Moto X's India launch confirmed for tomorrow, coming exclusively to Flipkart.com for Rs 23,999

While we are very modest at heart, it does feel nice to occasionally point out- 'we told you so'. As we had predicted earlier, e-commerce giant Flipkart is exclusively launching the Moto X smartphone in the Indian smartphone market tomorrow. This is the second exclusive partnership between Motorola and Flipkart for a smartphone launch in the country.

Same as before, the Moto X smartphone will be launched exclusively on Flipkart.com, and the company will also be providing a number of launch day offers to woo in potential buyers. Note that customers will not get to choose between 16 and 32GB of internal memory options, since only the former will be available to customers in the country.

The 16GB version of Moto X, which will be available in black, white, royal blue, cherry, and turquoise colours, has been priced at Rs 23,999. In addition, the company is also launching the smartphone in two wood finishes — teak and walnut that will be available for a slightly heftier price of Rs 25,999.

Unlike the Moto G launch that took place in the mid-night, the Moto X launch will begin during the day time. Also, while the black ad white variants will be in stock, the rest will be available for pre-order with deliveries from second week of April, 2014.

Flipkart has also announced a number of launch day offers for the smartphone that include 70 per cent discount on Moto X cases, Rs 1,000 cashback when purchased on EMI, as well as 100 per cent cashback for 10 lucky buyers.

However, note that the most distinguishing factor of the smartphone- the online studio Moto Maker- will not be available to customers in India. For those who don't already know, Moto Maker enables users to customise their Moto X devices with over 2,000 possible combinations. The customisation options include colour of the smartphone (both front and back panel), wallpapers, signature (engraving a short message on the device), accessories and accent colour, among others.

Can the Moto G success be repeated?

Early last month, Flipkart had started booking for Moto G, with the 8GB and 16GB models being available for Rs 12,499 and Rs 13,999 respectively. Within minutes of the launch in the morning, the 16GB model was sold out, while only a few units of the 8GB version were left. The company re-stocked the device around the afternoon, only to see it being sold out again. The rush was so much so that the site even went down for a couple of minutes on the day of the launch.

"We cannot comment on the exact numbers, but we sold thousands of units in a couple of hours. The high demand that we are witnessing for Moto G among Indian consumers has gone beyond our expectations. The traffic that we are seeing on our site post the launch has exceeded what we experienced during our Diwali sales. This is unprecedented," Sachin Bansal, co-founder and CEO, Flipkart had said at the time.

Moto X specifications

This smartphone has a 4.7 inch HD AMOLED touchscreen display (720×1280 pixels resolution) and runs on the latest Android 4.4 KitKat operating system (out of the box). It is powered by a 1.7 GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960Pro Snapdragon processor and has 2 GB RAM. The internal memory of the device is 16 GB, and the company is also providing 50 GB of Google Drive storage free of cost for two years.

Moto X has a 10 mega pixel autofocus rear camera with LED Flash that can record full high definition videos (1080p) at 30 frames per second and a 2 MP front-facing camera that can also record full HD videos. There is also a provision for automatically launching its 'Quick Capture' camera. You can touch anywhere on the screen and the camera captures the shot you want. According to the company, the smartphone's high quality sensor can capture the darkest scenes or stop motion blur in bright light.

On the connectivity front, the device has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi (with Wi-Fi hotspot), Near Field Communication, 3G and 4G (depending on the region). It also comes with a micro USB port. The smartphone has a 2,200 mAh battery and comes with GPS (with A-GPS support).

Moto X measures 129.3mm x 65.3mm x 10.4mm and weighs 130 gm. Additional features include Touchless Control (allows users to check the weather, get directions, among others) and Active Display (keeps the important information you need at your fingertips by displaying it on the screen).

In terms of competition, the smartphone will face off against the likes of LG Optimus G E975 (Rs 24,999), Lenovo Vibe X (Rs 22,299), Huawei Ascend P6 (Rs 24,999), HTC Desire 600C (Rs 24,999), Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom (Rs 23,999) and Galaxy S3 (Rs 23,998), among others. And this is one of those rare occasions when we say that you can indeed skip these and opt for the Moto X. This is the second time that the company has got its pricing right in India (a rarity for global handset manufacturers) and probably Flipkart had a hand to play in that. Or maybe it just read our previous article and decided to take our advice for a change.