In the numbers game, the Droid Turbo brings us the highest-resolution image on a phone screen yet, with its 5.2-inch AMOLED display and 2,560-by-1,440-pixel resolution. That works out to a pixel density of 565ppi, or pixels per inch.

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In real life, everything is as sharp and bright and wonderful with the display as you'd hope for and expect; the only question that remains is if there's much of an advantage to the sky-high ppi over other phones. Beyond a certain level, the gains of such densely populated pixels on such a small screen blur together. You'd have to search really, really hard to notice much of a difference in superfine details hidden away in ultra-HD images.
Below the screen are touch-sensitive navigation buttons to go back, go home, pull up Google Now, and see recent apps. Motorola provides a few quick-access controls when you pull down the navigation shade with two fingers, like toggles for airplane mode and Wi-Fi. Pulling down with just one digit lists your notifications. An on-screen button lets you toggle between the two views.

OS and apps

Android 4.4.4 brings with it the now-standard suite of Google apps and services, including Google Search with Google Now. Motorola keeps add-ons like gestures and extra note-taking tools to a minimum, focusing instead on a few unique hands-free tools.
Our favorite is the voice-control functionality that lets you command your phone to do just about anything, even when the screen is turned off. It works best if you program a longer phrase than a short one, say "OK, Droid Turbo," though it's just as easy to make your tag line something like "Phone slave, do my bidding."
Here's a sample of what you can ask it to do, beyond the usual information retrieval and voice dialing, so long as you're about 3 feet away from the device:

• Find my phone
• Talk to me
• Take a selfie (you get a three-second countdown)
• What's up

The Turbo also includes Motorola staples like Moto Display, which surfaces the time and missed notifications when you wave your hand over the locked display; and Moto Actions, which enables users to dismiss a ringing phone with a wave of the hand. Twisting your wrist opens the camera app.
Another app designed to help you out is the Motorola Connect Chrome extension, which gives you a portal for viewing and sending messages from your desktop or laptop in addition to your phone. It'll surface other notifications as well.

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Then there's Droid Zap, a sort of localized social network for other Zap users. The app wirelessly shares photos and video with nearby friends, almost automatically if you'd prefer. It uses your Google account to find contacts in the vicinity, and lets you choose to zap new or existing content. The short-term share broadcasts your multimedia to all nearby Zap-using contacts for 2 minutes (in Snapchat style), then disappears. It's clearly intended for anyone who likes to share their goings on with groups, but likely has limited audience and appeal.
A more useful Motorola hallmark is the combine clock widget on the top of the home screen. You'll see the time, weather, and battery meter in a glance. Press the clock to set an alarm, and the weather portion for an extended forecast. Similarly, you can open the battery tracker to see what's sucking down your battery life. Tapping the ellipses on either side gives you the high and low for the day, and a calendar shortcut.
Other preloaded apps run the gamut from Google services and Verizon account controls to partner apps. You'll find Quickoffice and Amazon music, NFL Mobile and Slacker Radio, and Softcard, a Verizon mobile payment app, to name a few.

Camera and video: Sharp and nimble

Like other Motorola devices including the Google Nexus 6 and Moto X, the Droid Turbo's thinly skinned user interface means the camera controls are kept to a minimum. Users who are accustomed to stock Android since its KitKat iteration will find the UI familiar, but for those who arrive new to the scene, it does take time to get used to. Camera tools are laid out on a wheel and don't appear directly on the display. Rather, users have to swipe from the right to call it up, requiring an extra step if you want to quickly toggle options like the flash. The camera also lacks photo editing software. For those features, like filters, rotating, and exposure adjustments, you'll need to go to the Gallery app.
As for features the camera does have, you can flick the handset to launch the app, and there are options for HDR shooting, 4X digital zoom, geotagging, and tap focus (which also controls for exposure). Photo resolutions for the rear-camera are either shot at a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio (with 15.5 megapixels), or a standard 4:3 ratio with 21 megapixels. As for video, users have a choice of 1080pHD, slow-motion video shot at 720p, or Ultra HD 4K video.