Motorola Droid Turbo review: Power robot

Unboxing

Motorola Droid Turbo ships in an elegant black box with a matte finish. Inside it, you will find the headset, a USB cable, Motorola Turbo Charger, and the usual set of booklets.

The retail package

There's no bundled headset with the Motorola Droid Turbo. However, Motorola and Verizon make up for its lack by throwing the ultra-fast charger in the box - it costs $35 on its own.

Design and build quality

Motorola Droid Turbo looks a lot like its predecessors. You can easily mistake the smartphone for last year's model.

Motorola Droid Turbo in the flesh

That said, the design of the handset is dominated by the materials used in its making and that is a good thing - both the textured threads of the Ballistic Nylon and the matte finish of the Kevlar option look great in person.

The Motorola Droid Turbo family

Verizon Wireless deserves a hat tip for not featuring any prominent logos or branding on the device. The top of the line 64GB Droid Turbo in Ballistic Nylon has no carrier branding whatsoever, there is only a textured Droid logo on its back.

The 64GB model has no Verizon branding

Some people might find the design of the smartphone a tad dated. However, its worth noting that the Motorola Droid family for Verizon, like most smartphone flagship lineups, has a distinct design language - you can't blame its makers for sticking to it as everyone else seems to do the same thing these days.

The device's build is nothing short of extraordinary. Motorola Droid Turbo is superbly put together and ready to take on the rigors of daily life, regardless of the circumstances.

The Droid Turbo is superbly built

Ballistic Nylon is the newest material to debut alongside the Motorola Droid Turbo. DuPont developed the material for the flak jackets of the airmen during World War II. Its threads are incredibly strong and grippy - you can find them on tool belts, action sports gear, and motorcycle jackets among others these days.

The Kevlar version has been updated over past models as well. It now features Metallized Glass Fiber finish, which results in even higher durability.

The Droid Turbo isn't afraid of water either as its innards are covered with water-repellent coating, allowing it to last up to 1 minute under 6 inches of water, well enough to save your phone after an unexpected dip in the water.

Physical measures of the Kevlar Motorola Droid Turbo are 146.5 x 73.3 x 10.6mm, while its weight tips the scale at 169 grams. The Ballistic Nylon model is slightly thicker and heavier with measures of 73.3 x 143.5 x 11.2mm and 176 grams.

Motorola Droid Turbo sized up against the Moto X (2014)

There is no denying that Motorola Droid Turbo is thick for today's smartphone flagship standards. However, we believe many users will be more than willing to sacrifice a couple of millimeters of thickness for the added benefit of having an ample 3,900mAh battery.

Anyway, handling the smartphone is a pleasure. We actually found the added thickness beneficial for the device's ergonomics - coupled with the thinner edges, it naturally follows the curvature of your palm.

Handling Motorola Droid Turbo

The Ballistic Nylon version certainly offers more grip than the Kevlar model. The latter looks a tad more elegant though.

Display

Motorola Droid Turbo features a 5.2" AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. The screen pixel density is a whopping 565ppi - the highest we've encountered on any smartphone to date.

The sharpest display we've seen to date

The device's display features a PenTile matrix as expected from an AMOLED screen these days. However, its lower number of subpixels is irrelevant at 565ppi - it is impossible to distinguish individual pixels with a naked eye.

A closer look at the display

Viewing angles and contrast of the display are superb as expected. Its sunlight legibility is also stellar.

Colors are naturally not as accurate as those produced by high-quality IPS LCD units - whites in particular show yellow or blue tint when viewed at an angle. However, thanks to the AMOLED's punchy colors, we do believe that many people will find the screen of the Motorola Droid Turbo more attractive than the LCDs by some of its competitors.