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Motorola Droid Turbo official: huge battery, Quad HD screen, powerful specs

With a giant battery, fast charging technology, powerful innards, and a high-resolution camera, Verizon's Droid Turbo looks like a phone that Droid fans should look forward to.
By
October 28, 2014
droid-turbo-official1

With Verizon’s countdown clock hitting zero, the new Motorola Droid Turbo became official. This impressive device has been leaked extensively, but now we have the lowdown straight from Verizon and Motorola, and we have to say it, the Turbo is definitely worthy of its name.

With a giant battery, fast charging technology, powerful innards, and a high-resolution camera, the Droid Turbo looks like a phone that Droid fans should look forward to.

Display5.2-inch AMOLED, Quad HD (1440 x 2560 pixels), 565 ppi
Processor
2.7 Ghz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, Adreno 420
RAM
3GB
Camera
Rear: 21MP. Front: 2MP
Battery
3,900 mAh
Storage
32GB/64GB, non-expandable
Networks
CDMA/EVDO Rev A (850, 1900MHz)
LTE Cat 4 (bands 2, 3, 4, 7, 13)
Carrier Aggregation (B4+13)
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1900, 2100MHz)

Connectivity
GPS, microUSB 2.0, WiFi a/b/g/n/ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0
Software
Android 4.4 Kitkat
Dimensions
Ballistic Nylon: 143.5 x 73.3 x 11.2mm - 176g
Metalized Fiber: 143.5 x 73.3 x 10.6mm - 169g
Colors
Black, Red

All the leak-based reports were spot on: Motorola seems to have pulled all stops in making the Droid Turbo a beast. The highlight is, of course, the massive 3,900-mAh battery, which puts the Turbo in very select company, and is especially impressive considering its smaller size. For comparison, HUAWEI used a similar battery in the 6-inch Mate 7. On the downside, you will have to put up with a device thickness that’s visibly larger than on most competitors.

Verizon and Motorola claim the Droid Turbo will be good for 48 hours of actual usage, but we’ll have to wait and see how this claim stands up to some real life tests. Another interesting claim is that the Droid Turbo can soak up energy for eight hours of usage in just 15 minutes, thanks to the use of Motorola’s Turbo Charging technology. You will need the special charger that ships with the device for this feature to work.

Other specs are just as appealing – you get a Quad HD screen, which will be the standard at the very high-end for the foreseeable future, 32GB or 64GB of storage, the most powerful smartphone processor currently available, 3GB of RAM, and a 21MP camera.

verizon droid turbo

Like previous Droid devices, the Turbo features an aggressive, masculine design available in two Kevlar-imitating finishes: metallic, which is actually metal-coated fiberglass, and ballistic nylon, which is supposedly military grade. The nylon version will only be available in black. If you want the 64GB model, you’ll have to opt for nylon, as metallic finishes are only available with 32GB of storage for now. The Droid Turbo is resistant to water.

On the software side, you get Android 4.4, but the Lollipop update will supposedly become available “in the next months”. You get a mostly stock like interface with the addition of Motorola’s well-known apps, like Assist and Display. Unfortunately (for most users), the device features capacitive keys instead of the on-screen nav bar recommended by Google.

The Droid Turbo will start from $199 for the 32GB model, while the 64GB model will set you back $249. These are of course both prices available with a Verizon contract. Verizon is offering a free one-time screen replacement for every device. The Droid Turbo will be available from Thursday, October 30.

Stay tuned, as our Kevin Nether will bring you his hands-on impressions of the new Droid Turbo very soon!

What do you think of the new Droid Turbo? Buy or pass?