As middle-grade phones go, the Ascend A7 is quite large: 5.5 inches with a full HD display. The device sports a 720p 5-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel rear one. One feature Huawei stressed was its ability to take both horizontal and vertical panoramic shots: perfect for capturing large monuments like the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Users can also use the all-focus feature to adjust a photo’s focus after taking it.

Customization is also a potential selling point for the Ascend G7. Users can download 30 different themes right off the bat, and more are on the way. They can also change the transparency color for each window, making a phone that’s uniquely their own.

The Ascend G7 will launch in late 2014, and cost €299 ($387) without a contract. Huawei did not reveal whether the product will come to the U.S. specifically, but it will be compatible with American mobile carriers for those who want to import it.

No matter the operating system, the One M8 is still a gorgeous phone. The brushed aluminum rear panel, painted a sleek gunmetal gray, wraps around the phone like a warm embrace. There's not one, but two cameras situated along the top of the rear panel, flanked by an LED flash.HTC etched the Verizon and 4G LTE emblems into the phone's rear panel, which looks sleek and classy. Like its Android brethren, the M8's 5-inch display sits between two gray plastic panels housing the BoomSound speakers. The company ditched the physical buttons from the M7 in favor of touch-screen icons, leaving a gleaming chrome HTC emblem in their place.

A glossy, black IR blaster occupies the majority of the top of the phone, with the power button integrated into the right corner. The microSD card is located directly above the volume rocker, while the micro SIM slot is found on the left. Both the micro USB and the headphone jack sit at the bottom of the device.

Just like the Android version, the Windows Phone M8 measures 5.8 x 2.8 x 0.37 inches and weighs 5.64 ounces. It's heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S5 (5.1 ounces, 5.6 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches) and the Apple iPhone 5s (3.95 ounces, 4.87 x 2.31 x 0.30 inches).

The display is just as gorgeous on the Windows edition of the One M8 as it is on Android. Live Tiles were a symphony of vivid color on the 5-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel panel. Chadwick Boseman's mahogany skin tone in the 1080p Get On Up trailer looked warm and inviting against his royal-blue sateen suit. Details were sharp enough to make out some of the inscription on his huge gold ring and the folds and creases in the suit.

When we measured the phone's color reproduction capabilities, the Windows Phone displayed 114 percent of the sRGB gamut, which is just a hair behind the Android model (115 percent), but enough to beat the iPhone 5s' 98 percent. The Samsung GS5 owned the competition, at 156 percent.

As far as color accuracy, the Windows One M8 didn't perform as well as I expected on the Delta-E test, scoring 5.1 (0 is best). It beat the GS5's 5.9, but the Android One M8 and the iPhone had much better results of 4.1 and 0.09.

Still, the Windows One M8 outshone most of the competition, measuring 420 nits on our light meter -- much brighter than the 350-nit smartphone average, the Android version (368 nits) and the Galaxy S5 (347 nits). However, the iPhone delivered an even-brighter 470 nits.

Like the Android model, HTC's impressive front-facing BoomSound speakers effortlessly filled my small test space with loud, clear audio. When I listened to it in my empty office, the audio quality was on a par with some of the lower-end Bluetooth speakers on the market.

There was no lack of bass when I listened to Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda." The speakers faithfully reproduced the artist's frenetic delivery as she switched between high-pitched staccato and drawn-out drawl.

However, I noticed that the accompanying horns on the track sounded scratchy at max volume, signaling that the speakers can't handle highs as well as mids and lows. The problem persisted when I switched to Anita Baker's rendition of "Lately." While Baker's scintillating alto was rich and full, there were some points throughout the song where I found myself distracted by overly brassy cymbals and strings.

The Windows One M8 measured 88 decibels on the Laptop Mag Audio Test, topping the 80 dB smartphone average. The Android edition hit 83 dB, while the GS5 notched 73 dB.

A gorgeous phone with a good-looking operating system -- what could possibly go wrong? Thankfully, not much. As the name suggests, this version of the HTC One M8 runs Windows 8.1, which adds some of the features Android and iPhone owners have been enjoying for some time.

For example, a swipe down reveals the notifications shade that the folks over at Microsoft have helpfully renamed the Action Center. From there, you can check out your latest updates and access the quick settings menu. It allows only four settings at a time, but you can swap them out in the full settings menu. It's nice, but I wish I could access more than four at a time.

