Motorola Moto X Pure Edition: The ultimate phone for self-expression (pictures)

Motorola's latest flagship, the Moto X Pure Edition (or Moto X Style as it is known globally) launches this month. It starts at $400 and because it is compatible with networks that operate on either the GSM or CDMA standard, it should work on nearly every carrier.

Though not as big as the 6-inch Google Nexus 6, which is also made by Motorola, the device's screenhas jumped from a 5.2-inch 1,080p display to a 5.7-inch 1,440p display.

You can customize the handset with different storage options, accent colors and backplates that come in leather, wood and  bamboo.

Unlikeits cheaper Moto G counterpart that came out this year, the phone is not submersibleunderwater. It is water-repellent, though, so you don't have to worryabout a few droplets of water here and there.

Bucking the current trend of mobile flagships, the Moto X Pure Edition has a MicroSD card slot so you can expand itsstorage up to 128GB on top of the 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage italready comes with.

The device has dual front speakers -- as in both speakers will output audio for music and movies (though only the bottom grille will output phone calls on speaker), resulting in a louder and fuller experience.

This is different from last year's Moto X, which only used one stereo speaker for media, and the other served as the in-ear speaker for calls.

Thephone ships with Google Android 5.1.1 and unlike what the name suggests, it doesn’texactly deliver the purest Android experience compared with Google's Nexus line,but it comes pretty close.

There'sno heavy-handed manufacturer user interface – just Google apps and Motorola’s familiarsoftware suite, which includes Moto Actions, Voice and more.

Cameraspecs have been bumped to 21-megapixel on the back. In addition to still beingable to shoot 4K video, there is now a night mode for snapping pics inlow-light situations.

The 5-megapixel front-facing shooteralso has a wide-angle lens and a flash to brighten up all those selfies.

A closer look at the front camera's flash.

The Moto X Pure Edition has a 3,000mAh nonremovable battery. Insome markets, it comes come with a 25-watt fast-charging TurboCharger.

Other accessories include a bumper that protects and wraps around the edges of the device.

Insidethe handset is a a 1.8GHz hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor from Qualcomm, a 600MHz Adreno 418 graphics processing unit and 3GB of RAM.

All in all, the Moto X Pure Edition is a reliable and quality-built device. But the competition is fierce these days when it comes to powerful and inexpensive unlocked handsets. For more information, click here for all of CNET's reviews of Motorola phones.