Earlier today, Verizon Wireless and Motorola had their Droid Press Event which introduced two new Motorola devices for the carrier, the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 and the Motorola Droid Maxx 2. Out of both of the devices big red is getting, one of them is new to the smartphone world. I’ll get to the phones a bit later.
The press event started out by talking about Verizon’s network, which then turned into a nostalgic recollection of the original Droid device the carrier offered before moving back into talking about coverage and the network as a whole, then back to more devices – specifically the Droid Turbo that launched last year. Seems like Verizon couldn’t figure what they wanted to talk about during the first five and a half minutes of the 20 minute press event. A short video played (that lead up to one of the devices being announced) about everyone dropping their phones and end up getting cracked or shattered screens. After the video stopped, Rick Osterloh (Motorola) came on stage to talk about the companies new ShatterShield technology. Rick demonstrated by dropping a phone with the ShatterShield tech on what looked to be a cement block and picked it up and shown off the device without a crack or shattered screen. He dropped the phone again and ended up with the same results. No damage to the screen.
The tech behind the ShatterShield is a rigid aluminum core to provide structural integrity and durability. On top of that, the AMOLED Flexible display absorbs the shock, and won’t bend and break like other glass displays. The next layer is a dual touch layer with redundancy to survive accidents. Rick described the dual touch layer as a fail safe mechanism. Two more parts are added to that – the interior lens, which is a clear protective layer that won’t crack or shatter, and the exterior lens which protects the screen from dents and scratches.
Now, let’s start talking about the devices spoken about at the event.
The Droid Turbo 2 has a 5.4″ QHD display, so no matter what you’re doing on the phone, everything looks sharp. You’ll also get up to 48 hours of battery life and Motorola went with making the Turbo 2 the world’s fastest charging smartphone. Just 15 minutes of charging will provide you with 13 hours of power thanks to TurboPower. Detailing more specs: the Turbo 2 packs a 21 megapixel rear facing camera with rapid focus and zero shutter lag. The front facing shooter comes in at 5 megapixel with a wide angle lens that’ll fit loads of people into the picture, and even includes a facing flash. For internal storage, you get to choose between 32 or 64GB, which can be expanded up to 2TB through a microSD card. The Droid Turbo 2 uses the Snapdragon 810 SoC (2.0GHz octa core) and includes a large 3,760mAh battery. The device ships with Android 5.1 pre-installed, but will be upgraded to Android 6.0 soon.
Motorola went with the decision to include the Turbo 2 into Moto Maker allowing you to create 1,000 different ways to design the phone just the way you want it. Verizon is allowing you to redesign the phone one time within two years of buying the device. If you’re tired of seeing the first colors you chose, design another one and send your old one back when you receive the new colors. Each new model comes automatically comes with 64GB of storage. If you do want to go with this option, you can either choose to pay $96 as a one time fee or $4 per month.
The Droid Maxx 2, or the US version of the Motorola X Play (which we recently reviewed), was the next device that was talked about. It comes with the same 48 hour battery life and providing 13 hours of usage off of a 15 minute charge. This phone comes with a 5.5″ FHD display, same camera resolution as the Turbo 2, but doesn’t seem to offer zero shutter lag. The front facing camera is still a 5 megapixel shooter, but doesn’t include the flash. The Droid Maxx 2 offers 16GB of onboard storage that can expand up to 128GB through microSD, and a Snapdragon 615 SoC (1.7GHz octa core) sits inside along with a 3,630mAh battery size.
There are five different interchangeable back covers featuring a soft grip texture and three different flip shells available to add a better protection for the phone.
Both devices will be available on October 29th online and in store. The Turbo 2 will cost $26 per month for 24 months coming to a total of $624. If you do want the refresh option. it’s going to be $30 per month for 24 months for a final cost of $729. The Maxx 2 on the other hand will cost $16 per month for 24 months, costing $384 in total.
What do you think about the two new devices coming to Verizon? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.verizonwireless.com/news/article/2015/10/meet-the-new-droids-on-october-29-2015.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Verizon Wireless[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
