Google Nexus 5 vs Motorola Moto X

Now this seems like a pickle more than anything else, as the Nexus 5 stares face-to-face with its competition in the Moto X – a device, much like the Nexus, has strong influences straight from El Goog. You’d think that the Nexus 5 would’ve been commissioned by Motorola, a Google company as it’s painted, but that’s not the case, since LG has once again been given that prestigious opportunity. Nevertheless, the two companies have been hard at work with their offerings, so let’s jump in to see how they compete against one another!

Okay, so we know that the Nexus 5 is naturally blessed with the latest version of Google’s mobile platform, Android 4.4 KitKat to be precise, but to tell you the truth, the mostly stock Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean experience of the Moto X dishes up some equally appealing features. Being the newer version of the platform, the Nexus 5 is able to reap all the benefits of what’s new with the platform – like a smarter Caller ID, yellowpages like functionality with the contacts app, Google Now integration with the homescreen, wireless printing, preloaded QuickOffice app, and much more. Even though it’s running an older build, the Moto X does flaunt its own set of exciting and useful features as well.

Although KitKat brings forth a clean looking UI to Android, the Moto X’s interface is not too far off, even more when it’s running a mostly stock experience. The differences are minor, honestly, such as how the apps panel with the Nexus 5 is strictly reserved for apps – whereas it’s combined together with the Moto X. Aside from that, all the baseline functions of Android are intact with the two. Therefore, their notifications panel and multi-tasking menu act all in the same manner that we’re familiar with.

In addition to integrating Google Now with its homescreen, the Nexus 5’s KitKat experience also has instant access to the service by speaking the phrase “okay Google” any time while on the homescreen. It’s quick and fast to access, but we still prefer the Moto X’s implementation, seeing that it’s “always listening” for the key phrase “okay Google Now” – even when it’s locked.

As we’re familiar with, notifications are pooled into a centralized place with their respective notifications panels, which present us with some added functionality depending on the type of notification. Well, the Moto X takes the process one step further with its Active Display feature. It’s not a milestone per se in the Android sphere, but it’s just one of those overlooked sort of things that proves its worth in more ways than none.

Sure, the Nexus 5 boasts a slightly more spacious keyboard layout, seeing that it has a larger screen of course. Nevertheless, the two keyboards look and perform very similar to one another – though, emojis are cleverly incorporated into the messaging app of KitKat.

Honestly folks, it’s a close one. On the surface, it’s wonderful that these two experiences cater to all of our needs – without adding in any features that would seem redundant. So that’s exactly why we love these two experiences! Rather than throwing in several features with their experiences, they focus on a few notable ones that we actually use on a daily basis. Frankly, they make the Android experience simple and uncluttered, the hallmarks of any platform that wants to appease a wide audience.

The Nexus 5 packs the more impressive hardware under the hood – a mighty fast quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC with Adreno 330 GPU, coupled with 2GB of RAM. Oppositely, most people would associate the Moto X’s dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with the Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM , as being more fitting for a mid-ranger. Overlooking the vast hardware discrepancies, they both exhibit the same snappy performance with basic functions – though, when it comes to processor intensive ones, it’s the Nexus 5 that muscles through the tasks with ease.

Becoming a standard practice amongst high-end smartphones, these two don’t offer expandable storage due to their closed designs. At the very least, we have two options to choose from the onset, 16GB or 32GB, which are the expected capacities we’re exposed to nowadays.

Hardly a surprise, they both excel in the area of surfing the web, thanks in part to their speedy 4G LTE connections and snappy performances. Heck, even complex pages filled with multimedia content don’t pose any problems with these two, as they’re ideal for the occasion. Still, seeing that it has the larger and higher resolution screen, the Nexus 5 appeals more to us – though, as a whole, they get the job done at the end of the day.

In order for them to spread to the masses, these two prized devices are available in GSM and CDMA flavors to compete on a worldwide scale. Furthermore, they’re armed with nearly the same set of connectivity features as well – they consist of aGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and NFC. However, the Nexus 5 benefits by having extended features like wireless charging, wireless printing, and Tap & Pay.

Yet again, we see how closely these two really are close to one another software-wise, as their respective camera apps flaunt similar interfaces and functions. We actually don’t find one to be more ideal than the other, mainly because they both follow the approach of offering a simple and straightforward experience – where snapping a shot is made easy! Unlike other high-end stuff, they don’t boast an array of cool shooting modes or manual controls. Then again, they boast things like a panoramic and HDR modes, though the Nexus 5 features a newer “HDR+” that snaps a burst of images and combines them to give us the best neutrally exposed photos.It’s an 8-megapixel camera in the Nexus 5 (featuring f2.4 lens and optical image stabilization) – while the Moto X features a 10-megapixel “Clear Pixel” camera (also f2.4 but lacks OIS). Snapping up the same photos under outdoor conditions, where lighting is ample, they deliver some exciting shots that are ideal to being transformed into 4” x 6” printouts. However, the Nexus 5’s camera casts more of a saturated tone with its camera. When it comes down to it, they play equally to one another in this particular setting.