A long press of the back button shows all your currently opened apps. Instead of making you repeatedly hit the back button to exit everything, you can now hit the X in the corner of the app to close out a program.

My favorite Windows Phone 8.1 feature is the ability to dismiss the capacitive home, back and search at the bottom of the screen. A small arrow button in the far left corner will hide the black bar beneath the display, restoring about a quarter inch of the display. If you swipe up from the bottom of the display, the bar will resurface.

With Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft has finally added trace-typing technology to its virtual keyboard. When I traced my finger along the slim, gray keys, it produced a thick blue line that kept pace with my frantic swivels. The color of the line changes according to the Live Tile palette theme selected in the Settings menu.

Psst, don't tell Master Chief, but somebody put Cortana in my phone! Hoping to draw in fans of the Halo series, Microsoft has created a digital assistant voiced by the beloved smart artificial intelligence construct Cortana.

Like Siri and digital assistants such as Samsung's S Voice and Google Now, Cortana is there to help schedule meetings, look up restaurants and answer a few questions along the way. Microsoft made sure to infuse Cortana with a sense of humor. When I asked if she would be appearing in Halo 5, she responded sounding somewhat amused, "Of all the questions you could have asked."

When I wasn't asking about Master Chief or the Covenant, Cortana handled regular inquiries fairly quickly, informing me about the next day's weather, when the new season of "Scandal" is scheduled to start and what's going on in Ferguson, Missouri. Some questions, such as those about the weather, got a voice response, while others, like "Scandal" one, just pulled up Web results.

One of the signature features of HTC's smartphones is BlinkFeed, a Flipboard-esque interface that pulls in content from news sources and your social networks. I was glad to see that it made its way to the HTC One 8 for Windows, but it's missing a few features found on the Android version.

For starters, you can't swipe right from the home screen to launch BlinkFeed. Instead, it's presented as a Live Tile. It's a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless. I was disappointed to discover that the restaurant-suggestion feature was absent. Also missing is the Fitbit integration that HTC has been promising to roll out. To be fair, it's not yet on the Android HTC One M8, either.

Similar to the Motorola Moto X and LG's KnockON feature, Motion Launch lets you double tap the HTC One's display to wake up the phone. But other features found on the Android version, such as swiping up to launch a recently used app or swiping down to place a voice call, are noticeably missing.

In order to take advantage of that large IR blaster at the top of the phone, HTC has added the HTC Sense TV app. Sense TV allows you to control your television, cable box and home theater using the One M8. Once you get the app set up, you can change channels and output settings, as well as adjust the volume, without having to hunt down a dozen remote controls.

It took me about 5 minutes to pair my ViewSonic TV and Scientific Atlanta Explorer cable box to the remote. Once it was set up, I went into full couch-potato mode, channel surfing at my leisure. HTC also added a streaming feature so I could switch over to my Hulu Plus account if I couldn't find anything on the regular boob tube.

Despite all the new OS additions, Microsoft remains at a disadvantage compared to Android and iOS, thanks to its relatively small app store. The Windows Phone store recently passed the 300,000-app mark, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the 1 million-plus apps featured in the Google Play and the Apple App stores.

Microsoft has been working to bring some of the more popular apps on Android and iOS over to Windows. Instagram has finally arrived on Windows, but it's still in beta. You'll also find Vine, Spotify, Netflix, LinkedIn, Uber and Hulu Plus. However, Snapchat, YouTube, Google Maps and Secret are still MIA.

HTC employed a rather light touch when it came to preinstalled apps on the Android version of the One M8. Other than Sense TV and BlinkFeed and several camera apps, HTC-branded apps on the Windows One M8 are few and far between.

Verizon added several of its mainstay apps, including NFL Mobile, VZ Navigator, Verizon Messages and MyVerizonMobile.

Facebook and Slacker Radio are the only two third-party apps preloaded onto the device.

Using Qualcomm's powerful 2.3-GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 CPU with 2GB of RAM, the HTC One M8 for Windows can stand toe-to-toe with just about any rival flagship phones currently on the market. The phone also has 32GB of onboard storage, and accepts microSD cards up to 64GB.

