Motorola Moto Turbo Review: It’s More Than a Powerful Device

Launched late last year in the US market, the Droid Turbo has finally reached the Indian market this year with a hefty Rs. 41,999 price tag. However, the Droid part of the name seems to be compromised along the way.

The Moto Turbo is not just a device with a high-end specs and clichéd "awesome camera" but has also made a profound statement by being the first phone to use the ballistic nylon back panel finely woven into pattern, which is a great addition to the phone in terms of both functionality and design.

PROS

• Massive battery life
• QHD Super AMOLED screen
• Android Lollipop
• Comfortable and unique design
• Powerful performance

CONS

• Heavy
• Smart screen wakes up too frequently
• No MicroSD
• Not an impressive low-light imaging

We have been using this device over a week and it's time to unfurl its pros and cons. Let's begin with the build and design:

Build And Design

Growing from plastic to Kevlar and from wood to bamboo made back panels in the past, the Moto Turbo likewise is the manifestation of the company's efficient experimental design, in its own way.

The ballistic nylon, is not merely a look-enhancer, but serves as a pretty sturdy protective shell, which is untearable and for sure not easily breakable. The fine woven texture enables users to hold the phone firmly, which is quite rare with smartphones with even matte finish and patterned texture.

Moto Turbo's thickest point lies at the center measuring at 11.2mm and the thinnest point stands at 8.3mm. The phone is quite heavy at 166 grams but the fact that it is powered by a massive battery, which is its another selling point, makes up for it. The device is squarish and the metal frame with matte black finish partly engulfs the lower chassis of the phone making it an edgy device in a peculiar way. Further, although the Moto Turbo is not quite a waterproof device, it does come with a flimsy waterproof nano-coating to protect the smartphone from inadvertent liquid spillages.

Motorola has fascinatingly accommodated the nanoSIM card slot underneath the volume rocker, literally. The microUSB, headphone jack and the power button remain at their ideal locations.

Display

The Moto Turbo with the 5.2 inch display and 3 onscreen buttons may not initially impress you but as soon as you switch on the screen, the QHD display (offering 1,440 × 2,560 resolution and 565 pixels per inch pixel density), which is notably higher than the Galaxy Note 4 and LG G3 will inarguably astonish you.

The crispiness, sharpness and the fast touch response of the display is remarkable. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 comes along with the Super AMOLED display. Motorola has used its Moto Display feature in this smartphone, so that it shows details like the time and notifications you have missed even when you are not using it.

Power and Processor

A powerful Snapdragon 805 (32-bit) Quad-core 2.7 GHz Krait 450 processor along with Adreno 420 GPU coupled with 3GB RAM is responsible for pushing the performance level of this phone in par with the top notch smartphones available in the market. With such power, Moto Turbo makes an excellent device for gamers. Games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 ran flawlessly without any flickering and lags. The device scores 51955 points on AnTuTu Benchmark, which is quite impressive.

Talking about the software, initially, the Motorola Droid Turbo was launched with Android 4.4.4 and got updated later with Android L (v5.0) but here in India, the device has been launched with the Android L v5.0.2.

Camera

A 20.7 MP with dual-LED flash offers a great picture quality. However, it does fail to bring out the exact colors while taking pictures in low light.

Precisely, it excites Red, Green and Blue colors while taking images in low light condition. The "slo-mo" video options is an added advantage too.

Strangely, the rear camera, which is capable of shooting video at 2160pixels (4K) only shoots at 24fps, while the Full HD video is taken at 1080p with 30fps. The secondary camera is average at 2 MP, but can shoot video at 1080p.

Battery

Fueled with a Li-Po 3900 mAh, the non-removable cell is capable of churning out the maximum usage time. Practically, the battery of the phone, in terms of performance comes pretty close to the company's claim, which is 48 hours. Even after playing games with high-end graphic and listening to a lot of music, and watching videos online the device will live through a day and a night easily.

Storage and Connectivity

Moto Turbo is generously blessed with 64GB internal storage and when it comes to demarcation of the hard-drive, the users will get not less than 50GB for saving their data. However, it lacks microSD card slot.

Motorola has packed an array of connectivity options in this phone including 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi, options for data transfer would be microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, infrared and NFC. Despite being a 4G enabled, device, Moto Turbo does not support India's 4G band, which is a big ingredient for the success of the device in the market.

Bottom-line

Selling at Rs. 41,999, the device is quite conducive to critical response. Anyhow, the Snapdragon 805, Super AMOLED display, QHD Resolution, 3900mAh battery, and the out-of-the-box nylon back panel can possibly be an answer to the price of the device.

However, when it comes to becoming critical, the lack of microSD card is a huge downside, at least to Indian market. The failure to operate under 4G network is another zap, which the company should get fixed as soon as possible.

Although, the device has every essential element necessary for becoming a top notch device, the sheer lack of good audio quality (use of headphone), a bleeding color reproduction while taking low-light images and the lack of the stereo speakers have evidently become a bit embarrassing aspects.