Review: Droid Turbo 2

It used to be a chore to find an Android device with decent to great battery life. And to some degree, that argument could still be made with “pretty” flagship devices. Nonetheless, things have progressed in the last year or two. Motorola has often catered to the battery conscious more than most, however, by brute forcing the issue with physically larger batteries. The latest attempt is Verizon’s Droid Turbo 2. And as an added perk, Motorola has not only went with a large battery but also tried to craft a more finely designed device.

If you have any experience with previous “DROID” branded hardware, you’ll know that the physical design tends to be brick-ish, angular and cold. Not so, here. And perhaps most importantly, Motorola has marketed the Droid Turbo 2 as “unbreakable”. Now, we didn’t personally try to break this device (there are plenty of YouTube examples out there). But we don’t have to push too hard the idea of how (potentially) bad such a marketing point can be. Nonetheless, with this label in mind, we did drop the device a few times and were pleased to find a still (unscathed), working phone.

Is the Droid Turbo 2 worthy of the DROID branding and its former self’s admiration?

Physical Hardware

For a flagship device, most if not all of the right boxes are checked: 1440 x 2560 5.4-inch display, Qualcomm 810 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 32 or 64 GB of storage, 21-megapixel rf camera/5-megapixel ff camera, and a 3,760 mAh battery. The more angular design of previous “DROID” hardware has been refined in 2015. While still angular to some degree, the edges are now much more rounded and softer. So too is the back of the device. It’s not a slippery plastic, carbon fiber knock off or other polycarb/metal. It’s a not-too-soft yet still grippy soft touch finish that is a breath of fresh air into a sea of smartphones that require gecko hands to keep from dropping them to their deaths.

Moto Maker is available for the Turbo 2 meaning personalization junkies can run wild.

Specs aside, the Turbo 2 is just as promising on paper as any other device.

The “unbreakable” label is a dubious one. Drop/crush any phone hard enough and it’s going to break. But the real thing we have to consider is why the screen on the Turbo 2 is unbreakable. It’s simple: it’s plastic(s).

Their is a multi-layer approach by Motorola here so “it’s plastic” is a bit too simple in explanation. The normally sensitive and damage prone touch layers and display are buried underneath a couple of different layers layers (as you can see in the image above). Overall, the multi-layer approach is great for drop/crack protection. On the flipside, plastic is notably soft and scratch prone. It’s true; you can’t have your cake and eat it to. If you want a more rigid, scratch resistant glass, you’re going to have to worry about shattering. And if you want a more “shatterproof” display, you’re going to need to concede that scratches are going to come easier.

In my experience with the Droid Turbo 2, the normal scratch prone nature of plastic was not nearly as prevalent as smartphone displays of years past with plastic adorning the front, nor were the multiple layers noticeably detracting from the display quality. With that said, it was a bit more noticeable that your finger was sitting higher above the display than with other phones. But again, this didn’t seem to hamper image quality.

So in the end, did Motorola succeed in making the first shatterproof display? Probably not. But they did at least make a more resilient display that manages to maintain screen quality. A win-win in my book.

One other notable point to make potential buyers aware of: the Droid Turbo 2 supports both Qi and PMA wireless charging standards (similar to a few of Samsung’s flagship devices). Even though the two entities have merged, meaning multi-wireless charging standards are probably moving towards a converged effort, it’s nice to, at least for now, be able to use both.

Software

Over the last couple of years, Motorola has made strides to set itself apart from other manufacturers specifically in the lack of software differentiation. By “lack” we’re talking of in-house copy-cat apps of stock system apps and other (often) gimmicky included apps/services. Motorola’s approach involves keeping Android as stock looking as possible and adding in widgets/apps that install on top of Android proper. In theory this should allow for faster updates as there is much less that Motorola has to customize every time an Android update drops. In reality, it’s mostly good. Updates are generally quick. Though the new, new Motorola under Lenovo hasn’t been quite as quick as the old Google-owned entity — an assumed trait.

With all that said, there’s really not much to talk of on the software front. It’s stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Performance

The Snapdragon 810 is a mature processor. Despite early issues with performance, throttling, and thermal limits, the Snapdragon is still one of the top SoCs on the market. Combined with the un-fluffed, stock Android on the Turbo 2, performance within the normal confines of day-to-day life is quick, smooth, and generally hiccup free. Being Android, however, means there are slight hiccups here and there at completely random times for completely random reasons.

Shipping with a 3,760 mAh battery eludes to a phone that should have ridiculously awesome battery life. In real-life usage (admittedly, power user usage) it’s above average for sure, but not breath taking. I averaged a solid 25–35 hours of runtime which is indeed a solid 5–10 more than I normally get on most phones. The 48 hour claim by Motorola seems like it could be fairly easy to hit with lesser usage that is more in lines with typical end users. That said, having such a large battery and stock Android makes standby time on the Turbo 2 fantastic. Over the course of 2 days I left the device sitting without touching it and just letting notifications come in at random. Just about any other Android device would be dead or near dead after a similar stint. The Turbo 2, however, still had a solid 30% left. (When I left it on the bannister it was in the 70–80% range.)

Camera

Since the beginning of Android’s life, camera performance has been poor to mediocre. Year after year, flagship after flagship, we’ve been led on with grandiose marketing only to be ultimately let down. It’s a repeatable and depressing cycle. But things are finally changing. 2015 has seen Android flagships finally get cameras. And the Turbo 2 is a surprising hit. In the grand scheme of things, Motorola has long been one of the worse Android manufacturers when it comes to camera quality and performance. As we all know, megapixels don’t tell the whole story. And Motorola’s biggest failure hasn’t been megapixels. It’s been (like most Android manufacturers) with software. The Turbo 2 changes all of that with an actually quite fantastic camera. DxO Mark actually rated it at an 84. (For references sake, the Galaxy S6/Edge is rated at 86, LG G4 at 83 and the iPhone 6S at 82.) Low light is still a weak point as it is for most devices. But overall, if the camera was the main holdout for this device (or any Motorola device), things are finally changing for the better.

A solid device; one of Verizon’s best

The no frills approach by Motorola combined with the powerful SoC, VZW’s network, and large battery mean those that focus on battery life first and general performance a close second will be more than pleased with the Turbo 2. It also doesn’t hurt to have Moto Maker customization options as well as a legitimately more resilient display. Overall, it’s a solid showing from Motorola and one of the better phones for VZW customers to choose from.