When the first-generation Moto X came out, there weren't many other smartphones in the affordable unlocked flagship category. These days, the market is saturated with affordable unlocked options like the Alcatel One Touch Idol 3 5.5, the Asus Zenfone 2, the ZTE Axon Pro, and most notably the OnePlus 2, making the competition stiff for the new $399.99 Motorola Moto X Pure Edition. Of these devices, the OnePlus 2 comes closest to the Moto X in terms of great hardware, software, and camera, but it falls short in one key area. You can go online and buy the Moto X right now. The same can't be said for the OnePlus 2, which is why the Moto X Pure is our new Editors' Choice for unlocked smartphones.

Design and Display

Motorola's Moto Maker, which allows you to customize your Moto X, might be one of the best ideas any phone manufacturer has come up with since the touch screen. I must have spent a good hour playing around with different back colors, build materials, accent colors, frames, and engravings. The Moto X Pure can be customized with a variety of silicone backs, along with wood and leather options for an additional cost.

With dimensions of 6.06 by 3.0 by 0.44 inches (HWD) and a weight of 6.31 ounces, the Moto X most certainly qualifies as a phablet. Its size puts it on par with the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and the Nexus 6 ($219.00 at Amazon UK) , but it's easier to use one-handed than either of those phones. That's because the body of the Moto X has a gentle curve that conforms to your hand. The middle, where the Power and Volume buttons are, is slimmer than the top. The unit I tested has a silicone plastic back that's easy to grip while still being smooth to the touch.

The front of the device has a 5.7-inch, 2,560-by-1,440 TFT LCD display, instead of the AMOLED display that was on the Moto X (2014). Some have argued that this switch defeats the battery-saving aspect of Moto Display—a feature that allows notifications to be shown without turning on the entire screen. An LCD display must use a backlight, while AMOLED displays can selectively light individual pixels to both save battery and show true black.

Despite the lack of AMOLED, the new Quad HD display is still fantastic, packed with 520 pixels per inch. It looks extremely crisp, with good viewing angles and excellent color reproduction. The colors aren't as bright or as rich as they are on the Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy S6, but they are more true to life. The display is certainly better than the 1080p IPS LCD display of the OnePlus 2. And the screen-to-bezel ratio is just right, despite the dual front-facing speakers on the top and bottom.

Network Performance and Call Quality

The Moto X comes unlocked and is compatible with the major U.S. carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The device has GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700 (AWS), 1900, 2100 MHz), CDMA (800, 850, 1900 MHz), and 4G LTE (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 38, 41) bands. I tested the Moto X on AT&T's network in midtown Manhattan and network performance was excellent. Download/upload speeds varied from a low of 7.07 Mbps/7.55 Mbps at the base of PCMag's office building, to a high of 46.68 Mbps/53.45 Mbps near Madison Square Park. Connected to our Verizon FiOS 5GHz test router, I pulled in 134.80 Mbps/89.34 Mbps. There was no location I found myself without service.

Call quality on the Moto X was great in all areas of midtown. I made calls from several locations and found voices to have a rich and natural tone. The earpiece gets loud enough to use in noisy environments, and noise cancellation is excellent, dampening the sound of traffic, conversation, and even construction work. With a nearby jackhammer in full effect, the noise didn't come through in a voice call. At the highest volume levels, it is possible to detect a faint crackling in the background, but that isn't noticeable if the volume is kept one or two notches below max. Thanks to the dual front-facing stereo speakers, the speakerphone volume is also loud enough to hear outdoors without issue. In addition to calls, the speakers handled videos, music, and all other audio well, with rich sound and bass for a phone.

Processor and Battery

The Moto X has a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor clocked at 1.8GHz with an Adreno 418 GPU and 3GB of RAM. That's nothing to scoff at, though it's not quite as powerful as the Snapdragon 810 and 4GB of RAM powering the OnePlus 2. The Moto X received an AnTuTu benchmark score of 49,257—putting it on par with the LG G4 , which also has a Snapdragon 808. The ZTE Axon Pro, a device with a 2GHz Snapdragon 810 processor and 4GB of RAM, received 49,289—showing that the Moto X can hold its own against heftier hardware.

When playing games like Asphalt 8 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the Moto X handles nicely. There's no choppiness, skipped frames, or lag to the controls provided you play one game at a time. Mortal Kombat X is unable to run beyond the intro video, a problem that I also found on the LG G4. A slight slowdown occur when you have many apps open and try to switch between them. Trying to move from a game or the Google Now screen to another app results in a noticeable lag. It depends on your usage and how much you have going on at any given time, but the Moto X should be powerful enough to satisfy most users.

