Be it a user or a tech guy like me, we all get to see a lot of things happening in the smartphone market. Some of them just blow our minds off while some do not even make us care about them. Then there are some smartphones that come around and make us feel that we can not get anything better than that. Flagship smartphones are the kind that make us sit up and take note of what a smartphone maker is capable of. Back in 2013, the One (now One M7) from HTC was the talking point and was the smartphone many believed could rival an iPhone on build quality and fit and finish aspects too. Such a feat is no small achievement.
Fast forward to 2015, Apple has turned the tables on HTC with its iPhone 6 and there is little even the HTC One M8 could do about it. If it is about giving a premium feel to their devices, both Apple and HTC have their fans and detractors. However, the technological feat crown went to iPhone 6 due to it being too slim to be true. If there is one smartphone maker than was taking all this seriously but trying to do something out of ordinary, Motorola is the name. Moto G became the best value-for-money smartphone in the market. Moto X became the most customisable smartphone and also the kind which did not rob you of flagship smartphone-like money. This left us with a void though. Was Moto X the best Motorola could offer? Just as people prepared to think this way, Motorola surprised everyone with Moto Turbo (Nexus 6 is still basically a Google product developed by Motorola).
Moto Turbo is called Motorola Droid Turbo in USA and Moto Maxx in a few other markets (Brazil, Mexico and Chile). It is not the name, though, that matters. Motorola is making no bones about the fact that Moto Turbo is so much more than just another smartphone. For over a week now, I have put it through its paces, giving everything this device has to offer as difficult a test as possible. The only thing I did not do is testing it on benchmarks (frankly, benchmarks information is not the kind anyone of us would rely upon). Here is an in-depth analysis of life with Moto Turbo.
What is Moto Turbo like on the outside?
Many would want to know about the design of the Moto Turbo. It is a great way to start off a review as well. However, numbers will be avoided at all costs as they do not determine how good or bad a device is to hold and use. Coming back to the point, Motorola has mastered the art of ergonomics while making its smartphones. Ergonomics feels like a science but every Motorola device makes it feel like an art. From the cheapest smartphone (Moto E) to the costliest one (Moto Turbo, if Nexus 6 is kept out of the count), all of its smartphones are simply great to hold. Motorola does not tout its smartphones’ slimness, not does it brag about their ergonomics. However, if you have got bored of plastics and glass/metal, the Moto Turbo is the best device to go for. Moto X touts its customisation as the real factor but Moto Turbo does not.
The design flourishes continue with the three capacitive buttons rather than soft-touch buttons as are found on almost every Android smartphone out there. You may not like it, but look at it this way – you get to see and use the whole 5.2 inches of screen’s surface than letting a bit of it get devoted to hosting the soft-touch Back, Home and Overview buttons that are the staple of Android smartphones. This makes the lower bezel a bit bigger and a bit edgy too, but you can use it one hand or two hands, depending on the size of your hands, without any hassle whatsoever. Design wise, there is little faulting the Moto Turbo and it outdoes the Nexus 6 too, which is pretty friendly for usage in one or two hands due to its ergonomics. We just wish more smartphone makers pay attention to the ergonomics section.
Display is just awesome, but…
When we talk about displays, we talk about their resolutions and their size and other technical details. I will do some of that while drawing comparisons with some of Moto Turbo’s competitors to help you understand if it is the make-or-break kind of deal or not. Technical side says Moto Turbo comes with a 5.2-inch AMOLED screen that puts out display resolution of 2560×1440 pixels (QuadHD in short). Two things to note here are the QuadHD resolution and AMOLED technology. Here’s why.
An AMOLED screen helps to save battery by consuming less power. This happens as a result of the display turning off the areas that need to show blacks instead of really displaying blacks. What that means is while an LCD will consume a certain amount of power in displaying text on a black background, the AMOLED display turns those black areas off, resulting in significantly lower power consumption. However, the flip side of consuming more power when displaying bright colours is also prevalent for AMOLED technology.
A significant pain area you would want to avoid is screen burn-in. If a static image stays for longer periods than usual, AMOLED displays leave an after-image of the image. To remove that after-image, you will have to fiddle with the Moto Turbo for quite some time.
There was a lot of talk about pixel density not being much of a factor when it comes to displays. I was able to lay my hands on a Samsung Galaxy S6 and a Galaxy Note Edge and placed their screens right next to Moto Turbo’s. All three of the units had their brightness turned up to the maximum. The result was quite impressive for Moto Turbo. The Super AMOLED displays have better black reproduction, but Moto Turbo’s screen was almost as good as either unit on Galaxy S6 or Galaxy Note Edge. Anyone who has ever got a chance to take a look at Samsung’s Super AMOLED display come away awe-struck by it. In that respect, the Moto Turbo has got its display nailed and giving even the best display tech some competition it never thought it could get. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the display, for those of you wondering about latest protective stuff.
Moving to the hardware inside
The Moto Turbo features a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor clocked at 2.7GHz. It sports an Adreno 420 GPU clocked at 600MHz and comes packed with 3GB RAM as well. That is a spec sheet talk but there is something more on the spec sheet that would confuse you. It says 3GB LPDDR3 RAM with 64-bit access. While that is a bit difficult to explain here, the reality is Snapdragon 805 is still just a 32-bit processor. In essence, the 64-bit implication refers to just the RAM, which helps it shuffle between various apps at a faster rate than those without 64-bit access.
As you can guess, it goes without saying that Moto Turbo is really fast as if it was turbo-charged (if there ever would exist a turbocharger for a processor). Anything and everything on the smartphone is lag-free on almost every occasion. However, the only lag you would definitely see is when you access the Dialer app and tap on a contact under the Speed Dial head, which is not that big an issue really. That is all about sourced stuff on Moto Turbo though.
Since it is the new flagship smartphone of Motorola, the Moto Turbo gets the best of in-house technology. There are three infrared sensors placed on lower left, lower right and upper right corners of Moto Turbo. What they do is when you want to silence the phone on the arrival of a call or snooze an alarm, just wave your hand on top of the phone and viola! Everything becomes silent. They also help you in looking at the recently-arrived notifications without having to touch anything on your smartphone. Post that, you can access those notifications or unlock your phone from that screen itself.
The sensor tricks do not stop here. If you twist your hand twice, you can launch the camera app on Moto Turbo. If it is on, then twist your hand twice to switch between the rear and front camera. That is a much easier way of using your cameras than going through a series of button presses to get there. Lastly, there is a single front-facing speaker on Moto Turbo. It is loud, quite loud in fact, but the speaker unit is smaller than the grill suggests. So, while you would not be able to ignore any calls unless Moto Turbo is on Silent (Vibrate only, in this case) mode, it would be better to use your headphones to watch videos. Connectivity options include 2G, 3G, 4G LTE (Cat 4), NFC, A-GPS, Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with dual-band capability and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy.
Battery that goes on and on
The Moto Turbo comes with a 3900mAh battery and there is Qualcomm’s Quick Charge tech too (I will talk about this in a bit). That gigantic battery is the first of its kind to find its way in a flagship smartphone. Even the Galaxy Note range does not sport such a big battery. The benefits of that battery is that when you pair it up with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop (Moto Turbo comes with that), you get amazing battery times. If you are the kind that hates to plug in the charger at the end of every day, Moto Turbo is for you only.
Under the most abusive kind of use, you will still be able to see through an entire day with that battery. If you are not that abusive, the times will range from one-and-a-half to two days. If you are a conservative user and focus more on being productive with your smartphone than a mass consumer of videos and games, you will be able to see through two days as well. My experience was that I was easily able to see through two days without having any issues with the battery as I do not watch much videos on my smartphone. So, Moto Turbo really is the kind of smartphone, in that respect, that a person like me was always seeking in the first place.
For those who say it can not happen, factor this in – it is said iOS consumes just 1 or 2 per cent of battery over a duration of an eight-hour period when left on standby. Android 5.0 Lollipop consumes some 3 to 4 per cent of battery when left on standby over the same amount of period. Last night, I left the smartphone at 12 per cent charge remaining at 11:00 pm. In the morning, at 8:00 am, the Moto Turbo was displaying 9 per cent charge remaining. While it is still not in the same league as the iPhone, it is still impressive in any way you look at it.
One area I felt could use improvement is the camera department. Surely, the 21-megapixel rear camera is the best unit Motorola has bestowed on any of its smartphones till now, Nexus 6 included here. However, it still is nothing more than a point-and-shoot camera that could use a stable holding hand. There is no Optical Image Stabilisation accompanying the rear camera and that is a bit sad. Still, the camera reproduces decent quality images and its HDR mode actually makes things a lot better than usual.
