Motorola releases Android 4.4 Kitkat update:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...e-first-kitkat-update-and-its-starting-today/
Wow, I'm highly impressed with Motorola.
If this streak keeps going on, I might abandon Nexus devices all together and consider going with Motorola devices from this point going forward if they bring their off-contract prices down to Nexus levels + $50.
I no longer do contracts, so even though it's been advertised for $49(or free at some places) with contract, the off contract price is still $549 for the 32GB version which is still a tough pill for me to swallow compared to a $400 Nexus.
Motorola needs to pass on the savings to off-contract customers so I can consider buy their phones in the future.
They seem to be the only one capable of making devices without "major" compromises.
Motorola has all the benefits of a Nexus without the "meh" battery, "meh" speakers, and others.
Same - I'm trying to avoid contracts, but off-contract prices, or available affordable phones, have been terrible on Verizon. I'd get a Nexus right away on Verizon, even - but Verizon hates allowing anything without their absolute control over the entire experience. Verizon is the Apple of carriers - and it's disgusting, but as I argued, it's worth putting up with for me (personally). To each their own, but I've figured out what's right for me.
I've come to realize I truly don't care about bleeding edge, just so long as the whole package comes together well. I should say - I would care about bleeding edge, if things today were like a few years ago. But like desktop computing, hardware and the OS is coming together well enough that high-end only matters of critical/production tasks. Smartphone OSes have come a long way, and so has the underlying hardware. A well crafted mid-range phone, today, should perform awesome now and keep ticking for awhile. Just two years ago, that wasn't the case. Of course, after a year or two most devices lose support and no longer get official updates - but if the updates are handled well, I think a device like the Moto X will feel "fresh" a heck of a lot longer than many similar devices. Some bloated high-end phones may even feel worse in time...
I've always said, once Motorola made a well-rounded device, I'd be all over it. At a time, that also required high-end specs. I'm still annoyed I'd have to buy a special edition just to have an unlocked bootloader, but I'm desperately trying to determine if I actually care about that. With the right phone and experience, perhaps I don't. I do know I just don't want to settle for, and "live with" something like that - it has to be I truly no longer feel it's needed for my preferred Android experience.
Motorola is THE definitive phone manufacturer, when it comes to the raw PHONE. It just happens they routinely missed a step here or there for the overall experience - but the basic function, the radio packages/cell modems and antenna designs? Boom - I've never, ever, had a phone with stronger reception at any point in time when compared with non-Motorola phones.
They might get the display wrong, the phone design itself wrong, the software wrong... I do need to play with a Moto X to see if, perhaps, they got more right than other manufacturers. I've definitely been in a few spots where just a touch better reception would be oh so preferred.