Moto X Price Drops For 2014: Motorola Flagship Now Costs Under $400 Off-Contract

Motorola, a Google-owned company, has dropped the price of its flagship smartphone, the Moto X for 2014. The Moto X, which was released in August, is now for sale at a $399 off-contract price.

With a new, low price for the new year, the Moto X is now $50 more than the LG Nexus 5, Google’s KitKat Android flagship. Both the Moto X and the Nexus 5 now run Android 4.4 (KitKat). The Moto X went on sale in November for $349, crashing the Moto Maker site for ordering the phone, and causing Motorola to issue coupons and offer two make-up sales following the Cyber Monday deal.

Motorola’s Moto X was selected by the International Business Times as one of the best Android smartphones of 2013. In IBTimes’ Moto X review, the Motorola flagship fared well for its neat and customizable design, its intuitive camera and always-on voice control.

The Moto X is also assembled in America, at a Fort Worth, Tex. plant run by Motorola. Moto X has several exclusive features not found on other Android smartphones, like the LG Nexus 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4.

Moto X features a 720p screen, a 4.7-inch display that is smaller than recent phablet-sized devices and has a lower resolution to boot, which means apps, games and media are less clear. Motorola also decided on specs that, while very different from most competitors, are also less powerful — including a dual-core main CPU instead of a faster quad-core chip.

In place of more advanced hardware, the Moto X features two low-powered secondary chips. One runs Touchless Control, the Moto X’s always-on voice feature. If its owner says “OK, Google” in range of the device, the Moto X awakes and listens for commands.

The Moto X also features Active Assist, a contextual awareness feature supported by the second low-power chip. Active Assist allows Moto X to read aloud texts while in the car, and read its owner’s Google Calendar schedule, to silence itself during scheduled meeting times.

The Moto X is customizable on the Moto Maker website. Motorola customers can choose from white or black for the front cover, and a series of colors for the Moto X’s buttons and rear shell. A real wood back case for the Moto X also features bamboo for an extra $100, and an upgrade to 32GB of storage, adding $50 to the price.

Is the Moto X worth it following its price drop for 2014? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Halleck on Twitter