By After securing all its technology patents and selling off its set-top box unit, Google is looking to do even more with Motorola if latest rumors are to be believed. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google and Motorola would look to create the “X” phone, saying the phone would be very powerful and poised to compete with the best of the best from the ranks of Samsung and Apple.
Many believed Google’s early influence on Motorola’s products would be in the software department, and while Motorola has certainly improved there we’ve been more interested in seeing what some Google-influenced hardware could look like. The product is due sometime next year, though how early or late into 2013 wasn’t disclosed.
Motorola will apparently be creating a tablet with the same branding, as well, so this will be its Galaxy series, of sorts. This news comes quite close to word that Motorola has signed a former marketing executive of Samsung Mobile’s. Marketing would be a very important part of breaking new ground in the mobile realm as the two man race between Samsung and Apple will require more than just great hardware to get a third competitor into the mix.
It wouldn’t surprise us if this mystery phone turns out to be the Motorola-made Nexus we’ve all been waiting for — after all, the “X” could definitely be a subtle nod to the Nexus line’s iconic logo.
There’s no doubt Motorola can create some very nice hardware, but not all carriers are feeling the same love from the Illinois based OEM as Verizon is. Verizon enjoys exclusive rights to Motorola’s most iconic brand — RAZR — here in the United States, and Motorola delivered three new devices for it in the latter parts of this year.
AT&T and Sprint each received lone device launches, and while the phones they got — the Atrix HD and Photon Q 4G — are great in their own merit, we’re sure they’d be sitting much nicer with some RAZR love. T-Mobile’s current lineup doesn’t feature Motorola at all, something that’s going to have to change if they want to become the premier OEMthey once were.
“X” phone makes this device sound about as epic as anything we’ve seen thus far, but what goes inside its chassis will ultimately determine how epic it really comes out to be. And even if Motorola happens to concoct the greatest mobile device ever known to man they’re going to have to get on the ball with marketing in order to take down the two aforementioned giants of the smartphone market. What do you hope to see in the “X phone?”
I’ll stick with my Samsung nexus
Probably a smart move.
But it’ll be 2 years old by then. That’s like 90 in people years.
If Moto is the next Nexus manufacturer and you pass, you’ll have to wait ANOTHER year. I don’t think the Galaxy Nexus can hold out that long…
lol love this post
You make it, I’ll buy it!
Hmmm with the nexus 4 just coming out (and still hard to get hold of) it seems a bit soon, unless this is late 2013?
Building doesn’t mean it’ll come out next week. Expect it around Christmas of next year or later.
Don’t say that, I’m hoping maybe in 4-6 months. Things are moving very fast lately and it could happen. PLEASE
hope it is a little while away so i can save up! :) I would like it to be part of the Nexus Brand, why start again? The Nexus brand is gaining wide recognition.
This won’t be the Nexus 5, it may not even be considered a part of the Nexus Program. As a Nexus runs stock AOSP Android. This will be forked off of the main code base to add features that may never even make it to conventional Android. Sort of a proving ground, if you will.
YES. YES. YES. Nexus 5 with 3,000mAh battery please!!!!
I’m with you here. Moto radios, Moto build quality, Moto battery, + NERXURS!
I’ll get Nexus X tattooed on my chest.
Like an Ambigram Tattoo? where it reads the same when flipped upside down?
I tried the generator here: http://bit.ly/17T6kh
EDIT: It looks better as an Ambigram without the X
I would to except I got the bat symbol their already IM BATMAN!
Make sure you take pictures Chris :p
Nexus(e)x, Think about the name for a minute… : D
They have answered my prayers!
An awesome Moto phone that isn’t limited to Verizon? I’m in.
I wonder if Google has figured out, unlike Moto’s old management, that the reason Samsung has completely taken over the Android market, with Moto at a distant third place, is because Samsung makes their phone models available on *all of the carriers*.
Don’t get me wrong, my GS3 is a great phone, but when you compare battery life and the radio, Motorola beats Samsung by a country mile. I would have bought a Moto phone if I could — the reason I didn’t was because I *couldn’t*, as Moto doesn’t sell any phones for my carrier. If Moto starts following Samsung’s model, they will be picking up money off the floor.
