Motorola DROID Ultra vs Motorola Moto X

This is comparison review between the Motorola DROID Ultra and Moto X. We encourage you to read our full in-depth review of the Motorola DROID Ultra and Moto X.

Introduction

This year we’ve seen Motorola trying to retake ground that has been lost in recent years to other companies, as they’ve released several new Android smartphones. The Motorola DROID Ultra is a Verizon exclusive, as it continues the “DROID” branding with a thin and stylish design. While the Motorola Moto X (which is available from multiple carriers) is unique since it’s the only smartphone manufactured right here in the USA. As of now, both of these carry the same price of $200 with a 2-year Verizon contract, or $600 full retail, so in this review we’re going to look at some of the similarities and differences between them.

Design

Each of these smartphones has its own individual design. The Motorola DROID Ultra is available in black or red, made from Kevlar, and is the largest of the two with a height of 5.41”, but conversely is also the thinnest at 0.28”. Even though it fits well in the hand, some may find it too big – keeping in mind there is also the DROID Mini. Meanwhile, the Moto X is larger than the DROID Mini, yet smaller than the DROID Ultra, and it fits “just right” in our hand. The back of the Moto X is slightly curved, for a more natural feel, and we like the soft-touch texturing that is used instead of the glossy back on the DROID Ultra. As of now, Verizon is only selling the Moto X in a black and white color, but does plan to have Moto Maker up and running before the end of the year, which allows you to color customize pretty much all the parts of the phone and have it custom made.

Display

Both the Motorola DROID Ultra and Moto X are using Super AMOLED technology for their displays with 720x1280 resolution, which provide highly saturated colors and excellent viewing angles. The key difference here is that the display on the DROID Ultra is larger at 5” with a pixel-per-inch count of 294, while the display on the Moto X is slightly smaller at 4.7”, but this also increases the pixel-per-inch count to 316. In daily use, the difference between 294ppi and 316ppi hardly even noticeable, though the larger display on the DROID Ultra is nice for viewing web pages, pictures, and watching videos. We should also point out that the DROID Ultra uses capacitive control buttons under the display, but the Moto X uses the standard Android on-screen softkeys.

Included with the DROID Ultra and Moto X is the Active Display notification feature. Basically what it does it allows you to nudge the phone, and only the center of the display will turn on showing the date and time. Then if you get any notifications, such as a new message or a missed call, only that part of the display will turn on. This way, the device will conserve power since it does not have to turn on the entire display.

Interface and Functionality

One area where the Motorola DROID Ultra and Moto X are nearly identical is with the user interface, as both come running pretty close to stock Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. But Motorola does include some of its own software integration, such as the Touchless Control, which is voice recognition with the Google Now experience, Motorola Assist, Droid Zap for sharing images and videos to other nearby phones, Motorola Migrate to transfer setting from your old phone to your new phone, and Wireless Display. You can read more in-depth details about those features here.



Exclusive to the Moto X, owners are treated to an extra 50GB of free storage for 2 years courtesy of Google Drive, which is especially handy considering there’s only 16GB of internal storage on the smartphone.

Processor and Memory

As brothers, the DROID Ultra and Moto X both come equipped with Motorola’s X8 Mobile Computing System. This combines a modified 1.7 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 application processor, 400 MHz quad-core graphics processor, a natural language processing core, and a contextual computing core with 2GB of RAM.

As you can see from the benchmark results, both the DROID Ultra and Moto X are nearly identical, though other quad-core phones, such as the LG G2 does gain an edge with application processing benchmarks.

But in daily use, both Motorola phones feel plenty quick for scrolling between home screens, opening and running apps, and multitasking. For storage, both devices come with 16GB of internal storage, of which only 9GB is available out of the box, as they lack a microSD memory card slot.

Internet and connectivity

With the Motorola DROID Ultra and Moto X being close to stock Android, they both only come with the Google Chrome web browser pre-loaded, but this is not an issue, as it is easy to use and web pages are properly rendered. Though you can always install a different browser app if you want. But the advantage here goes to the DROID Ultra with its larger display and separate capacitive buttons, as you get a full 5” browser screen, as the Moto X gives you only about a 4.4” browser screen due to the on-screen buttons located on the right side.


