The Droid family stands as an outlier in a business where it’s the smartphone brand that matters, and companies such as Apple and Samsung distribute their products across all carriers, eschewing exclusivity agreements. While Motorola is the exclusive vendor for Droid smartphones, it’s a franchise conceived and owned by Verizon, which licensed the Droid name from Lucasfilm. As a Motorola device, the DROID Turbo also features a collection of Motorola-specific apps. The Droid Turbo is designed for extended battery life, and Motorola says the phone can last 48 hours that is two full days of normal use. The monster size battery has a huge 3,900 milliamp-hours of power by comparison with the iPhone 6 Plus which is rated at 2,915mAh, and the life is extended even further via software that optimizes ever watt, according to the company.
The battery charges fast, too. Borrowing a feature first seen on the company’s Moto X, the Droid Turbo includes Turbo Charge, which turns a 15-minute charge into an additional 8 hours of battery life. In addition to a 3,900 mAh battery that allows for such long-lasting battery life, the Motorola DROID Turbo features a 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and 21-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash, 4K video recording and wrist flick launching. The handset also has a quad-HD display — likely 5.2-inches — and is available in metallic black, metallic red and ballistic nylon.
The Motorola DROID Turbo has XLTE enabled for ultra-fast cellular connectivity through Verizon, in addition to many Motorola software enhancements such as Moto Voice, Moto Actions, Moto Notifications and Moto Display. The device includes 64GB of internal storage, with no word on expandable storage. Verizon has priced the Motorola DROID Turbo at $199 (32GB) and $249 (64GB) on contract. As with all Droid phones, the phone is slated for an exclusive online and retail store launch on October 30. Motorola said it’s working with Verizon Wireless to guarantee an upgrade to Android Lollipop, and that the device is compatible with the carrier’s planned voice-over-LTE service. Verizon is offering a few promotions for the Droid Turbo, including a $100 trade-in value for an old smartphone and the purchase of the device. The carrier is also waiving its upgrade fees if a customer purchases the Turbo. The carrier is also offering any customer who damages their Turbo screen a one-time free replacement.
