motorola went big on battery life for its trio of new handsets today, and it claims the 3,000mAh battery on the Moto X Style will be able to last up to 30 hours of mixed use.
Meanwhile, the Moto X Play has an even larger 3,360mAh battery, with Motorola claiming an astonishing 48 hours of continuous mixed use. We'll be very impressed if these figures prove to be accurate, but we won't know for sure until we put each handset through our continuous video playback test.
^ The Moto X Play has a removable back cover, but the metallic strip down the back makes it tricky to access the battery
The good news is that both phones support Motorola's new Turbo Charge feature, which lets you get an impressive number of hours charge from just a short time on the mains. The Moto X Style, for instance, charges up to 50% faster than the Samsung Galaxy S6, making it the world's fastest charging phone, according to Motorola. You'll also be able to get 10 hours of battery life from just 15 minutes charge. The Moto X Play isn't far behind either, giving you 8 hours of battery in the same amount of time.
Storage
The Moto X Play and Moto X Style will both be available with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, with support for microSD cards up to 128GB. We suspect the 32GGB versions will only be available via Moto Maker, but with microSD card support, this isn't as much of a problem as it was on the 2nd Gen Moto X which had no microSD card support whatsoever.
^ The Moto X Style's microSD card slot is found right next to the nano SIM card slot
Price and release date
The Play will be the first new Moto X handset to arrive in the UK, as it's currently set to launch in August for £279. The Moto X Style, on the other hand, is currently dated for September and will cost £359. This makes both handsets a bit of a bargain when you consider the kind of specs they have, and they could potentially be some of this year's best value mid-to-high range smartphones.
At the moment, we're not sure we'd pay the extra £80 for the Moto X Style's larger, higher resolution screen and slightly faster internals, but its more capable camera could be the deciding factor once we get one in for review. Either way, we're certainly very impressed by what we've seen so far, and we can't wait to try them out further nearer their respective launch dates.
