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Motorola's glossy Moto X4 shines bright

With super silky looks and an inexpensive price tag, the Moto X4 is an eye-catching mid-tier phone.

Lynn La
Lynn La covers mobile reviews and news. She previously wrote for The Sacramento Bee, Macworld and The Global Post.
Kent German Former senior managing editor / features
Kent was a senior managing editor at CNET News. A veteran of CNET since 2003, he reviewed the first iPhone and worked in both the London and San Francisco offices. When not working, he's planning his next vacation, walking his dog or watching planes land at the airport (yes, really).
Lynn La
Kent German
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1 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

Amid the big phone announcements from heavyweights like Samsung, Google and Apple this year, you might have missed the Motorola Moto X4. That's a shame, because it's a pretty great phone that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Depending on the retailer, you can get it for about $330-$400 at full retail in the US. In the UK it starts at £349, and it's AU$699 in Australia.

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2 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

There are many ways you can get the phone. You can get it unlocked from Motorola (right), or from Google on its Project Fi network (left). You can also get it unlocked from Amazon with Prime ads.   

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3 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

The device runs Android Nougat 7.1.1 and features a 2.2GHz octacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor and a 3,000mAh battery.  

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4 of 16 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The phone comes in black and silver (pictured here) and has a super glossy aesthetic. Though it looks sleek and shiny, it also results in a lot of fingerprint smudges.

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5 of 16 Kent German/CNET

The Moto X4 can even take a bath and is rated IP68 for dust- and water-resistance.

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6 of 16 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The phone supports USB Type-C and it has a microSD card slot for cards as large as 2TB. It also has a standard 3.5mm headset jack.

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7 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

The phone is on the thicker side at 0.31 inches (8mm). The bulging, watch dial-like design around the camera lenses also adds more thickness to the back.  

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8 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

The Moto X4's fingerprint sensor supports NFC, which means you can use the phone to buy goods through Android Pay. Unfortunately, it's placed right below the display, so it's easy to mistake it as the home button.

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9 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

The Moto X4 has a 5.2-inch full HD (1080p) display with a density of 424 pixels per inch.

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10 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

On the back are two cameras (12 and 8 megapixels), with a flash. With the secondary lens, you can take wide-angle shots with a 120-degree field of view.

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11 of 16 Katie Collins/CNET

Around front, there's a 16-megapixel selfie camera with its own flash.

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12 of 16 Kent German/CNET

Motorola's version of the Moto X4 has a full array of software features. You can launch the digital assistant Amazon Alexa from your lockscreen. If you don't prefer Alexa, you can use Moto's own voice control feature or Google Assistant.

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13 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

Google's version of the Moto X4, on the other hand, doesn't have as many software features as Motorola's. But it will get prompt and timely software updates, including security patches, as they roll out from Google. As for voice assistants, it has only Google Assistant.

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14 of 16 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The Moto X4 runs Bluetooth 5 and you can connect to multiple Bluetooth devices, like headphones and speakers, at once. This feature is integrated into the Settings menu and you can control the volume for each Bluetooth device individually.

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15 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

Another look at the Motorola Moto X4.

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16 of 16 Josh Miller/CNET

Since its launch, all three retailers (Motorola, Google and Amazon) have discounted the phone's price, so be sure to check to see what price and what version of the phone is best for you. Still, at an affordable sub-$400 price in the US, the Moto X4 makes for a solid, feature-packed phone.  

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