Originally Posted By: drakino
Originally Posted By: DWallach
Maybe the problem is that Moto's trying to make money off of this, versus the Nexus 7 which is (hypothetically) being sold at cost.

I'm seeing cost overhead in two places, compared to the other Android devices out there.

1. Manufacturing the device in the US
2. The 504 potential variants (due to color and storage choices), along with the ability to return and pick something else

Just to pick a nit: technically it's "assembled in the US." I'm guessing they're doing the minimal amount of work here, but I really don't know. I just got the impression that the only part of the phone manufacturing done in America were the parts affected by the end-user color choices.

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I'm also a bit disappointed so many people are getting upset about the specs. The spec war in the PC space did some real damage to proper progress, and appears to be doing the same now in the Android Mobile arena. Samsung "optimizing" for benchmarks mirrors ATI, NVidia and others.

I think there's a key difference this time around, though: most people don't care. It's only us and the tech media that care. The only number comparison that matters to the consumer is "S3 vs S4." It's nothing like the old days where even Joe Schmoe knew exactly how many megahertz/gigahertz his computer's CPU was capable of.

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I'd want to see a 720p and 1080p screen in person at the same size before deciding myself if the power tradeoff is worth it. But I can see Motorola's position here.

I agree, but the difference is pretty subjective. I've heard some reviewers say the difference is huge, then others say it's not noticeable.

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Anyone have thoughts on their modifications to Android? Seems they didn't go with a heavy skin, but instead focused on stuff specific to the device. Positive progress there.

I'm definitely happy with the minimal stuff they've done. From what I can tell, the only software changes they made are:

-launching the camera by flicking the phone (kind of dumb - there are faster ways to do this - and I've heard it's not very reliable)
-press anywhere on the screen in camera mode to take a photo (which could be great or annoying, depending on the situation, and I'd imagine that other camera apps do this fine already)
-everything related to the always-listening stuff

Let me know if I forgot something...

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Android 4.2.2 though is a little weird. I guess it shows the still pretty solid wall between Google and Motorola post takeover.

Yeah, that's a little funny, especially since the One and the S4 just got 4.3 last week. You'd think that by the time the X is released, they could get 4.3 on there. Maybe they will.
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Matt