HTC One M9 vs Motorola Moto X 2014

Introduction

At first sight, HTC's new flagship instilled a feeling of deja vu in us, but we decided to give it a chance and not judge the book by its cover. Well, it turned out to be a pretty mixed bag – the One M9 is certainly an improvement over the One (M8) in certain areas, but also a pretty disappointing step backwards in other pretty vital ones, like battery life and display quality. However, is it a better overall device than a rival flagship that is seemingly a bit long in the tooth already, a Motorola Moto X (2014)? There's only one way to find out – by taking a closer look at them, of course!

Design

The HTC One M9 and the Moto X 2014 are pretty different on the outside. Despite that both phones employ metal in their build (the whole of the One M9 and the frame of the Moto X), the HTC entrant certainly packs a more “premium” vibe thanks to its sleek aluminum exterior. Not that the Moto X 2014 feels cheap, but it somewhat lags in terms of exclusiveness. We should not forget that thanks to Moto Maker you can choose between a different rear covers – plastic, leather, or wooden ones.

In terms of size and ease of use, both phones sit pretty close to one another. The slightly taller, yet narrower and slimmer HTC One M9, however, feels just a bit more friendly towards single-handed usage. However, the Moto X boasts much better screen-to-body ratio than the One M9 (73.46% vs 68.52%) thanks to its larger display (5.2”) that surpasses the One M9's one by 0.2 inches.

We should also note that both handsets have front-firing speakers, though only one of Moto's is a loudspeaker (the other being an earpiece); things are different in HTC's camp where we have two BoomSound stereo speakers. Last, but not least, we should mention that both phones employ a certain level of water-protection – IPx3 for the One M9 (light water spray resistance) and a splash-resistant coating on the Moto X.

Display

The eternal clash between LCD and AMOLED displays lives on! In particular, we are dealing with a 5.0” S-LCD 3 screen at the front of the One M9 and a 5.2” AMOLED one on the Motorola. Both are 1080p ones, which means that the pixel density of the HTC flagship is marginally higher – 441ppi vs 423ppi.

We'll be totally honest - in terms of their properties, neither display is too close to perfect. Moto X's AMOLED is quite saturated and vivid; unfortunately, its color balance is all over the place. Not that HTC has stricken the bull's eye with the screen of its One M9 – it's definitely a step in the wrong direction when compared to the older HTC One (M8), which is pretty disappointing. Fortunately, the display doesn't disappoint in the brightness department – you'll have no problems viewing it in broad daylight.

In terms of color temperature, the Moto X performs better than the HTC – we have a temperature of 7056 Kelvins, it trumps the One M9 with its temperature of 8114 Kelvins (reference point is 6500 K), which means that the latter is more bluish and cold than the AMOLED offering in the Motorola.

Interface and functionality

The HTC One M9 ships with the new Sense 7.0 UI, which is based on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. One of the new UI's main features is the addition of interface-wide themes, which change the default icons and home screen clock/weather widget, as well as other aspects of the interface. All in all, it's the good ol' Sense UI, yet better than ever.


The Moto X, as you most probably know, runs on stock Android Lollipop, accompanied by a few non-vanilla features that aim to enhance the user experience, like Moto Assist, Moto Display, Moto Actions, Moto Voice, among others.

Processor and memory

The octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip inside the HTC performs just as expected – blazing fast and ready to cater accordingly to every resource-hungry task. However, play a graphics-intensive 3D game for some time and the handset will certainly get noticeably hotter.

The Moto X 2014, on the other hand, boasts a quad-core Snapdragon 801 chip clocked at 2.5GHz, which is not pretty far behind the Snapdragon 810 in terms of performance. Say what you want, but the most recent Moto X is certainly not a slouch, even in more demanding games.

Memory-wise, we have 32GB of storage and a microSD slot inside the basic version of the HTC flagship, while Motorola has decided that you'd be perfectly fine with 16GB of storage and no option for memory card.

Internet and connectivity

Regardless which one you pick, both the HTC One M9 and the Moto X 2014 will treat you to a non-compromise web-browsing experience. The duo solely relies on Google Chrome as a default browser, which is totally not a bad thing. Experiencing the Internet is a joy on both phones.

In terms of connectivity, the One M9 has a wider LTE band support than the Moto X 2014. As far as the usual set of connectivity features is concerned (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, etc.), both flagships have got you covered.

Camera

HTC has kept an ear close to the ground and put a regular 20MP shooter at the back of the One M9, whereas the front houses a 4 UltraPixel selfie snapper. The Motorola is equipped with a more modest 13MP rear/2MP front-facing camera combo. Does this mean that the One M9 is superior?

Quality-wise, the One M9 is all over the place. We can't stress enough how important lighting is for its rear snapper: in good lighting conditions, the HTC flagship might truly woo you with the detailed images it takes. We had zero gripes with the indoor performance of the camera – the resulting images are detailed and well-exposed. Lower the light, however, and it will generally disappoint you with its under-performing low-light performance, as the resulting images are seriously lacking in detail and tend to get unacceptably-blurry in HDR mode (which did not impress us either).In partucular, night-time shots under poor lighting conditions are quite disappointing.



The Moto X, on the other hand, produces fairly-detailed images in well-lit conditions. It strikes a pretty good balance between nailing the correct dynamic range and exposure. Furthermore, its performance under low-light conditions certainly has some flaws, but is generally better than the one of the new HTC champion, all things considered.

We had no gripes with the UltraPixel selfie shooter of the One M9 – it produces sharp and pretty decent selfies. The Motorola flagship will not disappoint you as well, but the UltraPixel camera has an advantage in this category.





Both the HTC One M9 shoot 4K videos. With details aplenty, either phone produces pretty sharp and clear videos, though each handset has certain flaws. For example, the digital zoom on the One M9 is totally unacceptable for its flagship status; in the meantime, it takes the Moto X forever to adjust its focus while you're shooting a 4K clip. The constant focus adjustment of the HTC flagship is not a pretty sight as well; it also suffers from a noticeable “rolling shutter” effect. Both devices leave a lot to be desired in low-light conditions.

Multimedia

Being the more feature-rich, the HTC One M9 is undoubtedly the better means for media consumption. Starting from the UI, which is centered around providing you with the best media experience, and moving on to the commendable performance of the One M9's front-firing BoomSound speakers, the One M9 outperforms the Moto X in terms of multimedia. Don't take us wrong, the latter is not humble in terms of audio output as well, but we fell that the One M9 provides an altogether better multimedia experience.

Call quality

Both smartphones are exceptional phones in themselves. The earpieces of both devices have a pretty clear and quite natural tone reproduction; even in noisy environments, you'd hardly have issues with any phone. The on-board microphones on the One M9 and the Moto X all perform top-notch; however, Motorola's flagship tends to insert a “slight tinge to our voice”.

Battery

Despite the larger battery at the back and the more power-efficient chipset, the One M9 has a worse battery life than its predecessor. It clocked in at 6 hours and 25 minutes in our battery benchmark test, which is less than One (M8)'s result of 7 hours and 25 minutes. Still, the Moto X sits lower in our battery hall of fame – its result is 5 hours and 45 minutes.

Conclusion

Despite being the newer and better-spec'd phone, the HTC One M9 is not necessarily running circles around the Motorola Moto X 2014. Yes, it's more powerful and future-proof, but the Moto X still holds its ground. To sum things up, the HTC One M9 will woo customers with its sleek build and powerful hardware; meanwhile, the Moto X doesn't shine hardware-wise, but it still has what it takes to be an attractive and affordable alternative to a number of newer phones, the HTC One M9 included.