The history of Motorola dates back to the late twenties of the XX century. She took her name from her most famous product of those years - the Motorola car receiver. Now audio technology seems to be an integral part of any car, but at that time it was a revolutionary product. It was a very difficult task to create a receiver in a fairly compact form, vibration-resistant and noise-proof, and, moreover, in the era of tube devices.

Then, for several decades in a row, it stood at the forefront of scientific and technological progress, and on April 3, 1973 at 11:35 (by this time we will return in the review), the company made the world's first call from a mobile phone.

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But already in our 21st century, “something went wrong.” The rise of young and aggressive Asian competitors, as well as strategic missteps by management, caused the company to fall behind, and what was left of it was eventually bought by the Chinese in 2014. The new owner not only tried to keep many of the recognizable features of Motorola smartphones, but also made efforts to promote its lineup.

The hero of our review was the flagship of the Moto X series - Moto X Force. The manufacturer has supplied the new product with almost everything necessary for the application for leadership: top-end SoC, appropriate filling, capacious battery, well-thought-out dimensions. Moreover, the display in the smartphone is made not only with a very high resolution, but also with maximum impact resistance. Yes, they did work on the look.

Here is such an unusual device came to us for testing. And our review will tell about what the manufacturer succeeded and what didn’t.

But before it starts, I note that the smartphone came to the laboratory with the Android 5.1.1 operating system. As usual, the device was tested for updates prior to testing and updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It is with this version that all tests are performed. The official page of the model on the manufacturer's website -.

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Specifications Moto X Force

Model	Moto X Force
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994), 64 bit, 4 cores Cortex-A57 x 2.0 GHz + 4 cores Cortex-A53 x 1.5 GHz
video processor	Adreno 430, 600 MHz
Operating system	Android 6.0 Marshmallow
RAM	3 GB LPDDR4
Flash memory	32 GB
Screen (size, type, resolution)	5.4", AMOLED, 2560 x 1440 (Quad HD), ShatterShield (shock resistant)
rear camera	21.0 megapixels (autofocus, flash)
Front-camera	5.0 megapixels (fixed focus, flash)
Number of SIM cards	1 (nano SIM)
Support for microSD cards	There is
Data transfer	GPRS/ EDGE/ 3G/ HSPA+/ 4G; Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac with MIMO 2.4/5GHz; Bluetooth 4.1, NFC
Navigation	GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS (according to test results)
Interfaces	USB-OTG, 3.5 mm jack (headphones/headset)
Additionally	Splash-proof, TurboPower fast charging; Qi wireless charging support
Battery	3,760 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions	78.0 x 149.8 x 9.2mm
Weight	169 g
price, rub.	~49 000

In addition to the above, the manufacturer claims the following sensors: accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, magnetometer, IR sensor, proximity sensor.

Of the indication means, only a vibration motor is provided. There is no notification LED; instead, in the presence of any events (for example, a missed call), the corresponding information is periodically highlighted directly on the screen when the user approaches it. And this is logical, since the AMOLED screen itself is all made up of LEDs.

The smartphone uses a top-class processor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. Display protection is made using ShatterShield technology - made of high-strength multilayer plastic, reinforced with a metal substrate. The manufacturer claims that it is impossible to break such a screen (apparently, our ingenuity is unknown to him).

Regarding the cameras, we note that the hero of the review is equipped with a high-resolution main camera - 21.0 megapixels. The front one is simpler (5.0 megapixels), but it is equipped with a flash. Well, the real mass of the device is almost exactly equal to the declared one: 172 g (together with a SIM card and a memory card).

Packaging and equipment Moto X Force

The packaging of the device is made in the form of a large cardboard box. The layout is pretty simple. On the top cover there is only a simple pattern of polygons, the Motorola logo and the model name - Moto X Force.

There is almost no technical information on the box. The information on the sticker on the side is very brief and contains only the amount of flash memory, model designation, communication ranges and some service information that is of no interest to the consumer.

Now let's open the package and examine the package. In the picture below, protective bags and cartons have been removed from all accessories.

In addition to the devices shown in the photo, there are two more documents in the kit: a purely formal book with information about security and some legal aspects, as well as a brief instruction manual. The most interesting part of it is shown below:

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By the way, the photo was taken on the camera of the tested smartphone. Think of it as a low-light text shooting test.

This spread of the manual is very useful for establishing the true number of speakers in a smartphone. It may seem to the user that two ringing speakers are installed at the bottom of the device. But the instruction explains that in fact there is only one speaker (right), and on the left, behind exactly the same grille, there is not a speaker, but a microphone.

In general, we must admit that the equipment is not just minimalistic, but downright Spartan. But let's set aside emotions and consider in detail the delivery of the device. The most interesting part (after the smartphone) is the charger. Here's a close-up of it:

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Here, among the designations, we see an indication that the device supports TurboPower “fast charging” mode, for which it provides the ability to issue several combinations of currents and voltages (5 V / 2.85 A; 9 V / 2.85 A; 12 V / 2.15 A). Such modes are necessary to transfer increased power to the battery at the beginning of the charge process, followed by a decrease towards the end (so that the battery simply does not explode).

The cord for connecting the “charging” to the smartphone from the “charging” side is one-piece. She herself turned out to be overall and weighty, which is explained by her increased power. Thus, this device is not ordinary, and it must be protected. And when replacing with a conventional charger, you will have to put up with an increase in charge time.

And, finally, the remaining unexamined part of the kit: a tool for extracting the tray with a SIM card and a memory card:

It is decorated with Motorola symbols, otherwise it is nothing special and can be replaced with a paper clip in case of loss.

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Let's summarize the Spartan configuration of the smartphone:

• The smartphone itself
• Charger;
• Tool for extracting the tray with a SIM card and a memory card;
• User manual and safety and legal notice document.

Unfortunately, the kit does not include a cover or a case to protect the device from accidental damage to its appearance, there is no headset, and there is no USB-OTG adapter for connecting external devices. For such a price, one could put something from this list, since such trifles are inexpensive.

In the Russian market, Moto X Force is currently available in only one color variant - black.

Time flies inexorably and surely many of our readers have not found Motorola mobile phones in their better times: The company was not only the creator of the first mobile phone, but has long been a pioneer both in terms of design and the materials used in their phones. Motorola left our market for a long time (which did not prevent the most avid fans from buying Moto smartphones abroad). If memory serves, then the last official smartphone we had was the metal horizontal slider Motorola Milestone on Android OS, which was discontinued in 2010. And the news that Motorola is returning, albeit as part of Lenovo, could not but rejoice. The logic is quite clear: Lenovo decided to buy and try to revive interest in the brand that is involved in the legendary StarTAC, E398, RAZR V3 and a bunch of other models. At the moment, we officially sell four current (although a new line will be presented soon) models of different price segments and the flagship is Moto X Force.

What's this?

Moto X Force can no longer boast of the top-end hardware: it was released last fall and all the major players have already managed to update their lines. Despite this, the insides of the Moto X Force are quite up to date. As befits the top Motorola devices, there were some unique features: in this case, it is an unbreakable screen ShatterShield, which can withstand falls from a decent height, which has been repeatedly proven by numerous crash tests. used five-layer design, including a 5.4-inch Quad HD OLED matrix. Inside is last year's flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, which had some issues, and 3GB of RAM.

What's in the box?

Moto X Force is packed in a large square box in white and orange design, inside of which, as it turned out, not so much. In addition to the smartphone, a charger, a paperclip for removing the tray for the SIM card and a USB flash drive, and instructions are neatly packed inside in separate boxes and envelopes:

Separately, you should pay attention to the charger: it is quite massive and solid. This is not the usual USB cable and a separate power supply, but a charger and a separate cable for connecting to a PC are not provided in the kit. I'm not sure that this will be a problem: for sure everyone has already accumulated standard MicroUSB-USB cables at home. The charger is proprietary, with support for TurboPower fast charging with impressive characteristics of 2.15 A, 12 V:

What came up with the design?

To tell you the truth, my love for Motorola phones dates back to the RAZR V3, E398 and a number of other models of that time. Motorola has always taken a non-standard approach to the development of smartphones: everything was cool with the design, and from a software point of view, you could always find something unusual. The same The E398 delighted me at the very first touch, as it was the first acquaintance with the soft-touch coating (which eventually began to peel off, but the phone itself lived for many years, survived a couple of drownings, an incredible number of falls and experiments with custom firmware ).

Moto X Force, of course, also has its own interesting features, but first things first. The front panel is not too different from most modern smartphones. The main part of the area is occupied by the display, although the bezels are really wide by today's standards, and the display area to total ratio is very far from modern models. Unbreakable screen fee. Above the screen is a set of sensors, a front-facing camera, and an LED flash for selfies. The speaker is quite wide and has an insert in the form of a metal strip that protrudes above the plane of the smartphone. Bottom - two slots: in one - a microphone, in the second - a speaker. Not quite the usual solution:

One of the most interesting features The design of the smartphone is the back cover, which is closed by the so-called "ballistic nylon" (with a hint of bulletproof vests). It looks very cool and is very pleasant in the hand. This is the case when it was possible to achieve an expensive and unusual appearance without making the smartphone completely metal (or glass). The solution has already been used in earlier models, but only by Motorola. She also experimented with Kevlar backs. In Western countries, there is the Moto Maker service, which allows you to completely customize the colors of all elements of the smartphone. Of course, we do not have it (just like a four-year warranty on the screen):

At the top of the rear panel there is an element familiar to current Moto models: a decorative metal plate on which the camera eye is located, a dual LED flash and the good old Motorola logo in the recess below:

There is a massive metal frame around the perimeter of the smartphone. The headphone jack, plastic inserts for antennas and a tray are placed on the upper end:

The model is officially sold in Ukraine XT1580, which has a slot for one nanoSIM and microSD:

The design of the case provides for bevels to the side faces of the smartphone so that it is thinner on the sides and more comfortable in the hand. In the thickest part of the case, the thickness is an impressive 9.2 mm, in the thinnest - 7.6 mm. The metal frame also tapers towards the edges. Hardware buttons are located on the right side. They are thin, made of metal, and the power button also has a very nice notched texture:

At the bottom there is a familiar MicroUSB connector and again plastic inserts for bringing the antennas out:

On the left side - empty, only a metal frame:

The case is covered with a water-repellent coating, so that even despite the very impressive dimensions (and the smartphone is even slightly larger in width than the 5.7-inch Moto X Style: 78 versus 76.2 mm), Moto X Force fits like a glove thanks to its thoughtful shape: it is very convenient to use including with one hand. There is nothing to say about the build quality: everything is at the highest level, as usual with Motorola. Visually, the smartphone evokes the feeling of a rather massive (of course, with such dimensions), monolithic and moderately aggressive device.