I unleashed my inner speed demon on Asphalt 8: Airborne, tearing past other drivers and drifting through turns. Graphics were gorgeous on the One M8 and showed no signs of slowing down or jaggies, even as I engaged maximum nitrous to secure the lead. Navigating and opening apps were both swift experiences, and it took just half a second to launch the camera.

The One M8 scored 535.59 on the WP Bench test, which measures CPU, memory, storage and GPU performance. The Nokia Lumia Icon and its 2.2-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU notched 464.18.

On the SunSpider JavaScript test, the One M8 hit 527.9 milliseconds, which is noticeably faster than the Icon, which finished in 542.9 ms.

When I ran the Peacekeeper Browser test, the One M8 scored 508, which is better than the Nokia Lumia Icon's 322, but falls slightly behind the Icon's 520.

You want fast? Verizon's got fast. The HTC One M8 for Windows delivered blistering Web speeds over Verizon's 4G LTE AWS network. I saw an average download speed of 57.8 Mbps at the Laptop Mag office in the Flatiron District of New York City. Upload speeds were equally impressive, at 14.16 Mbps.

While it's not the first smartphone to sport two rear-facing cameras, the HTC One M8 might make the best use of them. Not only can the Duo Camera capture 3D-like images, but it also lets you alter the focus of your photo after you've taken it.

The larger of the two cameras employs a 4-MP Ultrapixel sensor, which serves as the primary shooter. The One M8 snaps a beautiful picture. When I took a test shot of some sunflowers at my favorite bodega, the camera delivered bright, golden petals with a warm, chocolate-colored core. The pink carnations at the bottom of the shot were vibrant and rich, even if they were out of focus. Details were sharp enough to see the delicate fuzz on the back of the light-green petals.

The One M8's camera takes quality low-light photos both with and without the flash. Despite the dim setting, the camera accurately captured my test subject's skin tone and some of the tiny polka dots on his shirt.

The One M8 captures video just as well as it takes stills. In my 1080p test video on a busy New York City street, taxis whizzed past in a pleasant shade of gold. I easily read the text on the H&M awning across the street, as well as the ads on top of the cabs and the side of a bus. However, I wish HTC had added an optical image stabilization feature, as I found videos were relatively jumpy.

Selfie fanatics will appreciate the 5-megapixel front-facing camera. A test image of Anna, Laptop Mag's Managing Editor, yielded fairly accurate colors, such as my olive-and-black dress and her blond locks. While there was some fuzziness in the 2460 x 1440p image, I could still make out the individual strands of Anna's hair.

It just kept going and going and going ... The HTC One M8 for Windows lasted 10 hours and 28 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Verizon's 4G LTE network at 150 nits). That's more than 2 hours longer than the 8:07 smartphone average.

The Android version of the One M8 isn't a slouch, clocking in at 9:52, while the Samsung Galaxy S5 tapped out at 9:42. The Apple iPhone 5s went down for the count after 5:46.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei tends to go big with its flagship phones, and the Ascend Mate 7 is no exception. In addition to a crisp, full HD display and a blazing octa-core processor, the metal Mate 7 touts a rear-facing fingerprint reader that trumps the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5 in terms of functionality. We got up close and personal with the Ascend Mate 7, which will launch in select markets this October starting at €499 ($646) for a 16GB model and €599 ($775) for the 32GB version.

The Ascend Mate 7 is all about premium looks, with a 6.18 x 3.19 x 0.31-inch, 6.53-ounce body made 95 percent of metal. Available in Space Gray, White and Gold, the slim smartphone packs a volume control switch and textured power button on the left and dual SIM card slots on the right. The device’s smooth back panel sports a 13-MP camera, a small speaker and the Mate 7’s unique fingerprint reader.

Smartphone fingerprint readers are slowly gaining traction thanks to the Apple iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy S5, but the finger scanner on the Mate 7 could potentially blow those two devices away. Located on the rear of the phone, the Mate 7’s 1.22 x 1.22-millimeter fingerprint reader is being touted as the world’s first to feature single-touch activation. 

So far, it lives up to those claims. After programming my pointer finger to the Mate 7, I was able to unlock the phone with a quick tap on the scanner. The phone’s fingerprint reader goes beyond basic security though; you can lock away specific apps or folders to your fingerprint, and register your friends’ fingers so that they can tap-in for guest mode. The scanner even works as a shutter for the camera app, and it worked pretty handily in my testing. 

