Droid Turbo ?

[Jeffrey]

Congrats.. Enjoy your new toy.

 

[FoxKat]

New Turbo owner today, and so far loving it, despite full $599 price. Original Droid owner, then Maxx, now Turbo. Keep wondering if 1 year down the road, a regular website normally uses 500kb to open and suddenly uses ,5 mb? keeping my unlimited. Happy Turkey day to all u Droid fans

I agree with you on this one. Having unlimited data that is something I have no intention on giving up. We're only going to be using more data as time goes on, and with the lack of removal of SD cards in most devices. And with the addition of cloud storage and ultimately the addition of web applications, as well as higher resolution cameras it just means we're going to be doing for more communicating data rather than just using it on the phone and working with apps.

 

[Sajo]

New Turbo owner today, and so far loving it, despite full $599 price. Original Droid owner, then Maxx, now Turbo. Keep wondering if 1 year down the road, a regular website normally uses 500kb to open and suddenly uses ,5 mb? keeping my unlimited. Happy Turkey day to all u Droid fans

Enjoy your new phone. Seems like another awesome edition to the Droid family!

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[kodiak799]

Saw where, AT&T I think, was going to start rolling out LTE coverage to airplanes...but it was dropped Main reason I still want an SD card, but as mentioned with 21MP cameras and 4k video you still need physical storage to record the darn thing before uploading to the cloud.

I've also managed to frivolously waste plenty of data - @500MB per day just auto-downloading new articles and images for offline use....music can burn another 120MB in an hour....I could push 20gigs a month, easy, without tethering if I never conneced to wifi. Because I can.

Fortunately for VZW my signal strength at home is awful, so I won't be dropping cable and home broadband.

 

[Night train]

Thanks for the input. I started with a windows phone years ago made by HTC complete with the stylus and a slide out keyboard. Then the Moto X and then the Razr Maxx, which I still have. My contract was up in April and my cyanogen moded phone has been a struggle to keep going lately. Still love Motorola phones though. I'm leaning towards keeping my unlimited and just buying it outright. Your input helps Kodiak and 50%Kraut and your names make me smile.

 

[Jay Jamaican]

Please help....I'm getting a battery with a white question mark inside it...can some one help me please...I'm in Jamaica and the motorola brand is not popular here!! Need help asap

Congrats on the phone

M8 tap'd

 

[Jeffrey]

Please help....I'm getting a battery with a white question mark inside it...can some one help me please...I'm in Jamaica and the motorola brand is not popular here!! Need help asap

Does the battery charge?

 

[Xander Crews]

I picked up the Droid Turbo on black friday.
I have unlimited data on my line...my wife does not. She was due for an upgrade and needed a new phone (she had a Droid Bionic)...so you know the drill. Upgraded her line with the Turbo, then we swapped phones. She got my HTC One M7 and I got the Turbo.
Had a hoop to jump through with SIM cards as they were different sizes. So we called Verizon's customer care line and they were able to swap them remotely. No need to go into the store. So in case anyone has that issue...just call Verizon.

Anyway, my early impressions of the Droid Turbo after a couple days...

