SpecEagle review · Motorola

Moto X (2014) review: A near-stock flagship with active display and customisable Moto Maker backs.

SpecEagle Editorial·Sep 2014·$500
Overall
52/100
Class rank
#55 of 92
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

The customisable near-stock flagship.

Moto X (2014) leaned into personalisation — Moto Maker leather and wood backs — and software polish like Active Display and twist-to-launch-camera gestures. The small battery held it back, but it was a beloved enthusiast flagship.

01Display

70/100

70/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2014.

TypeAMOLED, 60 Hz
Size5.2 inches
Resolution1,920 × 1,080 px (FHD)

02Camera

56/100

56/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2014 — 7 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Main13 MP, f/2.25, dual-LED ring flash
Selfie2 MP

03Performance

60/100

60/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2014.

ChipsetSnapdragon 801 (28 nm)
RAM2 GB
Storage16 / 32 GB

04Battery

54/100

54/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2014 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Capacity2,300 mAh
Wired15 W TurboCharge

05Build

68/100

68/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2014.

06Value

60/100

At 60/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among flagship phones of 2014 — 7 points above the cohort average.

What works
  • Moto Maker — leather and wood custom backs.
  • Active Display notifications.
  • Near-stock Android with Moto gestures.
  • Front-facing speaker.
What doesn't
  • Small 2,300 mAh battery.
  • Average camera.
  • No microSD.
  • 2 GB RAM.
Cross-shop it against
Nexus 5 (LG)
$349 · score 84/100

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 92-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .