The Quad HD-equipped Motorola Droid Turbo is currently being offered as an exclusive from Verizon. It looks like that may be short-lived, as Motorola has scheduled a press event to introduce a variant of the smartphone for GSM networks.
Motorola is no longer the property of Google and it appears as if the breakup has had a profound effect on the company. Its second-generation flagship Moto X has been met with positive reviews and its design has been tweaked to add a premium metal frame, while keeping its Moto Maker customization process that allows customers to choose different materials like genuine woods and rich leathers for its rear case.
Motorola was also commissioned by Google to build its new flagship Nexus 6 phablet, which has powerful internals and is also the first smartphone to ship with Android 5.0 Lollipop.
If the 5.9-inch Quad HD display on the Nexus 6 was a little too big, Motorola and Verizon just launched what some may consider a Nexus 6 Mini, since it has virtually the same specs in a smaller smartphone. The Droid Turbo features the same 2560 x 1440 Quad HD display but at 5.2-inches, uses the same Snapdragon 805 processor, and offers 3 GB of RAM.
There are some important differences, though -- the Turbo ships with a larger 3,900 mAh battery that provides up to 48 hours of battery life, compared with the Nexus 6's 3,220 mAh, which will get an estimated 24 hours of mixed usage. The Droid Turbo also has a higher-end 21-megapixel rear camera, while the Nexus 6 is packing a 13-megapixel rear camera.
The Verizon Motorola Droid Turbo has impressed smartphone fans with its top-of-the-line specs, but unfortunately it seemed as if the handset would remain a Verizon exclusive. But, we reported in early October that a GSM variant of the Droid Turbo passed through the FCC and its 4G LTE bands support AT&T and T-Mobile's high-speed networks.
Tecnoblog is reporting that Motorola has sent out press invites for an event it is holding in Brazil on Nov. 5. The invite clearly shows the Droid Turbo's new ballistic nylon back.
As a reminder, the Motorola Droid Turbo features a 5.2-inch 1440 x 2560 Quad HD AMOLED display with a pixel density of 565 pixels per inch (ppi) and ships with Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box, with an upgrade to Android 5.0 Lollipop in the near future. The smartphone is powered by a 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, Adreno 420 GPU (graphics processing unit), and 3 GB of RAM to keep things running fast and smooth.
The Droid Turbo's camera capabilities include a 21-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash, 2160p video capture at 24 fps, and a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter that can record 1080p video and take selfies. It has two storage configurations; 32 GB and 64 GB. Motorola has placed a large, nonremovable 3,900 mAh battery that will provide up to 48 hours of battery life and also includes the Motorola Turbo charger in the box, which can provide up to 8 hours of battery life with just a 15-minute charge.
In somewhat of a similar move as was seen on the Moto X, Motorola is offering the Droid Turbo in choice of two premium materials on its rear case. A new premium ballistic nylon offers texture in addition to being lightweight and extremely durable. The second option is a metalized glass fiber design that is reinforced with a layer of Kevlar fiber that provides a smooth, strong, and reflective finish.
We'll be covering Motorola's Nov. 5 event and will bring you all the latest news regarding the global version of the Droid Turbo.