• Battery is very, very good. It's actually amazing. On the first full day of use (which we all know is a heavy use day in getting it setup and customized). I was on it most of the day and it lasted a whopping 16 hours. Probably could have lasted another hour or so, but I wanted to plug it in so I could keep working with it. I can totally see it lasting twice as long on a regular use day. For example, I've had it off the charger for almost 9 hours today...and today has been more of a regular use day, and it's at 80%. At that pace, it would last almost 48 hours...which is what they advertised. I'd be very happy with it not needing to be charged on heavy use days until I go to bed...which is what happened on day 1.
• The quick charge worked as advertised. After plugging it in, within 15 minutes it seemed to have 25% battery and could have lasted for hours on that little charge.
• This phone is fast...but the specs will tell you that. It screams. Couldn't be happier with the performance.
• The screen is very nice. I have the brightness turned down to about 50% during the day while inside, and it still looks great.
• I opted for the ballistic nylon backing. And it feels really nice and looks cool as well. No desire to put a case on this thing.
• I'm coming off of an HTC One M7, which had a meh camera...but that camera was very quick...which was nice. The Turbo's camera is a little slower. It does have a delay of about a half second or so after clicking the photo, so once I get in the habit of holding the camera still for a second after hitting the button, it's fine. I use the CameraFX Zoom camera app...and it has a steady feature, which won't take a photo until the camera is still to avoid blur in shots. Once you click to take a photo, if the camera if moving a red ring glows on the screen until it is still, then it snaps the photo. This is nice because the lack of image stabilization on this camera. I'm not sure why they didn't include this...that seems bad. But the quality of the photos are very good. I am not expecting greatness, it is a smart phone camera after all. But if you have a steady hand and can wait a half second until it snaps the photo, the camera seems to work just fine. I haven't taken a ton of photos, but so far so good. Oh, and if you shoot in widescreen (why wouldn't you?) then it's only 15mp. 21mp is only for 3:4 size. Which is probably for the best as I would assume a 21mp image takes a bit longer to process than a 15mp one does. And 15mp is plenty big for anything I would ever do with a smart phone photo. All my photos get downsized a bit when uploaded to Google+ Photos anyway to take advantage of unlimited photo storage there.
• I thought that waving your hand over the screen to turn it on would be gimmicky, but it's actually very nice. Not having to hit the power button to turn it on every time is convenient. I also thought it would run the battery down, because it might be turning on when in my pocket. But I don't think it does that, and they also say that it only turns on the pixels necessary to display the unlock icon...so it uses next to no power for that anyway. At any rate, the battery easily lasts all day, so that doesn't see to effect the battery much at all.
• Some people were upset about the capacitive buttons below the screen and that they weren't "on screen". I like them down there. I noticed in some apps on other phones, the buttons would hide and you had to touch the screen to get them to show up. Seems like a hastle of an extra step...but whatever. I like them off the screen so more stuff fits on the screen. It's not a big deal...and it's all personal preference here.
• It has a nice feel in the hand...the ballistic nylon backing as a lot to do with that.
• Like other Motorola phones I have had, ovearall the build quality seems good...very solid. Has some weight to it, which I like. I don't like featherweight phones...they just feel cheaper, like they can break easier. I think this phone has a real nice weight to it.
• The volume button slides out to reveal the SIM card. I don't really like this. I mean, I'll rarely open it...but it seems like something that could potentially break, as it is a plastic button and drawer. The power button is also plastic. I get that most phones buttons are plastic, but this is the only thing that appears "semi-fragile" on the phone. But then again, if it does break, the part easily comes completely off, so it would seem like an easy fix...just get a new part.
• NOT A SINGLE VERIZON LOGO ON THE PHONE...NOT ONE. Wow. Big plus there. Not that I really care one way or the other, but if I had to choose, I'd say no logo...so that's cool.
• I disabled a bunch of the bloatware...kept a few of them. No biggie. People complain about bloatware. It is what it is...just disable what you don't want. Not a big deal. Some of the "bloatware" is actually quite useful...so there's that.
• I use Nova Launcher and Sawyer icons with White Stamped icons for the 4 main icons at the bottom. So my interface was going to be pretty much the same on whatever phone I chose.
• Aside from the bloatware, I heard that the Turbo is fairly close to vanilla Android in that it didn't change much. Not sure how true that is...but again, I use Nova Launcher to skin Android anyway.
• You can't use data and be on a call at the same time...but they are supposed to release an update that will fix this before the end of the year. So no biggie there...assuming that comes through as advertised.
• Apparently there are fewer radios in the Turbo than in other high end phones. My 4G signal has been fine though. So I can only say I don't notice a difference. I'll have to compare my wife's HTC One M7 reception with the Turbo's reception. I didn't think to to that. When I do, I'll report back with what I find.