Is the screen really that cool?

The smartphone is equipped with an unbreakable screen of its own design, which Motorola calledShatter Shield. The screen consists of five layers: an aluminum substrate, a flexible AMOLED display, a double touch layer and two outer protective glasses:

Such a decision has two sides of the coin: on the one hand, it is really very difficult to break it, there are tons of videos on YouTube that prove this. On the other hand, the outer protective layers are quite thick, which somewhat reduces the maximum brightness, although the effect a la the air gap is so minimal that it is felt only if you specifically look at the screen at the maximum angles. The second disadvantage is the top protective coating itself: it is softer and more flexible than the usual protective glasses. This is necessary so that it does not crack when dropped. But due to the fact that the coating is more like (feels like) a protective film, the screen quickly becomes covered with small, subtle scratches. Although, as for me, such sacrifices are quite justified, especially if you remember the cost of replacing the screen of a modern smartphone, which quite often is about half the cost of a new device. We decided not to conduct an extreme crash test: there is enough of this on the network, but it would not be entirely correct not to test it in office conditions either:

As for the quality of the picture itself: the smartphone uses AMOLED display with a diagonal of 5.4 inches and a resolution Quad HD (2560x1440), 540 pixels per inch. In this case, such a resolution can be considered justified, given the subpixel scheme in all screens of this type and some "looseness" of the picture at a low pixel density. In fact, this is a really very high quality AMOLED screen with maximum viewing angles and, surprisingly, quite calm color reproduction (of course, among active matrices on organic LEDs):

The usual disadvantages of AMOLED are also present, although they are not critical. At an angle, the picture is a little "green", and the maximum brightness is far from a record. Although it is quite enough for comfortable use under the already quite bright May sun. There is a good quality oleophobic coating:

Well, the usual multi-touch test:

AMOLED displays always have a lower maximum brightness compared to IPS, colorimeter measurements confirm this: the maximum brightness is 336.777 cd / m 2 , the brightness of the black field is 0 cd / m 2 , and the contrast tends to infinity, as it should be for this type of screens. The performance is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Unlike the Moto X Style, which was also reviewed on our website, there are no different color modes. The screen is calibrated very well and the deviations from the "reference" indicators are quite acceptable:

Comparison with competitors:

Device name	Brightness of the white field, cd/m2	Black field brightness cd/m2	Contrast
Moto X Force	336.777	0	∞
Meizu M3	344.943	0.601	574:1
Samsung Galaxy Note 4	345.91	0	∞
Xiaomi Mi4	423.5	0.64	662:1
HTC Desire Eye	527.337	0.483	1092:1

How is performance?

The Moto X Force has the typical flagship stuff from last year, with the exception of the fingerprint scanner, which is already quite familiar, installs and works adequately even in the middle class. Inside - last year's Qualcomm flagship: an eight-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 clocked at up to 2 GHz, which turned out to be very problematic and the first revisions were still very hot, heated up incredibly and came to failures, up to overheating when the camera was turned on. In this case, the last revision brought to mind is used, which works stably and heats up much less. There are no performance problems both in applications and in all modern games:

The amount of RAM is 3 GB comfortable for any load. We sell the only option: with 32 GB of internal memory, which is quite enough for many users, for the rest there is a MircoSD slot with theoretical support for cards up to 2 TB. There is one SIM card slot, for nano format.

The smartphone has almost all modern wireless modules: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz with MIMO, Bluetooth version 4.1 LE, NFC and even wireless charger standards are supported PMA and Qi. There is only no now quite familiar IR blaster for controlling electronics, although this is not fatal. The GPS module works without the slightest problem, which is not surprising:

The smartphone has a very capacious 3760 mAh battery, which during normal use with about 30 minutes of calls, constant synchronization via Wi-Fi and 3G, several photos and videos and about 30 minutes of games a day, the smartphone quietly lives up to the evening of the second day, which very good and close to the declared 48 hours in "mixed" mode. Video smartphone twists about 14 hours. The smartphone supports proprietary TurboCharge fast charging technology and the corresponding charger is included. Fully charged in 1.5 hours, and 20-30 minutes of charging in the morning is enough for the smartphone to work all day.

External speaker of medium quality and medium volume. Nothing supernatural, but nothing bad either. The sound quality in the headphones is very good quality. Yes, Meizu PRO5 is not up to musical devices like Meizu PRO5, but it is better than many devices on the market. The phone quite easily overclocks (in terms of volume) both 50-ohm MEE audio Pinnacle P1 plugs and full-sized OPPO PM-3.

For those who want to know more

The smartphone has a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810(MSM8994) with 4xARM Cortex A57 and 4xARM Cortex A53, 600MHz Andreno 430 GPU and additional co-processors for natural language processing and contextual computing, RAM is fast LPDDR4. The smartphone no longer sets records, but it shows a flagship level of performance by the standards of last year. The case (especially the metal frame) heats up under prolonged loads, but not so much that the smartphone was uncomfortable to hold in your hands. Benchmark results:

What other branded chips are there?

At this point, we usually consider the features and capabilities of shells and firmware: most manufacturers pretty much finish off Android, sometimes even to the level of a spaceship, like in Samsung flagships. Motorola went the other way: out of the box, the smartphone runs on almost virgin Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with a couple of branded applications, so the interface flies. It is familiar and needs no introduction, so it is worth dwelling on additional features.

The smartphone has an assistant with support for movements, voice commands and useful notifications a la Active Display. There is a set of simple and useful movements: A double rotary movement from sleep mode turns on the camera, a double "chopping" - a flashlight. Movements work flawlessly:

The "active" display can show useful information and control the player. It turns on when you raise your hand:

A clock and all notifications appear on the screen. Dragging down unlocks, slightly up - you can see the notification without turning on the screen, a little further - go straight to the mail or something else:

The function is great and really handy:

The interface and branded features (which, although not so many, but useful and convenient) work without any problems, like a Swiss watch. For those who plan to buy a smartphone, but it's cheaper abroad, you should take into account that the carrier options are full of a bunch of useless additional software that eats up memory and battery, so you should immediately demolish it.

How is the camera?

The camera application is similar to the one in Moto X Style, Nina Glushchenko already talked about it in yesterday's review. It is very different from the usual applications and the interface at first seems quite inconvenient, you need to get used to it. For example, a touch takes a picture, but does not focus in the right place. To focus, you need to drag the ring, there will also be exposure adjustment, scaling - with the upper movement on the screen. All settings are placed in a scrolling ring crawling out from the side. After a while, you get used to:

Main camera 21 megapixelaperture f/2.0 and facall autofocus (PDAF). Front - 5 MP, f/2.0. Although the camera application is strange, it’s worth recognizing that the smartphone takes very decent quality photos in almost any conditions. Is it inferior in picture quality to the latest Samsung flagships in poor lighting conditions:

The video camera shoots in UltraHD (4K), FullHD 60 fps and slow motion HD 120 fps. The video is also of very good quality.

In the dry matter

The current flagship Moto got to us later than we would like and by the time it enters the market, it already has competitors with more powerful hardware. Despite this, Moto X Force stands out from the competition: it has its own recognizable style and a unique unbreakable screen (and of very good quality). Still, Moto has not yet lost its ability to create really interesting, different, solid smartphones. This is supported by a very impressive, though not top-end performance, excellent cameras, a long time battery life and a nice bonus in the form of splash protection. The only thing that can push away from the purchase is the price of 19,000 UAH, which is commensurate with the new flagships of competitors that can boast more powerful hardware.

5 reasons to buy Moto X Force:

• Unbreakable ShatterShield screen with good picture quality;
• excellent case with a metal frame and a nylon back;
• impressive battery life;
• cool camera;
• pure Android of the current version with minimal but really useful additions.

2 reasons not to buy Moto X Force:

• high price
• competitors have more powerful models for the same money.

Specifications Moto X Force
Display	AMOLED, 5.4 inches, 1440x2560 pixels, pixel density 540 ppi, unbreakable ShatterShield
Frame	dimensions 149.8x78x7.6-9.2 mm, weight 169 g
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (64-bit, 4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.5GHz & 4x Cortex-A57 @ 2GHz), Adreno 430 video
RAM	3 GB LPDDR4
Flash memory

At the end of 2015, the American market was replenished with the flagship model Droid Turbo 2. It was designed to reincarnate the once top Motorola brand. Traditionally for the States, the device was tied to the Verizon operator. However, the new boss in the face of Lenovo went further and introduced Moto X Force - a smartphone for all markets. What is the highlight of this decision, we will now understand.

Appearance and equipment Motorola Moto X Force

The manufacturer, contrary to popular belief, does not position its offspring as a secure device. The only thing is that at the factory the smartphone is treated with a special liquid that makes the case waterproof. Thus, compliance with the IP52 standard is declared, which allows it to be wetted, but not immersed in water. At the same time, Moto X Force is equipped with a Moto ShatterShield display, which theoretically does not beat under any conditions. Lenovo gives it a 4-year warranty. As shown by crash tests, the screen really withstands several drops on a concrete surface, however, the case bends, but the smartphone itself continues to work.

