Motorola is testing the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update on Moto X Pure Edition, reports say. The company managed to make a name of itself lately, especially when it comes to quick and reliable Android updates. It seems that things are starting to move again, after a few flops in this department, as the company is interested in offering its customers timely updates again.
Motorola Senior Director David Schuster revealed on Google+ today that the tests for Android 6.0 on Moto X Pure Edition/ Style are in full effect. Below you can read the official post:
“There have been a couple reports of a Marshmallow “soak test” that has started for Moto X 2015 Pure Edition. Just want to make it clear that we have NOT started a formal “soak test”. We have started a small TestDrive for the Marshmallow upgrade on Moto X 2015 Pure Edition. We will be conducting these tests for the next couple of weeks. Pending the feedback during this test cycle will determine the timing of a full soak test.”
An official update will come in a few weeks, as the post suggests, mainly because there is not soak test being performed at the moment. A soak test is a private firmware beta test that Motorola usually conducts in some markets, and it is limited to active users on Motorola’s support forums. The public doesn’t usually find out about them, but there are casual leaks happening everywhere now. They are important because the public rollouts happen in 2-6 weeks after a soak test was berformed.
The same will happen with other Motorola devices such as Moto X Play, Moto G 3rd gen, Moto X 2014, Moto G, DROID Turbo and Moto MAXX.
Motorola is not far from the competition when it comes to timely updates. This time, when we are eagerly waiting for Android 6.0 update announcements to be made, Moto has us covered in disclosing a list of devices that are getting the update.
Motorola even highlighted some things that the users can use as soon as their Motorolas get up to speed with Marshmallow. This includes Doze Mode (the feature detects if your device is inactive to save battery life), Direct Share (you share files, photos, videos, links easily), and Android Pay.
It was announced that the Moto Enhancement feature will be working with Marshmallow. Some of the features removed from the device software are Moto Assist, Moto Migrate and the Google Chrome extension in Motorola Connect.
List of Motorola devices getting Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates:
Nexus 6
Moto Turbo 2014
Moto MAXX 2014
DROID Turbo
Moto G 2014/ Moto G with 4G LTE2(2nd gen)
Moto X 2014 in Latin Aerica, Europe and Asia 2 (2nd gen)
Moto X Pure Edition 2014 (US 2nd gen)
Moto G 2015 (3rd gen)
Moto X Play 2015
Moto X Style (2015 – 3rd gen)
Moto X Pure Edition (2015 3rd gen).
There is no news regarding a possible date of release for the Android 6.0 update, but Motorola assures their customers that they are working on it as fast as they can.
Motorola just released the kernel source for the Moto X Pure and it is codenamed Clark. Motorola managed to push the open source code to Github where everyone can take it from and dabble in baking and tinkering with their device. This comes after the release of Android 5.1 source for the Moto X 2014.
As always, this is mostly news for developers and not the everyday user, but you may just as well benefit from it in one way or another. The kernel source is always an important step when it comes to creating good mods and apps. The source code is based on Android 5.1 and it is 145MB in size. You can go to the source link and grab it for yourself.
Motorola Moto X Play is finally out and we can tell you all about it. It was launched in India where it sells for 18,499 rupees, which makes it the cheapest phone with a 21MP camera and the promise of at least 25 hours of battery. The device looks pretty good and has very interesting specs for its price.
Moto X Play
The new Moto X will be one of the first devices to get Android M when it comes out, as Motorola officials admitted in an interview. The older Moto X versions will be left behind as time goes by.
Moto X Play: what is it all about?
This smartphone is actually the little brother of Moto X Style, as it takes everything from the device and shrinks it up a bit to match the price. It has a 5.5-inch Full HD screen at 403ppi and it packs a Snapdragon 615 processor plus an Adreno 405 GPU.
The biggest difference from the Moto X Style device is the slightly bigger screen of 5.7-inch Quad HD at 1440 x 2560 pixels, but it is accompanied by the better processor as well.
That being said, let’s get down to business to what Moto X Play is all about:
5.5-inch 1080p Full HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 ad 403 ppi
1.7GHz Snapdragon 615 octa-core plus an Adreno 405 running at 550 MHz GPU
2 GB of RAM
16 or 32GB of storage
3630 mAh battery
32MP rear camera with 1080 HD video recording and an f/2.0 aperture
5MP front camera
4G LTE
NFC
Bluetooth 4.0.
Moto X Play will be available in black and white versions with a twist we will talk more about. When it comes to customizing the look of your device, it is all rather clean and clear because you can only choose from a white or black front, and a different set of brightly colored panels with eight different trim finishes. Gone are the days when you could choose three bright colors to clad your smartphone in at the same time… at least for now.
The battery is worth mentioning twice because it is a very large cell advertised as a power-plant that allows you to use your smartphone for at least 30 hours before having to charge it again.
The device is aimed at the mid-range market and it could compete well with OnePlus 2, Honor 6 Plus and Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3.
The display is sharp and has vivid colors, but it also gets very bright when you need it and it goes darker when you don’t need that brightness. Even if it has an LCD display, Moto X Play does render the colors pretty well and it does not blend in colors or make tinges pop out. You can even choose between two display modes, normal and vibrant. The first pops out realistic colors whereas the second enhances vibrancy and color saturation.
Camera
If Moto X Play has something great it is striving to offer, it would be that 21MP camera. It is much bigger than the regular 13MP for the flagships of the year and it also has an f/2.0 aperture, making it, at least in theory, good at shooting in low light conditions.
Moto X Play camera
Under the camera you will find a color correlated temperature (CCT) two-tone flash that will allow you to capture soft skin tones without causing photo disruption or blow-outs. The camera is very good in capturing static images, but it does struggle somewhat when capturing pictures in movement or in low light (despite its setting).
Conclusion
Moto X Play is one of the mid-range devices you could really use on a daily basis. With a good display, great battery life and a detailed camera that works decent in all conditions, you can be sure that this Motorola device adds to the continuous improvement of Motorola’s devices.
The smartphone will sell for around $200-$300 when it launches in the US and around £300 in UK.
If we are to nitpick, we would choose the camera troubles in low light conditions, the performance issues due to the slower processor (slower compared to what flagships use) and the lack of a turbo charger (although the device has Turbo charging) as the biggest flaws for this device.
Motorola recently released the open source kernel for the Moto G 3rd gen. Ever since its launch, the G Moto series has been a leader in the mid-range niche market because of its great price and features.
The Moto G 3rd gen launched just a few hours after its announcement last month, and it is already running on the most recent Android version, 5.1.1. The open source kernel was also made public now. In the last few weeks a number of kernels was updated and followed by OTA software updates, among the most important devices to get the change were the original Moto G, 2015 Moto E and 2014 Moto X.
Where can I get the Moto G 3rd gen kernel?
Developers can download the kernel from Motorola’s own Github found in the source link below. It is extremely useful in creating new apps and customized versions of the kernel that can replace the stock build (the things you would want to do to get to a good custom ROM or to processor overclocking).
Motorola is working on its current products and their software programs as it is attempting to update all of them. This ultimately means releasing kernel sources to the public as well. This time, the device getting this treatment is the 2015 Moto E, its low-cost smartphone. The device was updated to Android 5.1.1 in May and now its kernel source files are being published.
This will probably interest you developers out there and, if you are intrigued and eager, you can head over to Motorola GitHub (link in source) to find and download this package or any other Moto package that interests you (and is available at this time). After downloading the files, you can start tinkering with the source code to create beautiful ROMs, better recoveries and apps for instance.
Attention: this is not the package for the AT&T Go phone or the Verizon prepaid Moto E.
