Motorola’s Droid Turbo: The shatterproof smartphone is here

Twenty drops. Ten times from 1.5m up. Ten times from 3m up. On concrete. And yet this phone’s screen didn’t crack.

Twenty drops. Ten times from 1.5m up. Ten times from 3m up. And the Motorola Droid Turbo 2′s screen didn’t suffer so much as a small crack.

I’m not talking wimpy falls. I’m talking concrete smackdowns. Most completely screen-side down. Sure, the plastic and aluminium edges got scuffed, but the screen? Nada. As Motorola promised, its new phone’s screen really is “shatterproof.”

How is that possible?! Motorola’s home-brewed ShatterShield screen. The Droid Turbo 2 has a 5.4-inch, 2560 x 1440-resolution display with five layers of protection: an exterior protective lens, an interior lens, a dual-touch layer, the actual AMOLED display and an aluminium backing. One key point: None of the layers is glass. Its maker guarantees this will keep the screen from shattering or cracking for four years.

I’d say there is also a layer of magic. It’s downright amazing what a beating the display could take. No, the Turbo 2 isn’t completely indestructible. You’ll have to watch the video to see how I finally brought it to its knees. (Hint: The baseball postseason hasn’t been over for very long.) But even when the phone kicked the bucket, that screen never came close to shattering.

It isn’t, however, scratch-proof. Dragging a house key across the screen didn’t leave a mark, but the concrete impact left small permanent scuffs on the display, and dragging a sharp scissor left a long line.

Here’s the best part about the Turbo 2, though. Unlike the many rugged, drop-proof phones out there, it doesn’t look like a camping accessory. And it hits the mark on smartphone essentials: The 21-megapixel camera took decent shots and the battery lasted all day and then some. When the battery does drain, Motorola’s fast-charge technology brings it to 50 per cent in less than 30 minutes.

That’s not to say the Turbo 2 is perfect. The $US625 starting price is tough to swallow when Google’s own Nexus 6P starts at $US500 with a better camera and bigger screen. And it’s only available from Verizon. In fact, you’ll never be able to escape the Verizon logo, which is emblazoned on the bottom bezel. The sheer amount of preloaded Verizon apps — Verizon Cloud! Verizon Messenger! VZ Navigator! VZ Protect! — well, that does break one thing … my heart.

Wall Street Journal