According to Huawei, the Ascend Mate 7’s 6-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel IPS screen is the first to use negative liquid crystal display technology. It also has an extremely thin bezel for maximum screen space, touting an 83 percent screen to body ratio. The phone’s colorful, customizable home screens looked bright and vivid, as did a 1080p clip of Guardians of the Galaxy. 

With a 13-MP, 4th-generation Sony camera sensor, the Ascend Mate 7 provides solid shots while borrowing some of the Galaxy S5’s best camera features. All-focus works like the S5’s Selective Focus, allowing you to highlight specific portions of a close-up photo after you’ve taken it. When using the 5-MP selfie cam, the camera app gives you a 2-second countdown to ensure that you’re looking right at the sensor and not the screen. 

Thanks to its octa-core processor and 4,100-mAh battery, the Mate 7 can easily optimize power consumption for extra-long battery life. Huawei claims that you’ll get more than 2 days of basic use on a single charge, while heavy usage will last you roughly a day and a half.

Huawei’s new, Android-based Emotion UI 3.0 allows for deep home screen and app icon customization, with a handful of attractive preset themes like the golden Magazine theme and the Touchwiz-esque Colorful theme. If you want to dig deeper, Huawei allows you to toggle individual settings for fonts, app icon style and lock screen transitions. 

Big, bright displays and long-lasting batteries are the name of the game for Huawei, and the Ascend Mate 7 looks to combine these features with a highly useful fingerprint reader and a solid camera. We look forward to giving the Mate 7 our full review treatment when it arrives late this year.

It’s easy to mistake Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia 830 for a premium smartphone because it looks like one — but it won’t be priced like one. Sporting a silver-brushed build, the upcoming midrange handset boasts some neat software features and a sharp PureView camera for its €330 unlocked price tag.

We went hands-on with the latest Lumia following Microsoft’s IFA 2014 press event, and were  generally pleased with what we saw.The phone’s 5-inch, 1280 x 720-pixel display looked crisp and bright, as did the photos we took with the device’s Zeiss Optics-branded rear camera. The handset ships with Microsoft’s Lumia Denim software update, which means you’ll get to take advantage of features like 4K video recording, faster camera shooting and hands-free Cortana activation.The Lumia 830 is powered by a 1.2-GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. If you need more space, the 830 comes with 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage and supports up to 128GB of extra space via microSD. The phone supports Microsoft’s newly announced Lumia accessories, namely the Smart Wireless Charger and the Microsoft Screen Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10 dongle, which lets you cast your 830’s screen to your television.

What a difference a year makes. When the Moto X first debuted, it was made of a plastic composite material. This time around, it has a more grown-up, sophisticated look, coupling metal and leather.

The rear panel of my review unit was swathed in alluring black leather (the starting model has a black resin back). It's definitely a step up from the plastic with faux weave pattern of the original Moto X. Motorola wisely kept the rounded back, which let me keep a nice comfortable grip on the device.

Lined by a clear plastic ring featuring a pair of LED flashes, the 13-megapixel camera at the top of the panel is hard to miss. The panel also has a stainless-steel Motorola logo directly below the camera as well as the AT&T logo etched into the leather. It's simple touches like this that help raise a phone to flagship status.

The Moto X's sides are lined in dark-gray aluminum with a slightly raised, ridged volume rocker and power button on the right. The SIM card slot and 3.5mm audio jack sit along the top, and the micro USB port occupies the bottom.

The front of the phone features an inky-black plastic bezel that ensconces the 5.2-inch display and gently wraps around the sides. The 2-MP camera resides on the top-right corner of the phone, with a single front-firing speaker at the bottom of the display.

To accommodate the larger screen, the Moto X's chassis has gotten taller, wider and heavier, weighing 5.07 ounces and measuring 5.5 x 2.9 x 0.15~0.39 inches, which compares to the original's 4.8 ounces and 5.1 x 2.6 x 0.22~0.4 inches.

Still, the new Moto X is lighter than most of its competition, including the HTC One M8 (5.6 ounces, 5.8 x 2.8 x 0.37 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy S5 (5.1 ounces, 5.6 x 2.9 x 0.32 inches). However, the new X is not as thin or as light as the Apple iPhone 6 (4.6 ounces, 5.4 x 2.6 x 0.27 inches).

