Today Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced the latest additions to the Droid line – the Droid Turbo 2 with a shatter-proof screen and the Droid Maxx 2 – at a small, no nonsense press event in New York City Tuesday that lasted all of about 15 minutes.
Motorola President Rick Osterloh cut right to the chase by dropping the Droid Turbo 2 face down on a brick to demonstrate what the company is calling Moto ShatterShield. The company claims it to be the world's first shatter-proof screen, which Osterloh told the audience is guaranteed not to shatter. The screen has an aluminum base under a flexible display, two redundant touch layers and two glass lenses to top it off.
The new Droid Turbo also retains what was one of the original's chief selling points: a big battery that can last up to 48 hours on a charge. The Droid Turbo 2 also includes a Quick Charge enabled charger, which Motorola says can deliver up to 13 hours worth of use after being plugged in for just 15 minutes.
The Droid Turbo 2 sports a 5.4-inch quad HD display, 21 megapixel camera with dual flash and 5 MP selfie cam with a flash and wide-angle lens. Other key specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 2.0 GHz octa-core CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 32 or 64 GB of storage and Android 5.1 Lollipop which will be upgraded over the air to Android 6.0 at some point, according to Verizon.
In an interesting first, the new Turbo will be the first of the Verizon Droid line to be customizable through Motorola's Moto Maker website. Verizon is also allowing you to refresh your Droid Turbo 2 design once within the first two years that you own the phone. Basically just pick a new design on Moto Maker, send your old phone back in and get a new one, including an upgrade to 64 GB. The refresh starts at a $96 charge, while adding a leather back jumps up to $120.
The Droid Maxx 2 is the lower-priced half of the duo. While its 5.5-inch 1080p display is slightly larger than the Droid Turbo 2's, it has a lesser Snapdragon 615 1.7 GHz octa-core chipset, 2 GB RAM, no selfie flash and is only available in 16 GB of storage (although it does have a microSD slot). Otherwise it's almost the same phone, minus the shatter-proof screen and with only about 60 percent as fast turbo-charging estimates compared to the Turbo 2.
The Droid Maxx 2 isn't available through Moto Maker, but there will be a line of interchangeable backs and flip shells to offer a little bit of customizable personality.
For the past six years, the Droid line has included some of the better Android smartphone options around, and the Droid Turbo 2 looks to be a contender once again, with the significant caveat that it's exclusive to the Verizon network in the U.S.
Both phones launch October 29 at Verizon Wireless stores, retail partners and online. At full retail, the Droid Turbo 2 rings up for $624, while the Droid Maxx 2's total bill is a more budget-friendly $384 (Verizon is happy to remind us that it offers monthly payment plans).
Source: Verizon
