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So, last year I got a Nexus 5 right before they stopped selling them, and was overall happy with the phone, except for 1 glaring issue. It seems to have a screen made out of pixie dust and wishes. After some pretty minor drops, the screen has broken now for the third time. Rather than put yet another 50 bucks into a new screen on it, I decided to say fuck it, and get a new device (all 3 breaks have been with the phone in a full case, and I am not generally awful with my phones, my S3 lasted 3 years with no breaks, and only retired it cause the battery sucked and it had gotten pretty slow).

Looking at the unlocked devices, and not wanting to spend over 500 bucks, but also wanted decent hardware specs, it really came down to the Nexus 5x, the 6P and the Moto X. I tried all 3 to see what felt best, and by far to me the best bang for the buck seemed to be the Moto. I picked up the base 16GB version for 350 bucks, so right in the middle price wise of all 3 devices, but the screen is as big as the 6P, the phone body ergonomics are much better than the 6P, and as comfy as the 5X to me, but the screen is nicer than the 5X, and it also feels snappier in general, probably because of the 3GB system RAM vs 2GB on the Nexus.

Android 6 lets you format SD cards as system storage, so apps and media can use it with no issues. Tossed in a 64GB Samsung card that cost 20 bucks. Neither Nexus device supports SD cards.

Mostly stock OS, with some Moto enhancements, that are surprisingly, actually pretty nice, and are all accessed/setup from a single app. Phone comes with a high power charger that charges the phone from 10% to 100% in 90 minutes, and so far, after a heavy 24 use period, I had about 30% battery left. Surprisingly decent battery life.

Have to say, so far, liking the device a lot. My eyesight is going bad at a disturbingly fast rate, so the bigger screen lets me upsize stuff to make it very usable. It is about 70% usable single handed for me, so thats great. Screen is a little bigger than I wanted or like, but I so far it fits well in the pocket for me and I have not had any major issues with it in that regard. Feels snappy in general use.


Definitely a very nice device for the price. Would recommend.

Thanks for the review. I'll probably need to get my wife a new phone in a few months and was hoping there was something better besides the Nexus 5X, not that I've had an issue with it, but I hate that I had to get the 32GB version just because they didn't support SD cards.

I love my Moto-X Gen1, but I'm not happy having to wait for Verizon to issue updates, so I've been leaning towards Nexus for the next phone. Was your phone through the carrier, or unlocked? If I can get updates direct from Google I'd be happy to buy unlocked.

It's unlocked. Currently it is not getting the monthly updates like a Nexus does, but since December, they did the 6.0 update and there have been 2 security updates in the last 4 months. So not as fast as Nexus updates, but still so far decent.

That said, it's still 6.0, not 6.0.1 like the nexus devices have.

The unlocked 16GB phone is 350 most everywhere (I grabbed it at Bestbuy since I dont give a shit about customized cases), and with the 6.0 update so that SDcards work as onboard memory, I dont care about the 16GB either. Currently have about 30Gb of crap installed just to make sure it worked well, and no issues. Just make sure to get a class10 sdcard.

I'm fine with my 5x. I don't use up all my storage space and since I tend to DL all my pics off of the phone and archive them, I'm always good on space.

I like the 5X. it's just for an extra 50 bucks, I thought the pure was a nicer deal overall, and I really like the hand feel with the curve back. And to be honest, with how delicate the Nexus 5 screen turned out to be, and the 5X being a LG device again, I was somewhat skeptical of the 5X.

Fair enough. The 5x has survived a couple of falls where I thought it was done for and not a thing wrong with it.