Motorola Moto X hands-on: First look

Motorola Moto X hardware hands-on (continued)

A defining feature of the Moto X is that you'll be able to design how it looks in the Moto Maker - a handy web app for easy customization and preview of the result. In total, you can choose from 18 back colors, 7 accent colors and 2 types of cases offered in various colors.

Some of the available Motorola Moto X color options

Motorola is currently testing out 3 back panels made entirely out of wood, all of which will have a unique look. Those won't be available at launch, though.

The wooden back panels are pretty unique

You can even chose the color of the phone's charger - black or white. Additionally, you can get a pair of headphones made by Sol Republic - either in-ear or regular in the color to match the back of your Motorola Moto X.

The phone lacks an LED notification light, instead it pulses info on the screen while using very little energy. You can tap the screen to get a more detailed preview of the notification and then swipe to dismiss it.

Anyway, Motorola has added a dedicated voice-processing core to the Moto X chipset, so it can do always-on voice commands without killing your battery. Just say "Okay Google Now" (similar to how Google Glass works) and then continue with your command.

The phone did a very good job, despite the noisy environment of the showroom floor. Asking "Do I need an umbrella today?" will give you the weather forecast for your location, for example.

Finally, a nice touch is the Quick Capture Camera feature, which automatically launches the camera, even from locked state, when you flick your wrist twice.

The non-removable battery has 2,200mAh capacity the official numbers say that it's good for 24 hours of mixed usage or 13 uninterrupted hours of 3G talk time.

The Motorola calls the Moto X chipset X8, but it's processing heart is a regular Snapdragon S4 Pro with a dual-core Krait CPU at 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 GPU, just like the Motorola DROID MAXX, Ultra and Mini and other phones like the Sony Xperia SP.

Even so, the Android 4.2.2 ran buttery smooth. That's right, this isn't a Google Play device so it will be a little behind in OS versions. But as Motorola revealed, there will be Developer and Google Play editions of the smartphone coming later on.