[Moto Maxx General] ChazzMatt:
1) I probably know more about Google hardware than you ever will. ;)

2) While I will agree with you on Motorola being very laggard on updates -- I will not defend them in any way on that issue -- the 2014 hardware duo of Moto Nexus 6 and Quark series (XT1225/XT1250/XT1254), both released at the same time, shows they can play with the big boys. Motorola did make a Nexus phone with some of the best hardware specs ever made, and their Quark was basically the 5.2" version of that phone -- except for lack of stereo speakers and rear camera OIS. (Both were very strange omissions -- Motorola knew how to do hardware rear camera OIS as it's on the Nexus 6, and they had just put stereo speakers on the 2014 Moto X earlier that year. Very puzzling, and the only two things to prevent this from being the best phone EVER. It's not like they didn't charge enough money for this phone -- I paid about $700 each for my first two XT1225 in 2014.)

Quark (Moto XT1225/XT1250/XT1254) vs Moto Nexus 6

3) Uhmmm. I look suspiciously on Google ever since they released the too-big Nexus 6. They still haven't gotten back to where they should be. That was the FIRST of NOT having "well thought" design. Until then, they went with mainstream design size. That year, 2014, the mainstream display size was between 5.0" - 5.5", with the "average" being around 5.2". (Even Samsung with their Note phablets never went over 5.7" display size.) Google jumped the shark and went to 5.95" -- a 6" phablet! Of course people weren't going to buy it! They've admitted their mistake, and Motorola told them they shouldn't go that big. Whoever made that decision really missed an opportunity to solidify the Nexus branding as a commercial entity, and instead RUINED the Nexus brand.

"Well thought"? NO. Tell me what they were thinking with the HUGE bezels in the 2016 Pixel XL? They weren't thinking. Huawei turned them down for Pixcel and they had to go begging to HTC, who re-used a frame from a previous phone.

And they dropped Qi wireless charging, in both 2015 and 2017 when even Apple is adding Qi wireless charging now in 2017! (Motorola also stupidly dropped it, while Samsung did not.) If you charging THAT much money (over $800), you better have everything in the phone.

Look at the hardware specs of the ZTE Axon 7 AND the PRICE and look at the hardware specs of the Pixel XL.

The ZTE Axon 7 matches and even BEATS the Pixel XL in every hardware spec (except maybe camera) and is less than HALF the price. Why can't Google do that? Are they STUPID? I'm not paying EXTRA $400-$500 for HUGE BEZELS. Put some front-facing stereo speakers there, and I'll consider it.

It's not just about the price, but the hardware specs and the look. ZTE's frame is even designed by BMW. Google's frame they got out of the garbage dumpster behind HTC building. Look at the SIZE. The ZTE Axon 7 is SMALLER in spite of having the same display and even adding front-facing stereo speakers! "well thought"? HA!

Both have

same 5.5" 1440p AMOLED Samsung display

Pixel XL has 821 vs the 820 Snapdragon, only because it was released six months later. I would call that even.

4GB RAM

In addition, the ZTE Axon 7 has

award winning DAC

and front facing speakers + microSD card. I know that's a Google thing to not have microSD card, so if the Pixel XL was superior in all other aspects, I wouldn't even mention it.

Price? Currently over $800 vs

$330.

There's even a ZTE Axon 7 variant with 6GB RAM/128GB internal memory for $499 -- still beats the Pixel XL.

The only single point the Pixel XL is ahead in is the Google Pixel camera.

Well thought?

Don't make me laugh. Google should have bought 1 million ZTE Axon 7 phones, slapped their software on them, and sold THAT as the Pixel XL! They could even have marked it up a few hundred dollars and still made a profitl

If ZTE had used a ceramic/glass back and had Qi wireless charging, I would have bought 3 of them. Just like I own three Moto XT1225.

________

I was a Google Nexus fanboi with the gen3 Galaxy Nexus and the gen5 LG Nexus 5, buying both for me and my wife. I also bought Nexus tablets, the 7 and the 9. I bragged incessantly about Nexus hardware.

But Google screwed up in 2014 with the whale Moto Nexus 6. The model number for the Nexus phones is NOT screen size! Google got confused and made it too big. They even had a 5.2" Nexus 6 version they were testing! We saw the leaked benchmarks in mid-August 2014:

Shamu:

5.2",

1440p,

Snapdragon 805,

3GB RAM.

It was there! They had two variants. Google should have released BOTH or just released the "mainstream" size. But they told Motorola go with the one that was too big. That's when they lost me. I'm NOT going to look like this:

Someone carrying a Nexus 6

Which is why I bought the 5.2" version, the Quark that Motorola released at the same time. It was either the 5.2" Shamu re-purposed, or had been developed in parallel -- don't really care, it was top tier specs in a size I liked. It's MY Nexus 6. Oh, and the 5.2" Quark has a BIGGER battery than the 6" Shamu! Another way Google always screwed up the Nexus phones -- they skimped on the batteries!

Still, with the Nexus 6 and the Quark series, Motorola finally did graduate to the top tier category.

Ever since then, Google has admitted their mistake by going smaller and smaller - 5.7", then 5.5". But they still don't quite understand -- and they stupidly releasing even smaller versions with mid-tier 1080p specs and lesser RAM.

It wasn't the COST of the Nexus 6 most people didn't like, it was the SIZE. It wasn't mainstream. Even Samsung didn't make their phablet Note series that big (overall frame size).

And now Google screwed up with the most recent phones, the Nexus 6P (although they made it smaller than the Nexus 6, it was also still too big a) and the Pixel XL (with the bezels) even though they made it even smaller than the Nexus 6 and the 6P.

I'll consider the 2017 Pixel XL IF Google can get their act together.

________________

Ever since 2014, I can also list the many mistakes Motorola has made under new owner Lenovo --

breaking their fast updates promise,

not fixing the two deficiencies in the Quarks (stereo speakers/rear camera OIS) in the 2015 Kinzie successor, and instead adding the silly plastic shatter shield gimmick.

making you pay EXTRA for what should already be in phone (mods, with stereo speakers, Qi wireless charging), and

even with the U.S. Moto G5 Plus -- stripping NFC out when including it for the rest of the world.