Replaced my Galaxy Nexus with a Motorola X

When I woke up in the morning, it never crossed my mind that I was going to change my phone that day.

I’ve been off contract for several months. If I wanted to go back in to contract, I would need a good deal since I was on an unlimited data plan that are no longer offered. Another benefit that I should look into a new contract is the price of a new phone.

Since I’ve used my Galaxy Nexus for two years and have been very happy with the stock Android experience, I didn’t want to go back into a custom branded phone; like something with Samsung’s Touchwiz for example.

I started the day by getting lunch at P.F. Chang’s, and right across the street there was a Telcel customer service office. So I went over there just to be curious on what was available, and surprisingly got a good deal: a lower rate contract since I not using all the minutes I was paying for, and a relatively good price on the Motorola X phone.

Coming from using the Galaxy Nexus, the improvements are very noticeable. Not in the software, which are minor tweaks, but in the performance. The GNex has 1GB RAM vs the Moto X’s 2GB RAM that make a world of difference in load and response times.

The screen is very bright and I love the contrast (is it called dynamic range?) of the blacks and the bright colors.

Although the general software is pure Google Android, it has some special software like Touchless control and display notifications. I comes with Android 4.2.2, and not the current 4.3 version. The Motorola sales guy told me that it will upgrade to 4.4 “as soon as it comes out”, but I take his word with a grain of salt. You can also install the Motorola Connect Chrome extension so you can read your SMS messages and review your call log on the computer screen.

Also the camera software is different from stock Android, which I still haven’t tested thoroughly. Upgrading my mobile camera from the GNex’s 8 megapixel camera to the Moto X’s 10.2 megapixel camera sounds like a nice improvement that I still have to test and compare in detail. I like the fact that with two swings of the wrist the camera quickly activates. I got tired of spending 8 to 12 seconds to bring up the camera on the GNex, most times missing the moment, and don’t get me started on the focusing. The Moto X camera seems to focus pretty fast the couple times I’ve tried it so far.

The only complain I have so far on the Moto X is the Gallery app. It doesn’t sync all my web albums. So all I see are the photos stored in the phone. I don’t want to replace the gallery app with some untrusted version. The same thing happens with my CyanogenMod tablet, but I’m willing to experiment on that one more than on my new device.

I know that at the time of this writing and my recent purchase, the Nexus 5 is only days away from being announced. But I don’t regret my purchase. It will take weeks for it to start hitting the streets and months for it to get offered by my mobile provider at probably double the price than in the US. I guess I’ll still want a Nexus 5 when it comes out, but for now I can wait a few months, to save up for it while I figure out how I can order it from the US and get it shipped to Mexico, but more importantly, read comments and feedback from the early adopters.