All the news from Motorola's Moto X event

Now that we’ve had a moment to catch our breath after all the excitement surrounding the Windows 10 release, let’s rewind to the other big news of this week: the launch of Motorola’s 2015 smartphone lineup. Moto hosted three simultaneous events and launched three different phones on Tuesday, but there was one unifying vision tying them all together. And that vision, even under the ownership of new parent company Lenovo, is very much in the spirit of Motorola’s former owner, Google.

At Google I/O this year, Sundar Pichai set out Google’s internal mission as being the development of technology that works for and is accessible to everyone. That’s exactly the strategy that Motorola has been pursuing with its smartphones over the past couple of years. The Chicago-based company has been consistently undercutting its competitors’ prices and surprising us with the amount of smartphone power it can fit into the tightest of budgets. This week, the globally successful Moto G evolved with even more premium features, while the top-tier Moto X split into a pair of devices, the X Style and X Play, both of which target shoppers for flagship devices while costing a whole lot less than most Android flagships.

We've said it once and then said it again and won't stop saying it: the camera matters, especially on Android, where the points of differentiation between flagship phones are becoming increasingly small. The Galaxy S6, HTC One M9, LG G4, and the new Moto X Style (or Moto X Pure Edition, if you live in the US) are all universally fast, well built, and (for the most part) have better-designed software than ever. That leaves the camera as the main sticking point, and luckily we've seen great progress from Samsung and LG (HTC: not so much). The last of the big four Android makers to check in is Motorola. And it's checking in with some very big talk about its camera quality.

At today's event, Motorola's head of design, Jim Wicks, laid his cards on the table in no uncertain terms: "We're extremely excited about the camera. It's the best we've ever built and one of the best in the world." Later, another executive went so far as to cite an article here at The Verge about how the camera is the main thing that matters. And Motorola even handed the Moto X Style to a couple of camera sites to review. So how'd it turn out?

In addition to unveiling three new flagship smartphones, Motorola is releasing two new wireless headphones to pair with the devices. Available starting today, the Moto Pulse and Moto Surround are attractive (and attractively priced) enough to lure in anyone interested in Motorola's lineup.

The Moto Pulse is a classic pair of on-ear headphones aimed at Beats lovers, featuring 40mm speaker drivers that put them in the same lane as other, bass-ier headphones. The cans boast a 60-foot wireless range and can last up to 18 hours on a single charge.

In 2013, Motorola Mobility introduced the Moto X, its first smartphone since being acquired by Google. The Moto X didn't have the best specs on the market, but it did have something virtually no other phone had: customizability. The Moto Maker store let buyers pick the color of the phone's backplate and accents, eventually adding options like a bamboo case. Motorola followed up with the Moto G, perhaps the cheapest usable smartphone on the market.

We're now on the third generation of Moto phones, and Motorola didn't have many surprises for us at its event today — especially since most of the details leaked out beforehand. It announced three new but widely expected phones at different price tiers, all of which will come out between now and September. But it's also trying to fix some of the fundamental problems that have held Android phones back.

Much of the surprise surrounding the next version of the Moto G faded last week, after leaks told us nearly everything there is to know about the device. Motorola's "cheap" phone can't really be called low-end anymore. Like a car that got introduced as a value machine, it has steadily increased in power and features until it's become solidly a mid-range Android phone now — one that's still impressive.

But what does "mid-range Android phone" even mean in 2015? The ever-changing and ever-more-complicated striations in the Android market are hard to keep track of, so let's break it down. It has a 13-megapixel camera partially borrowed from the Nexus 6, 5-inch 720p Gorilla Glass display, 2GB of RAM (in the 16GB model), a quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, and the latest version of Android. You can get one in multiple storage sizes (8GB or 16GB), and in multiple colors thanks to Moto Maker. It's also water resistant and can work with two SIM cards in some markets.

Motorola just announced the latest version of its flagship Moto X, which is now called the Moto X Style. It looks a lot like last year's Moto X, but it comes with a bigger, higher resolution display and a new, 21-megapixel camera. It's going to be available this September for $399 unlocked. And this time around, it will work on any of the major carriers in the US.

Motorola is making a big bet and some weird branding decisions with the Style. In the US, at least, the bet is that consumers will spring to buy it directly from Motorola, Amazon, or Best Buy. We confirmed here that it will not be available in any carrier stores. That's the bet, and at $399 unlocked it's a pretty solid deal for a flagship phone — but we'll have to see where US consumers are finally ready to buy phones this way in large numbers. The weird branding decision: the Moto X Style is going to be called the Moto X Pure in the US. That's because market research has told Motorola that US consumers care a ton about "pure" Android — apparently more than they do about Style. But other than the difference in radio bands between the US and the rest of the world, Motorola says they're the exact same phone.

Motorola is pushing off-contract phones in a big way this year. As in, it isn't even selling the Moto X Style — its new 5.7-inch flagship — on contract in the US. Instead, it's rebranding that phone for the US as the Moto X Pure Edition, which will sell for for $399 unlocked. It's a surprisingly low price for one of Motorola's typically high-quality phones, especially since the Moto X is a pretty powerful device. The Pure Edition is designed to work on any US carrier, but because it comes straight from Motorola, it comes without carrier branding or bloatware. It's even customizable, just like the standard Style. Motorola also says that the Pure Edition runs "pure Android," which should mean stock Android or close enough to it. It'll go on sale this fall from Motorola's website, Amazon, and Best Buy, including in its stores.

Verge Video: Hands-on with Motorola's new flagship phone

The new Moto G keeps the same 5-inch, 720p display specs as last year's model, but the outside of the phone has still seen some improvements. The new model borrows some of the Moto X's style, and it can also be customized through Moto Maker for the first time. That'll allow buyers to choose different colors for the phone's front, back, and accents — exactly what Motorola has been doing with its top-of-the-line Moto X since 2013.

In addition to the third-gen Moto G and Moto X Style, Motorola today unveiled the new Moto X Play, a new, bigger Moto X that's cheaper than the competition and has an absolutely massive battery.

The Moto X Play as a little more than a spec bump and cosmetic refresh as compared to last year's Moto X. In terms of size, the Play features a 5.5-inch, 1080p screen and a huge 3630mAh battery. That's huge and important, and will more than likely address the poor battery life found in the original and 2nd-gen Moto X.

The new Moto X is now official: it's a 5.7-inch Android Lollipop smartphone with "one of the best cameras in the world" and it carries the title of Moto X Style. This new Moto smartphone has a 21-megapixel image sensor and comes with a bold promise from Marketing VP Adrienne Hayes, who says that Motorola "can guarantee the cameras in our phones will now be best in class." Beyond the camera, the Moto X Style also has very small bezels around the screen, making it feel smaller than its large display would suggest, and it has "the world's fastest turbo charging" plus LTE compatibility with all US carriers.