It's worth pointing out that the Moto X tends to run a bit warm. It doesn't suffer from overheating as we found with the LG G4, but the back averages around 95 degrees Fahrenheit during gaming and when charging. That's not enough to impact performance, but it's something to be mindful of.

Battery life on the Moto X is only average. The device has a 3,000mAh battery, which seems small for a 5.7-inch phone with a high-res display. I turned Wi-Fi off and continuously streamed a YouTube video over LTE at maximum screen brightness and recorded how long the Moto X lasted. I got 4 hours, 42 minutes, which is an average result and a bit less than the 5 hours, 19 minutes on the OnePlus 2, but a lot less than the Galaxy S6, which clocked 6 hours, 33 minutes in the same test. On the plus side, Motorola's Turbo Charging technology allows you to add up to 10 hours of battery life (clearly not video streaming) in just 15 minutes.

Camera

The Moto X camera has seen some major improvements since last year's iteration. The 21-megapixel rear sensor has a f/2.0 lens and a revamped interface for the camera app. The device allows you to tap anywhere to capture a picture, which makes it easier to snap good photos when you're on the move. Burst mode, Auto HDR, and Phase Detect Auto-Focus also simplify things. You can take pictures very fast now, especially with Quick Capture—a twist of your wrist twice launches the camera app.

The pictures I took outside and indoors under decently-lit conditions were fantastic. The shots came out crisp and clear, with no noise or loss of detail, and great color reproduction. The Moto X is capable of shooting 4K video at 30fps and 1080p video at 60fps. In both cases, the video comes out clear, with good details, and the autofocus reorients itself quickly in response to movement. Unfortunately, the camera still lacks optical image stabilization (OIS) and struggles in low-light settings. Pictures taken in less-than-ideal lighting conditions suffer from grain and noise.

The front-facing 5-megapixel camera also does well in capturing natural skin tones and coloration for selfies. The wide-angle lens and f/2.0 aperture is good for group shots, and there's a front-facing LED flash.

Software and Conclusions

The Moto X runs almost-stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, with zero bloatware (unless you count Motorola's apps, which are actually very useful). Because the device is unlocked, there are no carrier apps cluttering things up. Our 32GB review unit came with 24.06GB of free space out of the box. The device also has a microSD card slot and is capable of taking cards up to 128GB. We tested it with our 64GB SanDisk card and it worked fine.

All the Google apps like Chrome, Gmail, and Google Play Music are preloaded, as are Motorola apps like Moto Connect, Moto Migrate, and Moto Assist. All of the Motorola apps are gems. Moto Connect lets you add and manage devices like the Moto 360, Moto Surround, and Moto Pulse. Moto Migrate lets you transfer data from your old device to the Moto X. Moto Assist is the app I used most. It helps you set up features like Moto Display, which triggers the display when you wave your hand above the phone. There's also Moto Actions, like using a chopping motion twice to activate the flashlight. Finally, Moto Voice lets you set up your own custom launch phrase and decide which tasks you want to perform with voice commands. For instance, you can ask, "Do I need an umbrella?" and the Moto X will give you the weather.

All of these features are remarkably reliable. I never had the camera fail to launch, or the flashlight not turn on when I performed the right gesture. I was able to use Moto Voice outside, even on a fairly noisy street.

The Moto X and the OnePlus 2 have different areas of strength, with the Moto X boasting a sharper display, faster charging, expandable memory, better speakers, and Moto Maker design options. The OnePlus 2, meanwhile, has a more powerful Snapdragon 810 processor, better battery life, a USB Type-C port, and a fingerprint scanner.

Both are excellent unlocked phones, and normally it would be a difficult decision weighing the devices against one another. But the OnePlus 2 has one big flaw: It still retains the much-criticized invite-only purchase system that has caused release delays and actually prompted the company to issue an apology to customers. Taking into account its many strengths, and the fact that you can actually buy the Moto X Pure Edition, it isn't hard to name it our Editors' Choice for unlocked smartphones.

Artboard Created with Sketch. Motorola Moto X Pure Edition (Unlocked) 4.5 Editors' Choice See It $299.99 at Amazon Canada MSRP $399.99 Pros Attractive customization options.

Mostly stock Android with little bloatware.

Fast charging.

MicroSD slot.

Great sound.

Excellent call quality. View More Cons Low-light camera performance needs work.

Average battery life.

Tends to run warm. The Bottom Line The Motorola Moto X Pure Edition is in the same class of unlocked, affordable flagship phones as the OnePlus 2, with one huge advantage: You can actually buy it.

Best Mobile Phone Picks

Mobile Phone Product Comparisons

Further Reading