The Google Nexus 5X hasn’t exactly proven to be the most reliable phone on the planet. It got good reviews, to be sure, but soon after release components started failing, and users found their phone entering a boot loop, where the device would begin booting, shut down again, then begin booting again — and so on.
To date, Google has been giving frustrated owners replacements, and then when those ran out it gave out credits instead — but now it seems the firm is looking to move on from the phone altogether and is instead giving owners a shiny new Lenovo Moto X4, if those customers happen to be Google Project Fi subscribers. Users will still have to pay the $69 fee for device protection.
The Moto X4 is a pretty nice phone to get instead of the Nexus 5X. The Nexus 5X offered a flagship chip at the time of its release, but now Qualcomm’s midrange chips are more on par with what you might expect from the Nexus 5X. One of those midrange chips, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, is the chip you’ll find in the Moto X4, coupled with 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of storage. Apart from that, the Lenovo Moto X4 boasts a nice IP68 water-resistance, and in our review we noted that it’s able to take some pretty great photos in well-lit conditions.
This particular version of the Moto X4 is a little different too — it’s part of the Android One program. What that means is that the phone boasts near stock Android, so it won’t come with any of Lenovo’s bloatware or extra software. It will also get much quicker updates than other phones, because Lenovo won’t have to tweak the software before releasing it to users. The Android One Moto X4 was first made available to customers in September.
Users should be happy about Google giving them a Moto X4 instead of credit. When Google was giving out credit, sometimes that credit was as low as $53 if you opted to get a check, or $100 in Google Store credit — hardly enough to buy a new phone.
