[Moto X Q&A] DrvLikHell:
I'm glad to see I'm not the only Moto zealot. Everything you said could have come straight from my keyboard.

I keep looking for the elusive "next phone," especially since my 2014 Moto X is starting to have a couple issues like the beginning of a loose charge port and battery bizarreness once in a while. But every time I search, I come up empty handed. There will not, in the foreseeable future, be a phone with outstanding ergonomics like the Moto X. I've come to accept that finally. What I'd really love to have is something similar to Moto Display. (I refer to it as Moto Display because I always get Active Display and Ambient Display mixed up.) But I might have to accept 3rd party suckyness because I just don't see anything on the horizon. What I can't accept is carrying around a giant plank of marketing cheapness.

I say marketing cheapness because generally, stupid consumers (well over half of America) buy what is being sold to them. One big reason manufacturers are marketing larger phones to people because they're cheaper to engineer. Everybody knows it's harder and more expensive to fit more tech into a smaller package. So by making the phone bigger, they can save money on engineering and use the "bigger is better" philosophy as a scapegoat. In reality, half the blame falls on the manufacturers for doing this, and half falls on the consumer for accepting it. For the rest of us, we're screwed.

Let us have a look at your list:

1. The body of the 2013 or 2014 Moto X

2. Pixel 2 hardware inside (assuming it will improve on Pixel)

3. Waterproof

4. Headphone jack

5. Moto X Software

6. Fingerprint Scanner inside Moto X dimple on the back

7. Motomaker Customization

8. Reliable software updates for 2-3 years.

We can strike number one off the list because it's just never going to happen. The best we can hope for is a small form factor phone with top tier gear inside. Number two is entirely possible, perhaps not specifically Pixel 2 hardware, but a high end at least. Waterproof, possible. Headphone jack, sure. Moto X Software... <sigh> never going to happen. Moto features are run by specific Moto hardware. If I remember correctly, there's a special low power chip that runs the Moto Display and Moto Voice features and that's why you can't even port the code to another phone or get it in a custom ROM. Fingerprint scanner in the Moto X dimple... since the dimple is gone from the new Motos, not gonna happen either. They've also severely toned down the Motomaker customization for the Moto Z, and no one else offers it so that's pretty much out as well. Reliable updates, maybe, if you get the phone when it first comes out, and if comes out at the same time latest version of Android is released, and/or if it's very popular and has good aftermarket ROM development.

This is what your wish list looks like after it's been run through the reality machine:

1. Not giant, preferably small with high screen/body ratio

2. High power CPU

3. Waterproof

4. Headphone jack

5. Fingerprint scanner

6. Reliable updates for 2, maybe 3 years.

Pretty sucky. And even with this redacted list, there's only one phone that I know of which used to meet all of these requirements. The Sony Xperia Z5 Compact. I almost bought one instead of my 2014 Moto X, but I decided that I couldn't live without the Moto Display, so I traded small for Moto Display awesomeness. If you're looking for brand new hardware, the Z5 is two generations behind now.

There was a rumored Galaxy S7 Mini, similar to the S5 mini of old. It would have fit the redacted list, but it never came to be.

The regular Galaxy S7 is close to the size of the 2014 Moto X. I had one for a few days, but as I said before, the ergonomics just wasn't there, and the always on display was a poor replacement, neigh, not a replacement at all for Moto Display. Samsung may get around to it though. After I updated the S7 I was able to tap the notifications to open them. I couldn't interact with them like with Moto Display, but at least Samsung made it DO something besides act like a notification light. I kinda wish I had hung on to it, but I'm sure I would have gone back to my Moto after a short while.

The verdict for people like us? Start our own company and make our dream phone ourselves, or hang onto our aging phones until they're no longer viable for everyday use, and then settle for the least bad of the lot that the manufacturers are pushing on the public.

For me, I prefer a phone that's at least a year old so it's cheaper and at least some of the bugs have been worked out. I also usually prefer a phone that's more than one generation newer than what I have. The 2014 Moto X was an exception because it was the last "real" Motorola. Currently, there is no phone on the market that fits. If my 2014 Moto X got crushed tomorrow, I'd go back to my 2013 Moto X and continue waiting for the "next phone" to turn up. I'd possibly scour Swappa for another 2014 Moto X, or maaaaybe a Moto G4 from Europe while I continue the wait. If I got a job where they demanded that I have a more modern phone (almost happened once), I'd begrudgingly get an S7 or Pixel. Sad state of affairs man, sad state.

If you, or anyone else, find a more qualified replacement, I'd love to hear about it. I'm consciously ignoring the small issues my Moto X is starting to develop, hoping they'll just go away because there's nothing acceptable to replace it with.

Edit: There seems to be a Moto X4 on the horizon, as well as a new Xperia and a new flagship Nokia 8 and/or 9 running Android. We'll see if any of them can tick enough boxes to be a contender.