Every OEM needs to learn this.
Especially HTC
Even if you are on Verizon, who wants a phone that may be stranded?
not sure chest but i tattooed on the heel of my other foot
They can’t call it the nexus 5 don’t be silly.
Why not?
You can’t figure out why not?
Can you?
Don’t be retarded. There’s a nexus 4,7,and 10. Use some common sense.
There’s a Nexus 4, 7 and 10, is that your answer?
So what? There’s no Nexus 5…
What’s your logic? I don’t get it.
You call people “silly” or “retarded,” you must be so clever, you certainly have a better explanation.
Please teach me common sense.
You’re forgetting the nexus one.
They could if they made it 5 inches… Or if they abandon the current pattern in device names.
Im sure Motorola will ruin what could be seriously awesome. I hope it has a cool name.
Why would Motorola ruin it? They make awesome hardware.
Motorola hardware is ugly.
youre ugly
Hopefully4.5″ screen and a large Camera sensor like the Nokia 808 a xenon flash would be very nice as well large battery is also a must.
I hope it’s something new and truly different from what Moto produces now.
I see them using the Motorola Hardware design from the droid razr series. Hopefully it will come with Maxx battery life. Storage should be 16 32 64 if they plan on no SD card if they do 16 or 32 with removable slot up to 64.
Yeah what Juan said…I’m interested. Currently own a rooted GS2…love it but was holding out for a GS4, (or whatever they’re called when Sammy releases it). The GS3 rose the bar for more competition from other makers…love it! GAME ON!
From what I’ve picked up around the web, this WILL NOT be a Nexus phone in traditional sense. It will run a forked highly experimental version of Android, separate from the AOSP code base. So they do not destabilize the Android we know. This will be Google playground for moon shot features. I still see win all the way.
Like from Google’s X Labs? SAWEEEET :D
I wonder what relationship it will have with the Project Glass experience… Tehehe
Yes, because everything you read on the web is true.
I’m sorry, and you are… the devil’s advocate? Just because something is found on the web doesn’t make it not true, or is it not what it is because it is on the Internet? No, that doesn’t not mean it is what it is or isn’t, if its not on the web… Yes?
The moon program had many initial spectacular crashes. It seems to me a forked AOSP device would be even more for otakus and geeks than has been the Nexus line, and it had several early mis-fires. I don’t see why the Motorola X would leave the Nexus fold. Even us Nexus fans would be apprehensive about such a platform. Just what features are you thinking would require going outside AOSP, Xavier?
What I’d love would be a high-quality, large battery-equipped device with 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and an SDXC slot. What I expect is that google will continue with its pervasive-network wild goose chase leaving SD cards to the manufacturers designing phones we consumers actually want.
Portable music players need removable storage — period. Double ditto for portable video players. Google’s willful ignorance of this reality is already making the Nexus a niche device. Wide availability of portable WiFi media players could change this, but even in those SD cards or SSDs would be used to ensure long battery life, so why not have one or even two micro-SD slots on our main phone? As long as the battery can hold out, it is a win. Only google’s foggy cloud pride is hurt.
Let’s not forget what the Nexus is, developer phones… stable platforms to use in app development, meant to keep Android clean and chugging along. They could easily use the Moto X, if that’s what we’re going with, to push the boundaries of what we see a phone being. Hardware wise or software wise. Core Android or “Nexus” isn’t for that purpose explicitly.
You’ve described exactly why this will never be a nexus device. I’m a big fan of then nexus devices, but they come with some trade off that are incompatible with the stated goals of competing with galaxy or iphones. No nexus device ever has a reasonable amount of storage let alone any sliver of hope for a micro-sd card or any sort of removable storage. Also, to compe on the high end would require having LTE which seems to be incompatible the ASOP expectations of the nexus line. Besides, a new nexus phone won’t be released until somewhere around the end of the year (based on past history) and it’s much too early for that info to be leaked, but they do need something shiny to give out at Google I/O, which is probably where we’ll see the first fruits of this moto-x-phone thing. Plus, they can still say “see? we told you that buying motorola wouldn’t make it a shoe-in for the next nexus device.”
