Introduction

We got a good one for you today – the new Motorola Droid Turbo and the new HTC Desire Eye.  These devices definitely seem geared to different audiences, with the Droid Turbo going for the more traditional high-end smartphone purchaser and the Desire Eye possibly to the younger party and social media junkie that takes a lot of selfies or does a lot of video chatting with family and friends.  Both devices are a polycarbonate blend – the Droid Turbo infuses Kevlar into its casing for strength and to give it a little design and the Desire Eye, though smooth and shiny, does have a soft-touch colored strip around the edge for a good grip and feel.  They both look and feel nice in their own way and are solidly built.

These two smartphones have very little in common, although they both use a 5.2-inch display and their processors are different models, but both designed by Qualcomm.  They both have the usual suspects – Wi-Fi, NFC capability, Bluetooth 4.0 and a microUSB port for charging and data transfers.  The two of them are resistant to water and both have front-facing speakers.  Both of these devices are exclusive to their networks – the Droid Turbo runs on Verizon and the Desire Eye is destined only to be on AT&T’s network.

Please take a look at the detailed specification sheet below and see exactly where these two devices stand in terms of hardware and features.  Then we will look at each smartphone in detail and list their pros and cons in order to determine a winner to this comparison.

Specifications

Motorola Droid Turbo

The Motorola Droid Turbo is what you would call in technical terms, a beast of a device.  It is distinctively ‘Droid’ looking on the outside, but inside it is a true high-end device for a change.  They have the Droid red or black plastic and Kevlar look with the usual ‘chin’ at the bottom, however, they also added a black only with a woven material – much like the ballistic nylon found on a backpack.  It has a good, solid feel in your hand…typical for a Motorola built device.

The Droid Turbo comes packing the same sized 5.2-inch display as the Desire Eye, but that is where the similarities end – the Droid Turbo uses the AMOLED technology versus the LCD technology of the Desire Eye, and most importantly, used the Quad HD (QHD) technology with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and an amazing 565 pixels-per-inch (PPI) versus the FHD display and 423 PPI found on the Desire Eye.

Again, both devices use processors by Qualcomm, however, the Droid Turbo uses the newest Snapdragon 805 clocked at 2.7GHz with 3GB of RAM…the same processor found in the Nexus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge.  The Desire Eye uses its predecessor, the Snapdragon 801 with only 2GB of RAM.  The Droid Turbo comes with two variations as far as internal storage is concerned – 32GB and 64GB – and there is no room for expansion, as they expect you to use the Cloud of your choice for data storage.  The Desire Eye only has a 16GB model, but does have a microSD expansion slot to add up to an additional 128GB of storage.

The camera area is where these two devices really veer apart from each other…and most every other device.  The Droid Turbo has a huge 21MP sensor for its main camera and comes with auto-focus and a dual LED flash versus the 13MP, auto-focus, Dual-Tone LED flash.  It is in the front-facing camera (FFC) area that really differs from most setups – the Droid Turbo uses the traditional 2MP FFC for selfies or video chats, but the Desire has a duplicate 13MP main camera as its FFC.  The battery is another area where there is a huge difference – the Droid Turbo uses an enormous 3900mAh battery versus the much smaller 2400mAh battery found in the Desire Eye.

Summing up the other features found on the Droid Turbo, we find that both devices are almost identical in width, but the Desire Eye is taller and thicker than the Droid Turbo, however the Droid Turbo weighs 15 grams heavier.  It is also VoLTE capable with an OTA update once Verizon ‘flips their switch.’  It only has a single front-facing speaker, but it is better positioning than one on the back.  The Droid Turbo has wireless charging built-in and comes with a Motorola Turbo Charger for a 60-percent charge of the battery in only 15-minutes.  It also runs the latest version of KitKat, 4.4.4 and is only $199 on a two-year contract and $599 off-contract for the 32GB model and $249 for the 64GB model on a two-year contract.

HTC Desire Eye

The new HTC Desire Eye was a real ‘eye-opener’ to us all.  First off it was designated as part of the Desire line, when it indeed has higher end specs than the other low-midrange Desire devices, and secondly, it sports two identical 13MP camera’s on BOTH the backside (Main) and front side (FFC)!  It has the distinctive HTC look, which is a good thing – it is rather a tall device to accommodate its speakers and larger camera, but narrow enough to have a good feel in your hand.

The HTC Desire Eye uses a 5.2-inch Super LCD3 Full HD (FHD) display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and 423 PPI – a great display, but not quite as sharp as the QHD and 565 PPI found in the Droid Turbo.  The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz performs admirably in the device, but is not quite up to the tasks of the newer Snapdragon 805 found in the Droid Turbo with better battery management and a better GPU.  The Desire Eye comes with 2GB of RAM versus the 3GB found in the Droid Turbo.  It also has one storage memory option of only 16GB (the Droid Turbo has 32GB or 64GB), but it does offer a microSD card slot to add up to an additional 128GB…something the Droid Turbo does not offer.

We already discussed the camera situation to some extent – the HTC One M8 uses their strange 4MP UltraPixel camera, a departure from all other manufacturers.  The Desire Eye goes back to the more traditional camera and for it HTC chose a 13MP shooter with auto-focus, a dual-tone LED flash and a wider angle lens to fit more into the photo.  Then, HTC turned around and did something unconventional again – they used the exact same main camera as the FFC on the Desire Eye – giving you unheard of group selfies and video chatting capabilities…it is like a social media junkie’s best friend.  Will this type of setup find a real home…it’s a little early to tell.

As far as other features, the HTC Desire has a small battery by today’s standards – 2400mAH – but in our full review, we found to actually last the day.  The Desire Eye is a rather long device, but the extra room was needed to include its dual, front-facing stereo speakers with BoomSound and the larger FFC ‘Eye’ – hence the name.  HTC threw in an FM Radio, HD Voice, and it comes in Blue or Red trim.  It is also running 4.4.4 KitKat via an upgrade and uses HTC’s popular Sense 6.0 UI on top.  As we said, it is an AT&T exclusive and runs $149.99 on a two-year contract and $549.99 off-contract.

…And The Winner Is…

Summary

Spec wise, we have to go with the Motorola Droid Turbo as the winner of this comparison.  The Droid Turbo has the better display, better processor, more RAM, a better main camera, much larger battery, wireless charging, and comes with the Motorola Turbo Charger.  It comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat with an almost pure vanilla Android experience and should get very fast upgrades – true it is only on Verizon, but the HTC Desire Eye is only on AT&T – you simply get a more powerful device for only $50 more than the Desire Eye.

Unless you are really into selfies or video chatting, I can see no reason to purchase the HTC Desire Eye over the Droid Turbo, or possibly if you hate Verizon and love AT&T.  It does have room for a microSD card to expand internal storage, which you would need since you only get 16GB to begin with, but that in itself is not enough to purchase the Desire Eye over the powerful Droid Turbo.  If you are a young person or a partier, the Desire Eye may just help you become the life of the party.

Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know which one of these devices you would claim as the winner…as always, we would love to hear from you.