[Moto X Q&A] DrvLikHell:
I could get on fine without all of the Moto Actions except for Moto Display. All day at work I get notifications and I just touch the phone, see what it is, and usually swipe it away to deal with it later. It's crazy, what Motorola can do with one action, every other phone requires four actions. It's so convenient while at work, while driving, every time I take it out of my pocket... It would be hard to live without it.

I already gave up a Galaxy S7 because I didn't want to live without Moto Display, so I guess I'll give on size... But only to a point. Right now the Moto G5 Plus is pretty close in size to the 2014 Moto X. It's about 1.5mm wider which would be nearly imperceptible. It's also a full 1cm taller, but I can live with taller. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 625 processor in the G5 Plus is only very slightly faster than the 801 in the 2014 Moto X, and generally only in heavily multi-threaded applications. To me, the difference is so small it's negligible and I would not consider the G5 Plus an upgrade, but a step sideways. Even the 810 in the Galaxy S6 and Z5 Compact will easily outrun the 625. If the Moto X4 comes with a Snapdragon 630 it will not be enough of an upgrade for me to consider. If it comes with a 660, then I'll have to see how that compares against the 810 and 820. Otherwise, the only hope is a decently sized Moto Z2 something. If those are still too big... I dunno man.

It sucks even more because if I did decide to give up Moto Display in favor of a small phone, even the Sony Xperia X Compact uses a Snapdragon 650 which is, again, only negligibly faster than the 810 in the previous years Z5 Compact. So really the decision is a big phone with Moto Actions, or a medium sized phone without Moto Actions, because there is currently no small phone with top tier specs.

Oh, and this got released today:

http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_q6_hits_geekbench_to_run_snapdragon_430_chipset-news-26069.php

[MENTION=6053354]Polishpolisher[/MENTION] sorry to squash your hopes man.

Turns out the LG G6 mini, aka LG Q6 will have an entry-level Snapdragon 430. According to the specs on that page, the 2014 Moto X will out run it with no problem. The 2014 Moto X gets an even 1000 on single core performance and 2430 on multicore performance in Geekbench 4 where the Q6 gets 622 and 1777. Even the little 2013 Moto X gets 714 and 1138 on that benchmark. At least the Moto G5 Plus gets 828 and 4079. As a note, even though 4097 score for the G5 Plus looks huge against 2430 for the Moto X, in real world usage it doesn't feel like that big of a difference because you have to be using an app that can use stress all the cores of the G5 Plus. Otherwise the Moto X does very well at staying only just behind because it's four cores are clocked 25% faster.

I guess, if Lenovo can't cough up something that's got top tier specs and doesn't feel like a paperback book in my pocket, I'd probably go with a Exynos powered S7 and hope that somewhere down the line someone will figure out how to add some interaction to the always on display. If you were wondering, the S7 with the Exynos 8890 chip scores 1801 and 5239 on Geekbench 4. At least that's about double my Moto.

In hindsight, after typing all this, at least it's good to know that the 2014 Moto X is still a viable phone since it can easily outrun brand new phones with entry level processors, and it stays on the heels of new phones with midrange processors. Not bad for a phone that can be had for about $100 on the secondhand market.