Motorola's Moto X comes to UK

Motorola's flagship Moto X goes on sale in the UK next month as it battles for a place in the crowded Android smartphone market.

The Moto X, one of the highest profile devices to launch since Google took over ownership of Motorola, will be available from Phones 4u, Carphone Warehouse, O2, Amazon and Techdata from 1 February, starting at £380 SIM-free or £25 on contract. For the next three months, the white model of the phone will only be available from Phones 4u.

The device launched in the US last summer, with Motorola talking up the fact that consumers could choose to customise the device with colours and engraving, with the phone promoted as "first smartphone that you can design yourself". This is option is not available in the UK at launch.

Way back in August 2011 when Google revealed its plan to buy Motorola Mobility, it claimed the acquisition would "supercharge the entire Android ecosystem".

But two and half years later, the Moto X has been of limited interest to customers despite positive reviews; Samsung's Galaxy S4 (and soon S5) continues to be the flagship Android device.

The Moto X runs KitKat 4.4, has a 4.7-inch AMOLED HD screen with 720p display. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of storage. Buyers can also get 50GB storage free on Google Drive for two years.

Zdent