 Motorola's back with a brand new flagship smartphone. It's got a familiar name, but the new Moto X promises to be everything last year's device was, and more. The new Moto X, available later this month for $99 on contract or $499 unlocked, is instantly recognizable, echoing the look of last year's model and the Moto G and E. But virtually everything has been improved this time around, from the design to the materials to the specs inside the phone. Last year's phone had a 720p 4.7 inch display, but this year Motorola has stepped up to a 5.2 inch full 1080p panel. It's bigger, brighter, sharper, and just overall better than last year's screen. Colors are bright and punchy, and viewing angles are great. It's also easy to see outdoors in sunlight. Above and below the screen are new grills for the earpiece and speaker, now on the front of the phone. It's not the dual speaker stereo setup of HTC's One, but the front speaker is loud and easy to hear. The speakers are flanked by a series of light sensors, a front facing camera, and a new set of IR sensors. But like last year, the front of the phone is mostly display, allowing Motorola to fit a larger screen in a smaller size frame than other phones. It's not quite the one handed ergonomic miracle that last year's Moto X was, but the new phone doesn't feel nearly as large as I expected it to. Along the entire edge of the Moto X is an all new metal band. It looks great, feels great, and actually serves a purpose. Motorola is using it to enhance reception and signal quality. Sure enough, I found it grabbed onto AT&T's LTE network better than other phones in the same area. But most importantly, the new metal rim makes the Moto X feel much more like the flagship phone it should be, and it's a great improvement over last year's plastic. The volume rocker and power button are still a little too small, but the power key is now textured, making it easier to find by feel. The back of the phone has the same sloped curvature as Motorola's other phones, making it comfortable to hold. It's thinner at the edge, and the trademark dimpled finger rest is much larger and more prominent. My review unit has an optional bamboo finish, which is grippy, organic, and just plain cool looking, and Motorola is offering a number of other customizable options, including all new leather backs through its Moto Maker program. Above the dimple is a new 13 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and a mock ring flash configuration. But that's the hardware story. It looks familiar, but it's been improved in a number of ways and makes the new Moto X an attractive and comfortable phone to use, despite its much bigger display. The Moto X is shipping with Android 4.4 KitKat, and Motorola has promised it will be updated to Android L when that's released. Like last year, this is about as pure an Android experience as you can get outside of Google's own Nexus phones. That's fine by me, it's clean, easy to use, and fast. It's really how I wish most Android phones were. Motorola's own software features are now combined into one single app for management. The always listening voice feature is now called Moto Voice, and it lets you set your own command to activate it instead of requiring you to use OK Google. You can do more with your voice, like send WhatsApp messages or post to Twitter and Facebook, and the voice actions are much faster than on last year's phone, but it still can have trouble hearing me if it's noisy in my environment. Active notifications is now called Moto Display, and it uses the new IR sensors on the front of the phone to let you peek at the time or notifications by just waving your hand over the screen. It's a neat trick, similar to Nokia's glance feature, but since the Moto Display lights up on its own with every incoming notification or whenever I pick up the phone, I really didn't find much use for it. Last year's Moto X had an older, slower processor, but that's not the case this year. Motorola is using the same Snapdragon 801 processor found in the HTC One M8 and Galaxy S5, and the new Moto X just flies. It's snappy, responsive, and has little to no visible lag. Motorola claims it can maintain a consistent 60 frames per second in the interface, and while I'm not really sure that's entirely true, this is definitely one of the fastest and smoothest Android phones I've ever used. The new 13 megapixel camera is better than last year's 10 megapixel model, but it's not a giant leap forward. It's really fast, almost as fast as my iPhone 5s, but the images are still grainy and blurry in medium to low light, and the focus can be unreliable even in good light. I didn't find the ring flash to be much better or different than any other smartphone flash either. Battery life was a bit of concern last year. It was good, but not great, and it's slightly better this year. The battery is a little bigger, 2300 vs 2200 mAh, and Motorola says it will last a normal day of use. The Moto X isn't quite as long lasting as the LG G3, the One M8, or Galaxy S5, but I was able to get a full day out of it between charges. Last year's Moto X was a well received phone, but it wasn't a great seller. This time around Motorola has an even better phone, a phone that can go toe to toe on paper and in practice with the best from Samsung, HTC, and even Apple. It's the best Android phone and one of the best smartphones I've ever used. Now Motorola just has to get people to buy it.