Overall there is very little to complain about and a whole lot to like about the Droid Turbo. Sure, the camera should have image stabilization, but that is a feature on the Camera FX Zoom app...so you can pretty much get that if you are having issues taking blurry photos. And there is a half second to a second delay on the shutter, but that could improve with a software update...or even possibly another camera app.

I'm really happy with this phone so far.
I was considering the HTC One M8, the LG G3, the Moto X and the Turbo. And I have to say I am glad I got the Turbo.
I do have until Jan. 15th to return it and swap it out if something crops up that I really don't like, but as of right now, this is a definite keeper.

 

[FoxKat]

Well, thank you for that in-depth review of your phone. It seems you really do like it as your excitement shines through. The phone is one beast and I love mine as well.

I agree with everything you've pointed out, especially the capacitive buttons versus on-screen. I can't stand that the on-screen buttons aren't always visible so you have to think for a second about which one is where, and like you said...tap the screen to "wake" them first. It's a wasted step.

Overall, your experience has mirrored mine, however I use my phone MUCH harder than you do so I'm not getting the nearly 48 hours out of it. That said, it's miles above anything else, and even beats my former Droid MAXX and earlier Droid RAZR MAXX in battery life, even with the extremely high resolution and screaming processor.

I love that it's 64GB, and I know how everyone says, "yeah, but no removable SD Card slot...", so I'm here to tell you it's no big deal. I've added a couple attachments to make it even better for storage.

Below are three different USB OTG devices I purchased, all from eBay. The first is a multi-card reader - the most expensive at $8.54, works perfectly and although being a tiny bit bulkier than preferred (cord and all), it's a real neat device.

USB OTG Host Adapter SD Card Reader for Motorola Moto G X
( 371034178506 )



ORDER TOTAL
US $8.54

Free shipping

​

The second is a TINY, and I do mean TINY adapter (mine's in black). It's about the size of 4 chicklets, 2 end to end, and double-stacked. It's a double-ended dongle, so the end with the USB-A connector doubles as the MicroSD Card slot (and there's also a Blue LED inside to show activity), and the other end is the MicroUSB connector. It can go from the phone to the desktop or laptop or tablet in one quick remove and re-insert, and at $2.64 each it was what I consider to be a steal.

1pc 2-in-1 Micro SD TF Card Reader with OTG USB 2.0 with Micro USB for Phone PC
( 281470248223 )
Color: Black

Quantity: 3

ITEM PRICE:

US $2.64​

Free shipping
​

The third one is a novelty version of number 2, but with an added benefit of doubling as a charging cable (mine's blue and white). The "head" glows red when plugged in and flashes red when it's reading/writing. Both the number 2 and number 3 are small enough to be attached to my keychain by the tiny tethers. The number 2 didn't come with tethers, whereas the number 3 did, however at the ridiculously low price of $1.99 each, who's complaining?

4 IN 1 Fashion OTG Micro USB Data Transfer Charging Cable & Micro SD Card Reader
( 121459643316 )
Model: Samsung

Type: OTG Cable

Color: Blue
ITEM PRICE:
US $1.99
Free shipping
​

With any one of these, you have solved the SD Card slot issue and it makes a great conversation piece as well. For me, I've found that OTG Disk Explorer Lite - Android Apps on Google Play and File Manager - Android Apps on Google Play both work nicely with them, however I like the interface of the latter one better.

 

[kevins686]

I'm all in.. Geez. . Big big battery..

I'm somewhat obsessed with having a large battery. It all stems back to 2011, when I got Verizon's first 4G smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt. It was a great phone in almost every respect, except for that 1,400mA battery. Just sitting on standby, I'd be down to 20 percent within about seven hours. Once I became eligible for an upgrade in 2012, I went straight to Verizon and got a Razr Maxx. Battery life immediately ceased to be an issue. To this day, I will not consider purchasing a smartphone unless I know it features long battery life (though I'm sure there's no smartphone on the market anymore that features such terrible battery life).