What the cheaper Moto X would be like

Just yesterday the Moto X was release. I must say that it left many people feeling ruined. The device had a lot of people interested until they saw the price was almost equivalent to the S4 or HTC One. The exact same day, people from the Moto X said that the device would have a cheaper alternative. After doing some research I have figured out how the cheaper Moto X will work, look, and the specs it would include as well.

Starting with design

The cheaper Moto X will have a case almost the exact same as the current Moto X. This is because normally it's cheaper to continue producing large volumes of the same case instead of having to redesign the case and manufacture a small volume of a different case. This means the phone will have the same ergonomics as the Moto X, which is said to still feel good. This also means that the cheaper Moto X could gain the capacity to be customized just as the normal Moto X is. Because the normal Moto X is made of plastic, there should be no problems in the design continuity.

The inside matters too

Many of you hardcore users will probably wonder what the specs will include. The list I am going to include is all theory for now, but I picked a list of parts that's cheap and still powerful.

Screen - qHD AMOLED screen; Equivalent to 234.5ppi; Also NOT PenTile

Processor- Snapdragon 400 w/ Adreno 305 + Motorola's Special Cores

Ram - 1.5GB

Connectivity - 3G/4G World/multimode LTE on select processors/CDMA/GSM/Wifi

Camera - 5.2 RGBC ClearPixel Camera

Battery  - 1800-2000 mAh (Still allows for 24 hour battery Life) 

Here's my reasoning for the following:

Screen

qHD is the same ratio as the Moto X, meaning a 4.7" screen would fit nicely with the already existing case. The qHD ratio also has a smaller PPI rating, meaning a weaker GPU will still be perfectly smooth.

Processor

The processor Snapdragon 400 is perfect for good speed and price. The 400 has connectivity better than the S4 Plus while having a reduced price. The CPU is a krait 300 dual core, and the GPU is an Adreno 305. The graphics are likely 50% - %60 better than the Galaxy S3 with optimizations, and the the GPU also comes with the OpenGL 3.0LS support, which makes it slightly future proof. Since the QHD screen would have less pixels to push, the graphics would still move amazingly fast. Also, the processor as a whole draws slightly less power than the S4 Pro. With Motorola’s special chips included, the processor would be perfect for a cheaper Motorola phone.

RAM

The RAM size is a 1.5GB because that’s the lowest possible RAM for Jelly Bean 4.2.2 before sacrificing performance. It’s rumored that Android 5.0 ‘K Release’ is light on resources, which would make this device fly on 1.5GB of RAM.

Camera

I remember reading something on web suggesting Kodak’s ClearPixel Cameras require 5.2MP of size to function properly, which actually explains why the Moto X’s clearpixel is 10.5MP instead of 13MP. By cutting the Number of megapixels in half, the cheap Moto X would still have a decent low light camera that can record in both 720p and 1080p video. If the S400 processor is as good as I’d hoped, it would be able to record in 60fps allowing for slow motion recording as well.

Connectivity

Because this device needs to go everywhere, it would need connectivity that can go all around the world. The S400 has connectivity that can be used almost world wide, I just listed what type of connectivity the processor will have.

Battery

Because both the processor and screen are weaker, the device will drain less battery overall. With 1800mAh I suspect that the device will have about the same battery life as the normal Moto X.

Overall performance & Price

The cheaper Moto X will still be one powerful and smooth device. At a glance, most people will barely notice a difference between the normal Moto X and the cheaper one. I’m estimating it will be $0 to $50 on contract and around $250 while off contract. The specs are similar to the S3 mini, and that is $279 off contract, but with production bundled together, the production cost could be reduced by up to $40, which is how I came up with this price point. The battery size could still make the device purely $300, but I still think It would be around $250. The performance would place the device higher than the S3 in some areas.

A cheaper device for the emerging market

The Motorola CEO said that he wants motorola to tackle emerging markets. By doing so, they will have a long term standing in places that could amass a lot economical power within the next 5 - 10 years. I can conclude that they would make an even cheaper device for those countries. A cheaper device would end up having a 640x360 (same PPI as iPad Mini) display and a S200 (can be quad-core A7 ) processor. It might not have the same features as the original Moto X, but it will work well at the given resolution and processing demands. I think this device would end up costing between $50 - $100 and it would run about as well as an iPhone 4. I should mention that the S3 mini received a rating higher than any other flagship device. The cheaper Moto X will have some better specs and possibly get unprecedented results.