Motorola has updated its Moto Maker website, which lets consumers customize how their Moto X looks. During its initial launch, Moto Maker featured 18 back-cover designs, seven accent colors and two front colors.

For the next-generation Moto X, fashion-forward Moto Maker users can choose from 25 backs made up of 17 colors. Four of the rear panels are genuine leather, while the remaining four are made from Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood. People looking to upgrade to a leather or wood finish should expect a $25 surcharge. The company has expanded the number of accent colors from seven to 10, and has brought back the option to laser-engrave a name or message onto the rear panel.

You can also choose the size of the phone's onboard memory (16GB or 32GB) and wallpaper. Motorola offers the option to have the phone set up with your Google ID and have a custom message appear when you turn on the phone.

There are several accessory items, including a charger (available in black or white), color-coordinated Sol Republic JAX earbuds and several cases. Prices on the cases will range from $14.99 to $20. People who hate waiting for their phone to charge can switch out the regular charger for the Motorola Turbo Charger, which the company claims will supply up to 8 hours of power in 15 minutes.

There comes a time in every phone's life when it makes an unscheduled trip into the bowels of a toilet. Fortunately, Motorola treated the Moto X with a water-resistant coating, so you don't have to panic when the device takes the inevitable plunge.

Keep in mind, however, that water-resistant coating isn't the same as waterproof, so you can't leave it in the drink. The Moto X can't withstand being submerged in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes like the Samsung Galaxy S5 can.

Covered in resilient Corning Gorilla Glass, the Moto X's 5.2-inch AMOLED display has great viewing angles. The 1920 x 1080-pixel panel also delivers sharp detail and rich, voluminous color, as evidenced when I watched the 1080p trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy.

In a side-by-side comparison between the Moto X and the Samsung Galaxy S5 (Super AMOLED display), I found that the Moto X had the warmer hues. This was particularly apparent on reds, like Star-Lord's maroon leather jacket, and the whimsical wisps of magenta flowing playfully through Gamora's hair.

The Moto X might have had the better hues, but the Galaxy S5 was the victor when it came to sharpness. Details, such as the raised scales on Drax's skin and the striations on Groot's bark, were crisper on the GS5's display. However, with both color reproduction and sharpness, the differences between the two were miniscule.

The Moto X is an overachiever when it comes to color reproduction. The smartphone displayed 164.7 percent on the sRGB color gamut test, besting the 116 percent average. That placed it above the Galaxy S5 (158 percent). The One M8 notched 116.1 percent, while the iPhone 5s hit 98.4 percent.

The Moto X didn't fare quite as well with color accuracy. It scored 2.5 on the Delta-E test (a score of 0 is perfect). That's better than the 4.9 category average and the One M8 (5.9), but the Galaxy S5 and iPhone 5s registered a better 0.9 and 0.05, respectively.

The Moto X wasn't as bright as I expected, averaging only 268 nits, which is much dimmer than the 353-nit smartphone average. The Galaxy S5 scored 373 nits, while the One M8 and iPhone 5s dazzled with 402 and 470 nits, respectively.

When looking at the Laptopmag.com home page on each display in direct sunlight, I found that the Galaxy S5 had a whiter, brighter backdrop, creating more of a contrast with the black text, which made for easier reading. That's not to say that you can't read the Moto X outdoors; it's just a little harder.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Moto X's front-firing speakers could fill a small room with clear, almost balanced audio. I say "almost" because as I listened to Usher's warm, honeyed tenor on "She Came To Give It To You," the percussion wasn't as pronounced as the other parts of the track. The bass guitar and the horn section were full and lively, but I could barely hear the bongos. The accompanying hand claps were also slightly submerged.

The HTC One M8, which features BoomSound speakers, provided a richer, fuller listening experience. Usher's vocal had a presence that the Moto X just couldn't touch. Those bongos were right out there with the French horns, while the claps were nice and crisp.

The Moto X measured 86 decibels on the Laptop Mag Audio Test, matching the One M8 and besting the 80 dB average. The Galaxy S5 only registered a measly 73 dB.

