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Verizon phones, especially exclusives like those sold under the DROID brand, don't have a very good reputation for quick updates. The most notable offender of this, the DROID Turbo, took until December of 2016 just to get an official Android 6.0 Marshmallow update. However, the Turbo 2's Nougat update is here, and thankfully, it didn't take nearly as long.
So here's a pretty crazy deal. Best Buy is selling the Verizon-branded DROID Turbo 2, the Motorola flagship from late 2015, for $312. That's a pretty good deal on its own, even if it comes with a bit of a bummer that it's only available on an installment plan ($12.99 for 24 months). But what's particularly nutty is that Best Buy is throwing in a 0 gift card to the store with each one. That brings the effective price for the phone down to just $112. For a brand new version of a model that's coming up on a year and a half from release, that's hard to beat.
Cracking the screen glass is the easiest way to damage a modern smartphone, if only because there's just so much of it. Verizon isn't the only company making offers for a protection plan, giving customers a little peace of mind for reduced-price phone repairs in exchange for a few bucks a month. But the newest version of the plan does have an interesting bonus: they're offering same-day screen replacement for some of the carrier's most high-profile devices. Verizon is hoping that people will be willing to shell out some extra dough for the chance to fix up their screens without having to deal with shipping.
The Verizon-exclusive Droid Turbo 2 was released almost a year ago, and promptly made headlines with claims of a shatterproof screen. Verizon and Motrola have at least made an effort to keep the device updated, compared to other devices on Big Red, and it even received Android 6.0 Marshmallow earlier this year. Now owners of the Turbo 2 can finally use WiFi calling, courtesy of a software update.
Sometimes you have to wait a long time to get the announcement that the latest version of Android is coming to a device that you own. That period of time can be agonizing, especially when you have your eyes set on a particular feature.
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Verizon's Droid phones have traditionally been slow on updates, which isn't surprising for Verizon. Still, you have to wonder what's up when the hardware is sometimes very similar to the current gen Moto X. At any rate, Verizon has finally started rolling out Marshmallow to the Droid Turbo 2 (a few months after the Moto X Pure). That means lots of new features to play with.
Since the DROID series remains a Verizon exclusive more than six years after the original QWERTY model hit shelves, the DROID Turbo 2 is Verizon's de facto flagship phone, in so much as no one else can use it. So those customers who have spent their money on the modified version of the Moto X will be glad to know that a Marshmallow update is fast approaching. For a lucky few, it's available now: the "soak test," a closed alpha for Motorola firmware, has begun.
Motorola has uploaded kernel source files for the DROID Turbo 2 (Kinzie) to GitHub. Here developers and tinkerers alike can download the code and dive inside to get a look at what makes Android 6.0 work on the device.
With Valentine's Day fast approaching, love is in the air. Or is that a mix of rampant consumerism and hormones? Oh well, same thing pretty much. You can celebrate the special day with a pair of phones from Motorola/Verizon and get half off of one of them. If that's not romance, I don't know what is.
Verizon is already licensing the DROID name from Disney/Lucasfilm, so might as well go all out with the new film coming in exactly a week, right? Starting today, you can get a special edition Star Wars DROID Turbo 2 at no extra cost. Verizon offers customization options for the DROID Turbo 2 this year via the Moto Maker shop, and that's how the "special edition" phones are handled.
When Marshmallow was first released, Motorola released a list of devices that it deemed Marshmallow-worthy. Noticeably absent from that list was the Moto E 2015 (2nd gen), despite the company promising timely updates in its marketing of the device 219 days earlier. That caused a legitimate online uproar from Moto E users who weren't expecting to be left behind so abruptly and cold-bloodedly. So what's the company to do to silence the cries of scorned loyal users? Do an about-face and fix the issue, that's what. Except it still didn't manage to fully solve the problem for everyone.
DxOMark Ranks The DROID Turbo 2 As The Fourth Best Smartphone Camera, Between The Nexus 6P And LG G4
Verizon has just started selling the DROID Turbo 2, but the camera experts at DxOMark got their hands on a unit early to test its capabilities, and the results are good. Motorola's newest Verizon-exclusive device scored an 84 in DxO's tests, which places it in the number four position.
You can't get the new Moto X from any of the carriers directly, but Verizon does have two Motorola devices ready to go right now. The newly announced DROID Maxx 2 and Turbo 2 are on sale through Verizon's website and in stores. The Turbo 2 is the more expensive of the two, but the Maxx 2 isn't what I'd call cheap, either.
Verizon and Motorola assert that the new DROID Turbo 2's screen is shatterproof. According to a video from CNN, there might be something to that claim. In the clip, the phone suffers numerous falls from varying heights against different surfaces, gets run over by a bicycle, and meets the underside of a horse's hoof. And sure enough, it doesn't shatter.
Previous rumors asserted that a beefed up version of the Moto X Style called the Moto X Force would come to the US as a Verizon exclusive known as the DROID Turbo 2. Rumors also said Verizon would boast about a so-called unbreakable display and introduce Moto Maker to a DROID device for the first time. Still with me? Good, because as previously leaked promotional materials showed, all of these claims were true, and now we're getting the official word straight from the horse's mouth. Verizon revealed the DROID Turbo 2 at its previously announced press event today (alongside the mid-range DROID Maxx 2) and proceeded to drop the device from around six feet onto concrete. Twice.
Verizon's yearly refresh of its exclusive DROID line is fast approaching. The company will announce its new Motorola-produced phones on October 27th (a week from Tuesday), but thanks to a series of leaks, there won't be a lot of surprises on stage. The latest one is a pamphlet for the DROID Turbo 2, a high-end sequel to last year's flagship, and the DROID Maxx 2, a mid-range option that focuses on battery life. The leak comes from Droid Life, and it confirms several details that were leaked and/or rumored previously.
We've already heard a good bit about the DROID Turbo 2, the latest Motorola phone customized for Verizon's US exclusive line. We've even been given a peek at the device, which seems to be very similar to the latest iterations of the Moto X series. New details have been reported by Phandroid, and while we can't confirm them, they seem like natural extensions of Motorola's current market direction. Notably, the DROID Turbo 2 will reportedly get at least some of the same Moto Maker customization options that have been slowly expanding from the Moto X to other devices.
Dedicated leaker @upleaks has been doing the usual, dropping press shots of devices that haven't yet launched but will allegedly soon grace our presence. A recent revelation has been the Moto X Force, codenamed Bounce, that serves as a smaller but beefed up version of the Moto X Style (also known as the Pure Edition). This device is allegedly coming to the US as the DROID Turbo 2, a Verizon Wireless exclusive.