Moto X gets a British accent and a hefty price tag
It’s taken five months, but the Moto X is finally headed to Europe — specifically the UK, France and Germany — from Feb. 1. Moto’s flagship, now sporting European 4G LTE support, comes with Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, and a familiar array of features that American Moto X owners have been getting acquainted with since the fall. There’s Touchless Control, which lets you command your device using the “OK Google Now” keyword, in addition to active display, which shows you notifications on-screen in place of a notification LED. And other highlights include the unique wiggle gesture to bring up the camera app, and Trusted Bluetooth to let you disable lock screen security if you’re paired with your favorite accessory. In essence, it’s the same Moto X we declared the best Android phone around just a couple of months ago.
But the European Moto X’s greatest weakness could be its hefty SIM-free price tag. It’ll sell “from £25 per month” on contract, we’re told, but if you want a Moto X without a monthly plan it’ll set you back £380 (around $610) for the 16GB version. What’s more, Moto Maker isn’t available in Europe yet (it’s apparently “a few months” away), so you’re limited to the black and white versions. Even then, Phones4u will be the only outlet to offer the white version for the first three months of availability.
So Europeans finally get a Moto X designed for their networks, but a few pain points remain at launch. We got our hands on the European Moto X earlier today, so check out our quick look video and photo gallery after the break.
More: Moto X review