Similar to the first-generation Moto X, the second generation has a relatively stock Android experience. The X runs 4.4.4 (KitKat), and the navigation between apps and screens was quick and seamless. Icons are large and colorful, making them easy to discern at a glance.

Swiping down with one finger from the top of the display unfurls the notifications shade. A two-finger swipe displays a host of shortcuts, such as Brightness, Settings, Wi-Fi and Battery Life. Google Now can be accessed by long-pressing the home button or swiping all the way to the right.

Below the dotted line demarcating the home screens sit icons for Phone, Google Chrome, Apps, Messaging and Camera. Everything except the Apps button can be switched out with a quick drag and drop.

One of my favorite things about the Moto X's interface is that Motorola ditched the unsightly black strips that normally occupy the top and bottom of the display. Instead, the top-side notifications and the bottom-mounted Back, Home and Recent Apps buttons reside on the wallpaper with everything else. It just makes for a prettier viewing experience.

The only downsides to the stock Android experience is that quick settings and alerts exist in separate panels. I also miss having the ability to launch the camera app from the lock screen, as you can do on the GS5 and One M8.

Motorola wants you to make the Moto X truly yours. To that end, the company has added a number of features to further customize the smartphone beyond mere aesthetics. For example, the Touchless Control feature has been rebranded as Moto Voice and has more than a few new tricks up its sleeve.

Instead of saying "OK, Moto X" or "OK, Google," you can wake your phone with a customized phrase. In honor of my dog, my Moto X became Mr. Xerxes. After a quick setup in a quiet room, where I repeated the phrase three times, Moto Voice was ready to go. All in all, it was about a 3-minute process.

From there, I simply said "OK, Mr. Xerxes," followed by a question or command, and the smartphone quickly reacted. (The "OK" part is now optional.) For example, saying "OK, Mr. Xerxes, what's up?" made Moto X read out all my unchecked notifications, including text messages, Google Hangouts and the number of emails received.

Other functions include the ability to set reminders and place phone calls without even touching the phone. It really comes in handy if you're washing your hair and need to remind yourself to buy more shampoo on your next shopping trip.

If you forget some of the Moto Voice commands, simply say, "Help" to launch a quick list of phrases.

My favorite part of Moto Voice is the ability to interact with certain apps, such as Facebook. After uttering the phrase, "OK, Mr. Xerxes, post to Facebook," Moto Voice took dictation of what I wanted to post, repeated it back, turned it into text and asked if it was OK to post.

Moto Voice also works with WhatsApp and YouTube, but in the case of the video service, you say the name of the video you want to watch. So, to pull up one of my favorite Web series, I'd say, "OK, Mr. Xerxes, play The Unwritten Rules on YouTube." Motorola is working to bring voice control to other third-party apps such as Twitter.

Moto Voice can also answer questions relatively accurately. Mr. Xerxes correctly pulled up and read the Wikipedia entry for fashion designer Tracy Reese when I asked who she was. He also correctly identified 18-time U.S. Grand Slam winner Serena Williams.

But for all the handy things Moto Voice can do, it still can't book reservations to my favorite Indian restaurant or buy movie tickets, as you can with Apple's Siri. Sigh, maybe next generation.

Active Display, retooled and renamed Moto Display, uses a dedicated contextual computing processor to keep track of when you move the phone, and displays all your new notifications without waking the device. It can also flash new alerts while keeping the screen mostly dark -- a good way to conserve battery life.

My Moto X displayed email notifications from my Gmail, Yahoo and work accounts, along with updates from Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Swarm. If you don't want to view every single notification, you can go to the Settings menu to choose which app alerts you want to receive.

To view an alert, I pressed the icon in the center of the display, which delivered a small summary at the top of the screen. I could swipe up to address the new notification, or swipe down to unlock the Moto X completely.

As an obsessive phone-checker, I appreciated not having to constantly unlock my phone to keep abreast of emails and notifications. (It's also a reason not to invest in a smartwatch. Sorry, Moto 360.)

Sometimes you have to set boundaries for an unruly smartphone so that it doesn't ring at all times of the night, or worse, at an important meeting. The Moto Assist feature allows you to do just that, and create rules for how you interact with your Moto X.

To ensure I got a full 7.5 hours of uninterrupted slumber, I went to the Sleeping option in Assist and created a rule for the phone to go into Silent Mode from the hours of 12 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Since Silent Mode means that any phone calls received during that time would go straight to voicemail, I amended the rule to give my mother and brother the ability to reach me if needed.

