A previously unheard of Motorola handset has appeared in online benchmark results as the XT1055 – could it be the oft-rumoured Motorola X? The device is shown as running Android 4.2.2 and whoever’s testing it is based in the US. The results, meanwhile clock up a score of 18252 and it appears to be running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core chip at 1.7GHz.
Benchmarks have shown up of the suspected Motorola X phone and its GPU score could imply a Qualcomm 800 chip, contrary to earlier rumours.
Design
Some sources have indicated the Motorola X will be toughened with rubberised corners and a carbon fibre backing, but there’s no mention of Moto’s signature Kevlar. It’s thought Motorola will include a water resistant coating, but whether this will be splash proofing as with some of the recent Razr models, or a more comprehensive implementation such as the one on Sony’s Xperia Z, remains to be seen.
Not much else has been said about the Motorola X’s exterior design up to this point, although it was recently suggested the phone might be available in more than 20 colour variants. That’ll be far more than any other manufacturer for a single model and could represent the car-like customisation a Motorola advisor previously spoke about.
Release date
It was originally thought the Moto X would appear at the Google I/O conference in May this year, in the months since this murmur first emerged conflicting reports have suggested otherwise. A May announcement would have put the handset on track for July but as Google I/O has now been and gone with no sight of the Motor X it's now pretty clear we might be waiting for a little while longer.
Now, Motorola has undergone a little rebrand following the rumors the Moto X will launch in August. The new logo retains the distinctively angular ‘M’ inside a circle, however, now the circle is multicoloured in some rather Android-like shades. Significantly, the old Motorola name has gone from being bold, italic and all in caps, to a softer, all lower-case and slightly Android Roboto-style font. There’s also ‘a Google company’ added underneath.
The new logo and typeface emerged via the Verge, which noted that the re-designs appeared on the Techweek conference page, an event taking place in Chicago and co-sponsored by Motorola.
Some mutterings have said the Moto X won’t arrive until August at the absolute earliest, however, meaning we could be waiting until the Winter to actually get our hands on it – some have suggested November. Others think we might be looking at October, which is when Android's fifth birthday will be and when some expect Android 5.0 to be released. Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is believed to introduce tighter optimisation for lower-spec handsets, but will likely have some more spectacular features too.
Most recently Motorola's chief executive Dennis Woodside revealed onstage at a conference he had the Moto X in his pocket but wouldn't show it to the assembled crowds. He indicated it would launch by October, but a subsequent press release from the company confirmed the device would launch in the summer.
Update 25/05/2013:
A leaked ad campaign from design company B.A. Bäkken has emerged online suggesting that August 1 will see the world say 'Goodbye Moto' to the old style handsets.
A subsequent leak from the same company shows a contrasting campaign saying 'Hello again' to the new generation of devices which may be spearheaded by the Moto X, though an accompanying picture looks distinctly like an older Razr model.
Display
It’s no longer thought the Moto X will follow the current trend of 1080p Full HD displays as repeated spec leaks have mentioned a 720p resolution. Display size is still a complete unknown but we suspect it'll sit somewhere in the region of 4.7-5.0-inches. Previously it wasn't clear whether we were looking at LCD or OLED for the screen technology. Motorola’s Razr line has repeatedly used Super AMOLED, but there was a case for LCD considering the Moto X was said to be under development with input from Google, which has used plenty of LCDs in its Nexus range.
However, Motorola chief Dennis Woodside has confirmed the handset would use an OLED display.
Another rumour points to the use of Sapphire Glass, which is allegedly three times stronger than Corning’s commonly used Gorilla Glass.
We'd like to think Motorola might implement the edge-to-edge display design from the Razr i for the Moto X.
Price
There aren’t many price rumours floating about at the moment but it’s been said the Motorola X could retail for as little as £190-£299. That’s firmly in Nexus 4 territory.
The only problem here is the rumour suggesting it’ll have lots of onboard storage – that usually means a phone costs more too.
IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo told us that he believes Google will charge premium bucks for the Motorola X, however, in order to keep relations between itself and its hardware partners sweet.
Software
Previous Motorola models from the company’s Razr line have used very recent iterations of Android – 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and 4.1 Jelly Bean. These have been setup to be relatively stock, but with a light UI overlay which appears to have been developed in co-operation with Google and introduces a few specific features, such as quick settings menu and some widgets.
There’s been little mention of the software for the Motorola X. It will, of course, be Android, and by the time the phone arrives we’ll be looking at Android 4.2 Jelly Bean as a minimum but more likely a new version expected to arrive at Google I/O in May: Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
We’ve no clue what changes Key Lime Pie will add as there’s very little rumour surrounding it and we don’t know if the Motorola X will have a stock Android implementation of another light UI overlay.