The latter here has a metal frame and is made of aluminum. That is why the weight of the device does not exceed 169 g, with dimensions:

• Width - 78 mm;
• Height - 149.8 mm;
• Thickness - 9.20 mm.

These are quite normal indicators for such devices. If we talk about the form factor, then we have a 5.4-inch monoblock with rounded edges and fairly thick bezels around the screen. The main camera is recessed into the body, which means that you don’t have to be smart with a case and an additional protective glass for the lens. The function keys on the right side are small in size, but they work clearly and do not rattle. In general, the build quality is at a high level, although it would be difficult to expect anything else for this price tag.

The SIM card tray is located unusually - next to the 3.5 mm jack on the bottom of the case. Moreover, there is only one SIM here, but it is adjacent to the slot for a memory card. The back cover is non-removable and is one piece with the battery. By the way, it is made of "ballistic nylon", which a priori cannot be shuffled. But there are problems with the front panel. The fact is that she likes to accumulate dust on top and bottom of the decorative insert at the conversational speaker. Not spared and speakerphone with microphone. Are you talking about moisture resistance? Oh well. As for the “combat color”, here you can choose one single color - black. However, before us is a male device with all the consequences.

The device package includes:

• Smartphone.
• Charger TurboPower.
• USB cable.
• A clip to remove the SIM card tray.
• Headset (wired).
• Manual.

Motorola Moto X Force screen

Let's start with TTX:

• The maximum level of rage at the level of 330 cd / m2;
• Color gamut (sRGB) more than one hundred percent;
• Delta E - 1.6;
• Gamma is 2.3;
• Color temperature - 6800K.

Not to say that these are outstanding characteristics for a capacitive AMOLED screen. Moreover, it is manufactured by Samsung, which produce higher quality displays for themselves, but here they obviously cheated. However, QHD resolution is present, but manufacturing technology deserves special attention. Multilayer protection is implemented here, where the first layer is two durable plastic panels, then there are two sensor substrates, then a touch-sensitive “soft” OLED matrix that is indifferent to shocks. An aluminum substrate completes the picture, which covers the iron. Yes, it’s difficult to break this Big Mac, but it’s easy to scratch it, since the manufacturer did not provide for tempered glass, so you have to glue the protective film or the Chinese analogue of the “gorilla” to the heap. Needless to say, such a “pie” does not have the best effect on color reproduction. In addition, the multi-layer display increases the thickness of the case by at least a millimeter.

Viewing angles are good, but the screen is hopeless in the sun and mercilessly glare. There is a feeling that you look deep into and somewhere at the bottom of the system interface. In fairness, it should be noted that the effect is not noticeable indoors, but over time you start to look closely.

Motorola Moto X Force - firmware overview

Initially, the smartphone was delivered out of the box with Android 5.1 preinstalled, but migrated to Russia already with the sixth edition of the OS. And this is not naked firmware, not pathetic attempts to create something of your own, and then forget to update, but a balanced operating system, slightly finished by developers, but not deprived of its chips. So, a proprietary option has been implemented that displays all the necessary information on the locked screen. The device is sensitive to movement and light changes to show the current time or a notification of arrival at the destination at the right time. Interestingly, this has little effect on autonomy.

1. desired for the owners of "clean" Android 6.0 reset button;
2. contextual computing;
3. additional processors that control sensors and cameras while the smartphone is sleeping;
4. branded option Active Display.

Inside the Motorola Moto X Force

The device runs under the control of the very "barbecue" in the face of the Snapdragon 810, which received four ARM Cortex-A57 cores with a clock frequency of 2.0 GHz and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.5 GHz. On paper, everything is fine, but in practice, in multitasking mode, the device starts to overheat, and the frequencies sag. In fairness, we note that the case of the Moto X Force, even when overloaded, cannot be called hot, which aluminum and the thickness of the case help to a certain extent. However, in fact we get a Snapdragon 652 with good optimization for games, since the Adreno 430 GPU and 3 GB LPDDR4 RAM are also present.

The Motorola Moto X Force 64gb version may be enough for the average user if you don't need to store a lot of files. At the same time, internal memory can be expanded up to 2 TB using microSD cards for the price of an airplane. True, it's hard to believe. In any case, the card will think for a long time, but the same 256 GB are swallowed by the gadget without difficulty. If you neglect the memory expansion, then in the case of, for example, Motorola Moto X Force 32gb, you will get 21 gigabytes of usable space with a penny. The rest will be occupied by the operating system and software. However, no one canceled root-rights. By the way, the device supports OTS connection, even the mouse works, which is a little, but surprising.

Motorola Moto X Force test

It is impossible to call the model weak, although it does not take first place in synthetic tests, after all, it is 2017 in the yard. But it can compete with HiSilicon Kirin 935, MediaTek MT6795 and Exynos 7420. So, in AnTuTu, the device scores 85652 “parrots”. Browser and graphics tests are also average. There were no problems with playing Full-HD video. At the same time, the smartphone heated up a little higher and to the left of the center of the case, that is, where the processor is located. The maximum temperature was 48 degrees, the minimum - 24 degrees. This is tolerable, given the fact that under load, the average gadget heats up to 35 degrees.

In any case, you have to come to terms with the thought - you are buying a device for the "here and now", as new SoCs enter the arena, and games, albeit slowly but surely, are approaching their desktop counterparts. 2017 for Moto X Force will pass without loss, but the next one is still in doubt. Thus, touched on the future - no.

Connectivity and Communications Motorola Moto X Force

The smartphone is optimized for Russian networks, can work in 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA, as well as LTE Cat6 FDD and TDD, that is, it theoretically accelerates to 300 Mbps. There are no questions about the quality of signal reception. The device feels confident, both indoors and with a weak signal somewhere in the backyard. Thus, the following frequencies are supported:

• LTE FDD: Band 1-5-28; TDD Band 40;
• WCDMA: 850-2100 MHz;
• GSM: 850-1900 MHz.

Also provided:

• Bluetooth 4.1 with loopback;
• NFC module;
• two ranges of Wi-Fi;
• a similar number of MIMO antennas.

In addition, there is Wi-Fi Direct, and therefore the device can act as an access point. Of the connectors - microUSB of the second generation. Not that age for the third generation. The geotag is beaten off by GPS with A-GPS mobile correction, GLONASS is provided for masochists. Be that as it may, with a cold start, satellites are detected quickly. In addition, there is a magnetic sensor that can be used as a compass.

Regular dialer is different from the system and supports a quick search Smart Dial. The keyboard is also non-standard, but comfortable, there is continuous input. It is a pity that the developer did not provide for scaling the interface.

Motorola Moto X Force Cameras

The smartphone is equipped with:

1. 21-megapixel Sony IMX230 main camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash.
2. 5MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash.

As practice has shown, the software part of the cameras is implemented badly. Even switching to the front sensor with the movement of the hand does not save the situation. The controls react badly to tapas, and the interface itself is made carelessly, which is unforgivable for a flagship. At the same time, it is better to focus manually, since the automatic mode is obviously lazy. In addition, the exposure is combined with autofocus, which imposes considerable inconvenience.

Photography is at the proper level, but for obvious reasons, its quality does not reach modern top-end smartphones. The camcorder supports 4K, there is a slow mode, that is, slow motion. There is no optical stabilization as such, but the video is recorded smoothly when moving. Particularly pleased with the sharpness. There are those who scold the camera, but here, as they say, the taste and color. If you've tried out the optics of the iPhone 7, then of course the Moto X Force isn't the best option. Whatever it was, the detail is good.

The front camera for selfies is not the best option, unless Skype loves it, and the traffic will be saved, but a flash is implemented, which helps out a lot in certain situations.

Motorola Moto X Force sound

Before the release of the device, there were rumors about five speakers. Expectations were not justified. The device received one music speaker and two microphones, including those with noise reduction. The sound is loud and clear, with a small amount of mids and lows. At the maximum, the sound begins to choke, and the speaker wheezes. Although the manufacturer does not position its offspring as an external audio speaker. It is enough for a ringtone, and the voice recorder catches even distant conversations and records cleanly.

But in headphones, the picture changes radically, not without the help of a high-quality Snapdragon 810 audio path and a 10-band equalizer with presets. Thus, the solution is second only to devices with a separate DAC, it is enough for a music lover, but not enough for an audiophile.

Motorola Moto X Force battery life specs

The autonomy of the device pleases, despite the fact that a powerful processor and a large AMOLED screen are installed here, which are provided by a 3760 mAh battery. The charge without problems is enough for a couple of days of work in mixed mode.

• Video from a memory card for 13 hours;
• Games up to five hours;
• Reading - 7 hours.

The device supports fast charging and comes with a compact TurboPower charger that really charges up to a hundred in an hour and 15 minutes. True, the memory is not weakly heated. Nobody said that it would be easy, since this does not affect the performance of the adapter in any way. That is why the manufacturer did not provide a removable USB cable, so that the third-party simply does not melt. If you manage to lose the charger, then it will be difficult to find it in retail, and it costs a lot. It is recommended to use a standard charger too, so as not to destroy the battery, but the capacity replenishment rate will be appropriate.

Advantages and disadvantages of Motorola Moto X Force

Motorola fans were waiting for the Moto X Force to become cheaper, but the miracle did not happen, but it should have happened, because interesting analogues have long entered the market, which can do more and are cheaper. Be that as it may, the device still remains a device for fans of the brand, designed to surprise others, they say, Motorola is still hoo and what if the Chinese bought it. At the same time, not only the price is sad, but also the camera, the lack of which could be corrected programmatically, which for some reason the developers did not do.

Device advantages:

• Indestructible screen.
• Balanced iron.
• Large memory support.
• Thoughtful firmware.
• Capacious battery.
• Really fast charging.
• 21 megapixel camera.

