Someone convince me to get a Droid Turbo.

[choshoguay]

Greetings. I'm upgrading tomorrow and I really need someone to give me the key points of the Turbo. I'm heavily considering the Z3V for its camera, sd card compatibility and it's WiFI/4G signal strengths. I've heard many bugs with the software (No VoLTE as well as losing signal strength when you put your hand on top of the phone) and that's making me feel iffy about this phone. However, the hardware of this phone is making me drool. Can someone with experience with this phone tell me the key strengths of this phone and any problems that they've had?

EDIT: As requested, I'll list what I'm looking for in a phone.
- Battery life is key (I need it to last a whole day on heavy usage)
- Speed (I use my phone a lot and need it to be responsive)
- Above average camera (For when I don't have my DSLR camera)
- Good signal strength (I travel around my college campus all day)
- Sturdy (I drop my phone a lot, whoops.)

 

[cyberr8der]

Just browse the forums for both devices and you'll get a general overview of the pros and cons of both. Once you read both forums I'm sure you'll be better at convincing yourself based on what you're looking for.

 

[Xelios]

Greetings. I'm upgrading tomorrow and I really need someone to give me the key points of the Turbo. I'm heavily considering the Z3V for its camera, sd card compatibility and it's WiFI/4G signal strengths. I've heard many bugs with the software (No VoLTE as well as losing signal strength when you put your hand on top of the phone) and that's making me feel iffy about this phone. However, the hardware of this phone is making me drool. Can someone with experience with this phone tell me the key strengths of this phone and any problems that they've had?

No real issues with the phone for me. I don't have this signal strength issue either, dunno if I just got lucky or what. No real software bugs for me either. VoLTE isn't a big deal for me. Battery life is stellar. Certainly lasts all day but I'm far from the 48 hour mark, but that's just because I use it very heavily.

What are you looking for in a phone? That will help guide this topic more. Anything more specific you'd like answered?

 

[Mike-Mike]

The battery is really the key here. Lots of batteries are getting good reviews. All these reviews are on new devices and are touting their strong batteries.

The difference is the Droid "Maxx" line of super batteries has a strong history of battery life. Most of these other flagship devices will eventually have crappie batteries.

Look at the old Droid Maxx forum, most are quite happy with the battery still.

My Note 3 on the other hand is a year old and practically unusable without a charger nearby.

My turbo ships tomorrow

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[choshoguay]

Xelios, I've listed the key things I need in a phone. Hope this helps.

 

[mobrules]

Battery life and speed are the key issues for me. There's a forum here named battery life. In there are screen shots proving battery life can be 48+ hours if you manage it for that. Put in in an Otterbox and it's very protected. Camera isn't bad but I bought a phone with a camera not a camera with a phone. I've hover had an issue with signal strength. But that depends where you live.

 

[maxman1]

Greetings. I'm upgrading tomorrow and I really need someone to give me the key points of the Turbo. I'm heavily considering the Z3V for its camera, sd card compatibility and it's WiFI/4G signal strengths. I've heard many bugs with the software (No VoLTE as well as losing signal strength when you put your hand on top of the phone) and that's making me feel iffy about this phone. However, the hardware of this phone is making me drool. Can someone with experience with this phone tell me the key strengths of this phone and any problems that they've had?

Careful reading too much into forum post - some folks make a career over obsessing over minor (and often, nonexistent) problems. Others, complain about "issues" that are nothing more than being unfamiliar with the functions of a new device.

Here's my thoughts. I can't think of a smoother, better designed or longer lasting phone - period. The lack of VOLTE was addressed prior to the phone's release and will be implemented very soon possibly, by year's end. The stuff on the radio & WiFi performance is, in my experience, just bunk for the most part. My cellular connection is precisely the same as my previous Maxx and WiFi performance is off the charts - easily double the speed with the same, if not better, range. Many of these issues have been traced to older routers or those in need of firmware updates to mate properly with the latest protocols implemented in the device.

