For the latest smartphone in the Droid line, Verizon and Motorola tackled one most common complaint from users of those devices: battery life. The two companies unveiled the Droid Turbo on Tuesday, and Motorola said the phone’s battery can last for a full two days — 48 hours — of normal use.
The oversize battery has a huge 3,900 milliamp-hours (mAh) of power. By comparison, the iPhone 6 Plus is rated at 2,915mAh. Another feature of the new phone is the charging time of the battery. Using a feature first employed on the Motorola Moto X, the Droid Turbo includes Turbo Charge, which turns a 15-minute charge into an extra eight hours of battery life.
Sufficient Testing?
When we reached Patrick Moorhead, founder, Moor Insights & Strategy, he cautioned buyers against jumping on the Turbo bandwagon until they know more about the phone’s selling points.
“The claimed two-day battery life and quick charging capabilities are its biggest selling feature,” Moorhead told us. “I’m a bit skeptical of the battery life because no specifics are given on exactly what was tested and how it was tested. I looked all over their Web site [and there were] no details.”
But the battery isn’t the only notable feature of the Droid Turbo. It’s now one of a select group of phones that includes a Quad HD display, boasting 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and a 5.2-inch screen. This is the first Quad HD phone from Motorola.
To provide power, the Droid Turbo has a 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor. Also, it runs on Verizon’s high-speed XLTE network. For an operating system, it runs Android 4.4 KitKat, and Verizon said it is guaranteed to get the version 5.0 Lollipop update.
The Droid Turbo comes in both 32GB and 64GB versions. The 32GB is available in metallic black, metallic red and ballistic nylon for $199, and comes with a two-year contract or costs $25 a month for 24 months. The 64GB model is $249 with a contract and $27 a month, and is only available in ballistic nylon.
The phone’s camera, which can be activated with a flick of the wrist, is a 21-megapixel imager that can capture 4K-quality video. The front-facing camera is 2 megapixels and has the capacity to record 1080p video.
Extra Protection
The phone also includes “Droid Zap” that lets users share photos in a geofenced cloud for others to download. Any Android phone can access the shared photos as long as it also has the Droid Zap app. Like previous Droids, the Turbo has a kevlar backside, making it resistant to impact damage and water.
Speaking of damage, Verizon will replace the screen of the Droid Turbo if it breaks within the two-year contract period. Verizon also said that with the purchase of the Droid Turbo with the monthly EDGE payment plan, users will also be eligible for the screen replacement.
Because the Droid Turbo is a Verizon device, its availability, like that of the entire Droid series, is limited to the United States.
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