Motorola Droid Turbo Review

I remember that year, in 2005, BMW released version of its “five” with the 507-horsepower naturally aspirated engine. He was a true engineering marvel, as enthusiastically wrote dozens of relevant publications. And after half a year whether Chrysler, whether Chevrolet – so sorry, I do not remember after so many years – also released a special version of some production model. Its engine developed 508 forces, only achieved this very banal way: increased volume of 8 liters, put a pair of turbines … The result seems to be the same, but the approach BMW – he will poelitarnee.

Sometimes with smartphones is very similar. While the Samsung invent clever ways to save energy program, polished chipset Exynos, that they restrain their appetites, dopilivat Super AMOLED, Motorola acted much more simple and oak, but not least reliable way. How to make your smartphone work for a long time without any investment in R & D? It’s very simple – to deliver more powerful battery. Thus was born the model RAZR Maxx sample the end of 2011 – beginning of 2012, equipped with a battery for 3300 mAh. For understanding: if the battery capacity of 1 300-1 700 were the norm, and the most-most cell phones could boast “kopeck piece.” Since then, Motorola has become a regular roll out smartphones with “large” batteries. And they are much benefited by “avtonomke” from Samsung models with conventional batteries and thus a set of programming tricks.

Motorola Droid Turbo in person

At the end of 2014 was submitted to the smartphone Droid Turbo. He, too, with a powerful “BATTERY” – as much as 3900 mAh. Immediately wanted to see – how he lives, the “turbo” unit. And at the same time compared to the Galaxy S5, which, despite all the tricks, I rarely work more than 20 hours.

However, Droid Turbo I was interested not only the battery. He took me at all, in principle interested. Motorola has obtained excellent food, and fun – it’s a fact. And had every reason to believe that this device at least no worse than the previous series. It is a pity that with all models of the last few years Motorola – RAZR and RAZR Maxx, Moto X, Moto G, a whole bunch of “Droiov” – the Russians almost familiar. In 2010, Motorola, reminiscent of when the stricken bomber from Russia left. Plus later left South Korea, Europe, China … In short, almost all key regions except the United States. But now, after a certain deal with Lenovo, there is hope for the return of Motorola in our Palestine. According to rumors, it will happen in the second half of 2015. Meanwhile, the Chinese company has already returned, plus showed good financial results. You never know – maybe a legend still rise again, but kaaak sharahnet … And do not think that Lenovo with its “Asian” notions of the beautiful ruin everything. Land Rover out now belongs to the Indians, so what? They strictly follow the numbers, but in the engineering design and prefer not to go.

In general, quite lyrics – Droid Turbo I had acquired. And drove. And even decided to leave as the main smartphone. Three available in the economy flagship Samsung screamed and resisted, but eventually resigned. Although the ideal I can not name it. He is sincere, but not perfect.

The screen device is good but not the best of its kind. More precisely, it is not so: if the measure only bare figures, the ratio of the diagonal of 5.2 inches and a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels gives a pixel density at 565 ppi. It is up to date, which, of course, warms the soul. On the other hand, is used Droid Turbo Samsung AMOLED-display one of the previous generations. He is not irritating to the eyes riot acid colors, the picture is quite nice looking, but white still seems more yellow than white. Something like this was all in Samsung Galaxy S4. Meanwhile, at the screens Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 of the “cant” no, plus added the ability to change the color profiles. In Droid Turbo, this feature is not implemented, because of what many, judging by the reviews on the web, are experiencing acute pain. I personally am not among the distressed, and yet – a little pathetic.

From pleasant – a set of functions Moto Display, when the screen is off notification icons are displayed. This kind of LED replacement usual, only more informative. The texts of the letters lichek and other messages can be viewed without unlocking the device – just pull the ring up. And if you hold your hand over the screen off, it will display the time and really sorry for the tautology, the same rings with notifications. In pritsnipe quite handy feature. For me personally, it is important that’s why. Sometimes you wake up early in the morning and immediately want to see – that hour. Razblokiruesh smartphone, and he kaaak “hit” in the eyes backlit screen – well, just awful, and blind for long. With Droid Turbo everything easier: waved his hand over the smartphone, and all at once you know. And even if he will lie parallel to the view – thanks AMOLED-display with its viewing angles.