The camera may not be the best, I certainly wouldn't pretend to be personally familiar with everything out there. That said, I will say it's by far the best Motorola has ever put in a phone and may well get better. As is, it's capable of some fantastic images and the flash has amazing capability for a phone. The only weak link I've noted is capturing motion in weak light.

My phone is a 64GB model and see zero fraying and honestly, I don't bother pushing my thumb into the back looking for "defects". I'd suggest going to a store putting your hands on the various models along with any competitors and decide if it's right for you. IMHO, it's a very near perfect beast of a phone I couldn't be happier with mine.

 

[wolf_walker]

My particular example has a good to great battery, gsam says I average 1 day 9 hours before I charge with 4.5hrs screen time.
The camera is average in my book, still shots with some lighting are fine, movement and/or low light are a problem. The software is pleasing.
WiFi signal strength is not as good as it could be but isn't horrific either, if you need fringe wifi reception it's a consideration.
Everything else is pretty much fine, the OS is pretty plain android which is user preference, the phone is well built, I have mine in an Otterbox and
don't worry about it any more or less than any other phone. It's as fast as anything else current and 3gb of ram and 64gig internal storage with judicious cloud usage is plenty imo. Make your decision on the camera and signal reception and how it feels in hand(with a sufficient case).

 

[Xelios]

Xelios, I've listed the key things I need in a phone. Hope this helps.

Awesome. So to answer those in order, like I mentioned earlier, battery life is stellar. I've complained a few times about my battery life not being so great but I never realized how heavily I actually use it. I routinely do 3-4 hours of screen time in a day and tear through a gig or two of data. I could not ask for much. This phone does have a bug that causes a bit of idle battery drain, but that should be fixed in the next update which will give it even better life.

Phone is very responsive. I don't have an issue with this, however sometimes my phone will hiccup and be maybe a quarter second slow. Not a big deal, it happened. No OS is perfect.

Camera quality is also fantastic. Takes great pictures if the subject is still. If it's moving, you're going to see blur using the Motorola camera. The google camera app takes quicker pictures, and that's on the play store if you wanna take a look at that. A few small album of pictures I've taken from today and from before I'll include here. The photo thread stickied above has A LOT more pictures to view through.

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3

Now signal strength is great on my phone, however my campus buildings are pretty much all steel and concrete. Which means I spend a lot of time without service. My old phone did this too, so it's not an issue with the Turbo. If your current phone handles it, the Turbo will too. It's held signal reliably while traveling too so it's good.

I've dropped my phone 4 times in the past day and no issues with it yet. Screen is still great, no dents or scratches yet anywhere. Dropped it in a puddle once, off my table onto a hardwood floor, on my foot while using it, and tossed it across my bedroom onto carpet. Still solid.

 

[hal1]

Worst shutter lag that I can remember in a long time. Maxx, was much better, S3 was near perfect in that regard.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[cbironman24]

I think the Turbo is a great phone. Only issue I see is the shutter speed of the camera. It takes Great still shots, but if its a moving action shot then its hit or miss. I am hoping that this can be addressed with an update in the future. BUT that being said I shoot lots of action shots and my nephews baseball and football games and for those times I know I will have my DSLR camera anyway. I am sure that the Turbo camera will work fine for me for the times that I don't have my DSLR.

So to sum up the camera.... remember its a phone! For a phone it takes GREAT pictures. If you know your going to need action shots remember to bring your DSLR with you.

 

[Clocks]

The camera shutter lag makes it basically unusable for moving objects. Something to keep in mind.

 

[hal1]

The camera shutter lag makes it basically unusable for moving objects. Something to keep in mind.

Completely agree, however it's sad that it's even difficult to get your pet unless he's practically sleeping still

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[PowrDroid]

Everybody complaining about blurred pictures of pets walking around your house--turn the lights up or use the flash. Phone cameras in auto-focus mode need adequate light to make the shutter snap faster to be able to "freeze motion". Alternatively, get a third party app that can control the shutter speed, I suggest Camera FV-5.

It's photography 101.

