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The Moto Turbo possesses a screen with class leading resolution but falls short on being a market leader. Should you be buying it then? Himanshu Juneja reviews the latest Moto...
Motorola, consistently and very successfully, has been making the right kind of noise with its products in the recent past.
From Moto X to Moto G to Moto E, the company has seen a consistent rise in performance as well as popularity index, and it has now come up with a beast in its line up which goes by the name of Moto Turbo.
The phone has wowed the users in whichever region it has been launched, and even though much time has passed since it's launch date, it still holds enough features to impress the Indian fans.
How much the phone is worth in current times, and to what extent it will be able to woo the Indian fans, let's find out.
Built
Motorola has been bringing out interestingly-built phones, and Moto Turbo won't be outdone by its predecessors. The major draw for the Moto Turbo's built quality is the ballistic Nylon as being the construction material. This reinforced Nylon has been effective with combat units being provided with extra layer of security, hence the phone gets some serious protection here.
If that wasn't enough, the threads give it a nice non-glossy look and feel as well. It was quite a task to get any scratches on the rear cover even with sharp objects.
The rear side grip is enhanced further due to a curved back the phone possesses.
The front part of the phone is quite low profile in comparison, with only a bezel proving to be a saviour from being banal. The lower portion of the phone gets a chin, which might remind many of the HTC ways of designing.
The headphone jack is located on the top, while the bottom edge sports the micro USB port. The right side of the phone carries the power button, as well as the volume rocker.
The phone is ably supported by a chunky battery. This caused the phone to end up with considerable girth as well. The phone measures 143.5 x 73.3 and 11.2 mm at its thickest point, while its 8.3 mm at its thinnest.
Another innovative move here seems to be the combining of the SIM tray and the volume rocker. However, the danger of both getting damaged at the same time also means some concern.
Display
The Turbo comes with a brilliant QHD 5.2-inch SUPER AMOLED screen. The colours are definitely saturated, but along comes the deep blacks which, when combined with the 2k resolution screen, makes the imagery and videos look like an absolute treat.
The screen possesses a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels, which is a whopping 565ppi in terms of pixel density. It is the highest in the market as well.
The screen simply is fabulous to look at, but at the same time isn't class leading. Since the specs alone aren't everything, the vivid colour palette means Galaxy Note 4 steals the crown here. Moto Turbo's screen brightness and subsequently the sunlight visibility are'nt bad, but definitely not hitting the level of expectations either.
The screen comes with Gorilla Glass 3 for added protection.
Hardware
The phone comes with a Quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor which is clocked at 2.7 GHz. For the GPU, there is the Adreno 420, and the phone comes with a solid backing of 3GB RAM as well.
The onboard storage capacity is 64 GB. While this is definitely more than adequate, the absence of a microSD card slot is bound to rattle a few.
Connectivity
The phone comes with a nano SIM card slot and is 4G capable. However, it only supports 1800 Mhz band. The 4G networks in India operate on the 2300 Mhz band and this means that the users can forget about 4G goodness for the time being.
Other connectivity features include Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and NFC. The presence of NFC was especially good to see.
Software
Motorola Turbo greets the users with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop out of the box, and this was really a good thing to notice. Motorola's preference of providing an almost unadulterated Android experience is a huge plus while going in for this brand. As a result, the interface is devoid of excessive bloatware, is slick, and also is aesthetically pleasing.
Users can't miss the combined clock widget first up. Right on the top of the home screen, the app combines the time, weather, and battery meter for convenience and practical ways. While using any app, the user can access Google Now by a long press and swiping up from the home button.
Apart from the goodness of plain vanilla Android Lollipop, Motorola brings some of it's own valuable apps as well, but still maintaining the look and feel of stock OS. To list some:
Finally, the OS seemed zippy and smooth as well.
Performance
There were no signs of lags of any kinds during normal or heavy usage. The phone sailed through the chores even with bucket loads of apps running simultaneously. The games were particularly stunning, as they combined beautifully with the gorgeous screen and Turbo's powerful hardware.
There were no instances of artifacting or frame rate drops to be found. Be it gaming, surfing the web, or running your favourite apps, the overall performance score of the Moto Turbo is superb on all counts.
The loudspeaker was a bit low on volume, but what was heartening to notice was the fidelity. The sound didn't crack even at high volumes. Sadly, Moto Turbo seems to have cut some corners here by supplying a mono speaker set up only.
The bundled headset was pretty decent, and provided some decent bass during the playback.
Camera
Motorola has somehow never been able to shine with its camera performance. For a brand which has produced some stellar hardware, this is a strange accomplishment. And unfortunately, the Moto Turbo isn't a candidate to wipe that record completely either.
The phone comes with a 21 MP rear facing camera, with LED flashes on either side. There is also the front facing 2 MP camera as well.
Users can twist their wrist twice to activate the camera app. Speaking of app, Swiping from the left towards the right brings up the settings.
On offer are the HDR, Panorama and Burst Modes. Devoid of a dedicated button, tapping on the screen is the way to go about image capturing.
While the lack of image stabilisation for such a hardware won't go unnoticed, the result is thankfully are more than acceptable. The details are not missing, but it is still not bringing the crispness expected from a camera with a good sensor as good as the Turbo. Seems like that the processing afterwards is not well optimised. The colours looked natural, and detail was about adequate.
The videos of 1080p nature are again not very detailed, but on the 2160p videos made up for the aberration.
The 2 MP front-facing camera's output can be classified as about passable. Users should be able to pass around those instant selfies on the social networking websites without too much hesitations.
Battery
The phone comes with a non-removable Li-Po 3900 mAh battery which is of considerable girth and capacity both. The battery also happens to be one
area which will propel the sales of the phone.
The battery comes with the quick charge advantage, which means that the user gets to obtain 8 hours worth of stand by charge in 15 minutes flat.
Furthermore, the phone can be charged to about 60 per cent of its capacity in 45 minutes, and 100 per cent in two hours flat.
In terms of performance, the battery lasts easily for a day and a half on mediocre to heavy usage.
The battery performance, coupled with the quick charge option makes for a very good prospect.
Verdict
Motorola Turbo provides for a strange sort of an option for the prospective buyers. Available at around Rs 40,000, the phone possesses a screen with class leading resolution, but falls short on being market leader. Similarly, 21 MP camera without image stabilisation and otherwise proves to be Motorola's undoing again, bringing mixed results during usage.
The real area where the phone shines is hardware, the battery and its sturdy build quality. The big screen strengthens its case and the power under the hood brings it alive spectacularly.
However, one gets the feeling that unless the phone is priced close to Rs 35000, there will always be options like Sony Xperia Z3 or Motorola Moto X to trouble its prospects very easily.