Having garnered rave reviews for the Moto G and Moto X last year, the company has impressed again with the incredible value of the Moto E, and the 2014 editions of the new Moto G and Moto X (review coming soon). And now Motorola appears ready to blow our socks off.
Motofirmware has attained the manual (pdf link)
for the much leaked, seemingly too-good-to-be-true ‘Droid Turbo’. While
your choice of ecosystem will always come first, on paper the
Android-based Droid Turbo looks set to grind high profile rivals like
the Galaxy S5 and iPhone 6 into the dirt.
Specifications King
The main talking point of the Droid Turbo is its 2k (2,560 x 1,440) 5.2-inch pixel display. 2k resolutions already exist on the LG G3 (5.5-inch) and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (5.7-inch), but this is the first time we’ve seen it used on anything that could just about be used with one hand.
Motorola Droid Turbo (image courtesy of motofirmware.com)
Internally, benchmarks tag it as having the latest Snapdragon 805 chipset and Krait 450 GPU outpacing the 801 chips used in all its major rivals (HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z3, LG G3, etc) and combines that with 3GB of RAM. These are Note 4-equivalent phablet specs in a smartphone.
Another eye watering element is the 21 megapixel camera.
Until now Motorola has shown no desire to compete in a megapixel race
but with its cameras so far proving good if not class leading, it seems
the company is looking to turn heads this time around.
Of course more megapixels don’t automatically mean better pictures – as the iPhone 6’s impressive 8 megapixel camera shows – but in combination with its 4k Ultra HD video recording those 21 megapixels will still generate interest.
In addition to this the manual references “a high-capacity
long lasting battery”. The Droid Turbo’s specifications would demand it,
though given Moto devices have had superb stamina up to now it bodes well.
In addition to the bleeding edge hardware, the Droid Turbo
also has the benefit of essentially stock Android. The only changes are
Motorola’s simple, but useful apps like Moto Voice (which lets you
trigger voice commands even with the screen locked) and Moto Actions
(which detects movement to display notifications without touching the
screen).
Motorola Droid Turbo rear (image courtesy of HellomotoHK)
Snags
But the Droid Turbo doesn’t get away entirely scot-free. The most obvious (and superficial) point to make is it looks ugly.
While there are some elements of the slick Moto X, the Turbo’s return
to capacitive keys is a backwards step and the edges and rear look a
little tacky.
In addition the handset is only listed as having 32GB of
onboard storage with no microSD expansion slot. For such a high end
handset with a noticeably high resolution camera, this is a
disappointment.
The final frustration comes in the name: ‘Droid Turbo’.
Motorola’s Droid line is exclusive to Verizon, so there is no word
whether the handset will come to other carriers or have an international
launch.
Motorola Shamu (expected to be the Nexus 6)