Moto X (2014) vs Xperia Z3 vs Galaxy S5: Why Sony's Phone is The Best

After a plethora of leaks over the last few months, Motorola's Moto X successor has been officially launched.

The smartphone is just like its predecessor in terms of not being dramatic like the competition. Instead, the Moto X is an elegant, intelligent package that focuses on helping users get things done. We compared Motorola's latest flagship smartphone against Sony's Xperia Z3 and the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Sony's smartphone happens to be the most practical choice among the lot (at least on the spec sheet), and we've explained why.

Design

The Moto X has one of the most interesting design schemes thanks to the Moto Maker option, which allows users to customise their phones. Apart from wooden back panels, users can also choose from options like leather which makes the phone extremely stylish. The phone has a stylish design and fits rather nicely in the hand thanks to the curved back.

Sony has continued using a combination of glass and metal, adding rubber corners to the phone's edge to shield the glass covering in case of a drop. The smartphone looks rich, elegant and minimalist.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 has been criticised heavily for its lacklustre design. The phone uses plastic and has faux steel on its edges. Regardless of all its attempts, Samsung hasn't managed to make it look like a flagship smartphone.

Display

All three phones have a display that is about the same size, which is 5.2in. They all happen to use the same resolution as well, which is 1080 x 1920 pixels and even go on to serve up the same amount of pixel density, which is around 430 ppi.

However, the key difference between them is the kind of display that is being used. The Moto X uses an AMOLED display, while the Galaxy S5 uses a Super AMOLED display. Both of these should offer better contrast than the IPS LCD display on the Xperia Z3. They will also save the phone more battery and offer much wider viewing angles.

Hardware

All three smartphones use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with a Quad core 2.5 GHz processor and an Adreno 330 GPU. However, the difference is that while the Galaxy S5 and the Moto X use only 2GB of RAM, the Xperia Z3 uses 3GB.

The Moto X and the Galaxy S5 have plenty of internal storage at 32GB, which is more than the 16GB present on the Xperia Z3. Moving to expandable storage, the Xperia Z3 and the Galaxy S5 have microSD slots, but the Moto X doesn't have one.

Camera

Imaging on smartphones is becoming more and more of an important thing in recent times. Flagship smartphones are expected to have nothing short of 13 megapixel shooters and the Moto X barely meets that criterion with its own 13 megapixel sensor in the rear.

Samsung has loaded a 16 megapixel sensor into the Galaxy S5, while Sony has continued using the powerful 20.7 megapixel sensor that we saw on the smartphone's predecessor. All three phones have 2 megapixel front camera sensors. And all three of them can shoot 4K video.

Battery

Easily one of the most important departments, smartphones are expected to have an upwards of 2600mAh as far as battery is concerned, since they house power hungry processing and displays.

The Xperia Z3 leads the pack with a solid 3100 mAh. The Galaxy S5 follows closely with a 2800 mAh battery and the Moto X uses only a disappointing 2300 mAh unit.

Price

Sony has priced the Xperia Z3 for £429 in the UK, while the Galaxy S5 is available on Amazon for around the same price.

Pricing with the Moto X depends on what memory and material options you choose. The 16GB version costs £420 in plastic and £440 with leather or wood backplates. The 32GB version costs £460 in plastic and £480 in leather and wooden back plates.

Verdict

Sony's Xperia Z3 offers premium design, a huge battery, one of the best smartphone cameras in the market and other advantages. It is easily the most practical option among the lot if you value the above mentioned features.

If you're keen on stock Android, an AMOLED screen for better contrast and the customisation options of the Moto X, then it's worth getting. But the phone doesn't offer the option to expand memory and has a small battery. However, Motorola has made some powerful additions to the phone in terms of software and hardware to make it perform basics such as call quality, signal reception and more, with greater efficiency.

The Galaxy S5 is a different story altogether. Samsung has refused to move away from its cheap plastic builds and so the phone sports a lacklustre design. However, it does have decent imaging and powerful specs, along with a sizeable battery, making it a decent flagship smartphone.

So as far as spec sheets are concerned, the Xperia Z3 has the better offering on the table.