When using the SppedTest.net app, we were able to get between 20-25 Mbps downloads and 10-15 Mbps uploads depending on the area, time of day, and signal strength. And since both devices are Global Roaming ready, they can also be used in other countries with EDGE/GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), HSPA/UMTS (850/900/1900/2100MHz), supporting HSDPA 42.2 Mbps (Category 20) and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps speeds.

Other connectivity includes Wi-Fi 802.11ac/ a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 with EDR, and NFC.

Camera

The camera interface is minimalistic in its nature with some basic settings and lack of fancy color effects/modes. Swiping over to the right will pull over a dial on the left that allows some user options for HDR, flash, tap to focus, slow motion video, panorama, geo-tag, shutter tone, and quick capture – which allows you to quickly launch the camera just by flipping it in your hand twice – though we did notice that it sometimes didn’t work all that well. There is also continuous burst shooting, all you have to do is press-and-hold on the screen for it to take one picture after another.



Both devices also make use of the company’s new 10MP Clear Pixel sensor, which adds a clear pixel to the standard RGB, which is said to allow up to 75% more light to enter in.

During the week that we tested both units together, everyday was cloudy and overcast, which is less than ideal, but then lighting conditions aren’t always ideal when you want to take a picture. In all honestly, we weren’t impressed by the image quality on the DROID Ultra or Moto X, as colors looked dull and lifeless, and even though there was plenty of detail, images looked generally soft, instead of sharp and crisp. Indoor shots fared even worse, as there was plenty of grain visible, and color reproduction was not accurate. When using the LED Flash, the image had plenty of light, but also had a green-hue to it.


Videos are recorded at 1080p resolution at 30fps and with a data rate of 17 Mbps, allowing for smooth playback without any jittering effect. Even though videos look passable for the most part, we did notice that when going between bright and dark areas, it does take a few seconds for the exposure to readjust, and the focusing can take a couple seconds as well. Sound quality is average, as it’s captured in 2ch stereo with a bit rate of 128 kbps and a 48 kHz sampling rate.

Multimedia

Again, with both phones being almost stock Android, the gallery app is straight forward and easy to use without any unnecessary clutter. All pictures and videos are shown in a thumbnail view, based on their file directory. But there are still some built-in picture adjustments available, such as color effect, borders, and cropping.


When it comes to video playback, there are no surprises here, as it can play pretty much any file you can though at it, including MPEG4, H.264/263, DivX and Xvid. But once again the DROID Ultra’s larger 5” display is more pleasing to view.

The standard Google Play Music app can access your stored music files, allows for purchasing of songs and albums, and don’t forget about the All Access subscription feature. The small micro-dots next to the camera is where the speaker is located, and even though it may not look like much, it is capable of being quite loud and producing some nice full tones on both devices. Still, we’d recommend using a pair of wired earbuds for a better quality music experience.

Call Quality

Equally, the Motorola DROID Ultra and Moto X do well in the area, as voices sound realistic and natural on both ends of the conversation, without having the typical “choppy cell phone” effect, though earpiece volume on our end was lacking, as we had to turn it up almost all the way. Signal reception was pretty equal as well, with -96dBm for voice and -99dBm for 4G LTE.

Battery

Since the DROID Ultra is thinnest of the two, it is equipped with a 2130mAh battery, while the thicker Moto X has a slightly higher capacity 2200mAh battery. During our testing, we were able to get 14 hours of continuous talk time with the DORID Ultra, while the Moto X got close to 15 hours. But for daily mixed usage, both devices would only last about1.5 days before requiring a charge. Also, keep in mind that they have an internal battery, so you don’t have the option of popping in a spare battery in case you need it.

Conclusion

So which is the better smartphone if you’re looking to spend $200 on-contract, the Motorola DROID Ultra or the Motorola Moto X? When it comes right down to it, they are equal in many respects, such as the software features, processing performance, internal storage, camera, and call quality. Even though the DROID Ultra is made out of Kevlar and comes with a slightly larger display, we actually prefer the Moto X overall, as it has a more natural feel allowing it to fit more comfortably in our hand – not to mentioned that it’s made right here in the USA. Also with the Moto Maker coming to Verizon later this year, it will be an added bonus to create your own custom colored phone.