We’re coming up on one month since MWC 2014 ended, which brought a lot of insight to us on what we can expect to see this year. We already know all of the details of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia Z2, but among these larger flagship showcases we were also informed from the (now Lenovo-owned) Motorola that we can expect to see a new iteration of the Moto X sometime this summer. Although not many details were given other than that, the reels in my head already started turning at the things that I would like to see in the Moto X refresh.

I’ve grown a certain fondness for the Moto X since my first real hands-on experience with the phone, even doing a re-review of the device just a few short days ago. Overall, even 7 months after its release, there’s still a lot of good things to say about the Moto X. However, despite all of the good things I can say about the Moto X, there are certain aspects of the phone that could use some significant improvements in the next Moto X installment.

First and foremost, I want to talk about the Moto X’s camera. The current rear-facing camera in the Moto X is a nice 10-megapixels, which is good enough when it comes down to megapixel-wise. However, the camera is lacking in a lot of ways that other smartphones are making big strides in. For instance, low-light photos with the Moto X are something I typically try to avoid taking, simply because the phone isn’t optimized to take them. The two other phones I have in my possession, the HTC One and the Nokia Lumia 928, both do fairly when it comes to taking photos in low-light. Honestly, I never realized how important this feature was until I had phones that opimized on the feature. I almost never have a crummy photo. With the Moto X, though, the chances are about 50/50.

The camera could use other optimizations as well, such as faster start-up time. I find that every time I boot up the Moto X’s camera the objects are very dark for a few moments, and then the camera is ready to go. So, while the 10-megapixel number is fine by me, the Moto X’s camera could still use some pick-me-up features that make it more noteworthy, as we find that it’s not all about the megapixels anymore.

The next thing that I want to see with the Moto X is something that I would actually like to keep the same, and that’s staying within a decent screen-size range of what it already. I was pleased with Samsung’s ability to only raise the Galaxy S5’s screen by 0.1 inch, because it seems like up until this point manufacturers saw increasing screen size as the biggest indicator that their newer model was better. I happen to feel differently, and I think that next-gen phones can have more improvements without getting crazy with the screen size. So, in that regard, I hope the Moto X can at least stay in the 4.7-inch range that it’s currently in, but still making improvements to the rest of the camera.

Of course, by saying that I hope it stays the same size, that’s pretty much throwing a bigger battery out the window. However, until batteries make a significant leap from where they are now (most need to be charged nightly, regardless of “extra juice” being available at the end of the day - 30% probably won’t get you through the next day entirely) I don’t think that battery life is that big of a deal, as long as it can make it through one whole day with a decent amount of usage. So far, I don’t have any problems with my Moto X’s battery life, so I guess I can’t say that a bigger battery would necessarily make me think of the phone any differently. It would still make it to the end of the day, and I would still have to charge it every night. Now, if the phone could have a battery that could make it last an entire week, that’s an entirely different story. But we’re not quite there yet.

I think the last thing I really want to see in the next Moto X is an improved processor. The dual-core that the Moto X currently uses isn’t bad by any means, as the phone runs just fine, but there are still some instances where the phone is noticeably laggy when it probably shouldn’t be. Given that the Moto G uses a quad-core (but only has 1GB of RAM) I don’t think this will be a problem; but still, we want a good quad-core processor with this next iteration.

Given that Motorola now runs on Lenovo’s watch, I do wonder if the design of the Moto X will change to reflect a more Lenovo-ish approach (more premium-looking), but even if it doesn’t I haven’t exactly been disappointed with the Moto X’s design either. Still, something probably needs to change to give it a visual refresh in one way or another, so that’ll probably be something to look forward to as well.

The Moto X surprised me with how much I enjoyed the features over anything else, so perhaps Motorola will put more emphasis onto improving those features as well. Either way, I find that I am pretty excited to see what the new Moto X entails, and hopefully has a smoother launch than the Moto X did last year.

Readers, what are your thoughts on the new Moto X? What would you like to see changed or improved? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Images via Gigaom, Pocket Now