Among the minuses we note:

• No tempered glass.
• Terrible camera app.
• Large bezels around the screen.
• Hot Snapdragon 810.
• Price.

Motorola Moto X Force: price and video review

The model can really surprise, one multilayer screen is worth something. Yes, and the device looks brutal and memorable. His place is on the torpedo of a jeep or next to a vertical gun, although there are no special protective qualities except for the screen. In other words, we have before us an unusual smartphone for those who want to stand out and least of all think about the filling, although calling it a budget one does not turn the tongue.

The price of Motorola Moto X Force in Russia is 40,000–50,000 rubles, depending on the volume of the drive. Check out the video review and crash test of the device below:

Foreword and Brief Specifications

For many, many years (since 1928), the Motorola company has been a symbol not only of success and prosperity, but also of scientific and technological progress. It was in this company back in 1973 that the first call was made from a mobile phone. And then Motorola mobile phones were very popular all over the world. Some time used one of them and the author of this review. I had this "tadpole":

Sometime in the distant future, such a phone will be placed under a hood in a historical museum with a sign "Cro-Magnon mobile phone. Presumably, the beginning of the 21st century." But the device was "cool" at one time! Color screen, polyphonic call, everything! It was possible to "stick out your fingers" in front of the girls: look what I have! :)
By the way. The phone shown in the photo is alive and well, only I don’t use it anymore. :)

So, back to Motorola. For many years, the company's business was going well, but in recent years, something in the company "broke". Some mistakes were made, and competitors (mostly Asians) "finished off" the company. Its remnants were bought by the Chinese computer giant Lenovo, under whose auspices Motorola brand equipment is now being produced.

Looking ahead a little, I’ll say that the Motorola Moto X Force smartphone, the review of which you are now reading, is also suitable for “sticking out your fingers” with it in front of the girls. Why? Read the review below! :)

The main technical characteristics of the smartphone Moto X Force - in this table:

Processor (SoC)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (8 cores: 4 Cortex-A57 x 2.0 GHz and 4 Cortex-A53 x 1.5 GHz), 64 bit
GPU	Adreno 430, 630 MHz
Flash memory	32 GB
RAM	3 GB
Display (size, type, resolution)	5.4", AMOLED, 2560 x 1440, shockproof
cameras	Primary: 21 MP (autofocus, flash); front 5 MP (flash)
SIM-cards	1 (nano SIM)
Micro SD card slot	There is
Data transfer	GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSPA+/4G; Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.1; NFC
Battery	3760 mAh (non-removable)
Navigation	GPS/GLONASS
Additionally	"fast charge" mode
Dimensions	78.0 x 149.8 x 9.2 mm
Weight	169 g
Official site	Motorola

The multi-core high-speed processor and the highest resolution organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display make no doubt - we have a real flagship in front of us!

Accordingly, in terms of dimensions and weight, the smartphone turned out to be not small.

The smartphone has many different sensors, including infrared sensors, designed to determine whether the user is in front of the screen.

But, unlike many other flagships, it does not have a fingerprint sensor.

But the front camera - as much as a whole 21 Megapixel!

Before the test, a fresh firmware with Android 6.0 version was installed. To what it led - see in the chapter "Platform and performance".

By the way, in this way, our portal was the first to fully test this smartphone after switching to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Flag in our hands and a drum around our neck! :)

Packaging and equipment

The packaging of the smartphone is unpretentious, and says absolutely nothing about the fact that we have a VIP patient in front of us:

And the contents of the package, to tell the truth, also do not shine with wealth. The smartphone itself, "charging", a paper clip to remove the SIM card and memory card, and a couple of pieces of paper. That's all. But let's take a closer look at them.

This is what the charger looks like:

The charger is not simple. It supports "Turbopower" fast charging technology, for which it is possible to switch output voltages: 12 V, 9 V, 5 V. Switching is carried out on command from the device being charged.

And the "clip" for removing the SIM card looks like this:

The "papers" from the kit are purely formal: instructions on state security and a brief instruction manual. We will not pay attention to them.

Appearance, construction software smartphone Moto X Force

The smartphone has a layout with its own features:

Note what exactly are the design features of the front side of the device.

First of all, we note that the smartphone does not have traditional touch buttons under the screen. The buttons are located right on the screen, like in tablets.

At the very bottom are two grilles that look like speaker grilles. But reading the instructions and field experiments with plugging these grilles with your finger showed that the speaker is hidden only behind the right grille, and the microphone is located behind the left one.

Up close, these grids look like this:

In the upper part (see photo below), everything is also not easy. The front camera is located there (this is in the order of things), and a little further away is a flash for it. But the front cameras are rarely equipped with a flash!

Also on this photo you can clearly see that in the center of the speaker grille there is a protrusion with slightly beveled edges. Its purpose is to raise the smartphone above the table surface and thereby give an outlet to the sound if the smartphone is placed with the front panel down. After all, he has all the speakers in front!

Do not pay attention to the "pattern" on the screen - it has a moire origin.
In this photo, 3 bright points are visible - these are infrared LEDs that ensure the operation of the infrared sensors of the smartphone. And they, in turn, are needed so that the smartphone "feels" the approach of the user and would show notifications of missed calls, SMS and other information on the screen, as well as an invitation to unlock the screen.

Let's look at other angles of our patient.

Rear view of our patient:

The back panel is covered with woven nylon threads. They have a glossy appearance and reflect light rays well. Therefore, in the photo, the back panel seems gray with "pimples", although in fact it is black. The manufacturer calls this miracle "ballistic nylon".

At the top of the rear panel there is an insert with the main camera, dual (two-color) flash and brand logo (Motorola):

SIM and memory card are inserted into the upper edge of the smartphone using this tray:

And in the next photo, the upper edge, where the card tray is inserted, is clearly visible:

In the same photo, the "on-off" button is visible on the side face. and to the right of it is a not very prominent volume rocker. And I would like it to stand out more - then it is more convenient to search by touch, and you can press more confidently.

Now let's move on to the software.

This is how the two "main" screens of a smartphone with preinstalled programs look like:

As you can see, the manufacturer has tried to leave the most clean Android on the Moto X Force smartphone.

Moto X Force Display

The display of the Moto X Force smartphone has a resolution of 2 560x1440 , in scientific terms it is called Quad HD - "quad HD", and this is true, because just HD is 1280x720.

The number of pixels per inch is 540 ppi, individual pixels are in no way distinguishable by the "naked eye", and indeed there is some redundancy in this figure. But more is not worse!

The screen is made using AMOLED technology, i.е. the screen surface consists of a very large number of organic light emitting diodes. The advantage of such a scheme is that there is no constant backlight. Only the pixel that should be lit is lit.

But the main feature of the display is that it is unbreakable! This refers, of course, to falls of the usual type (fell out of the hands), and not deliberately thrown against the wall or thrown out of the window of the 66th floor. :)
This was achieved by using multilayer plastic instead of glass, as well as a metal substrate.

Viewing angles are excellent, when rotated at reasonable angles, brightness and contrast suffer little, colors are not distorted. Moreover, this does not depend on the direction of rotation (unlike the good old IPS screens, which, as we know, are good for perpendicular turns, but bad for diagonal ones).

The measurement results of technical parameters are shown in the following table:

The brightness adjustment range is sufficient to work in bright sunlight and in complete darkness.

The color temperature turned out to be noticeably higher than the standard (which is 6500K). The image on the screen is "cold", but so slightly that it is unlikely to be noticed.

Contrast - as usual for AMOLED screens, infinite. When outputting black, the pixels simply go out and do not have any brightness (therefore, it cannot be measured).

A big "plus" is the applied OGS technology (without an air gap between all layers of the screen). The absence of an air gap reduces the number of reflective layers, which is good protection against glare in bright ambient light.

As a result, it is possible to operate the device even in direct sunlight. Not too much, of course, everything was clearly visible there, but the texts were readable, and the pictures were distinguishable.

The color gamut, however, is significantly wider than the sRGB standard:

What follows from such increased coverage? In general, nothing good. Depending on the nature of the picture on the screen, the colors may improve (if they were not expressive enough), or they may deteriorate. The latter is possible if the colors in the original image were bright enough; then on the screen they will be not just bright, but poisonously bright.

The work of automatic brightness control depending on the ambient light is at a good level. During the tests, it was necessary to switch to manual mode only when the tests themselves required it.

The display recognizes 10 touches at the same time. They may not need that much, but let them be.

The oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating of the display is at a good level, the screen hardly collects fingerprints.

A few words about gesture control.

Conventional gesture control means that the smartphone performs some action after drawing a certain shape (usually stylized letters) on the screen. There is no such thing in this device. But there is something else: "waking up" the display when the user approaches, as well as managing "powerful" movements.

How it works is explained in the following screenshot:

Platform and performance of the Moto X Force smartphone

The Motorola Moto X Force smartphone uses a very powerful 64-bit processor (SoC) Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (8 cores: 4 cores Cortex-A57 x 2.0 GHz and 4 cores Cortex-A53 x 1.5 GHz). That is, it consists of 4 powerful cores that work under heavy loads, and 4 energy-saving cores that ensure the operation of the device at low loads.

The amount of RAM the patient has is 3 GB, this is not a record, but very solid.

To begin with, according to tradition, we will look under the X-ray of the patient's insides. We will use the well-known benchmark AnTuTu as an X-ray: it will show the "inside" and evaluate the performance.

And now - the results of testing the performance of the Moto X Force smartphone in AnTuTu:

Now we can thoughtfully and seriously analyze the test results.

The result of the AnTuTu test "in parrots" (94947) is simply wonderful, the first place in the rating is very serious!

Here it should be noted that the result of AnTuTu in the reviews that were published earlier on other portals was much lower. Probably, this was the result of switching to Android 6.0 (other portals tested on 5.1) and "finishing" the firmware by the manufacturer. Probably, the “finishing” was very competent - you can’t just break into the leaders of the rating!
In fairness, it must be said that the result increased not only in this, but also in other tests (except for Bonsai).

