Motorola DROID Turbo is here: a 5.2" Quad HD display, Snapdragon 805, and a huge 3,900mAh battery to drool over

Unlike the giant Motorola-made Google Nexus 6, the DROID Turbo has not been infected by the "super-size" sickness that's been raging in the industry for some time now. Thanks to its 5.2-inch display, the Motorola DROID Turbo is dwarfed by some of the latest smartphone behemoth, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, and the already mentioned Nexus 6. The pocket-friendly DROID Turbo bears the same design guidelines that have shaped Motorola's DROID family of devices, so it's just marginally different from the likes of the Motorola DROID MAXX and the rest of the DROID gang.

True to its roots, the metallized rear cover of the new Motorola beast once again employs kevlar in its build, which has already become a signature feature of the DROID line. At the same time, the DROID Turbo also has a metal frame, which is clad in Metallized Glass Fiber (MGF), a new sturdy material that makes the device both "lightweight and durable". Motorola's latest and greatest is also graced with a water-repelling nanocoating, which should protect it from the occasional liquid spillage and up to 20 minutes when it's raining cats and dogs outside. Fret not about the display, as it employs Gorilla Glass 3.0. Right above it, one can find the front-facing speaker of the device.

Note that the device will be available in two different versions (not to be mistaken with the different color options) - one of them will have a metalized back cover, whereas the other one will rely on a kevlar-reinforced one. The latter is slightly thicker and heavier, as the cover itself represents a 8.3-11.2mm curve and weighs 176gr; at the same time, the metal one is a tad slimmer with a curve of 7.8-10.6mm and tips the scales at 169gr.

Hardware

The 5.2-inch display at the front is a Quad HD AMOLED one, thus the combination between its resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels and this exact screen size mean that the Motorola DROID Turbo has a pixel density of 565ppi. This means that its display is sharper than the display of any smartphone you might throw at it, except for the Quad HD-enabled Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A.  Similar to the Nexus 6 and the Galaxy Note 4, one can find a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 comfortably nestled inside the new DROID, humming and ticking at 2.7GHz, while a 600MHz Adreno 420 GPU is responsible for the crunching of graphics. The device also has a NLP (Natural Language Processor) on board.

A hefty amount of 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM (with 64-bit access, on the other hand, makes sure that the device is nothing short of a true multitasking champion and joins the ranks of some formidable devices. Undoubtedly, the combination between the best SoC Qualcomm has to offer and the RAM on board is among the best ones available at the moment, making this new DROID a processing brute.Storage-wise, Motorola has skipped the 16GB option, as the most basic DROID Turbo will come with 32GB of on-board storage on board. A 64GB version will be making the rounds as well.

Connectivity-wise, LTE Cat 4 support for bands 2,4,7, and 13 is on board; the DROID Turbo also supports Verizon's own XLTE network. The device will receive the Advanced Calling 1.0 feature within 90 days, thanks to which owners of the device will be able to simultaneously make high-def VoLTE (Voice over LTE) calls and use their LTE data. We also have Bluetooth 4.0 LE and NFC aboard.

Camera

Unlike previous members of the DROID line, which had modestly-sized camera sensors, the Motorola DROID Turbo is also a beast in the camera department. If you take a look at the back of the device, you will find a rather large 21MP camera sensor with an aperture of f/2.0, complemented by a dual-LED flash. The latter are not of the ring type, like in the Nexus 6, as they are situated to the left and to the right of the camera itself. The rear camera also allows you to shoot 4K videos at 24fps and, naturally, 1080p ones at 30fps. The camera has a relatively large bag of features, comprising digital zoom, slow motion video recording at 720p, burst mode, auto HDR, panorama, and others. At the same time, the front-facing one is a 2MP one and it will allow you to shoot 1080p videos. 

Battery

We've already grown accustomed to smartphones with batteries that surpass the psychological frontier of 3,000mAh, some have even went further (we are eyeing you, Huawei Ascend Mate 7). In the meantime, Motorola's DROID troopers have also been well-endowed in this aspect; last year's DROID MAXX, for example, flaunted a 3,500mAh juicer at the back. 

Well, guess what, the Motorola DROID Turbo is also a top-performer in the battery department  - with its 3,900mAh battery, the device is the latest one to claim a two-day life. While this capacity is not the highest we've seen, Motorola deserves credit for successfully fitting such a large powerbank in a 5.2-inch device. Watch out, Note 4, there's a rather serious Quad HD contender on the horizon!

The device is also equipped with a quick charging feature, which allows you to get 8 hours of use after just 15 minutes of charging, as Motorola puts it. The latter will be courtesy of the Turbo Charger that can be found inside the box. The DROID Turbo also supports wireless charging, but no wireless charging pad is included in the box.

Software features

The Motorola DROID Turbo has a pretty deep bag of software features on board. Thanks to the Moto Smart app suite, the beastly new DROID comes with Moto Voice, Moto Actions, Moto Assist, Moto Display, Highlight Reel, and Best Shot. Apart from these, Motorola has equipped the DROID Turbo with a trio of exclusive apps - Zap Zone, Zap to TV, and Zap with Voice. Motorola Migrate will also help the potential adopters transfer their contacts and data from their old Android device directly to the DROID Turbo.

As far as the OS is concerned, the Motorola DROID Turbo has a pretty sweet tooth - it comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box, but the device will eventually have a taste of the Android 5.0 Lollipop confectionery. 

Price and release date

This Motorola DROID Turbo will be available starting October 30 directly from Motorola and Verizon. The 32GB version of the Motorola DROID Turbo (available in Metallic Black, Metallic Red, and Black Ballistic Nylon) will fetch a $199 price tag with a 2-year contract with Verizon or $25 a month with Verizon Edge.

The 64GB version of the device (available in Black Ballistic Nylon only) will be available for $249.99 with a 2-year contract or $27 a month with Verizon Edge. If you opt for the device and trade in your current smartphone, Verizon will refund you $100 if you sign a new 2-year contract.