Review: Motorola Droid Turbo Coming in toward the tail of 2014, the Motorola Droid Turbo had been one of the smartphones back then that had blown open the lid concerning battery life, performance, and strength. Part of Motorola’s standing Droid series of phones, this was sold as an exclusive powerhouse in the U.S. to Verizon customers. It was a high-end smartphone that mashed powerful specs with amazing battery life, all encased in a rugged design meant to weather daily beatings. What follows is a close look at what made it different from its competition.  

Design and Build  

The Motorola Droid Turbo had been built to last the device makers had adopted a rugged aesthetic that put an onus on toughness. The unique material used in this edition creates two variants, one with ballistic nylon and the other with Kevlar fiber. That gave the phone its distinctive industrial appearance that promised durability. Off, the device’s hard back cover resisted scratches and dings besides the general wear-and-tear. Besides that, it also sported water-repellent nano-coating, supposed to afford some sort of protection against minor splashes and spills-though it wasn’t fully waterproof.

The Droid Turbo measured 143.5 x 73.3 x 8.3 mm and weighed about 176g. Fully, it had the added weight to create that solid in-your-hand feel in the phone. With the slightly curved back of this phone, it was comfortable to hold, even if a bit thicker than today’s wafer-thin smartphones. Capacitive touch buttons sat on the front, and hence navigation was enabled while the whole 5.2-inch display area was available for view. To add more durability to make it scratch resistant and sustain minor shocks, the screen was topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. 

Display  

The Motorola Droid Turbo boasted a 5.2-inch AMOLED display with the whopping Quad HD resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels, translating to about 565 pips. Thus, this display is really sharp, with vibrant colors, deep blacks, and great contrast. AMOLED technology further adds to some great viewing angles, keeping colors consistent even when viewed from the sides. That put it at the front of the pack in terms of how many pixels it packed into this screen, in higher resolution than most of its competitors. This is ideal for users who enjoy media consumption, gaming, or even just browsing the web. A high pixel density makes text and images well-defined; probably one of the sharpest displays to look at in 2014.  

Performance Under  

The hood, it came fitted with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset-one of the world’s fastest processors then. The 2.7 GHz-clocked quad-core processor came fitted with 3GB RAM to assure frictionless multitasking and gaming and handling resource-heavy applications. Adreno 420 GPU promises seamless performance for graphic-intensive tasks, such as those related to gaming or 4K video playback.

Whether that meant flipping between apps, playing high-end games, or streaming media, the Droid Turbo did it all sans lag. Even today, the Snapdragon 805 can handle many of the day-to-day tasks tossed at it, though modern applications tend to push efficiency against today’s chipsets. It came in either a 32GB or a 64GB storage variant. The only drawback was the inability of storage expansion with the help of a microSD card slot, which is justifiable to the users who manage huge media libraries.  

Battery Life 

But probably its most standout feature, though, was the huge 3900mAh battery that gave it great endurance. Motorola claimed up to 48 hours of mixed usage were possible with one charge of the Droid Turbo, and real-world performance almost equaled this claim. Owners easily survived a complete day plus even into a second day on a single charge, with moderate use. Along with the big battery, it also supported Motorola’s Turbo Charging technology and made this phone a main selling point. Along with the provided Turbo Charger, it gave users up to 8 hours of additional battery life on just a 15-minute charge, thus making the phone very handy for users on the go. 

Camera 

During its period, it was among the highly resolved sensors at the main shooter. In its heyday, it performed great when shooting under good conditions of light with shots that had good detail and quite accurate color reproduction. However, this camera fared worse in low light where the noise amplified and erased details. With a lack of optical image stabilization, hand steadiness was required on the part of the user to capture the shots in low light. Out of the box, it supported 4K video recording at 30fps which, for 2014, was a pretty big deal, allowing users to capture videos in high definition with great detail. The front side held a 2MP selfie camera that was somewhat underwhelming for other flagship phones of the time but adequate enough to get by with basic selfies and video calls.  

Software 

There’s hardly anything added from Motorola here and there. Probably the most striking bit could be Moto Display, which allows users to check notifications without needing to wake up the entire screen. Next came Moto Voice, which gave helpful voice commands that enabled users to perform actions on their smartphones without actually having to touch them. The near-stock Android made this phone slick and swift, with no heavyweight skins or bloatware weighing it down. But it was never updated as often as Google’s Nexus or Pixel devices.  

 Connectivity and Other Features  

Another very notable feature not found on the Droid Turbo was a fingerprint scanner-a feature that was fast finding its way into flagship devices even then. All said and done, it was a solidly constructed phone with great battery life and performance that made one forgive some of the modern conveniences.

Verdict So, the Motorola Droid Turbo came out of the gate in a class all its own out there: most likely offering the best battery experience at the time, solid performance, and durable design. With its class-leading Quad HD AMOLED display, Turbo Charging, and camera that even if far from perfect – generally rises up to the task in most lighting conditions, it has been the envy of many rivals. One of those great decisions in 2014, the Droid Turbo, touts’ battery life, durability, and top-shelf performance in one package. Of course, the lack of expandable storage and even a fingerprint scanner somewhat held the phone back, but the overall package kept it as one of the most valuable smartphones for power users and anyone chasing long battery life across a sturdy, reliable device