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Droid Turbo 2 leak hints at 'shatterproof' screen and Moto Maker
Those rumors of Verizon launching the Droid Turbo 2 and Droid Maxx 2 at its October 27th event? They just got much more concrete. Droid-Life has obtained leaked promos spilling the beans on both of the carrier-specific Motorola smartphones. As suspected, the Droid Turbo 2 should be advertised as having a "shatterproof" screen -- we're a bit skeptical of that claim, but Big Red will apparently back that up by accepting trade-ins of phones with cracked screens. Even if the display doesn't live up to that billing, though, the new Turbo will reportedly offer Moto Maker customization. Finally, you won't be stuck picking from a handful of black-and-red models while your Moto X-toting friends show off their more colorful devices.
Moto X Play review: An unexciting phone with a huge battery
The Moto X Play occupies a strange space in the company's 2015 lineup. It's an affordable, mid-range handset that does a decent job of keeping pace with the flagships. But at £249 ($382 including the UK's 20 percent sales tax), it's not that much more affordable than the company's top-tier X Style, and it's a lot pricier than our favorite budget smartphone, the Moto G. That's not to say there aren't benefits to splashing out on the X Play. You'll get a larger, higher-res display than on the G, an all-new 21-megapixel camera, a capacious 3,630mAh battery and a whole lot more. If you've got your heart set on a Moto, could these additions be worth the extra cash? It really depends on what you want from a smartphone.
Moto X Play reportedly coming to Verizon as the Droid Maxx 2
When Motorola unveiled the Moto X Play, it left Americans hanging. Would that combination of a big display, mid-tier specs and a huge battery ever reach the US? If you ask Phandroid, the answer is yes -- although it might not show up in the form you'd like. The site's sources claim that the Play will show up on Verizon later this year as the Droid Maxx 2, and that it'll cost the same $300 contract-free as the regular model would if it were officially available in the US. There's no clue as to whether or not it'll be significantly different, although an earlier HellomotoHK leak pointed to Droid-specific backing. Sadly, the apparent leak suggests that you'll still have to go to an importer (or wait for Verizon's exclusive to end, if it ever does) to get the Play in its unaltered form.
Moto X Play now available in the UK from £279
Outside of the US, Motorola is pushing two strands of its premium Moto X smartphone this year: the Moto X Play and the Moto X Style. And the cheaper of the two, the Moto X Play, is now available to buy from Motorola's UK site from £279. As with the new Moto G and previous Moto X smartphones, you can customise this device with a variety of front, back and accent colours, as well as add engraving and a custom boot-up message. On the hardware side, it comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, a 5.5-inch 1080p display and 2GB of RAM. For storage, you'll be getting 16GB or 32GB -- the higher capacity option costs £40 extra -- and a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB cards.
Motorola is the next to patch Android's big video security flaw
Chalk up one more big Android phone maker racing to patch its devices against that nasty Stagefright video security flaw. Motorola has explained that it will not only fix the vulnerability in phones from 2013 onward (such as the original Moto X and the Droid line), but make sure that its latest hardware is secure almost from the word go. Both the Moto X Style and Moto X Play will be secure on launch, while the recently-shipped third-generation Moto G is getting its update "soon."