Another caveat in this department is selective focus. If you drag the focus point from one part of the image to another, be sure it does not lighten or darken the image too much for your liking. Also, remember that all of the screen estate is your shutter button. If you want to change the focus spot, drag the focus circle here or there instead of trying to make it go where you want with a single tap. One more thing to mention here is that volume keys help you in clicking images than zooming in and out of the image. If you want to zoom in, slide your finger from bottom to top on the screen and vice versa to zoom out.
The camera settings are hidden nicely and there are few details to see on the screen except the level of zoom being utilised and a few other details. If you slide your finger from left to right on the screen, you can see a host of settings to play with. They are not as many as an Xperia smartphone offers on its worst days, they are enough to help you click images that are decent. If you slide your finger from right to left, you will head into the image gallery.
A great design change from Moto X and Nexus 6 is the fact that Moto Turbo comes with Dual Flash with rear camera that is not enclosed in a ring-like shape. From a design standpoint, the setup looks really nice and from a user standpoint, it does not fool a user in to believing that instead of Dual Flash, there is an entire Flash ring, like on Moto X and Nexus 6.
The front camera is okay. It is not too good nor too bad. If you want to have a video chat with anyone, it is fine. Selfie clicking should be done with no zooming in as the image gets filled with noise. As such, it is a 2-megapixel camera on the front and is there to simply get the job done.
Connectivity issues are nil
I used a Vodafone SIM with Motorola Moto Turbo and there was generally positive feedback every time I could think about it. The only time I felt a bit off was while travelling in the metro, when the smartphone refused to pick up any network signals at all. Apart from that one instance, there are hardly any issues with cellular connectivity. If there will be any connectivity issues to face when you buy a Moto Turbo, they will be limited to your network provider in almost every case, like the one I just mentioned.
It comes with 4G network support and that makes it future-proof too. Wifi works well and was pretty fast even though my broadband connection is as slow as a snail due to the fair access policy being in effect after data allowance is exhausted. I even tried the Mobile Hotspot trick and with my iPad 2 (over 3 years old now), it did not pose any issues except when the weather was a bit inclement. So, 3G reception and provision were also great.
So, would I recommend it or not?
As has happened with reviewers for some time now, it is a bit tough for people to take them seriously. It is a fault of neither side though. Reviewers do what they have to do and people do what their needs tell them to do. So, me recommending would really not be a nice idea. However, I will still say that it would always be better if you could use the Moto Turbo once for a brief time to know what you are dealing with. That being said, there are a few things about Moto Turbo that definitely stand out and some that do not (that would be the cameras primarily).
What makes the Moto Turbo click? It retails for Rs 41,999 exclusively on Flipkart and is a bargain of a purchase. It is the only smartphone, outside of a Nexus device, to run on stock Android OS (Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, in this case). The massive 3900mAh battery just keeps going on and on and if it tries to get you stuck in a limbo, you have the Turbo Charger to save you. There is that unique back panel that can withstand some abuse and feels good to hold. The display is great and gives even the Super AMOLED screens from Samsung something to work about. Then there are Motorola modifications that will make you feel more connected to and in control of your smartphone.
If you want the kind of smartphone that just keeps going on and on and on (I could keep going on and on with on and on stuff), there is no looking past Moto Turbo. A photography buff may not like the Moto Turbo, but a YouTube consumer would like it. A poser may not like the Moto Turbo, a productivity-minded person who is doing a lot of things at once would. In 2013, I wanted to go for the HTC One M7 as it was the perfect smartphone. Shortage of units ensured I opted for Sony Xperia Z1. I was not an Android guy then so, it took some time to get used to the Xperia Z1. It had its faults but not just me, to all those whom I suggested a Sony smartphone are happy to this day using them. In 2014, when I ditched the Xperia Z1, I had no smartphone to pick as such and worked on a Nokia phone from yesteryears.
In 2015, I took a look at Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and even though I am still not a big fan of Samsung smartphones, the Galaxy Note Edge is the only smartphone from the Korean giant that really struck me. However, Moto Turbo is the choice I have to offer. The simplest of reason for such a move is that I will be keeping my budget in check (Galaxy Note Edge demands some serious cash from your pocket) and will get a smartphone that is tough and water-resistant. More important than all of those things is that I will have a smartphone that will be a cinch to use and will stay with me for at least two years, unless Google junks older Android customers like Apple did with iOS 8. I found out, over time, that using perfect smartphones does not matter as much as living with a smartphone that has some faults. The Xperia Z1 made me feel that way and now Moto Turbo does too. Simple as that.
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