At the end of July, Motorola unveiled the 2015 Moto X Style / Pure Edition, which will probably be going on sale around the same time as the new iPhones.

To get a sense of how the Moto X (2015) might stack against Apple's latest, we'll compare it to the closest rival Apple smartphone we know all the details about: Apple's first phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus.

Moto X Pure Edition vs iPhone 6 Plus

Design

Apple has always had a reputation for beautiful designed products, and that remains true with the iPhone 6 Plus, which features a slicker chassis than previous phones and is surprisingly slim for a phablet. Of course there's always "bendgate" to worry about, but unless you're planning on using your iPhone to pry open stuck doors, the hubbub over the "too-thin" iPhone 6 Plus really doesn't apply.

Motorola, however, is no slouch in the design department. For one, there's Moto Maker, the company's customization website that provides options like leather or bamboo back plates, not to mention lots of different color choices.

But even with the plainest of Moto X devices, Motorola's premium-feeling build, palm-gripping slightly curved back, and attention to detail is impressive. There's no accounting for taste, and the two are definitely different from each other, but call the Moto X (2015) and iPhone 6 Plus a tie in the design department.

Hardware Specs

For smartphones, the hardware inside is where the rubber hits the road. Luckily, both the Moto X (2015) and iPhone 6 Plus are jam-packed with impressive specs.

The display on the Moto X (2015) is quite an improvement over the 2014 edition, with a 5.7-inch screen that has a peak resolution of 1440 x 2560p that yields about 520 pixels per inch. Apple has never put much faith in high resolutions, and big screens, but its 5.5-inch phablet is still impressive with full 1080p HD resolution.

Big screens require big batteries if you're going to use the phone for more than a couple calls every day, and the Moto X (2015) comes with one. It packs a sizable (though non-removable) 3000 mAh juice pack, which beats the 2915 mAh battery on the iPhone 6 Plus on paper -- though with the higher-resolution display, testing might reveal Apple's phablet can beat the Moto X (2015) in battery life, overall. We'll have to wait until the Moto X is out before making that call.

Similarly well-matched on paper are the two devices' processors, the Moto X's Snapdragon 808 and the iPhone 6 Plus's A8 system on a chip. While the Snapdragon 808 isn't quite as high powered as the overheating Snapdragon 810, there should be little question that the Moto X (2015) will perform without lag issues.

One aspect where the Moto X looks to blow the iPhone 6 out of the water is the camera, which for Apple remains an 8-megapixel shooter, albeit with some great features like a larger pixel size (for low-light) and optical image stabilization for shooting videos. The Moto X's new 21-megapixel shooter, which features an iPhone-rivaling dual-tone LED flash and phase detection autofocus, comes out on top.

Finally, there's the fundamental difference between the Moto X, one of the most loyal built-for-Android device models so far, and Apple-made iPhone 6 Plus. If you go with Apple, you get the ecosystem, the excellent app store, the TouchID and Apple Pay systems, and everything else that only Apple provides.

The Moto X, however, comes with its own unique perks, like the truly hands-free Moto Voice, the Moto Display, and universal LTE banding, meaning you can flit from network to network and never have issues getting 4G.

Release Date & Price

The Moto X (2015) will be released sometime in September, though the company has not specified just when yet. It will cost a pretty penny, as far as new smartphone purchases go, at $399 base.

But that's because you're buying the phone unlocked -- meaning no two-year contract and no payments to make over the next two years. The same deal with the base level iPhone 6 Plus is over $700, which makes the Moto X look like a steal in comparison.