See an icon with envelope …

… pull it up and read

Time can be seen from any angle

Housing in the smartphone is very steep. Motorola generally likes to experiment with materials: bamboo is applied, Kevlar, it is still something of such things. Droid Turbo is of two kinds. At the first black “back” of ballistic nylon – I have just such a device. The second version, available in black and red version, called Metallic. As I understand it, it’s sort of a mixture of glass, metal and all the same Kevlar. Anyway, this is the mixture is considered to be less steep than nylon, as the top-end version of the smartphone with 64 GB of memory can be completed with only the backdrop of this material. “Metallica” come with 32 GB. At the same time there are a number of small nuances. For example, “nylon” machine with a 32-gigabyte drive behind only written Droid, while the version with 64 GB, there is also a red bar indicating the amount of memory. Plus everything modification smartphone exist as logo Verizon, and without it – it is clear to the design of specimens from different parties approached differently.

As for ballistic nylon, it feels it reminds … Well, actually it seems to be such a fabric, but personally I found similarities with the old Soviet knitted mittens that I wore 20 years ago with the hook. Pleasant to the touch coating, and the cold hand once again not cold, unlike plastic, much less metal. In general, serious stuff, and overwrite or damage it hardly happens. However, at the junction of the rear panel and encircling the body rubber frame sticking little strings …

Speaking of rubber frame. It is suspected that the intensive use (for example, if you 100 times a day to get the device out of his pocket jeans) sooner or later it will overwrite. It turned out that my machine has a small scratch on the rubber, and it gradually increases.

Rear speakers not: for ringtones, and voice is front. But it is very, very loud and bass

What else to say about the case? He is not folding, ie, replace the battery at home will not work. Memory card is also not getting up, because there is no appropriate slot. Slot for SIM-card too, oddly enough, there is no … More precisely, it should be, but where is it located? Do not believe it: the same place and at the very YotaPhone 2, that is, under the removable volume rocker. In general, the existence of “Russian smartphone” we were told in February 2014 MWC, but the Motorola Droid Turbo world have shown only in November … Whether fun ideas really are in the air, or in the employees of different Asian R & D-centers secretly divided bold leadership finds …

Protection against water. It seems like it is, but there is no information on compliance with the standards or other Motorola does not. I suspect that this is not a waterproof (like Galaxy S5), and a special coating that makes the drops sliding down the body faster smartphone. This feature has been implemented in the Motorola RAZR 2011 and a number of other “motor”.

Below the screen there is a button with white backlight. Generally Motorola in recent years does not like them very much and all transport models on the screen, but the Droid Turbo – he’s created exclusively for Verizon Wireless. And operators are known to have certain requirements to the characteristics of smartphones that intend to sell. In the US, operators, of course, not as totalitarian as in Japan, where they are a tough team manufacturers, but the button on the Verizon, apparently, still insisted. For what it is my sincere thanks: I can not stand when the virtual keys “eat off” a piece of the display.

With a capacity of at Droid Turbo everything is fine – SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon Krait cores from 805 to 450 (up to 2.7 GHz) and the Adreno 420 graphics, but in conjunction with 3 GB of RAM, provides the highest speed. There’s even talk about anything you do not want: any game – no question, in the absence of any Android interface brakes, the camera starts instantly (hello, Samsung!). True, Motorola constantly calls used in “turbo” hardware platform Motorola Mobile Computing System. The first version of this miracle appeared in the Moto X of the first generation, and since then it has improved and roam from machine to machine. The bottom line is that there are two co-processor for voice and, as a consequence, the smartphone can recognize voice commands even in the locked position, while consuming very little energy. I do not know. Yes, all of these proprietary voice functions and work there, but I personally never understood – why talk to one or another mobile device, be it an iPhone with its Siri or something else. I somehow easier to finger and buttons. Maybe it’s because I do not drive a car – at a speed of something in the touch screen to dig deeper …

Result Droid Turbo – the first top

They say that the next flagship Motorola will on Snapdragon 810, but something I said, ochkuyu. At Qualcomm with “an eight” went wrong: according to rumors, this SoC is prone to overheating, and because of that she even refused to Samsung. Perhaps, perhaps. Qualcomm – Well, it used to work with the company’s architecture Krait, and Snapdragon 810 – most likely, in order to accelerate the development process – involved the basic core Cortex from ARM. Perhaps because of this, and all went wrong …

