Moto X4 Dual Camera Review

The Moto X4 is a stylish mid-range smartphone from Moto (Lenovo). It features a 16mp front selfie camera, dual cameras on the back including a 12mp standard, and an ultra-wide-angle 8mp camera, with some advanced shooting modes including selective focus. There's a 5.2inch screen, 3GB ram, 32GB storage, and 3000mAh battery. The phone is waterproof and features a glass front and back.

Moto X4 Features

The Moto X4 is a stylish mid-range smartphone. This is the 4th generation version of the Moto X smartphone, the stylish but affordable smartphone, with premium looks that should give good levels of performance.

Here's how the Moto X4 compares to some of the other Moto smartphones: 

The Moto X4 is a dual camera smartphone, and like the G5S Plus, it features 2 cameras on the back, however, the cameras on the X4 are both different. One standard 12mp f/2.0 lens with phase detection auto-focus (PDAF), and one 8mp ultra-wide-angle camera. There's a dual LED flash on the back and an LED flash on the front for selfies with the front 16mp f/2.0 camera.

You can shoot a panoramic selfie-shot which will get more of the background in the shot, or more people if you have friends. You can also shoot with selective focus, and blur the background of your photo. There's a spot colour tool. Landmark detection is designed to show you information about your surrounding. Under the heading of "Smart Camera" you'll also find object recognition, which means you can scan barcodes with the camera.

With the front-facing camera, you can use the "Adaptive Low-light mode" which is designed to take better photos in low-light by taking a 4mp photos rather than a 16mp photo.

The Moto X4 will record 4K (UHD) video at 30fps, and there are options to record slow-motion video. You can also record FullHD video at 60fps.

The fingerprint sensor can unlock the phone and is found on the front of the phone. The phone is also IP68 waterproof, meaning it should survive up to 1.5m underwater for 30 minutes.

The phone comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB Storage, which should be plenty. There's a MicroSD slot if you want to add more. 

The phone is running Android v7.1.1 and the pre-installed software is limited to some of the more essential apps. This gives you more space for your own apps and makes the phone responsive in use. The phone can also be updated to Android 8.0 (Oreo).

Key Features

• 12mp f/2.0 PDAF camera, 1.4um
• Ultra-wide-angle 8mp f/2.2, 120degrees
• Dual LED flash
• 16mp f/2.0 selfie camera, with LED flash
• 5.2inch screen, 1080p resolution, Gorilla Glass 3
• Auto HDR shooting
• 4K video, 30fps
• ISO80 to ISO3200
• MicroSD card slot
• Fingerprint sensor, NFC
• 3000mAh battery
• 3GB / 32GB (or 4GB / 64GB options in some locations)
• Available in Super Black, Nimbus (Sterling Blue)

Moto X4 Handling

The phone has a glass front and back, with metal edges. The back of the phone neatly curves to meet the metal frame. The camera lenses on the back of the phone are covered with a round piece of glass, with a design similar to a watch to give a premium look and style. Due to the glass back, you'll want to put the smartphone in a case, to ensure that if you accidentally drop it, it will be protected.

The battery is non-removable. The fingerprint sensor is at the bottom and this can be used to unlock the phone once you've registered your fingerprint(s) with it. 

On the side is the usual unlock / power buttons, and volume controls. The power / unlock button has a texture making it easier to find. There's a headphone socket on the bottom and a type-C USB connection. On top, there is a MicroSD slot.

The phone feels reasonably quick in use. With an AnTuTu Benchmark score of 88180 (v7.0.4), and a Geekbench score of: 872 (single-core), and 4109 (multi-core) the Moto X4 sits in the middle of the pack for performance.

The phone runs Android 7.1.1. and supports split screen apps so that you can view two different apps at the same time.

The 5.2inch screen has a resolution of 1920x1080 (FullHD), the screen is bright, and viewing it outdoors in bright light was quite good, although it wasn't as bright as some other smartphones we had to hand.

You can use the touchscreen to set the focus point, and pressing the on-screen button on the right-hand side will bring up the shooting modes, which includes:

• Professional mode
• Face filters
• Depth enabled (background blur)
• Panorama
• Spot colour
• Photo

The Professional mode lets you manually adjust a number of different settings including metering, white balance, self-timer, ISO, and exposure compensation. You need to access the Professional mode to access full camera settings. Otherwise, the photo app is quite basic but does give access to auto HDR which will help give better dynamic range in tricky situations.

You can quickly access the camera when the phone is locked by shaking or twisting the phone in your hand. The camera has quick shooting and is able to take a photo quickly after being unlocked. 

Battery life - The battery is rated at 3000mAh which is quite good for a mid-range smartphone, and the phone appears to do a good job managing the battery life, so that it doesn't drain too quickly when not in use. As the battery can’t be removed, you’ll need to take a USB charger if you think you're going to run out of power

Moto X4 Performance

The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.

Motorola Moto X4 Sample Photos

Sample Photos - The camera gives photos with bright colours and good levels of saturation and contrast. Some noise is visible when viewing images at 100%, but noise is quite well managed. Auto HDR in normal shooting mode means that images are captured with increased dynamic range. The lack of optical image stabilisation can make it more difficult to get sharp shots in low-light.

Detail is reasonable, even into the corners of the frame, although images do appear to be slightly overprocessed, which can give the impression of soft and "painterly" images, particularly if viewing them at 100%. There is very little distortion visible in images when shooting subjects with straight edges when using the normal lens, unfortunately, the same can not be said about the ultra-wide-angle lens. Distortion and purple fringing is visible in images when shooting with the ultra-wide-angle lens.

"Selfies" taken with the front camera can end up blurry if you are too close to the camera, as it does not feature auto-focus.

Motorola Moto X4 ISO test images

ISO Noise Performance - Despite manually selecting the ISO speed, the camera didn't always give us exactly the same speed. Noise is well controlled up to ISO800 and becomes quite high at ISO1600. Using the lowest ISO settings is recommended where possible, and noise reduction seems a bit strong at all ISO speeds, reducing detail, and producing images that look a bit like a water painting when viewed at 100%. Noise performance is slightly worse with the ultra-wide-angle lens, and we'd try and stick to under ISO800.

Motorola Moto X4 White-balance test images

White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) performs well under tungsten lighting with a good result. When using the tungsten preset, the result is much warmer. AWB performs well under fluorescent lighting, and the preset isn't needed here. If you do use the preset, then the result isn't as good. Results under mixed lighting are good. 

Digital Filters - There are no effects or filters available in the default camera app at the time of taking the photo, however, you can apply effects to images after you've taken them, or use any other app to take photos. 

Video - The camera records 4K video at 30fps, FullHD video at 60/30fps. There's also a high-speed video option, that records at 120fps, at a reduced resolution of 1280x720. You can use the LED light on the back during video recording. The video playback features an option to stabilise the video, with reasonable, but quite artificial results. The ultra-wide-angle lens records video at a maximum resolution of FullHD, and 30fps.