Gadgetory

Verizon and Motorola promised us that everything we knew about a smartphone would change at today's Droid unveiling in New York City and while that may have been too tall in order there's still some pretty compelling stuff here if you're shopping for a smartphone on America's largest network I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is a first look at the Motorola Droid turbo 2 and Droid Maxx - these phones look a lot alike but don't let that fool you each serves a very different buyer segment what they have in common beyond a general aesthetic and the fact that both of our review units are white is an Android OS very large batteries 21 megapixel cameras and a whole lot of Verizon bloatware the droid turbo 2 is very much the flagship offering here besting the max2 in almost every metric it packs a Snapdragon 810 processor alongside three gigs of DDR 4 ram 32 and 64 gig storage options to go alongside microSD and a 5 point 4 inch display at quad HD resolution that display introduces Motorola's new shatter shield technology which motorola and Verizon are calling shatterproof it took three years to develop and comprises a five layer assembly based on a plastic OLED panel made it to a separate redundant touch system and internal and external lenses there's not a bit of glass in the whole thing and it's fused to the phone's aluminum frame the result is a display that's guaranteed not to crack or shatter for four years needless to say that's impressive if the phone can live up to it power is another big part of the turbo 2 story it packs a large 37 60 milliamp hour battery that verizon says is good for two days of use last year's original Droid turbo didn't quite live up to those claims so we'll see how the sequel does the turbo 2 does support the new 25 watt turbo charging as well and in a radical shift from Verizon precedent the Droid turbo 2 packs both Qi and PM a wireless charging Motorola has also brought moto maker to the Droid line for the first time with the turbo 2 allowing you to choose between a revised ballistic nylon finish pebbled whore weaned leather or a reformulated soft grip coating along with accent and faceplate colors and all the other custom elements we've grown used to in a nice twist on the custom phone concept if you get tired of the color scheme you chose and you bought the 64 gig option you can now trade in your device at any time during a two-year period and get a totally different color scheme it costs four bucks extra every month but still that's pretty awesome rounding out the turbo 2 is the aforementioned 21 megapixel camera the full suite of contextual moto features we like so much and a water-repellent nano coatings in keeping with its family heritage it's a beefy phone and in the hand it sure feels like it the aluminum frame is cool to the touch the soft backing material is grippy without being sticky and the whole thing bristles with adornments calling out the active display sensor ports the front firing flash front-facing speakers and yeah a big ole Verizon logo down center the Droid Maxx - is something different this is the mid tier offering and as we were expecting it's essentially a rebranded Moto X play for the US well it's the exact same weight as the turbo to the max - feels substantially lighter because of its less premium industrial design which includes a frame that looks like metal but is actually painted polycarbonate instead of Moto maker you've got user changeable silicone backs here which will be sold separately by Verizon and Motorola and which add to the devices in slightly flimsy feel it's got a rounder less aggressive design language and more modest specs including a Snapdragon 615 processor backed up by 2 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of storage microSD expansion and a five and a half inch full HD display that display is a more conventional design it's protected by Gorilla Glass 3 instead of the shatter shield stuff and the battery takes a slight step down to 36 30 milliamp hours as well the turbo charging is still here but it's 15 watt instead of 25 watt the camera is the same 21 megapixel sensor but because of the down rated processor it can't do 4k you see where we're going here the max2 is on the high side of the mid-range certainly but it's still mid-range and in the hand it certainly feels like it that stratification is reflected in the price naturally in a huge way where the droid turbo 2 starts at 624 off-contract the droid maxx two starts at just 384 of course verizon offers multiple payment options to break those sums up 16 a month for the max2 and 26 or 30 a month for the turbo 2 both phones go on sale this thursday online at motorola calm and Verizon's online and retail channels and Verizon Wireless is offering up to $300 for phone trade ends when you pick up one of these we won't know if either phone is a good deal until we put them through our full review process but particularly in the case of the droid turbo 2 we're quite excited to do so these may not change everything we know about smart phones but they do promise compelling solutions for a very common complaints now it's time to figure out how well each one delivers let us know what you want to see in our full reviews of the turbo 2 and Max 2 folks leave a comment below and follow us on social media pocket now is AD pocket now and I am at captain 2 phones until next time this has been max turbo I mean Michael Fisher from new york city thanks for watching we'll see you soon