I don't think that's entirely fair. Motorola is an American company name nearly 100 years old. It did very well for a very long time. It has suffered since from what I see as rather selfish outsourcing by a giant corp. or two which I won't bother to mention.
It's hardly a "lame duck", except to the extent that its recent acquisitions forced it to be. Motorola had a very big lock on some of the very early cell phone market, and then went crazy with its StarTac and then Razr.
It might have kept doing so if it had not been for the wars for cell-phone space from giant companies that were neither historically involved, or innovators in that space (like Google).
It just goes to show how oligopoly-type power distorts markets and can send even good historical brands under.
Motorola is not dead. But neither is it anything like it used to be. Maybe that will change again. Who knows?

And of course the really important stuff is as usual not relevant to this article....... What is the maximum sd card size? Has it even got an sd card slot? Has it got dual sim slots? (Some of us travel to different countries you know)...... Has it got GPS? Has it got a compass?(Chinese clone recently bought had no compass).

Best part of this article is when the author hits you in the face with "In conclusion" was this written by a 7th grader? The Moto X has nothing to offer hardware wise than the M8 or S5 any really any Nokia on the market at present excluding its entry level phones. How the author failed to mention GPS, Compass, SIM slots or even type, SD card compatibility and still make it to print show's gizmag editing is getting sloppy. Come on gizmag you're better than this.

lmao he explains the reasons this phone is great @hkmk23 and your issue with the review is no sd card slot info?
first off it dosent have one and its not really needed to be honest the average user talks about how much of a big deal it is but in all honesty most people i know who add all the extra memory dont even use it they just want the security of having that extra memory.
also not sure what phone in that last few years dosent include gps.. its an android phone i dont think any phone hasnt had gps in a flagship device. but to answer your question yes it has gps.
oh and yes there is a compass as well, not sure why people by clone phones and compare the features as if its the same phone.
the moto x is an amazing device it works and it works well and when offered up with the moto hint and 360 its the best phone on the market as far as i can see in terms of overall value and performance.

What about the phone part itself? How is the audio? How good is the speaker phone? That's a critical differentiator for most buyers of a smart phone.

Eric -
I chided you for being slow with this review and now wish to apologize. Given the specs and possibilities, I don't doubt it took time to complete your analysis. I have the original Moto X with which I am mightily pleased. (I do my homework,) Having finished your review, I am off to the Verizon store to upgrade ahead of schedule. I wholly agree with Mr. Mason and hope Moto X and its very helpful characteristics become more widely known and accepted.

Oh my the all mighty moto x. In 2014 finally they managed to release a vanilla android for $500 about time. This article is so Biased for starters what is the compariso group here? Specs compared? Where r the awesome features that make moto x stand out(voice commands is nothing new even bb has it nowdays)? If there is nothing why not just pick up Opo for $300 and get better os.

I'm sure the Moto X is a truly great phone but for some of us $499. is too much to pay for even a great piece of technology.
I got my Moto E for $129. shortly after it came out and am perfectly happy with it. Sure, it doesn't have the size or specs of its larger and stronger sibling, but it doesn't break the bank either.
For less than a fourth of the cost of an unlocked Moto X I've got a good Android phone and don't have to feel like I'm engaging in conspicuous consumption.
And I'm not jealous of you Moto X owners.
At least, not more than a little.

The new Moto X is AWESOME. I had an iPhone 6 for a week but I went into the store to take care of some contract issues and while waiting started playing with the new Moto X and was amazed. Siri cant touch the Moto Voice and it's always on. I get around 13-16 hours and that's checking emails, talk and text and youtube videos. SOUND quality is superb and it's louder that the M8. No dropped calls and no lag. Almost Pure Android and the features thay added are not intrusive. If you dont want them the turn them off. Easy

I think the reason phones like Moto X avoid using an SD card is because it requires royalty payments to Microsoft to use the FAT filesystem that is part of the MicroSD standard. Apparently the Motorola FRAND patents aren't worth anything because they are standards-required but the same standard doesn't apply to the FAT filesystem required to meet MicroSD spec.
There are other patents involved but I read a report recently that Samsung was giving Microsoft close to a $ 1 billion/year in patent licensing and they receive $5 - $15 and FAT patents are definitely part of that.
To Samsungs credit there are many people who have a shopping list with checkboxes that look like Flagship phone, MicroSD support, and removable battery that rules out a lot of possible contenders. Samsung certainly didn't get as popular as they are because people loved TouchWiz so much.
Honestly though, if Google is going to leave out MicroSD support I would have liked to see larger native storage options than either 16 or 32GB. I don't know anyone in a first world country who is sweating the cost difference between paying $100 on contract or $200 on contract for a phone every 2 years. $100 over 2 years is a cost savings of $4/month.
When iPhone sells 20 million phones in a week and you have people sleeping on the streets for days to get one, and people selling them in China for $1,500 a month early /someone/ at Motorola has to be scratching their head saying to themselves "do people even want cheaper phones?"
When there is that much demand for most expensive phones on the market is it really worth taking that huge of a hit to sales figures just to save people $100 over 2 years? Moto X, G, and E are technical marvels that largely fail to understand the market.