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iFixit Tears Down the New Moto X, So You Don't Have To
iFixit's been breaking devices and voiding warranties for years now; latest on their chopping block is the new Moto X from Motorola, a phone hawked as much for its customizability and place of manufacture (the U.S.) as for anything else. You might expect a highly hyped, ultra-customizable phone to be made of high-end components and ultra-repairable as well. iFixit's teardown commentary has both some good and only-middlin' things to say about the innards, but very little bad. They call out the highly modular headphone jack, and say "a considerable amount of effort went in to the internal design of this device; the number of clips and contacts we've found so far is a great testament to that."
So this means I should buy the phone right?
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...at least if Google/Motorola have done their Market research right. They have clearly created a phone that is easily put together, so you as a consumer can have a phone that matches your lifestyle (football team, car, personality or simply favourite colours), and Google still manages to assemble in America, with a JIT inventory and a 4 day turnaround.
That and the the fact that everyone from large companies to small individuals often don't throw things away when they do break. This may be against Apple/Microsoft disposable electronics, but many here would prefer to fix something than throw it away...Its fun and rewarding. I just took my current phone apart to swap colours from black to white.
The bottom line is this is a great phone; this is simply another feature.
That is a step backwards as far as i'm concerned.
Will you ever stop sucking Googles cock? It's a remarkably average phone
To put the Moto X some kind of perspective
The iPhone 5
==========
1.3Ghx dual-core CPU
GPU (three cores) @325 MHz
1GB LPDDR2-1066 RAM
4 in (100 mm) diagonal 640 × 1,136 pixels (326 ppi)
The Moto X
=========
1.7Ghz dual-core
GPU (quad-core) @400 MHz
2 GB LP-DDR2
4.7 in (120 mm) diagonal 1280x720 (316 ppi)
To put it in some kind of perspective it destroys Apples Flagship Phone. You are right though its not the fastest or has the most cores or is the largest *Android* Phone, but then it made the choice to focus on customising the phone and desirable features such as active notifications , focusing on what was important, and making an elegant phone...if they got their research right.
You are not wrong, I have seen many features things on for example Nokia phones before they became another "Designed in" company, but then I like the old features like hardware keyboard(back on the droid), waterproofing(On the latest Sony Z), IR (on the HTC One)....now where are those Internal FM transmitters.
That is a step backwards as far as i'm concerned.
The fact that it is easily replaced is the point of this article. You do lost the ability to "carry" a spare battery, but hopefully Motorola having a focus on battery life by using two separate processors to help improve battery life.
Only a fanboy will overlook at the fact that the specs are more of a requirement of the OS than actually something useful .... and the OS still manages to be SLUGGISH and UNSTABLE.
And that is ignoring the fact that Android was designed to be spyware for Google.
Only a fanboy will overlook at the fact that the specs are more of a requirement of the OS than actually something useful
Hold on there. A smart phone is more than an OS that is the point. The reason why Apple phones couldn't run Flash while Android phones could...is the something useful. The something useful is your first party...and your third party applications. Those specifications define how and what games can do. Apple already is missing out on whole countries worth of Applications...already fallen 100,000 applications behind Google, but it looks to be finding itself unable to run the latest games.
Yeah, that's right. We're all buying $700 mobile phones to take apart.
Having twice the RAM and a somewhat faster processor does little for you if you need 4X the RAM and 2X the CPU to operate with the same level of performance.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I just need a phone with simple, basic features, so I don't really care what company makes it. My main concern is that it be made in the USA as much as possible.
Assembled in Texas is great, but what about components that were manufactured in other countries?
What phone is most made in the USA, considering the manufacturing of its components and the final assembly?
Once upon a time Motorola made components such as integrated circuits. Those days are gone, 'spun off', whatever. Hence, inside the Motorola 'Made in USA' phone there are no Motorola 'Made in USA' components.
With the 68000 Motorola had a head start over LG, HTC, Samsung et al. You should expect some Motorola bits inside the box, but no. Compare and contrast with a Samsung phone where almost all the components are made by Samsung. So, even though sold as 'Made in USA' this Moto X isn't really that different to a 'Designed in California' iPhone - the difficult, capital intensive manufacturing bits, e.g. screen, CPU etc. are all done in The Far East.
I am also not sure what value 'Made in USA' has in overseas markets. Here in the UK we think of US manufacturing as backward, with poor fit and finish. The 'Made in USA' idea brings to mind those horrible Harley Davidwhomever motorbikes, bulky cars with really poor suspension (not to mention petrol consumption) and that is about it - Hollywood films, Predator drones and GM crops aside, what else do those corn-fed Americans make these days?
Where is the chip that gives NSA unfettered access to your calls, txts, etc.? Oh, it's the one in the middle that hasn't been marked...
Nobody "fixes" their devices anymore so all these teardowns are more like device pornography then serving any real benefit.
Nobody keeps a device for more than a year, and even if they do most people "secretly" want their 2 year old device to break down so they can find an excuse to replace it.
All the BS about repairability is stupid. The reason why these things are sealed these days is so people don't go out an buy 3rd party "enhanced" batteries to usage time that turn the phone or tablet into a bomb.
Also as devices get thinner and thinner, which is a trend consumers are wanting more then repairability, the problem is you can't fit in the mechanics to support a removeable battery. Also a lot of devices are splitting up the battery into multiple sections because they can make better use of voids in the device rather than trying to build a device around a monolithic battery pack.
Lastly, when was the last time you "wore out" your device battery? Except for doing something stupid like leaving a phone in a hot car day after day, most LI-Ion batteries last longer then you desire to hold onto an old phone or tablet.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Is this the only phone with three microphones out there? Two eyes and three ears the better to see and hear you with my dear. I am not interested in a android phone especially not one with hardware created by this information company turned advertiser. Give me an old flip phone any day, one with a removable battery and a port that I can plug a dummy handset into. better yet I'd like to make the flip switch control the mic.