 

[Masheen]

OP, how bout I convince you to check out the many threads in this forum that way you can make a decision.

Select a thread with a title that you'd like to inquire about and read the posts by the members.

 

[mobrules]

Don't do it. The battery life isn't that great especially if you manage it.

 

[PowrDroid]

Don't do it. The battery life isn't that great especially if you manage it.

Nicely done!

 

[jamielov]

Everybody complaining about blurred pictures of pets walking around your house--turn the lights up or use the flash. Phone cameras in auto-focus mode need adequate light to make the shutter snap faster to be able to "freeze motion". Alternatively, get a third party app that can control the shutter speed, I suggest Camera FV-5.

It's photography 101.

Except when you use flash on pictures of pets, especially dogs, they look like they have cyborg laser eyes. Camera sucks. At least software does. And not all of us have taken photography 101, we simply want a decently working camera.

 

[Clocks]

Everybody complaining about blurred pictures of pets walking around your house--turn the lights up or use the flash. Phone cameras in auto-focus mode need adequate light to make the shutter snap faster to be able to "freeze motion". Alternatively, get a third party app that can control the shutter speed, I suggest Camera FV-5.

It's photography 101.

The apologists really need to chill out.

I posted this a few weeks ago. It's not a matter of photography 101, the damn camera is slow to the point of being broken, even compared to the (less capable) 2014 moto x camera.

It's not a camera that happens to make phone calls, it's not a substitute for your DSLR, it's not about a phone that is 100% perfect in every regard including changing your car's oil and making you coffee in the morning, etc etc. But there's a difference between being upset you cant get your droid turbo photo on the cover of national geographic vs wishing the camera was capable of snapping a photo while the subject was still in the frame. I'm in the later camp...I want to take my phone out and snap a reasonable FB quality photo of my son or dog (like my wife can on her last generation note 3).

One last comment on this. The shutter in the below photo was pressed at the exact same time on my droid turbo and my 2014 moto x.

Neither one belongs in a magazine, but my dog was able to sit up before the photo was taken on the turbo.

I'm really hoping android L resolves this.

/edit - HDR off on both cameras, and before i pressed the shutter on either i let both phones pre-focus on the dog.

View attachment 146061

Note: Since I wrote the above quoted post it's been found that there are no camera improvements on the 2014 X going to android L. I'm willing to bet there will not be any on the turbo either. I'm not mad or freaking out. I'll just wait for something else to come along and put the turbo up on swappa.

 

[PowrDroid]

The apologists really need to chill out.

I'm not an apologist.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...orola-droid-turbo-how-camera.html#post4003727

http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...orola-droid-turbo-how-camera.html#post4003774

http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...orola-droid-turbo-how-camera.html#post4003812

http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...ola-droid-turbo-how-camera-2.html#post4005015

Having owned a couple of Moto phones with lousy cameras, I'm a skeptic. But I've seen too many reviews saying the phone is good to very good, or great but not quite elite, a B+ compared to other Moto phones which were C's, way better than previous Moto cameras, etc.

Plus having a Maxx HD for two years I've learned how to compensate for its shortcomings.

I posted this a few weeks ago. It's not a matter of photography 101, the damn camera is slow to the point of being broken, even compared to the (less capable) 2014 moto x camera.

Yep, take a look at the lighting in that shot. A super bright band of light on the right side of the frame. Obviously, the Moto X interpreted the lighting as being bright, resulting in a faster shutter, whereas the Turbo saw it as a darker shot. It probably came down to where the camera was focusing on or if it was in auto-focus. If the Moto was in auto-focus and the Turbo was on tap-to-focus (and you tapped on the dog's face) it would explain the differences in the shots. Can you remember how you took each shot?

The other explanation is that you got a dud camera in your Turbo.

the damn camera is slow to the point of being broken,

However, I don't see how that could happen, presumably they are all built the same. Have you examined the camera lens with a magnifying glass? Is it aligned and centered?

When I get my Turbo in a week, if that kind of shutter lag happens to me, I will join you in the b*tch session and I'm taking it back to Verizon.