Motorola Moto X Phone Specs, Release Date, Price: 3 Unique Features, Including 18 Color Options, ‘Touchless Mode’ And Assistance While Driving

Motorola Moto X phone is the first device built since Google bought the company, and is designed, assembled, and only available in the United States. So what does the Moto X have to offer that makes it stand out from almost 4,000 different Android phone models? Here are three unique features of the Motorola Moto X.

The first unique feature of Moto X, as reported by The New York Times, is the customizable options of the phone's color scheme. Online, Motorola offers a choice of 18 colors for the back panel, black or white for the front, and seven colors for the accents, which include the buttons and ring around the camera's lens.

According to The Economic Times, later this year the option of a back panel made of real wood will be available, in either bamboo, teak, ebony or rosewood.

Buyers can also engrave a name or message on the back of the phone. However, these colors options and customizable features will only be available for AT&T, while Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will offer only black or white until later this year.

The second unique feature is "touchless mode," New York Times reports. Similarly to Siri on the iPhone, users can use voice command on the Moto X to do things such as dial a number, send a text, or open an app.

But unlike Siri, you don't have to hold down a button to speak. Users must first say: "OK, Google Now," and the phone will respond automatically, even if it's lying on the table, in Sleep or Lock mode.

New York Times reports that this touchless feature is a step forward for both safety and convenience. It owes its success to a special chip that does nothing but listen all day for the user's voice, which you must train the phone to recognize.

Another cool part of this is if you turn on the Assist feature, the phone changes modes according to the time and place: Driving, Meeting and Sleeping.

As New York Times reports: "In Driving mode, the phone detects that you're in motion. It starts reading new text messages aloud, routing calls to the speakerphone and, if you like, responding to calls with an automatic text message: 'I'm driving and will get back to you soon.'"

A third feature is that the phone opens up the Camera app simply by the user shaking the phone a few times, and works whether the phone is on or off.

The Moto X will be available at the end of August or at the beginning of September, ABC News reports. The phone can be bought through AT&T, T-Mobile Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular and Best Buy. The 16GB model will cost $199 and the 32GB version $249. The company says it might offer a version directly through the Google Play Store eventually, according to ABC News. The phone will ship with Android 4.2.2 and will be updated to Android 4.3 soon.

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