While most tech manufacturers have their own premium flagship iterations, tech giants try to corner a broad spectrum of the smartphone market by also releasing midrange units in terms of specs and prices. Two such current iterations are the OnePlus X from the China-based company, and Motorola's newly released Motorola Moto X Play.
How do these two midrange units compare against each other?
Design
In terms of design and form factor, the new OnePlus X lords it over other devices in the mid-priced range, even against Motorola's current one. The OnePlus iteration has the glass-and-metal body that is mostly found in other pricier flagships. The glass finish on both panels sandwich an aluminum metal frame, and this gives the OnePlus X a premium look and feel. However, the design itself has a drawback – because of the glass surface, the OnePlus X may feel slippery at times.
The Moto X Play, on the other hand, is designed as an average mid-priced unit. Nonetheless, smartphone users, particularly the hardcore fans, can immediately tell it as a Motorola lineup because of its distinct form factor and design. However, while other smartphones are going for a unibody design, Motorola decided to stick to a removable back panel for the Moto X Play. This means that users will have the choice to use a custom back panel; however, only the surface portion of the back panel can be removed, so the Moto X Play does not have a removable battery.
Under the hood specs
Specs-wise, each has its own pros and cons. While the OnePlus X enjoys a higher-rated Snapdragon 801 chipset against the Moto X Play's Snapdragon 615 processor. The OnePlus iteration also has the higher memory, coming with 3 GB of RAM (the Moto X Play only has 2 GB).
However, the Snapdragon 810 processor is already outdated, and is prone to overheating. In addition, it also doesn't support 64-bit architecture, so the Moto X Play is the more flexible and fluid unit when it comes to multitasking. Both run on their own custom skins based on Android Lollipop 5.1.1.
As for the display, the Moto X Play can already be considered a phablet, featuring a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with Full HD resolution. The OnePlus X, meanwhile, has a slightly smaller 5.0-inch Full HD AMOLED display.
