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Moto unveils the mid-range Moto X4 - dual cameras, landmark recognition and more

By Liu Hongzuo & Peter Chu - on 5 Sep 2017, 4:08pm

Moto unveils the mid-range Moto X4 - dual cameras, landmark recognition and more

If you have been keeping tabs, the last time Lenovo unveiled a Moto X device was back in 2015, called the Moto X Style.  As such, it's a long-enough time coming for Moto to launch the fourth-generation Moto X phone – Moto X4, which was recently unveiled at IFA 2017 in Berlin.

The Moto X4 is, unequivocally, a mid-range smartphone. It has a 5.2-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) display with Corning Gorilla Glass, an IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC. It’s available with two memory and storage configurations: 3GB RAM32GB eMMC storage, or 4GB RAM64GB eMMC storage. Both internal storage capacities can be expanded to 2TB via microSD.

The Moto X4 is also interesting in that you can pair up to four Bluetooth speakers or headphones simultaneously, which is useful for multi-room wireless speakers or sharing an energetic playlist with your workout buddies. Tasked to keep the phone's lights on is a 3,000mAh non-removable battery that's equipped with Moto’s proprietary TurboPower fast charging technology, which, according to the company, can provide you with six hours’ worth of usage from just a 15-minute charge.

Following the trend of most smartphones these days, the Moto X4 is likewise equipped with a pair of dual rear cameras. The primary unit is a 12-megapixels sensor with an aperture of f/2.0 and Dual Pixel Autofocus technology, while the second unit has an 8-megapixels ultra-wide sensor with an aperture of f/2.2, and a 120-degree field of view to accommodate all your landscape photos. The dual rear camera setup allows for real-time depth effects, such as selective focusing and other post-capture editing processes.

Spot color is also available to make your photos stand out.

The rear camera of the Moto X4 also has the interesting ability to recognize landmarks, objects, and even animals. Simply point the camera in their direction, and a prompt will appear, asking if you would like to learn more about whatever it is that you’re seeing.

Point the Moto X4 to a landmark of your choice...

According to Jim Thiede, Head of Moto's Product Marketing, Landmark Recognition is a proprietary tech developed in-house that currently recognizes ten popular landmarks from 100 cities around the world, with more to be added later. Object Recognition, which covers fruits, animals, and food, is sourced from a third-party database. It can even scan barcodes, QR codes, and businesses cards without needing to depend on third-party apps.

...and it'll be identified by name, followed by directional map and link to Wikipedia.

The 16-megapixels, f/2.0 aperture, front-facing camera of the Moto X4 has a higher megapixel count than its rear counterparts – something selfie enthusiasts would appreciate. It features an adaptive low light mode, along with beautification effects, and the ability to capture selfie panorama. You can add Augmented Reality (AR) animations to your selfies for that extra wow factor. 

The Moto X4 will serve as the first Motorola smartphone to feature Amazon Alexa. Spoken queries like "Show me the weather" or "Show me Gmail" will be taken care of swiftly, and you can even make a quick voice or text reply from a locked home screen. Alexa support is currently limited to the U.S., U.K., and Germany, unfortunately. There's also Moto Key, which enables users to open secure websites and even sign in frequently-accessed devices using their fingerprint.

The Moto X4 will begin retailing in Europe in September 2017 with prices starting at €399 (~S$642.58 ), before making its appearance in other markets later this fall.

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