Moto X4: Motorola’s new premium mid-range smartphone with dual cameras

The Moto X4 is finally official at IFA 2017. It’s their most stylish smartphone yet and it comes with a dual-camera setup. Unlike its other metal bodied smartphones, the X4 gets an anodized aluminium frame with Corning’s Gorilla Glass wrapping both front and back. The back also gets a 3D contoured design for a unique look.

The Moto X4 has two cameras at the back which does wide-angle shots. It has a main 12MP f/2.0 camera with dual autofocus pixels while the second unit is an 8MP f/2.2 camera with an ultra-wide angle lens offering a 120-degree field of view. Also bundled in are several camera tricks which include selective focus for depth effects as well as selective black and white and background replacement.

Over at the front, the selfie camera is a 16MP f/2.0 shooter that comes with adaptive low light mode. In darker situations, the resolution for the front camera is reduced to just 4MP for better low light sensitivity. This sounds similar to HTC’s fist gen UltraPixel camera.

In terms of hardware, the Moto X4 gets a 5.2″ Full HD IPS display and it is powered by a mid-range 2.2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 630 processor that’s mated to either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. Internally it gets 32GB of storage which can be expanded with microSD card up to 2TB.

While the Moto X4 looks more stylish, it also gets IP68 dust and water resistance. However, Motorola is only claiming spill and splash proof as they clearly mentioned that it isn’t designed to work while being submerged underwater. They have also emphasised that liquid damage on the Moto X4 will not be covered under warranty.

Powering the Moto X4 is a 3,000mAh battery which Moto claims to last a full day. It charges via USB Type-C and a 15-minute plug-in with a TurboPower charger can replenish up to 6 hours of battery life. Fortunately, there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack but it can also connect up to 4 Bluetooth audio devices simultaneously. The Moto X4 supports Bluetooth 5.0 but there’s also a fine print that says only one Bluetooth audio device can be connected if 2.4GHz WiFi is in use.

The Moto X4 also supports Alexa and you can ask for voice assistance without having to unlock your phone. At the moment, it still runs on Android 7.1 Nougat with Moto Experiences built-in.

The Moto X4 is priced at 399 Euro which is about RM2,028 if converted directly. Of course, European pricing is often more expensive and we think it should be priced lower than the Moto Z2 Play if it arrives here. It will go on sale first in Europe beginning September and it will be available in other markets in the months to come.