It’s a close race outdoors, but taking the two indoors where lighting becomes less, we have a clear winner in the Nexus 5. Indeed, details in general become softer in tone with the two, which is a natural occurrence with this particular setting, but the Nexus 5 is better able to maintain the sharper visuals. Between them, the Moto X’s camera produces an over-exposed look with its low lighting shots, which does nice to brighten things up, but it’s too heavily overpowered by the amount of noise it exhibits. Therefore, at the end of the day, the Nexus 5 proves to be a more charming device to capture photos.It’s also the Nexus 5 that impresses us more with its 1080p video recording quality. In general, it’s just the more capable of delivering us with the crisp visuals that make us so entranced to its quality – so it composes videos that have more detail, offer better exposure, and boasts those eye grabbing punchy colors. However, we do notice that its focus is more jittery than the Moto X’s. Well, it’s still not bad with the Moto X, but the profound evidence of artifacting and its jumpy exposure don’t make it look as good as its rival.

Naturally, with the Google Play Music app in tow with the two, they offer us the same presentation and functionality. Since it’s placed towards the bottom edge of the phone, the Nexus 5’s speaker is more adept at dispersing its audio – whereas with the Moto X’s speaker, which is positioned in the rear, it loses some of its presence. For the most part, though, they deliver nearly the same volume levels. Still, we do realize that there’s more crackling heard with the Nexus 5.

Out of the box, there’s more video codec support available with the Nexus 5. Since both lack support for DivX and Xvid, you may want to visit the Play Store for a third party solution. Beyond that, it’s a tough call as to which of the two we prefer for the video watching occasion, mainly because they have their own set of unique qualities. As expected, they’re both capable of playing high definition videos with little fluff. With the Nexus 5, its larger and higher resolution display makes it an ideal choice for the occasion, but then again, we’re also attracted to the saturated colors and deep black put out by the Moto X’s AMOLED screen.

In our experience, we rarely find ourselves having to concentrate intently with phone calls, but as a whole, we wouldn’t say they’re anything impressive in this particular front – so there’s not really one that we prefer over the other. With its rather weak earpiece, muted voices out of it, and the crackling of its speakerphone, there are undoubtedly some challenges with the Nexus 5. Meanwhile, the Moto X is without its own faults, as it delivers voices that have a robotic tone through its earpiece.

Sure, they’re able to get us by through an 8-hour work shift, even with heavy usage throughout it, but in the end, it’s the Moto X that’s able to inch out a bit longer with its battery life. At the most, we’re able to get up to 12 hours of juice out of the Nexus 5’s 2300 mAh battery. Conversely, the Moto X’s 2200 mAh battery manages to go further at 14 hours.

Before the Moto X’s official announcement, it was rumored that the US assembled smartphone would bear a price point similar to last year’s Google Nexus 4, but that certainly wasn’t the case. Instead, the Moto X was priced exactly like any other high-end smartphone out there – $200 with a 2-year contract. As we’ve come to realize, it might not have an impressive specs sheet that thunders boldly over its rival, but it’s all about its customizable design that helps it to become so unique in the space. On top of that, even though it’s not the latest version of Android it’s running, the customized one on the Moto X captures our attention for its choice of focusing on key features that we actual use on an everyday basis – not to mention it’s a simple experience too.

As we know, the Google Nexus 5 bucks the trend by being sold unlocked, and without the requirement of being put into a contract of some kind. Rather, it’s sold outright for the hard-to-beat price of $349 outright – a price point that easily demolishes the full $530 cost attached to the Moto X. Better yet, not only is it cheaper from an outright basis, but it’s also packing hardware that’s newer and more befitting of a smartphone that’s twice its price point. And of course, since it’s a Nexus smartphone, it gets the added benefit of having the latest version of the platform – Android 4.4 KitKat.

So let’s cut to the chase people. The Moto X is great if you want to have a phone that can stand out in public, seeing that the vast color combinations available with it help to make it stand out more than the conventional design of the Nexus 5. However, at the end of the day, we can’t forget what the Google Nexus 5 brings to the table. Not only is it’s price point super impressive, but its most up-to-date Android experience helps to justify why it’s the more prized device between the two. It just seems as though that the Moto X is overpriced in comparison to the Nexus 5 – from a specs and cost point of view, of course.