Please bring this to all carriers and please google don’t give this phone small amount of storage space.
what the article fails to mention what other blogs have clearly stated is the flexible display with ceramic material and the camera technology which incorporates gesture recognition from Motorola’s recent acquiring.
We heard “ceramic” with the Galaxy S3 — didn’t pan out. I think that’s just a new buzz word. Camera tech to recognize gestures is simply software which, I’m sure Google’s been experimenting with for quite some time.
BEYOOOOOTCH-AHHH!
I got your back C-Dawg.
Can’t wait to see what Google and Moto do together. HTC lacks support, Samsung hardware and components blow, Nexus 4 completely fails. Hopefully Google can take the reigns a bit more with Moto since they own them and bring the entire package together.
Maxx battery, expandable or high amount of non removable, newest processor and a nice hd screen. Slimmed down motoblur. A camera that’s worth something. And notification lights.
Yes to everything except motoblur
Does Motorola have good camera/censors? SD card slot, removable battery and availability on all carriers.. then we could talk. but I think Galaxy Note III will still get me in the end. Love my Note II!
You talk as if Samsung makes quality camera/censors, they dont.
jesus christ, i was asking mainly because samsung’s Note II and S II (which i both have) doesn’t. i know Samsung’s weakness. forgive me for asking the great Motorola. -.-
…and does any Motorola phone have gyroscopes???
naah..motorola still lacks a good camera. Why samsung and moto still have terrible cameras are beyond me.
Android is moving so fast I wonder what Android will be like in 2015???
U fool, by 2015 it will no longer be called Android… It will be Google OS
Lol… Starting any sentence off with you fool is always a thumbs up. Honestly with how fast android is going it’ll probably just be called “OS” by then. The same way cereal boxes in cartoons just say “cereal” .
Finally
Nexoto or Motorexus cant wait. 4.3 removable batter, expandable memory cant wait!!!!
Verizon X.. I dig it.
That is a dead dream if this is a Nexus of any sorts.
Just got the Nexus 4 but I’m already wanting the X phone.
i bet its the nexus 5. and no it wont be on VZ. google isnt release phones on VZ anymore. thank god.
I’ve said it 30x, and I’ll say it again. Release a Nexus Maxx and I’ll drop my GNex. Absolutely love my GNex, other than battery….and camera.
I’ve been waiting for Motorola to build a Nexus handset. If their (Verizon) Droid series (post OG Droid) weren’t encrypted in the chain of trust in the bootloaders keeping you from flashing custom kernels, it would’ve been great. I loved my OG Droid, and it was closer to a Nexus phone than Big Red’s Galaxy Nexus. Pretty quick updates, great phone for it’s time, although a bit lacking in memory, massive dev community – a lot of themes that I would’ve loved to see ported to newer devices (Watermark’d was a favorite of mine). Great build quality. Then Big Red had to lock down the D2 (the Milestone – the international version of the Droid was locked in many places)…grumble..grumble.
I digress. I’m really looking forward to see what comes of this. Motorola has excellent build quality, while locking down the batteries (which I’m not a fan of, regardless of the mAh, but I’m in the minority), has raised the bar with it’s 3300 mAh batteries in the RAZR MAXX.
I also think that if handsets don’t have removable batteries and memory, they should be water resistant. I wonder if, in 7-12 years, people will talk about non-water resistant phones and laugh about pitiful 48-hour hard-use batteries.
Hopefully this phone won’t be exclusively on Verizon. Verizon messed up my Nexus experience with the Galaxy Nexus :(
Messed mine up too soooo, less than a yr later from getting a G-Nex I have an S3 & A Note 2 with my unlimited data still on both lines & contract ends Jan 2014 Lol F-U VZW!! Hahaha, what’s even better is the fact I’ll still get good dollar from the phones if they kick us off of that data & I can switch to T-Mobile which has great coverage in my area in the 1700mhz 1900mhz & 2100mhz bands along with LTE towers awaiting(From Metro PCS). -Victory Is Mine!!-
nexus 5 with battery that last all day with 16, 32, and 64gb internal storage options
I hope they eradicate all evidence of that terrible gallery app… Maybe even have a ceremonial send off… Like a Viking funeral…
Motorola knows how to be really good hardware, but this software and the maintenance of that software has always been awful. Hopefully Google will help them fix that problem so they can once again build quality product.
