There have been lots of leaked documents and images ahead of Verizon's Droid Turbo announcement, but yes, this thing has powerful guts to spare. Including maybe the most important feature a smartphone can have: A battery that'll keep you going for days.
You might compare the Turbo to Motorola's own flagship, the Moto X. After all, they both offer a 5.2-inch screen and Motorola's augmented stock Android software, complete with features like Moto Assist, Actions, and Display. But it's better to snuff out that urge because the Droid's differences far outweigh its similarities.
As many tech leaks and soothsayers foretold, Motorola built the Droid Turbo with metallic fiberglass and ballistic nylon, and you get to take your pick. The differences go beyond mere texture. The ballistic nylon actually is a bit more hefty (176 grams for nylon vs. 169 grams for fiberglass), but in your hand you can barely tell the difference.
Up top, you're looking at a sheet of Gorilla Glass covering the display, and the phone is nanocoated inside and out to protect the phone against water. Capacitive buttons fill out the bottom bezel. Motorola's ring flash on the back has been replaced by a dual LED alternative, and only one speaker sits on the front of the device.
The Droid Turbo is also powerful, filled with the best of the best in almost every category. That 5.2-inch screen runs at a glorious 2K resolution, with 565 pixels per inch. Its Snapdragon 805 processor is supported by 3 GB of RAM, 32GB onboard storage (a 64GB version exists in ballistic nylon) and an absolutely gargantuan battery to power it all. Such a large battery should give the Turbo the much-coveted benchmark of two-day battery life, and Verizon boasts as much, but we won't be able to fully test that claim until we get some review time. The Droid Turbo will also include the Motorola's Turbo Charger that gives your handset 8 hours of use with just a 15 minute charge.
As for its camera, the Turbo is outfitted with a 21-megapixel sensor that can capture 4K video, which rivals Sony's Xperia and Microsoft's Lumia line, but a megapixel is really just a number so we'll have to see how well it shoots. Like other Droid smartphones in the past, you can access the camera with Quick Capture by just flicking your wrist.
Also, like the Droids that have come before it, the Droid Turbo will feature the smartphone lines' Zap feature, which is a simple, gesture-based way to share content among any Android or iOS devices along with ways to throw up content to your TV via Chromecast and also a handful of voice commands.
All these things in one device make the Droid Turbo one of the most supercharged smartphones you can buy in 2014. The smartphone will obviously run on Verizon's 4G LTE network, is XLTE ready, and will be available on October 30. The 32GB Droid Turbo, in both material options, will run you $200 on contract (or $25 a month) and if you want to go for the 64GB, ballistic nylon-only option, that will cost $250. Verizon will also guarantee at least $100 for any trade-in toward the device. If you're tied into Verizon, this might well be the Droid you're looking for.
Update: After spending a little more time with the both versions of the Droid Turbo, this is one impressive smartphone all around. I had some worry that the device's massive 3,900 mAh battery would make the Droid uncomfortably heavy, but even with the heavier ballistic material, the weight isn't much of a problem.
In the looks department, the smartphone is a little bulbous compared to the Moto X's slim design, but what the Droid sacrifices in a few millimeter it more than gains in the battery department. Now, we won't be able to say for sure how well this battery performs in normal use, but Verizon seems uncommonly assured that it will meet the task. Battery life was the central issue of their late morning presentation, and it would be weird if the phone couldn't at least get close to that claim. Along with the already mentioned Turbo Charger, the Droid is also Qi wireless charging compatible, which Verizon especially seems to love (as well they should).
Droid Turbo, left, next to a Moto X (2014)
The volume rocker and power button on the right side of the device use ridged metal buttons that match the same material used for the Motorola logo on the back. Verizon thankfully used some branding restraint and only put branding on the bottom of the device. With the ballistic nylon version, the word "Verizon" doesn't appear on the device at all. It's simply replaced with a rubber-and-metal "Droid" logo.
One quick complaint is Verizon and Motorola's decision to ditch the dual speaker setup in the Moto G (I really wish the Moto X had this feature) and just stick one on the top. Having front-firing speaker wins half the battle, but listening to audio feels off-center with just one speaker and made me want to reach for headphones so I didn't have deal with it. In the camera department, there seems to be a little bit of shutter lag between tapping the screen to take a photo and the phone actually capturing the image. However, the Droid Turbo's dual LED flash performs admirably, able to capture fairly realistic skin tones. The camera UI itself is very clean, exactly like the Moto X, and the camera can additionally capture slow-mo video in 720p if you so desire.
At first glance, there's not much to dislike with Verizon's new Droid Turbo. Even with the added bulk, I find the ballistic nylon option to be more comfortable and a better-looking material than the metallic fiberglass, which sort of feels like a cheaper option (even though they're priced the same). Either way, the Droid Turbo makes a great first impression, but we'll have to see if it leaves a lasting one.