We drive a little more in other "running" tests.

Epic Citadel, minimum quality settings:

The result is very good.

Now - the same Epic Citadel, but with maximum quality settings:

The result - almost did not fall! The processor is strong, oh, strong!

Then - BaseMark X in "Medium Quality" variant:

And, he is in "High Quality":

Another synthetic test - Vellamo:

And finally, the same Bonsai, which Android 6.0 installation did not help to increase the speed:

There is only one conclusion from these tests: the performance is at the highest, flagship level!

Let's move on to flash memory Moto X Force.

Of the 32 GB of flash memory, about 8 GB is occupied by the system and preinstalled applications, and 24 GB is available to the user:

24 GB of available memory can be enough for a frugal user if he does not "litter" the system with unnecessary files. But if there is a need, then the memory can be increased with micro-SD cards. The manufacturer promises that the system will "accept" cards with a capacity of up to 2 TB (not yet existing). In the meantime, with 64 GB cards - "normal flight".

Multimedia (sound and video)

There is only one "loud" (ringing) speaker in the smartphone, and therefore stereo sound can be heard here only in headphones. In addition, the bass is noticeably lacking. Of the "pluses" it should be noted the location of the speaker on the front side. Thanks to this, the sound is directed towards the user, which gives clear mids and especially high frequencies. The volume level through the call speaker is good. Even quiet tracks in movies can be brought up to an acceptable level by adjusting the volume.

In headphones (if they are of medium or high level), you can really hear high-quality sound. There are no problems with the frequency range, noise does not creep through.

Video playback by the built-in player "rests" against a traditional problem: AC3-encoded sound is not reproduced. And this is in a very expensive device! Well, how is it, comrades?! We "treat" this problem in the usual way - by installing a third-party player. I tried and recommend the VLC player, but there are others in nature.

Thanks to the high performance of the smartphone, any, even the most "heavy" video formats are played without problems. And this is quite logical. If he can shoot 4K (3840x2160) video, then he should be able to show it! :)

Communication, navigation, USB-OTG

The smartphone has a 4th generation connection ( 4G) . Its performance is confirmed not only by the appearance of the "4G" icon in the top line of the screen, but also high speed data transmission.

Yandex "Internetometer" showed in a typical case the following speed value:

These figures, of course, are not a dogma, but only a confirmation of the operability of 4G (LTE) communications; because the connection speed, as such, is determined not so much by the smartphone as by external conditions.

Navigation system Smartphone with a "cold" start kept within 25 seconds in an open area (great!), And with "hot" starts, the Navitel program said that "the connection with the satellites was established" simultaneously with the appearance of the map on the screen.

The launch of the AndroidTS navigation testing program showed that the smartphone supports only two navigation systems - the imperialist GPS and the domestic GLONASS:

In the "steady" mode, the accuracy of determining the coordinates was 2-6 m (see the Fix line on the following screenshot from Navitel):

Movement tracks are recorded adequately: if you walk along the same path in the forest twice, then the recorded tracks will almost coincide:

The smartphone has a function USB-OTG, i.e. the smartphone can act as an active USB device. True, in order to use this function, you will have to buy a USB-OTG adapter cable, which the economical manufacturer did not add to the kit. :)

This feature is very useful, because a smartphone can read and write information to USB flash drives - the most popular storage medium now:

The screenshot above shows that the smartphone successfully recognized both the inserted 64 GB micro-SD memory card and the USB flash drive ("flash drive") with a nominal capacity of 32 GB (their real capacity is less than what is written on the package :)).

Battery and auto Moto X Force

The battery capacity of the Moto X Force smartphone is 3760 mAh, this value is slightly above average. In a typical case, 3000 mAh batteries are installed exactly in smartphones with this screen size.

In the "heavy" load mode (AnTuTu battery test), the smartphone lasted 4 hours; and when watching movies - 10 hours! These are excellent results for modes that typically require high power consumption.

Let's look at the graph of the battery status in the "discharge (watching movies) - pause - charge" mode:

The picture just shown consists of the following pronounced areas: battery consumption (watching movies), pause, charging full-time charger. The graph adequately reflects the impact of loads and subsequent charging.

The graph shows confirmation of the TurboPower "fast charge" function declared by the manufacturer: the charge of such a huge battery was completed in less than 2 hours. This is an excellent result; in "normal" smartphones, the charge time is about 3 hours.

But it should be remembered that the "fast charge" mode can only work with the "regular" charger supplied with the smartphone, since it provides switching modes during charging.

The battery test in AnTuTu ended with the fact that AnTuTu assigned our device a place above "average":

So, in terms of autonomy, our Moto X Force showed very good result!
It seems that the main merit in this belongs to the smartphone screen using AMOLED technology. The screen on liquid crystal technologies would "eat" the battery charge much faster.

cameras

The smartphone uses the main (rear) camera with a mega-resolution of 21 megapixels, autofocus and flash (it goes without saying), as well as a 5-megapixel front camera, but with a fixed focus and, surprisingly, still with a flash.

And the manufacturer claims that the main camera can shoot 4K video (3840x2160). This is a very serious claim! Especially if the quality of the video matches the declared high parameters.

Before testing the cameras, a few words about the photo application. It is unusual. For example, there is no "take photo" button. To take a picture, touch anywhere on the screen with your finger. The settings are hidden behind the left side of the screen, while the gallery is behind the right.
On this occasion, colleagues from major technical portals expressed a lot of critical words. But in vain! At the first start, the photo application itself tells everything what and how is done in it. Read once - and you will be happy!
And if after that you don’t like it, you can put any other from Google Play - there are plenty of them for every taste and color. They are normally installed and working (tested on the photo application "lgcamera" - this is an example, not a recommendation).

Now - test shots with the main camera.

We start with a photo tour along the embankments of the Yauza and the Moscow River, from the street. Stromynka to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior inclusive.

Attention! by clicking on the photo, they will open in a new window in full size, the file size is up to 6 MB!

On the embankment near Stromynka there is a very cool state. office - "Rosoboronexport":

This photo shows a slight drop in sharpness towards the edges. It's okay if it's small.

After a couple of kilometers we see the house "Arco di Sole" ("Solar Arch") - one of the largest projects of the wife of the old man Baturin, a famous beekeeper and meteorologist:

A little further towards the center is the Technical University (MSTU). Previously called MVTU and had several common decodings: "The Grave Dug by the Works of Scientists"; more briefly - "We'll Kill You Here!"; there was even a "double" transcript: "You drink a little - it's hard to study, you drink a lot - you'll be fired immediately!". In the West, it was simply called "Soviet Rocket College":

Oddly enough, the Yauza is a slightly navigable river, and small vessels for technical purposes gather near the dam:

At the confluence of the Yauza (by the way, one of the dirtiest rivers Central Russia) one of the famous Stalinist skyscrapers is located in the Moscow River. She was photographed in backlight:

Now - the same object, but photographed in HDR mode (improvement of the dynamic range by adding two photos with different exposures):

The difference is noticeable very well: the bright places have become darker (the sky), and the dark ones have become lighter (the lower 2 floors of the building). HDR is working!

And finally, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. One of the coolest new buildings of the "dashing 90s". The original was blown up in Stalin's times, before the war:

This completes the tour of the embankments, although the embankments are not over yet.

Shooting under artificial lighting (in the Moscow metro car):

This image already shows a decrease in clarity and an increase in noise associated with a decrease in illumination.

When shooting at night, the drop in clarity becomes even greater. Yes, and autofocus often works with errors, of several photos, only one is acceptable.

Macro shooting:

Macro photography is good.

And finally, shooting the text:

Repent, sinners, repent! And then you make mistakes again...
The text turned out very clearly, even the structure of individual letters is visible.

Up to the heap - test frame frontal camera with flash:

Shooting with the front camera is more or less tolerable, suitable for undemanding selfies, and interestingly, including night selfies.

Now - testing video recording in maximum format (4K, 3840x2160) :

The image on the video is very clear and smooth (with the exception of a couple of places with sharp camera jerks). In a smartphone, when shooting a video, frame stabilization is automatically turned on.

The image on the video is so clear that you can use the frames from the video as separate independent photos. An example is a screenshot taken while playing this video on a smartphone:

In this way, continuous shooting at a frame rate of 30 fps is obtained. But the recorded stream is huge, 51 Mbps. This 1 minute video took up 395 MB of space!

There are more conventional video recording modes in the smartphone: Full HD and simple HD. In the latter case, the smartphone makes "slow-motion recording": it records at a frame rate of 60 fps, and plays back at a rate of 30 fps.

A short summary of a series of test photos.
Photos in good light are excellent (in their class, of course).
Photos in low light quality do not stand out, but are suitable.

As for the video, it is at an excellent level for a smartphone.

On this, we consider the consultation of doctors completed and move on to the results.

A few more words about the performance of our hero. While the layout of the material was going on, competitors had already managed to shift our Moto X Force smartphone from 1st place in AnTuTu to 3rd. The first places were taken by "fresh" ones - Samsung Galaxy S7 and Xiaomi MI 5, which scored over 130,000 points against 94,947 for ours. Life goes on, and new processors are, of course, stronger than slightly less new ones. However, performance is stillour Moto X Force is beautiful.

A special feature of the Moto X Force is the unbreakable screen. Replacing screens in flagship smartphones costs so much that a shatterproof screen can save you a lot of money (even if its "original" price is a bit high - just under 50,000 rubles).

