Motorola DROID Turbo vs Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Introduction

Oh, Motorola, what have you done with us, releasing such a decked-out smartphone, and leaving it as a Verizon exclusive? The DROID Turbo justifies its title by offering the best that component makers currently have on the market – Quad HD panel, Snapdragon 805 chipset, and a 20 MP camera, all backed up with a giant for the category 3900 mAh battery, promising a two-day endurance, something unheard of for a QHD phone.

Actually, there is no other match for the DROID Turbo in the market, but Samsung's freshly-brewed Note 4 mega-monster, which in its turn sports a larger, 5.7” QHD screen, also an 805 chipset, and an optically-stabilized 16 MP shooter. That is why are pitting the two current Android champions in the cage, and making sure there are no under-the-belt punches...

Design

Smaller and chubbier, the DROID Turbo weighs as much as the larger Note 4, but feels more ergonomic in the palm.

The two phones are fatties for today's demanding standards of sub-8mm flagships, yet the Note 4 clocks in at 0.33” (8.5mm), while the Turbo has the whopping up to 11.2mm girth, depending on whether you get the thinner Metallic, or the just slightly thicker Ballistic Nylon model. Hey, that gigantic battery has to fit somewhere, right? Given the much smaller display, the Turbo is way more comfortable to operate with one hand than the largish Note 4. The phones weigh the same, though, which doesn't bode very well for the thuggish Turbo, which is much smaller.

Samsung offers a removable back cover, which lets you swap the battery, or add more storage, while the Turbo doesn't. The Samsung phablet also comes with the S Pen stylus and its fingerprint scanner, ushering in one more input method, and one more security layer, in case you are inclined to use those.

Motorola does have a few tricks up its sleeve in terms of design against the Note 4 as well, since it offers a few versions of the Turbo with innovative materials like ballistic nylon and metalized fiber for the chassis, and there is even an eye-catchy red version, too. Samsung made the Note 4 look more premium than its predecessors, however, with a metal side rim, so we'd call it a draw in the design department.

Displays

The Turbo might sport record pixel density, but Note 4 nails it in every aspect that matters, like color accuracy and peak brightness.

The 5.2” 1440x2560 resolution panel of the Turbo holds the pixel density record with the breathtaking 565ppi. Galaxy Note 4 is not far behind, though, as it boasts the same resolution, but on a 5.7” display diagonal, returning 515ppi. Both are some of the best numbers in the industry, so no matter what pixel matrix is used to achieve those crazily crammed dots, you'd be hard pressed to find any jaggies in small text, icons, and throughout the interface.

Both panels are of the AMOLED variety, but they are pretty different. We measured the Note 4 to offer great 6700K color temperature and to be very, very color-accurate in its Basic screen mode. The Droid Turbo has an even better white point (6600K), very near to the reference 6500K, but its colors are not accurate. The Turbo exhibits very oversaturated greens, which goes somewhat for the reds and blues as well, and the color points are off the standard marks for the most part, while the Note 4 fits very nicely in the sRGB gamut reference. Keep in mind that previous Samsung phones, like the S5, S4 and Note 3, have proven that many people like these oversaturated but inaccurate colors, and the Droid Turbo isn't worse than them.

Another DROID Turbo display downside is that it is pretty dim, at 248nits measures, against the 468 nits of the Note 4, so you will have trouble telling what's on the screen of the Turbo on a bright sunny day outdoors.

Thus, we'd have to give the display round to the Note 4.