Long Term Test, Moto X 2nd Generation, Republic Wireless: Unboxing to long term usage reporting.

UPDATE June 20, 2015.
All good with the phone and Republic. Got a case for my Moto X 2nd Gen after the free repair by Motorola. Returned by Moto X 1st gen I was using in the interim in under 30 days and got a full refund.

UPDATE May 20, 2015.
Still happy with my phone and Republic Wireless. But, I broke my Moto X, 2 gen. phone! I dropped it without a case, on the parking lot at work, at exactly the wrong angle...my fault. I've dropped it several times before, but not at this angle and on pavement.

Ouch!

Now...at first I thought I'd just have to suck it up and buy a new phone. Then I searched a little and found out that Motorola, now of course owned by Google, provides a quiet repair program that sometimes does free repairs. I quickly ordered a replacement phone from Republic, and sent my broken phone into Motorola directly. After a couple of weeks. I just got it back! For a free repair! More later.


UPDATE April 23rd, 2015.

• Cons: I discovered that there isn't unlimited data when roaming and using cell towers. There seems to be 5GB on native towers, and 25MB throttled on on native towers. See policy. I haven't hit a limit yet on the 3G, $25/month plan, but I'm close this month. On wifi (mostly work and home) it is unlimited.
• Pros: I love this Moto X 2nd Gen phone. Fast, excellent camera. Tough and fine after three drops. 

UPDATE: March 26th. Love the Moto X 2nd Gen's battery saving technology that allows for text messages and the like to display without booting up the entire screen. And the smart display will not sleep if it sees my face, which is cool because I can set the display to sleep for 15 seconds to save battery, but still read an article without it sleeping at all. I am noticing the screen size is just a bit too big for me to one-hand click. 4.7" screens really are good for me for one handed usage, like when holding a sleeping baby. But I can barely do it with this phone and the larger screen is very good for reading and working.

March 20th, 2015: My Moto X, second generation (2nd Gen.) arrived today. I'm replacing my iPhone 4, regular (no "S"). RIP iPhone 4. You rocked! All glass and metal, from the age of Apple with Steve Job's obsessive design sense.

L to R: iPhone 4, Moto E, Moto X 2nd Gen, unboxed.

I'll report in this blog post my test results as I use the Moto X 2nd gen. as my only phone.

I'm using Republic Wireless. The Moto X 2nd gen. cost $399.00, with no contract with unlimited text, data, calls for $25/mo on 3G. This was still cheaper over a two year period then going with an iPhone 6 with AT&T, on a family plan, paying cash for the phone, by about $100.00.

I have to say, my Moto E, for $99, grew on me. What a nice little phone for the money. Feels great, built like a tank. I agree with others out there that the 4.7" screen is perfect for hand size. But not screen size...

The Moto X is bigger, but lighter and thinner. Moto E camera is weak...but for the money, again, great phone.

I switched to the Moto X because I tried it out and it seems better then an iPhone 6. I don't have any tablet computers, and my only computer at home is my work laptop (Macbook pro). So the phone is highly used for email and Web. And because it has A:

• Larger screen for my aging, achy eyes!
• Better camera with a flash.I take a lot of photos and video.
• Front camera for all the grandparent Skyping. 

 Android OS Observations

Every few years I back and forth between iOS and Android, to keep up on both. I find both easy to learn to make my phone a powerful tool to work with. The iOS, for me, is just a little bit more intuitive, but no by much.

Android always pisses me off pretty quickly in one little area, the notifications. They start off swamping the user, and in a very not user friendly way, they make it hard to figure out how to make the notifications stop. I would LOVE a simple "do you want these notifications in the future" choice at the very start. iOSes notifications built into the icons for apps work better for me.