As a flagship, it has only one drawback (besides the price) - the lack of a fingerprint sensor. It's not a big deal, but still...
And, maybe, for someone it will be a disadvantage that the device works with only one SIM card. Many are already accustomed to two SIM-cams: one for personal affairs, the other for work; or one - for the Internet, the other for conversations; or one for the wife, the other for the mistress; there may be other options... :)

This is the final diagnosis.

pros:

The highest performance;

Good autonomy;

Excellent AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 and OGS technology;

Good job and a complete set of wireless communications, support 4G (LTE) ;

Large amount of RAM and flash memory;

The presence of a slot for an external memory card;

Good sound in headphones, the presence of a volume margin;

High-quality photos and videos;

Good navigation performance, very fast positioning on cold start;

USB-OTG support;

Support for "fast charge" mode;

The latest (at the beginning of 2016) operating system Android 6.0 Marshmallow;

Minuses:

Work with only one SIM card;

No fingerprint sensor;

- "economical" equipment.

If the smartphone you bought turned out to be with version Android 5.1, then update the firmware to Android 6.0 Marshmallow: the performance of the device will increase significantly. The firmware is installed "over the air" through the standard smartphone menu item.

And one more thing: take care of the screen, please. It is not breakable, but it can be scratched. :)

Lenovo returns legendary Motorola smartphones to the Russian market

On February 11, 2016 the Lenovo company announced return of the legendary Motorola brand to Russia. The first devices presented on the Russian market will be Moto X (Play, Style, Force) and Moto G series smartphones. In the Russian office of Lenovo they say: “We know how popular Motorola brand smartphones are in Russia, and we are pleased to announce the return of the legend and present a new generation of devices under the Moto brand - smartphones with an attractive design, high autonomy and improved protection from external influences. Among the new products, everyone can find the most suitable option for him. The Moto X series is equipped with ultra-high-performance cameras that will appeal to creative minds, while the Moto X Style and Moto X Force models will allow their new owners to express their individuality with a variety of design options.”

Today we already have the opportunity to examine in detail the top and, accordingly, the most expensive model from the entire new family, which is soon preparing to enter the shelves of Russian stores. This flagship is currently Motorola X Force, although this model is already familiar to our regular readers under a different name. The same model, offered overseas by the American operator Verizon, appears there under the name Droid Turbo 2, and rumors about it have spread much earlier. The thing is that this smartphone, which is just preparing to enter our market, has been on sale in the very homeland of the Motorola brand in the USA since the end of last year, and we know a lot about it. In particular, it is known that the screen of this model is positioned as "unbreakable", and that in the States themselves, the manufacturer even gives a four-year warranty on it. But neither such a guarantee, nor the MotoMaker branded service in our market, apparently, Lenovo will not provide. In all other respects, the model officially supplied to us is no worse than the American one, it's time to consider it in all its details. Let's start traditionally with the specifications.

Key Features of Moto X Force (Model XT1580)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 8 cores: 4×2.0 GHz (ARM Cortex-A57) + 4×1.5 GHz (ARM Cortex-A53)
• GPU Adreno 430 @600 MHz
• Operating system Android 5.1
• Touchscreen AMOLED 5.4″, 2560 × 1440, 540 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB, internal memory 32 GB
• SIM cards: Nano-SIM (1 pc.)
• Map support microSD memory up to 2 TB
• GSM networks 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• WCDMA networks 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
• Networks LTE Cat.6 FDD Band 1-5/7/8/12/17/20/25/28; TDD 40
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2 bands) MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth 4.1LE, NFC
• USB 2.0, OTG
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass
• Direction, proximity, lighting sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetic compass
• Camera 21 MP, autofocus, f/2.0, LED flash
• Camera 5 MP, front, f/2.0, LED flash
• Battery 3760 mAh
• Qi wireless charging support
• Dimensions 150×78×9.2 mm
• Weight 170 g

Equipment

The packaging of the Moto X Force is a very large tall square box, which contains almost nothing, except for the smartphone itself and the charger for it.

The charger here is not quite ordinary: it does not have the usual USB output, the cable to the block is soldered tightly. The smartphone supports TurboPower accelerated charging, so the maximum output current of the bundled charger is 12 V 2.15 A. The bundled charger is quite massive, you can’t call it compact, but you will have to carry it with you if you want to use the fast charging function.

Appearance and usability

It's nice that the design of Motorola smartphones, though not much, but constantly changes, does not stagnate in one place, like the same Sony Xperia Z, for example. You won't find identical Moto models outwardly, but they are all invisibly connected by a single design style, in each of them, even without looking at the logo, you can always accurately recognize the brand.

What is even more pleasant, Motorola smartphones are completely different from the Apple iPhone or anyone else, but they do not try to emphasize their otherness. They are just by themselves, and that is why they are, perhaps, so distinctive and recognizable. Moto smartphones are very beautiful in appearance, and I really hope that even under the heel of Lenovo they will remain the same in the future. Indeed, Lenovo itself, admittedly, has not developed any permanent design of its own over the years of work on the market, all its smartphones are of various colors, and only very few of them are beautiful.

Moto X Force looks even more interesting than Moto X, Nexus 6 and all other predecessors that came out of the pen of American designers. The smartphone has a very unusual massive metal frame of complex shape, which gives the body ergonomics and design - completeness. The body of the Moto X Force is by no means thin, but at the same time it is so streamlined that there is absolutely no feeling of excess thickness here. Still, it’s a pity that the developers followed the fashion and made all their new items “shovel-shaped”: if the smartphone were smaller in size, it would fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, but this, unfortunately, cannot be said about a device with a screen size of five and a half inches and weighing more than 170 grams.

The device really turned out to be large and massive, but there is a category of users who have closed their eyes to all this for a long time, if only the screen diagonal was larger. If you approach the Moto X Force from this point of view, then it is simply perfect. And the screen, by the way, here is even more unusual than one might expect.

The Motorola X Force, known in America as the Droid Turbo 2, is claimed by its creators to be "the world's first smartphone with a shatterproof display." To protect the display from damage, Motorola used a technology called Moto ShatterShield. According to the creators, a smartphone with such a screen can easily survive the fall, after which most other smartphones will fail. The company's specialists have been working on the creation of the corresponding technology for more than three years. For increased durability, the display elements - a flexible AMOLED panel with a double touch layer and two protective glasses - are mounted on a plate-shaped aluminum chassis. Motorola claims that it will be almost impossible to break such a screen.

The back cover is no less unusual than the front panel. This material, which is used to decorate the back of the Moto X Force case, is described in less detail in press releases, but the creators themselves call it “ballistic nylon”. To the touch it is really something textile, through a magnifying glass you can even see some small woven fiber. That is, it is certainly not just textured plastic, as happens when they try to imitate carbon fiber (the so-called "carbon").

Be that as it may, this material seems to be practical. At the very least, it certainly does not leave any fingerprints, and how durable it is, time will tell. But at the same time, it is impossible to characterize such a coating as non-slip. It is very slippery, but the side frame, which is held in the hand much more securely, saves the smartphone from slipping out of the hands.

The Moto X Force doesn't have an infrared transmitter to emulate remote controls, no heart rate sensors or anything like that. Of the "flagship excesses" in the device, there is not even a fingerprint scanner, although this is already becoming a familiar attribute of any modern top-end smartphone, and not just a flagship. That is why it was even more surprising to find the complete absence of such elements in such a highly positioned device offered by the manufacturer at a price of 50 thousand rubles.

There are no touch buttons on the front panel. In the lower part, two symmetrical elongated holes are cut right in the protective glass, which are a couple of centimeters apart from each other. Why two holes were cut out here, and not one, remains a mystery. Obviously, they were going to imitate the presence of stereo speakers in this way, but their presence is easy to refute by covering the holes with your finger in turn: the sound comes out of only one hole. In any case, these two “holes” in the front look rather ridiculous - it would be better if the designers, as before, made a metal insert at the bottom, symmetrical to the top, it would look more organic. For microphones, there are their own small round holes located on the back of the case. By the way, there are as many as five microphones in the device, additional microphones are used for active noise cancellation.

In the upper part above the screen, in addition to the sensors and the front camera, there is also its own LED flash, which is quite rare in smartphones. The LED event indicator is also located here. The Motorola smartphone, as before, has an additional processor for contextual computing that works with sensors and a camera and replaces the main processor in idle mode. One has only to bring a hand to the “sleeping” Motorola X Force, as notifications about the current time and missed events appear on the screen in monochrome mode.

The block of mechanical control keys is not implemented in the best way. The buttons themselves are small, thin, practically do not protrude beyond the body, so it is difficult to find them blindly. In addition, the keys also have an excessively tight and short travel, you need to get used to them. The lock button here unexpectedly moved to the top of the side face, although the most common option now is when the volume control unit is located above, and the power key is already closer to the middle of the face. Here, these buttons are mixed up, you will have to change your habits.

Interface connectors are located on both ends of the case. On the top there is a 3.5 mm jack for headphone output, and a Micro-USB connector is embedded in the bottom end, which supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode.

At the top end, in addition to the headphone output, there is a slot for installing cards. The trays on the sliding metal sled are arranged one after the other, they can accommodate one Nano-SIM card and one microSD memory card. You cannot install a second SIM card in place of the memory card. Hot swap supported.

The last element that completes the “tour” on the outer shell of the review hero is an oblong matte metal plate that combines the rear camera, flash and Moto logo in a single unit. This is perhaps one of the most striking design elements, coupled with an unusual back wall coating, it gives the case a special appeal. All together it really looks incredibly stylish and expensive.

But there is also a “fly in the ointment” here: the protective glass of the camera turned out to be deeply recessed inside a sort of metal shaft with absolutely straight walls. Accordingly, dust will definitely accumulate there, and it will be possible to remove it from this hole only with the use of a cotton swab. The scale of the "tragedy" can be clearly estimated from this photo.

As for the colors of the case, there is still some uncertainty in this matter, since, apparently, there will be no other colors other than black on sale on the Russian market. We also do not support the Moto Maker service, which would allow you to independently choose the color and material of the back panel for yourself.

Well, let's note the last detail: according to the representatives of the company, the body of the novelty is provided with some kind of water-repellent coating. Literally, it sounds like this: “The advanced nano-coating creates a water-repellent barrier, protecting the device from the ingress of small amounts of moisture, such as accidental liquid spills, splashes and light rain. Not rated for total immersion in water or exposure to pressurized water or other liquid. Not waterproof."

