Bigger Isn’t Always Better, Motorola

And last year’s Moto X is pretty damn great, in a way that this year’s build can’t be. The jump from 4.7 inches to 5.2 inches might not sound major, but it’s the difference between comfortably navigating the entire display with one hand and having to stretch your thumbs or double-fist it. It’s the difference between disappearing in your pocket and being a bulge. Most of all, it’s just an inexplicable rethink of what was a near-perfect build. It’s as though Toyota suddenly decided the 2015 Camry should be an SUV.

What’s most frustrating is that the reasons for the gargantuanization aren’t technological. That better camera, those better speakers, those faster guts all would have fit snugly in last year’s design. The reasons Moto gave us for the switch were “market research” — hopefully not from the same source that gave us these ads — and the desire to fit two IR sensors on the front, so that you can wave at your phone to make it shut up. Given the choice between perfect phone and disposable gimmick, I choose perfection. Or would, anyway, if I could.

Sing it, sister.