Moto X Vertex
Back in December an image leaked that
was purported to be of the next-gen Moto X. It didn't look very credible, being
outed so far in advance of the phone's unveiling, but a subsequent leak from
just a few hours ago has confirmed the design of the next Moto flagship, which
will come with a full metal jacket.
The phones depicted in the
renders you can see below aren't the same handset in two different color
versions. In fact, they're two different smartphones. And both will carry Moto
X branding when they launch (possibly on June 9).
The one to the left is codenamed Vertex,
while the one on the right is codenamed Vector Thin. Let's start with the
latter, since this is going to come with the true flagship specs.
As its name implies, this will be
insanely thin. 5.2 mm. It will sport a 5.5-inch QHD
AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chipset, 3 or 4 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, a 13 MP
rear camera with laser autofocus and OIS, and a 2,600 mAh battery. That
capacity is obviously a consequence of the phone's slimness.
On the other hand, the Vertex might be
the successor to the Moto X Play from 2015. It reportedly has a 5.5-inch 1080p
AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 SoC (yet apparently with an
overclocked octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU, going up to 2.4 GHz from the stock 2
GHz), either 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage or 3 GB/32 GB, a 16 MP main camera
with laser and phase detection autofocus, and a beefy 3,500 mAh battery. If you
think this model will turn out to be thicker than the Vector Thin, well, you're
right, but not by much - the Vertex will be 7mm thick, which is still less than
a lot of its competitors.
Both handsets will come with a modular
system of adding accessories in the form of magnetically-connecting backplates.
Those pins on the bottom side of their backs are there to ensure communication
with these accessories which Motorola is calling "Amps".
At launch it's said that you'll be able
to find a few of these Amps: stereo speakers, a battery pack, a camera grip
with a flash and optical zoom, a pico projector, and a rugged cover with a
wide-angle lens attachment. All of these will be made by Motorola, but third
parties are going to be offering their own Amps if it all goes well.
Furthermore, each Moto X (2016) phone will ship with a simple colored backplate
Amp, presumably to showcase the technology to their buyers.
So, with an Amp or another attached,
that hugely protruding camera on the back of either device will clearly not be
a problem anymore - sitting flush when such an accessory is there.