Screen

The Moto X Force smartphone is equipped with an AMOLED touch screen, made using a special technology called ShatterShield. The physical dimensions of the display are 68 × 121 mm, the diagonal is 5.4 inches. The screen resolution is 2560×1440, the dot density is 540 ppi. The frame on the sides of the screen is very wide (at least 5 mm), it looks unusual for a modern flagship and the device certainly does not paint.

The display brightness is automatically adjusted based on a light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to handle 10 simultaneous touches. There are no options for activating the screen by double tapping on the glass or another gesture, but there is a function for automatically activating and displaying information on missed events and the current time in monochrome.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (just Nexus 7 below). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Moto X Force, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Moto X Force is still lighter (the brightness in the photographs is 121 versus 106 for the Nexus 7 - apparently, retribution for ShatterShield), and the reflection of the white surface in it has a pronounced brownish tint. Note that reflections from bright objects on the screen of the Moto X Force have a pale blue-greenish halo that is slightly more pronounced laterally. The ghosting of reflected objects in the Moto X Force screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the screen layers (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. There is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen (very effective, slightly better than the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and with a white field displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was approximately 320 cd / m², the minimum was 5.4 cd / m². The maximum brightness is not very high, but you need to take into account the good anti-glare properties of the screen and the fact that in this case the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. For example, when outputting white on half of the screen (and black on the other half), the maximum brightness with manual adjustment rises to 350 cd/m². As a result, readability during the day in the sun is at a fairly good level. The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device without any problems even in complete darkness. There is an automatic brightness control according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the cutout of the upper front speaker). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. This function depends on the position of the brightness slider. If it is at 100%, then in complete darkness, the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 110 cd / m² (too light), in an office lit by artificial light (about 400 lux) it sets to 220 cd / m² (will do), in a very bright environment (corresponding to a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 465 cd / m² (which is significantly higher than with manual adjustment). Brightness slider at 50% - the values ​​are as follows: 9, 100 and 465 cd / m² (acceptable values ​​from our point of view), at 0% - 1.2, 16 and 465 cd / m² (the logic can be traced). In general, the automatic brightness adjustment function works adequately and allows the user to somewhat customize their work to individual requirements.

At any brightness level there is a significant modulation with a frequency of approximately 239.6 Hz. The figure below shows the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time (horizontal axis) for several brightness values:

As a result, at low brightness (when the duty cycle increases), the presence of modulation can already be seen in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, such flickering can cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses an AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphoto:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

On the fragment above, you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), while repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without gaps and overlap. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer considers the screen resolution based on green subpixels, on the other two it will be two times lower. The location and shape of the sub-pixels in this variant is similar to the variant in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and some other newer Samsung devices (and not only) with AMOLED screens. This version of PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and stripes of green subpixels. However, some uneven contrasting borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to the very high resolution, they have minimal effect on image quality.

The screen has excellent viewing angles. True, the white color, when deviated even at small angles, acquires a slight blue-green tint, and at some angles it turns a little pink (although this effect is much less pronounced than it usually happens with AMOLED), but the black color remains just black at any angles . It is so black that the contrast parameter is simply not applicable in this case. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Moto X Force and the second comparison participant, while the brightness of the screens is initially set to about 200 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 K. A white field is perpendicular to the screens:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And a test picture:

The color balance of the screens is slightly different, and the colors of the Moto X Force are oversaturated and unnatural (for example, tomatoes are poisonous red, and the face has a carrot tint). However, we recall that this is how the camera registers, it is better to look at the details of color reproduction in the results of hardware tests. Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen.

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Moto X Force at an angle is noticeably higher. And the white box:

The brightness at an angle on both screens has noticeably decreased (in order to avoid severe darkening, the shutter speed is increased compared to the previous two photos), but in the case of the Moto X Force, the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the Moto X Force screen visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since the screen of a mobile device often has to be viewed at least from a slight angle.

Switching the state of the elements of the matrix is ​​\u200b\u200bpractically instantaneous, but at the on (and less often - off) front there may be a step about 17 ms wide (which corresponds to the screen refresh rate). For example, this is how the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back when the field is displayed in full screen:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects, but in normal use it is difficult to see these artifacts. On the contrary, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “twitchy” movements.

The gamma curve constructed from 32 points with an equal interval according to the numerical value of the shade of gray did not reveal a blockage either in the shadows or in the highlights. Approximation exponent power function is 2.28, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve almost does not deviate from the power law:

Recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for light images in general and increases for dark ones. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential grayscale output almost on the entire screen. In the case of this screen, there is no option to select a profile with hardware color gamut reduction, as a result, the color gamut of the Moto X Force is very wide:

The spectra of the components (that is, the spectra of pure red, green, and blue colors) are well separated:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut without proper color correction, normal images optimized for sRGB devices look unnaturally saturated. The balance of shades on the gray scale is good. The color temperature is close to the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the black body spectrum (ΔE) over the entire significant part of the gray scale remains below 10 units, which is considered acceptable for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature and ΔE change little from hue to hue - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of the color balance:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale in most cases can be ignored, since there the color balance does not matter much, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Let's summarize. The screen does not have a very high maximum brightness, but it has good anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is acceptable (and highly recommended in very bright light) to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating and a good color balance. At the same time, let's recall the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected on the screen), good white field uniformity, noticeably less than that of LCDs, a drop in image brightness when viewed from an angle. The disadvantages include flickering of the screen, especially manifested at low brightness. Users who are particularly sensitive to flicker may experience fatigue as a result. The negative properties include an excessively wide color gamut, which makes ordinary images look unnatural. However, overall the screen quality is high.

Sound

The smartphone sounds impressive: the device is equipped with only one main speaker, it cannot create a stereo panorama, but the smartphone emits a very loud and at the same time clear sound at the maximum level, with a noticeable presence of low frequencies. In headphones, the situation is no worse: the sound is clear, bright and thick, the frequency spectrum is wide. Both in the headphones and in the external speaker, the maximum volume level is sufficient, but not excessive. The sound is very pleasant to hear. All settings are combined with the proprietary Google Play Music player in the form of an equalizer and additional preset values.

In conversational dynamics, the timbre and intonation of a familiar voice remain recognizable, the noise reduction system copes with its tasks absolutely adequately. The vibrating alert is not very powerful here. FM-radio in the smartphone is not provided, as well as recording telephone conversations with the line by regular means.

Camera

Moto X Force is equipped with two modules of digital cameras with a resolution of 21 and 5 megapixels. The front camera is equipped with a 5-megapixel sensor and an f / 2.0 aperture lens without autofocus, but with its own flash. The camera unexpectedly turned out to be of a modest level, for a flagship to see selfies of this quality is somewhat surprising.

The main camera is equipped with a Sony IMX230 sensor with a resolution of 21 MP and an f / 2.0 lens with autofocus and dual multi-color flash. Autofocus isn't too fast, but shooting with zero shutter lag is very fast.

Another thing is that the camera control here is perhaps the most inconvenient of all possible. It is really uncomfortable to use, you have to get used to it. Initially, there is no virtual button for shooting at all, it simply does not exist, so you automatically press the central key, which is responsible for exiting the application. It turns out that shooting can be done by touching the screen or pressing the side volume key. Again, instinctively, out of habit, fingers touch the screen for manual focus (because autofocus often fails), but the picture is taken immediately. To display the ability to control focus and exposure on the screen, it is necessary to perform additional actions each time, causing a circular menu with a side swipe, which is far from always pulled out the first time. There are only icons in this menu, so until you click, you won’t know what is hidden behind them. All this is very annoying, and there is no possibility of transferring camera control to third-party applications via the Camera2 API, and it is also impossible to save pictures in RAW.

The video camera can shoot at resolutions up to 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD), it is possible to record slo-mo in 720p resolution, but all at the same speed of 30 frames per second. Nothing is said about electronic stabilization, but shooting on the go is very smooth. The camera copes well with shooting video, there are no complaints about the image quality. The image is smooth, with good sharpness, light and detailed. At the same time, the sound is recorded with high quality, the noise reduction system copes with its tasks adequately.

• Clip #1 (123 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
• Clip #2 (23 MB, 1920×1080 @30 fps)
• Movie #3 (27 MB, 1280×720 @30 fps, slo-mo)

	The camera does a very good job with macro photography.
	Good sharpness across the field and according to the plans, although it drops a little towards the edges of the frame.
	Numbers of not the closest cars are distinguishable.
	The camera copes well with shooting various text.
	The camera handles small details well.
	Sometimes with the removal of the plan, the sharpness drops a little.

We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench according to our methodology.

It is difficult to call a flagship camera - in a smartphone for such a price, I would like to see a better solution. Nevertheless, it is clear that the manufacturer tried both when choosing a module and when writing the firmware. However, periodic dips in the background and blurring at the edges of the frame speak of the “dampness” of the program. However, in the "native" Sony smartphones, this module works in much the same way, so perhaps it remains to be cunning by reducing the resolution. And yet, the detail of the camera is good: even small details in the background are often distinguishable. Thus, the camera will cope with documentary shooting perfectly, and, most likely, with artistic shooting too - especially if you close your eyes to the blur at the edges of the frame and in some places “stuck together” branches in the background.

Telephone part and communications

The smartphone can operate in most bands of 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth-generation LTE Cat6 FDD and TDD networks, that is, this device has the ability to provide a theoretical speed of up to 300 Mbps per download. At the same time, the smartphone supports all three of the most common LTE FDD bands among domestic operators (B3, B7 and B20). In practice, with the SIM card of the MTS operator in the Moscow region, the smartphone was confidently registered and worked in 4G networks. The quality of signal reception does not cause any complaints, the device confidently maintains communication indoors and does not lose the signal in areas of poor reception. The full list of supported frequency bands is as follows:

• LTE FDD: Band 1-5/7/8/12/17/20/25/28; TDD Band 40
• WCDMA: 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz
• GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

The device also has support for Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, dual Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) 2 × 2 MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The Micro-USB connector supports the USB 2.0 specification and the connection of external devices in USB OTG mode.

