At Motorola, everything changes all the time. The company gets sold to Google; it moves into a new, huge office space in Chicago; it's sold to Lenovo; it gets new leadership. And yet the sun keeps rising, and the Moto X keeps on coming.

Today, Motorola's launching two new models: the Moto X Play and the Moto X Style. The Play is a middle-ground device, with a big screen and a great camera but few of the design touches of the old Moto X. The Style is the new flagship device, the closest spiritual successor to last year's Moto X. It's also the only one that will be available in the U.S., under the name Moto X Pure Edition. (Which may lead you to the question, is there another, dirtier edition? No. There is only one, and it is pure as the driven snow.) There's also a new Moto G, an upgrade to Motorola's wildly popular low-end device, and for $179 one of the best bang-for-your-buck smartphones on the planet.

But it's the Style that has the biggest ramifications. Not because its 5.7-inch, quad-HD screen is packed into a body Motorola says is smaller than the iPhone 6 Plus, and not because it's apparently the fastest-charging smartphone on the market. Not even because Motorola swears up and down that it's finally, finally figured out how to make a great camera, and that the 21-megapixel shooter on the back will rival the iPhone.

What's most powerful about this phone is that it's being sold unlocked, for $399, and will work on any carrier in the United States. It supports every band of LTE, so all you have to do is pop in whatever SIM card you want. This is how phones work in the rest of the world, and a much better system. (The latest iPads work this way, too, but flagship phones have always been more limited.) It's also, of course, the uphill battle of all uphill battles in the smartphone game—so while it would be a welcome change from Verizon's and AT&T's spectrum shackles, it may not yet be time to hold your breath.

In most other ways, the X is the same phone as always. It uses a nearly untouched version of Android, save for a couple of genuinely great additions like the always-on Moto Display and the touch-free Moto Actions. There's even a new gesture: Hold the phone and make two chop motions to turn the flashlight on. You can customize it with Moto Maker, which offers options like bamboo and leather. Unless something catastrophic and strange has happened, the Style is going to be a very good phone.

Motorola

If the Style/Pure Edition is Motorola's new flagship, the Moto X Play is, let's say, a battleship. It's a little smaller, at 5.5 inches, and not as impressive, with just 1080p resolution and an older Snapdragon processor. It's a mix of the X and G, really, with removable backs and fewer material options, but also the same high-end camera as the Style and all the same software enhancements. Its biggest appeal is its huge 3600mAh battery, which Motorola says will give you two full days of battery life. It's going to be cheaper than the Style, and available globally—but, again, not in the U.S.

The top of the lineup is new and shiny, but it's when you look down the list that you realize how far smartphones have really come. The Moto G, at $179, offers a 5-inch display (only 720p, though), a quad-core processor, built-in LTE, a 13-megapixel camera, and IPX7 waterproofing that means you can shower with your phone. (Apparently this is a popular #lifegoal for a lot of people.) It's coming to Moto Maker now, too, which makes it more customizable than ever. Sure, it's not quad HD and it won't blow anyone's mind design-wise, but it's basically a high-end phone from a year ago, available for a quarter of the price. Progress is great.

The Moto G is out now, in countries around the world. The two X models are coming later this summer. Motorola has all the right things to say, but the question, as usual, is how it can execute. And whether it's truly figured out how to make a killer smartphone camera. If it has, the way we buy smartphones—and which ones we buy—could be about to change.