However, I digress. It’s time to talk about autonomy. And talk about it, honestly, very difficult. For a variety of reasons. To begin with, that the machine is sharpened by the LTE network and CDMA US operator Verizon Wireless. Yes, it is global phone, so it also works in GSM and HSPA +, so that in Russia smartphone will function without any problems (including, by the way, and LTE: Compatible “bends” 3 and 7). “Sharpening” under the Verizon network is not only the frequency but also in all sorts of settings, hidden from the human eye. Just for example: when using the indicator “Sims” Ukrainian 3G-operator Utel often shows one or two “poles” of five, although Galaxy S5 in the same area of the city – almost always five. That indicator is the “Motorola” shamelessly lying, or affects the very fine tuning under the network Verizon. In short, there is a suspicion that we Droid Turbo can consume more energy than in the States. Seen posts on the forums about this kind: “I am from Murmansk, bought a Droid Turbo, and he lives less than a day! In the section on battery settings hang some strange processes associated with the cellular network, and they guzzle battery is stronger than all. “And other people – and most of them – all right … Well, as luck. I am now lucky.

Motorola says Droid Turbo «provides stable 48 hours”, without specifying, however, which network device should run at the same time, can be turned on Wi-Fi, at what level should be set backlight as on a smartphone can be these two days to talk, and how to watch the video … Anyway, I have a Droid Turbo with its battery of 3900 mAh works an average day, plus another 16-18 hours. Galaxy S5 under the same network and exactly in the same mode of operation is required to put in the hours to charge through 20. Yes, significant growth – and this despite the fact that the Droid Turbo screen with higher resolution and much more powerful SoC. On the other hand, heard that more technological Galaxy Note 4 is also “live” one and a half to two days, although it has more screen (5.7 inches), and the weaker battery (3220 mAh). In other words, the Korean methods for optimizing energy consumption is about to become more effective than just a big battery …

From the pleasant: a Droid Turbo technology has support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0, which is using the complete charging allows for 15 minutes of “saturate” the battery for 8 hours. Again: charges really fast fact. 15 minutes 12-13 percent accumulates. Is this enough for 8 hours – depending on your personal usage model. By the way, here’s an important point: dealers often offer himself “simplified” configuration without the original Droid Turbo charging, it is replaced with something cheap and Chinese. I do not recommend taking them: function TurboCharge with conventional memory will not work, and the company, meanwhile, is worth $ 35. It is better to overpay a little once.

About the camera. 20.7 megapixels and simple interface with the minimum settings. Shoots well, although I have long been trying to smartphones did not take pictures. Examples of all will speak for themselves:

What do we have left? Soft? While Droid Turbo runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, but literally from day to day for him to be released with firmware 5.0 Lollipop. Motorola traditionally uses almost “naked» Android with a minimum of changes that I, frankly, sad. For example, in the smartphone Samsung to adjust the brightness of the screen needs to be done one tap and sink in the version of the OS – two. Grouped by folder icons in the main menu can not switch to the notification curtain a little, when chucking the power button there is no item “reset” … And these little things – the mass. Yes, it is possible to add a third-party software, but thanks to Samsung devices I used to, that’s all there “in the database.” And tinkering with the addition of functions is not desirable. However, I repeat: that’s about to come out with an update Lollipop, and it is possible that something will change. For example, the brightness can be adjusted in one tap.

Switches in the blinds Galaxy S5 (left) and Droid Turbo. The difference is huge

Total. Droid Turbo fully loaded (except without the factory film on the screen) cost me about 45 thousand rubles. Yes, the pleasure is not cheap. But definitely fun. The truth is, so to speak, for the initiated. Those who still remember the Motorola. I have a friend of 18 years, so it is – and these are the times – do not know what in the world is from Motorola. It can be seen during its growing US vendor has a fever, and the shelves of Russian stores its products gradually disappeared. And now the main problem of Motorola, who decided to return under the auspices of Lenovo in Russia – to remember her and fell in love again. Or at least just fell in love with as a beginner. It is believed that, given the economic situation in Russia Sino-American tandem should not start with any analog neoperatorskogo Droid Turbo (it is: called Moto Maxx and sold only in Latin America) or Nexus 6, but with something simpler and cheaper. For example, with the Moto G: at a comparable price it is able to put on the blades of all the products in the local brands combined. And then, on the background of these victories in the middle class, and you can “nexus” with the “Turbo” sell. You see, by the time anything we change for the better, and buyers are smart top-class packs will run again in the shops …

Motorola Droid Turbo Review