Ars had the opportunity to spend most of Thursday ensconced in Motorola’s beautiful new office space in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, and we walked out of there with a bag full of new toys to review: a Moto 360 smart watch, a new Moto X, and a new Moto G. Not included in our goodie bag—the Motorola Hint, the company's new bluetooth earpiece that lets you access Google Now functionality without ever touching the phone.

While Eric Bangeman is handling the quick hands-on of the Moto 360 in his post, I’m going to run you through the two Android smartphones in this brief, hands-on post.

We’ve got a full review coming in a couple of days after Ars Android genius Ron Amadeo and reviewmaster Andrew Cunningham have some time to tear into these devices, so if you want more info, don’t worry: it’s coming!

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Second verse, same as the first

We’ve known the Moto X update was coming for some time, but in July we (and everyone else) were still pretty sure that the new phone was going to be called the X+1. However, Motorola is sticking with the existing name and replacing the current Moto X with this new, identically named one. The new X (which Motorola made sure to emphasize to us is officially just called the “Moto X,” not “the new Moto X”) addresses one of our biggest gripes with the first-generation Moto X: the SoC is now a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974-AC) at 2.5GHz with an Adreno 330 GPU, an upgrade over the older model’s 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro (MSM8960).

Of course, that SoC is hidden inside of the device where you can’t see it. Far more visible is the Moto X’s gorgeous 5.2” AMOLED 1080p display, which rates a pleasingly sharp 423ppi. This hits on our second big complaint with the first-generation Moto X, and the improvement is hugely noticeable.

Lesser but still-welcome improvements abound. The rear-facing camera has been buffed to 13 megapixels and is augmented with a ring-shaped flash; some quick shots in full auto yielded perfectly cromulent images, though we didn’t dive into the extra camera options to adjust anything. Of note is the fact that the Moto X can record Ultra HD “4K” video (at a resolution of 3840x2160), though quick testing indoors revealed that unless you’ve got a fair amount of light, it’s going to be a pretty muddy 4K.

The device’s frame is a sturdy aluminum instead of plastic, and the phone is light without feeling insubstantial (though it gains a few grams over the old version, at 144g versus 139g). Further, our review version came with a soft leather back that feels a lot like an old-style desktop blotter. It looks and feels like a quality smartphone. Samsung, are you paying attention?

Motorola is also releasing a tiny in-ear Bluetooth earpiece known as the Moto Hint. The idea with the Hint, according to Motorola, is to break free of the "look at that tool wearing a Bluetooth earpiece" stigma that surrounds Bluetooth earpieces. The $149 Moto Hint fits discretely into your ear, without a protruding pick-up mic, and when paired with a Moto X gains the ability to verbally echo on-screen information like directions or text message contents into your ear. We didn't get a Hint to review along with our Moto X, so we can't speak directly to how well it works, but if there's enough interest we'll pick one up when they're available this fall and try it out.

The Moto X will be available on “select carriers” with a two-year contract for $99 (our review unit has an AT&T logo on the back), and unlocked direct from Motorola for $499. According to Motorola, it will be available “later this month” to as-yet unspecified countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

A little bit louder, a little bit… better!

While the Moto X is making waves at the higher end, the updated Moto G continues to embarrass the midrange market by being better than anything else in its price range. The new G—which like its big brother is simply “the Moto G,” not “the new Moto G”—keeps its predecessor’s Snapdragon 400 SoC but kicks the display size up from 4.5” to 5”. The larger display doesn’t come with a resolution bump, but at 720p (294ppi) it’s still in the “retina” display range.

There are a few other tiny improvements in the Moto G—the rear camera gets a bump to 8MP, for example—but the two most important things are that the updated device keeps its $179 unlocked and off-contract price, and Motorola guarantees that owners will be able to upgrade its factory-installed Android version 4.4 to Android “L” without any issues.

Unfortunately, the news isn’t all great for the updated Moto G. Although the original version launched without LTE support, a follow-up version with LTE was launched earlier this year. The latest Moto G, though, drops LTE support and returns to 3G cellular data speeds. Motorola did not indicate whether or not an LTE version was planned.

The Moto G is available today for $179 in the US, India, France, the UK, Brazil, Spain, and Germany. More countries will follow by the end of the year.