Assist also enables you to set rules for safe driving conditions by providing the option to read your emails aloud while you're at the wheel or play music via Bluetooth. You can also set the phone to read the day's email as soon as you arrive home or send autoreplies to people who are trying to contact you during important meetings. Clever.

It just wouldn't be a modern-day smartphone without at least a few gestures. Wave to Silence quickly quiets incoming calls and can put an alarm into snooze just by waving your hand over the display. It's a helpful feature that comes in handy if you forgot to set up meeting rules in Moto Assist (D'oh!). The Reach for Moto Display gesture prevents Moto Display from launching when the device is moved.

Moto Migrate lets people wirelessly transfer important information and data -- such as contacts, text messages, images, videos and even contact information -- between your old Android phone and the Moto X. Migrate can also be used with the iPhone, and even feature phones.

After downloading the app onto my Samsung Galaxy S4 and opening the app on both phones, I scanned the QR code on the Moto X with the GS4. From there, I checked off which items I wanted to move and hit Start Transfer. The process took approximately 4 minutes from start to finish.

Not a fan of bloat? Unfortunately, the Moto X comes with a number of AT&T-branded apps, such as AT&T Locker, Mail, Call Name ID, Navigator and AT&T Live. There's also a Yahoo-powered newsfeed to tie you over until you stumble across some more useful software.

This generation of the Motorola Moto X has quite a bit of muscle to throw around, thanks to its 2.5-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.

The phone launched the resource-intensive N.O.V.A. 3 in 12.5 seconds. That's faster than both the Galaxy S5 (19 seconds) and HTC One M8 (17 seconds).

The Moto X took 4 minutes and 15 seconds to transcode a 204MB, 1080p video to 480p, leaving the 7:43 smartphone average in the dust. The Samsung Galaxy S5, which also has a 2.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU, turned in a slower 4:42. The HTC One M8 and its 2.3-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU finished up in 5 minutes.

We saw the Moto X power through the Geekbench 3 benchmark with a score of 2,903. Not only does this top the 1,996 average, but it also trumps the GS5's 2,897, the iPhone 5s' (A7 processor) 2,556 and the One M8's 2,324.

On the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics test, the Moto X hit 19,593, surpassing the 12,548 average and handing the iPhone 5s (13,795) and Galaxy S5 (18,547) easy defeats. However, it wasn't enough to top the One M8's 20,640.

If 16GB of RAM isn't enough to hold all your images, videos, music and games, Motorola also offers a 32GB version of the Moto X.

AT&T's 4G LTE network is available in more than 400 markets, including New York City. Too bad the throughput was so inconsistent. In the Laptop Mag offices, I saw download speeds of 11.6 Mbps and upload speeds of 2.4 Mbps. When I walked down to Madison Square Park, download speeds dropped to 1.9 Mbps, while uploads remained at a fairly consistent, at 3.5 Mbps.

If you're looking for near-instantaneous shutter snaps, including burst shots, look no further than the Motorola Moto X's 13-MP camera. If you're looking for accurate color and detail, you'd best go elsewhere.

In a floral shoot-off between the Moto X, the iPhone 5s and the Galaxy S5 Sport, colors in the Moto X shot looked so blown out I had to double check that the flash was disabled. The magenta daisy looked borderline radioactive, while the orange flower was two shades lighter than the actual color. The white daisy in the middle of the shot was so washed out that I couldn't make out any of the detail outside of the overall shape of the petals.

The Galaxy S5 had more realistic color presentation, although the orange looked a little overblown. I found details on the camera were soft around the petals, particularly around the bright-pink flower, which had softer detail toward the right of the image. The iPhone 5s was the clear winner, showing off warm, rich color with details so sharp that I could see specks of pollen throughout the black cores.

When I sequestered a few of my co-workers in a darkened room for some low-light shots, colors from the Moto X improved but still weren't as good as the ones produced by the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5 Sport.

The iPhone 5s still delivered the best color, with the Galaxy S5 coming in a distant second. I found that the iPhone also had the best detail, which allowed me to make out the subtle pinstripes in another co-worker's shirt. There was also quite a bit of visual noise throughout the Moto X's shot.