Moto 360, X+1 And G2 Likely To Be Released On September 5th

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This post was published 10 years, 3 months ago. Due to the rapidly evolving world of technology, some material it contains may no longer be applicable.

Moto IFA Event Header

After a long wait it looks like Moto’s latest and greatest new tech is almost here. Motorola are holding an event (at IFA 2014) on the 4th of September in Chicago during which we expect to see the release announcements for the much awaited Moto 360 along with successors to the Moto X and Moto G. But that might not be all as the promotional image released by Motorola for the event (as above) also seems to show some form of headset. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on that one.

Motorola have been teasing the event over at newfrommoto.com where they are telling people to keep an eye on their emails for registration and further information.

The event is being held at the Merchandise Mart but we still have no information as to the exact time of the event. Live streams should be available, if not from Motorola themselves, then from press. We will not be attending the event ourselves but we will be following the event remotely and providing the best coverage we can.

New From Moto
A screenshot of the page at newfrommoto.com

As for the release date, September 5th makes sense as it is the day after IFA 2014 and also the Google I/O team just sent out an email to I/O attendees asking them to fill out a form with their shipping information if they wanted to receive their free Moto 360 which they were promised for launch during the keynote.

The email states that the deadline for doing so is midnight on 5th and so we feel it is very likely Motorola are hoping to launch the new hardware on this day, straight after their announcement at IFA on the 4th. Of course it is possible the launch could be a little later but it would need to be before the 22nd if Motorola are keeping to their promise of a late summer launch.

Moto 360 email for I/O attendees
The email sent out to I/O attendees asking for the shipping address for their free Moto 360

So we know they are coming and soon, but what do we know about them already? Well actually quite a bit, so let’s run through what we know and what we don’t about each of upcoming product announcements we expect to see at IFA 2014.

Moto 360

Moto 360

The Moto 360 has been teased for months and was shown off during I/O although we are still awaiting a few specifics to be made public. We are sure you probably already know what to expect from the Moto 360: a stylish Android Wear watch with leather and metal band options and that beautiful circular display.

The pricing for the metal band version is expected to be around £200 here in the UK and about $279 in the US and we would imagine slightly cheaper for the leather band (we’d guess £180 and $250).

In terms of specifications, we know it will include wireless charging (presumably using the Qi standard), a battery life of about 2.5 days, an ambient light sensor, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, a vibration motor, 9-Axis positional sensors (Gyro / Accelerometer / Compass), heart rate monitor and a stainless steel body with IP67 dust and water resistance (up to 1M of water for 30 mins).

We also suspect it will have a low power OLED display with a resolution of 320×320 and like other Android Wear watches should feature a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU along with 512MB RAM and at least 4GB of storage.

Moto G2

We have some leaked information on the Moto G2 from Mallandonoandroid who also got hold of the image of the upcoming device which you can see below.

motorola-moto-g2

The site claims the same screen 720P screen resolution as before and with a pixel density of 320ppi. The current Moto G is 326ppi so we think this is probably a rounded figure and that this leak is based on the same 4.5″ screen size. If it is not then 320ppi @ 720×1280 would put the screen size at about 4.6″ which is near enough the same anyway.

They also state it will run a quad-core ARM V7 (VFPv4 NEON) processor and Adreno 305 graphics which sounds like it could well be the same chip as the current model, suggesting this may be only a rather small update the device.

The only mention of a definite upgrade in the specs department is the bump in screen camera resolution from 5MP to 8MP which would be a nice improvement, particularly if it retains its current price-point.

There is no mention of storage, RAM, battery capacity or any other specifications except that there may be a dual-sim model, although this feature may not be present in the UK or US as dual-sim phones are far more common in Asian countries.

The image above looks like it could feature front facing stereo speaks like HTC’s BoomSound on the HTC One series however the Moto E has a similar design to this and does not have such a feature so we aren’t so sure about this. I guess we should find out the truth soon enough!

Moto X+1

The successor the Moto X, generally referred to as the X+1 has been leaked multiple times both in benchmarks and in the flesh. Below is a leaked image thanks to Android Police which shows a wooden model with a white front and a metallic surround.

Moto X+1 Leak

This could well be just one of many options through Moto Maker which we assume will continue with the X+1 but we do not know if it will expand it the UK and other courtiers. I suspect many markets will just have one or two colour options. Either way, these photos do give us a nice look at the design.

We also have a pretty complete list of possible specs for the device thanks to a result from GFXBenchmark which appears to be from the Moto X+1 carrying the model number XT1097. These results can be faked so these are not guaranteed to be correct but they look pretty accurate based on past leaks and are on par with expectations.

These specs include a 5.2″ 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU @ 2.45GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB RAM, 10GB available storage (likely a 16GB model), a 12MP rear camera with 4K video capture and a 2MP front camera which can capture 1080P video.

motox+1 specs gxbenchmark

If these specifications hold true this will be a nice upgrade from the current model and put it in-line with recent flagships such as the HTC One (M8) and the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Also leaked was the following video of what appears to a be the black plastic version of the X+1 which was posted back in June by TK Tech News. It does not clearly show the device as it is wrapped it plastic to stop it being uniquely identified but it does give an idea of the size and a few other things on the device.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLXS9xSZYpg

Moto Ear / Headset Thingy

So what do we know about this final piece of hardware that Motorola are teasing? Pretty much nothing. I guess we’ll just have to hang on until the event. If any of you have any interesting theories we would be very interested so do let us know in the comments.

label_outlineAndroid Wear, Google, I/O 2014, IFA 2014, leak, moto, Moto 360, moto g, moto x, Motorola, specs
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