The original droid by Motorola is still one of my favorite phones, and a lot of it had to do with the build quality. Maybe if we can get a solidly built nexus phone from moto, and also assuming that this new marketing person can give them a better marketing campaign (because their commercials are terrible), i might not be completely sold on the S4.
Just build a thin, black, edge to edge glass screen and everyone will love it.
Please give us battery, great camera, latest and greatest quad core, storage, storage, storage, no larger then 4.7 or 4.8, the best screen made, great speaker, wireless charging and it has to have great build quality with great design. I can think of more but let’s just get it right. Make it so all carriers get it, no individual branding allowed, very strong radios, don’t forget strong gps and wifi. This sounds like it is allot, it’s not, this phone will sell and sell fast. Most important it has to be Nexus.
I’m due an upgrade from Sprint in May of next year. I really hope these rumors are true and the phone is released through sprint during that time
don’t much care about brand loyalty but, as an original G1 owner who has haD moto devices for a few years now, just bring it.
moto phones work the best.
ANDROID OS works the best.
looks like a no brainer to me.
unless someone buys me a pair of GOOGLE GLASSES.
Number 1 focus should be 3-5 day battery life, _then_ add more cool features.
May we
Quad core A15 plus Cortex A7 for low-power. No BS Intel chips please!
better have a micro sd card or loads of onboard storage
I hope the tablet will be a tegra 4 nexus 7 successor for $199 coming soon or by asus I’ll take either though I consider asus the better company.
Everything the Nexus 4 is plus SD card slot, LTE, 12mp camera with superior image stabilization and f/2.4, make the bumper a permanent frame for the phone, and give it the HD MAXX’s battery.
People keep saying Nexus, Nexus, Nexus. I haven’t seen a single rumor that says Nexus. I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be a Nexus. It’s even been said that there are no plans for a Moto Nexus. This is just going to be another Motorola phone. It may get updates fairly quickly and it’ll probably be an awesome phone but not a Nexus. Google doesn’t have to call it a Nexus when they’re working with their own company.
Motorola was great until they sold their souls to Verizon. This sounds very promising, can hardly wait…. unless it’s another Verizon exclusive, in which case I’ll pass yet again.
It MUST have a Thunderbolt kickstand. I don’t understand why this hasn’t been made into a standard. So easy, cheap to implement and so useful. I use it every night as my alarm clock. How useful is an alarm clock laying on it’s back?
It MUST have a Thunderbolt kickstand. I can’t understand why this hasn’t become a standard. It’s so easy and cheap to implement and so useful. I use my phone as my alarm clock every night. How useful is an alarm clock laying on it’s back? I actually stole Legos from my kids to build a stand for my iTouch prior to my Thunderbolt.
It also MUST have an SD slot. Google moving away from the SD in order to force cloud storage is just a bad idea for the consumer. I know they blame this on other tech reasons but I just don’t buy it. Not everyone has 3G/4G ALL the time to use their phone as a music player, or even wants to rack up carrier usage charges to listen to the the music they own.
Powered OTG, and I would prefer some sort of Amoled screen, and hopefully not a screen size over 4.7″.. any bigger and it’d be a touch too close to a tablet for me. But Powered OTG is an absolute must have, I use it every day.
@billie_joe_bob
I’m about to blow your mind. How bout instead of wondering the use of an alarm when you put the phone flat why don’t you just put the phone face down so the speakers out? If you don’t use a case just put something soft down first. I’ve had the original EVO4G for two years and never use the kickstand. Except to play with idly when bored by opening and closing it
cant wait. my gnex is constantly showing charging with out being connected to a charger which is constantly turning on the screen. cant wait to upgrade to the next nexus.
Must be nice.
I really hope this isn’t a 5 inch phone. 4.7 is the largest I can handle >.<
Yes, that was dirty.
Blue Blistering Barnacles!! Oh mama I am so getting one of these! Hope Moto releases this on AT&T or Sprint. Verizon really sucks at 3g coverage
mtest123