The navigation module works with GPS (A-GPS) and Glonass. There are no complaints about the speed of the navigation module, the first satellites are detected during a cold start within the first tens of seconds. The smartphone is equipped with a magnetic field sensor, on the basis of which the compass of navigation programs functions.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is also carried out immediately by the first letters in contacts. The regular virtual keyboard supports the method of continuous input with a stroke from letter to letter (Swype). There are no options for reducing the size of virtual keyboards or the entire working space of the screen in the standard interface.

OS and software

The Moto X Force we tested runs on version 5 of Google's OS, but company officials say production models will go on sale with version 6 of Android Marshmallow. The most curious thing is that, unlike Lenovo's own smartphones, which have one of the most heavily modified Vibe UI shells, the same company supplies devices under the Moto brand with an absolutely clean Google Android interface. That is, in fact, we have in front of us almost the same “google phone” as the usual Nexus series smartphones.

There is nothing special to add here, the interface is well known and described in detail many times, everyone determines all the pros and cons of “naked” Android for himself. It's just worth considering that the original Google interface is so laconic that users will have to deal with such annoying little things as the inability to display the battery charge on the top panel, close all applications at the same time, or, for example, very inconvenient camera controls. There is not even such a simple function as rebooting the device: for some reason, in the proprietary Android interface, when you hold down the power key, a single “turn off” button appears, but there is no “restart” button. It is clear that you can restart by holding the key for a long time, but was it really difficult to draw one button? People who have not had experience with pure Android in the face of Nexus smartphones before can be confused by such restrictions, since the interface of all other devices is almost always being finalized by the manufacturer.

As for the features related to the hardware capabilities of Motorola smartphones, here, as before, the so-called "Motorola Mobile Computing System" is equipped. This system includes an additional processor for contextual computing (working with sensors and a camera) and a natural language processor for working with sound and, in particular, with voice control. Additional processors allow you to save energy by taking over the functions of controlling microphones, sensors and cameras while the smartphone is in sleep mode. Control is necessary for such functions as Active Display, as well as voice control, but, as before, after all the settings, it turns out that the Russian language is not supported by Motorola's proprietary voice control.

Performance

The Moto X Force hardware platform is based on an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. This 64-bit SoC is made using a 20 nm process technology, it includes four powerful 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 cores with a frequency of up to 2 GHz, which are complemented by four simpler 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5 GHz. The Adreno 430 video accelerator with an operating frequency of up to 600 MHz is responsible for processing graphics in the SoC. In addition, the Motorola Mobile Computing System includes the Natural Language Processor and the Contextual Computing Processor discussed above.

The amount of RAM (LPDDR4) of the smartphone is 3 GB. The amount of internal memory can be selected between 32 and 64 GB. In the case of the 32 GB version, the user is left with about 21.5 GB of free space. This volume can be increased with microSD cards, it is also possible to connect external flash drives to the USB port in OTG mode. MicroSD cards are supported up to 2TB, in practice our 128GB Transcend Premium microSDXC UHS-1 test card was recognized by the device with confidence.

The top-end platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 is quite capable of competing with modern alternative flagship solutions such as HiSilicon Kirin 935, MediaTek MT6795 and Exynos 7420 in terms of graphics, but in terms of overall CPU performance in complex tests, it is currently not in first place. In any case, the Moto X Force smartphone is at the flagship level in terms of performance, its hardware capabilities will be enough for several generations to perform any tasks, including demanding games, although devices with SoC Snapdragon 820 are already entering the arena, replacing the platform , on which the hero of the review works.

Testing in latest versions complex tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing a smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks in tables. Several other devices from various segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (due to which the speed can rise above 60 fps).

	Moto X Force (Qualcomm Snapdragon 810)	LG Nexus 5X (Qualcomm Snapdragon 808)	Meizu Pro 5 (Exynos 7420)	Huawei Mate S (HiSilicon Kirin 935)	Letv1s (Mediatek MT6795T)
3DMark Ice Storm Extreme (more is better)	Maxed out!	Maxed out!	Maxed out!	6292	10162
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited (more is better)	23849	18840	25770	12553	16574
3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot (more is better)	1098	1149	1340	—	542
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Onscreen)	40 fps	—	52 fps	16 fps	26 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Offscreen)	53 fps	—	57 fps	12 fps	27 fps
Bonsai Benchmark	3810 (54 fps)	3950 (56 fps)	4130 (59 fps)	3396 (48 fps)	3785 (54 fps)

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

thermal images

Below is a thermal image of the back surface (the lighter, the higher the temperature), obtained after 10 minutes of running a battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:

It can be seen that the heating is strongly localized just above and to the left of the center of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 48 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), which is very strong heating for this test compared to other modern smartphones.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the test results, the test subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed for the full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network. Moreover, the smartphone offers to play its own recordings from the camera using the “photo gallery” program. That is, in order to successfully play third-party video files recorded in the device’s memory, in most cases you will have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it also needs to change the settings and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 audio format.

Format	container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Regular video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280x720 3000Kbps, AC3		Video plays fine, no sound¹
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280x720 4000Kbps, AC3	Video plays fine, no sound¹	Video plays fine, no sound¹
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920x1080 8000Kbps, AC3	Video plays fine, no sound¹	Video plays fine, no sound¹

¹ Audio in MX Video Player only plays after installing an alternative custom audio codec

Video output features tested Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We did not find an MHL interface, as well as Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with different parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In tests, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the respective files.

According to the criteria for displaying frames, the quality of playing video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is very good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. Note that due to the non-standard screen refresh rate (slightly less than 60 Hz), video files are played with a slowdown of about 0.17%. Subjectively, this is impossible to detect, but the question remains why it was impossible to make exactly 60 Hz. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly on the border of the screen. The clarity of the picture is high, but not ideal, since there is no escape from interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experiment, you can switch to the one-to-one mode by pixels, there will be no interpolation, but PenTile features will appear - the vertical world through the pixel will be in the grid, and the horizontal one will be a little greenish. This is true for test worlds, and the described artifacts are absent on real frames. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - in the shadows, only a couple of shades of gray do not differ in brightness from black, but in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed.

Battery life

The capacity of the built-in battery installed in Moto X Force is more than 3760 mAh worthy for modern smartphones. In this case, neither the high-resolution screen nor the demanding hardware platform could noticeably affect the high level of autonomy of the review hero. It is really very high here in all standard use cases, above average for sure. There are no specific energy-saving modes in the smartphone other than the standard one from the Android OS.

	Battery capacity	Reading mode	Video mode	3D game mode
Moto X Force	3760 mAh	4:30 p.m.	10:00 a.m.	4h 40m
Huawei Nexus 6P	3450 mAh	15:00	8:30 a.m.	4h 30m
LG Nexus 5X	2700 mAh	2:30 p.m.	6 a.m.	4 a.m.
LG G4	3000 mAh	17:00	9 a.m.	3 a.m.
One Plus 2	3300 mAh	14:00	11:20	4h 30m
Huawei Mate S	2700 mAh	12:30 pm	9 a.m.	3h 20m
Samsung Note 5	3000 mAh	17h 10m	10:40	5 a.m.
Google Nexus 6	3220 mAh	18:00	10:30	3h 40m
Meizu Pro 5	3050 mAh	5:30 p.m.	12:30 pm	3h 15m

Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) lasted more than 16.5 hours until the battery was completely discharged. Without the autoscroll function in the FBReader program, these figures will increase to 20 or even more hours. When continuously watching videos from Youtube in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device lasted at least 10 hours. In 3D gaming mode, he worked for more than 4.5 hours.

Moto X Force supports TurboPower fast charging. The smartphone is fully charged from the included charger in just 1.5 hours, while the back wall heats up noticeably. Using a third-party charger with an output current of 5 V 2 A, the battery will be charged much longer: in 1 hour, the smartphone was only charged up to 35% with a current of 5.15 V 1.2 A. Qi wireless charging is supported with a comparable charging time.

Outcome

As for the cost of new items: Moto smartphones will be available on the Russian market from March 2016. Lenovo promises that from March 1, sales will begin in Megafon, Euroset and Svyaznoy stores, and in mid-March in other retail chains.

• Moto G - at a price of 17 thousand rubles
• Moto X Play - at a price of 30 thousand rubles
• Moto X Style - at a price of 40 thousand rubles
• Moto X Force - at a price of 50 thousand rubles

The most expensive in the line, as expected, will be the Moto X Force model: Lenovo decided to ask for as much as 50 thousand rubles for it. Is it too much for such a model? The cost for the market is almost the maximum, if you do not take into account the very premium devices, but in general it makes sense. Before us is really a real flagship without any discounts, with a high-quality screen, sound, autonomy, hardware platform and, of course, a conspicuous body. As for the cameras, this issue has not yet been fully clarified - perhaps with the release of new firmware, the quality of their work will improve. But the lack of a fingerprint scanner in a top smartphone for 50 thousand is more difficult to explain. And yet, the main question is not this at all, but whether the Russian audience will accept the long-forgotten, but once beloved brand, and if so, in what capacity? It's no secret that Lenovo's own smartphones are perceived by users as solutions that are not at all as high-level as those of Samsung and Apple. But Motorola's new flagship will have to fight in their price category, that is, at the highest level. So with which of them will Russian users compare the products of the brand that has returned to our market? Everyone will decide this issue for himself, but it is already becoming obvious that the way to return the brand to Russia for Lenovo will not be easy at all. So far, we can state that the new Moto smartphones are exactly Motorola (remember the history of Thinkpad). But how will the brand develop further?