Motorola Moto X Style

As you might expect from a smartphone called the X Style, Motorola has created a goodlooking device. There’s a lot more to this phone than good looks alone though, as it also has great specs and an impressive big screen.

Design

The Motorola Moto X Style is available in a wide variety of different colours and finishes, so you can pick the one that suits you best. Materials include Saffiano leather or real wood, and you can pick metallic accent colours or engrave your name thanks to the Moto Maker tool. In total, there are 18 different inlays in various colours and materials, and seven different accent colours to choose from.

Of course, that’s if you use the Moto Maker (tinyurl.com/oozy4dL), which is a big draw of the Moto X Style. The standard models are white or black, with a plastic rear cover.

In terms of size, the Moto X Style is 154mm long, 76mm wide and 6.1mm at its thinnest point, 11.06mm at its thickest. So thanks to tiny bezels around the screen (which we’ll talk more about in a moment), it manages to avoid being big and bulky despite its large display. It also feels pretty light, at 179g, and is comfortable to hold thanks to the curved back.

Unfortunately, the Moto X Style isn’t waterproof like the new Moto G. Instead it’s splash resistant, so should be ok if a bit of rain or sweat finds its way onto it but you won’t want to drop it into the sink or spill a drink on it.

Display

The Moto X Style has a stunning Quad HD (520ppi) 5.7in display with teeny tiny bezels that, as we’ve said, means the overall size of the device isn’t too huge. Still, the size isn’t going to suit everyone. We’d have liked it to be closer to the 5in mark like the Moto G, but it’s all down to personal preference and clearly Motorola thinks bigger is better for most people.

That screen should be durable too, as it’s made with Gorilla Glass 3. During our tests, we found the screen was bright, crisp and colourful, and an absolute joy to look at. It’s perfect for watching movies and playing games, and it definitely gets close to the amazing quality of the screens on high-end smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the LG G4. The photo above shows it off well.

Features

Inside the Moto X Style is a hexa-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with Adreno 418 graphics. That’s paired with 3GB RAM, so you should find this a speedy smartphone that’s capable of more or less anything you throw at it. As you can see, the benchmark results (shown opposite) are good, but more importantly we found the phone to be lovely and smooth during everyday use. This is partly, we feel, down to having in essence a stock version of Android (more on this later).

Storage options are 32- or 64GB, with a microSD card slot that supports up to 128GB, so you won’t be run out of space any time soon. It’s the first time we’ve seen a microSD card slot on a Moto X phone and it’s a welcome addition.

Inside the X Style is a 3000mAh battery, which Motorola says will last ‘all day’. In our benchmark test, however, it lasted just four hours 24 minutes, which is a fair way behind most phones. The Galaxy S6, for example, which also has a Quad HD screen lasted nearly seven hours. Realistically, you’ll be charging every night even if the phone hasn’t run out of power completely.