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The Moto X is on sale now in the US, but us Brits have been left out. Anyone miffed that Google has overlooked us can get their Moto hit with iFixit’s teardown, which opens up the mobile and pokes around in its innards.
The Moto X is designed and assembled in the US, so let’s see how its build quality stacks up. Screwdrivers at the ready, it’s teardown time!
For starters, the headphone jack is on the top, in the centre of the phone. iFixit notes the handset is a little smaller than the Galaxy S4. The rear panel is adhered, so you’ll need a tool that’ll melt adhesive to prise it open. The adhesive also keeps the camera’s flash in place, and protects internal components.
Motorola has worked some wizardry on the battery, in the shape of the Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System. This features a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and lets you delegate the processing power throughout the eight cores — four graphics processor cores, two application processor cores, and two low-power cores. The result? The Moto X will last 24 hours of “mixed usage”, according to Motorola. That’s streets ahead of most mobiles.
There are plenty of clips and contacts inside, which, iFixit says, shows a “considerable amount of effort went in to the internal design of this device”.
The 10-megapixel camera comes off, and then the motherboard is laid bare.
iFixit’s conclusion? The design choices are “nothing if not unique”, which is a testament to US engineering. It awards the handset a score of seven out of 10, with 10 being the easiest to repair.
Those lucky Americans can personalise their handsets to their hearts’ content, using the Moto Maker online tool. While giving us Brits the cold shoulder, Motorola said on its UK Facebook page that it’s “working on something new”. Could that be the Nexus 5? We’ll have to wait and see.
Are you gutted we’re missing out on the Moto X? Will Motorola make the Nexus 5? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
