The Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX wasn't completely designed to make you Droid RAZR buyers feel less enthusiastic about your purchase a few months back. This isn't a Bionic to Droid RAZR story. The MAXX is the exact same phone as the Droid RAZR, but with a higher capacity battery. The RAZR MAXX has a 3300 mAh battery vs. 1870 on the Droid RAZR, and it's sealed inside just like the original. That means you get seriously longer battery life, and that addresses our one serious concern about the Droid RAZR. Not that it terrible bad battery life or a small battery, but since you can't swap in a spare, you are at the mercy of a charger or portable external battery pack if you need to go for long periods of time with power-hungry LTE 4G turned on.

This Android 2.3 smartphone will eventually get an upgrade to OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. I still love the look, and it's hardly thicker or heavier than the Droid RAZR despite the serious 76% increase in battery capacity. It measures 0.35" thick vs. 0.28" for the first Droid RAZR, and is just over a half ounce heavier. It feels better in hand because it isn't so impossibly thin, and battery life is truly excellent. I managed two days with light to moderate use on a charge, and a full day with very heavy use.

The Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX has a 4.3" qHD Super AMOLED display that's very colorful and good looking to my eye. It may not push as many pixels as 720p Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but it has deep blacks and vivid colors with little pixelation. It runs on a dual core 1.2GHz TI OMAP 3340 CPU with a gig of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage. Verizon includes a 16 gig microSD card, so you've got lots of storage out of the box. The MAXX has the same just OK 8 megapixel rear camera that can shoot 1080p video and a front video chat camera.

Voice quality is excellent for both incoming and outgoing voice. Data speeds on Verizon's LTE network are good, but the RAZR and RAZR MAXX can't compete with Qualcomm chipset phones like the HTC Rezound and LG Spectrum if you're in a weak LTE area as we are. The RAZR MAXX will generally stick to 3G rather than waffle between 3G and 4G all day, which is kinder to the battery. But our Spectrum and Rezound tenaciously hold onto our area's weak LTE signal with no waffling whatsoever.                                             Battery Life

As noted, the RAZR MAXX is unbeatable for LTE battery life. It's like having an extended battery permanently installed, and the phone had no trouble lasting through the day with heavy use that included push email, calls, GPS navigation and streaming video from Netflix for an hour. The only drawback? When that ample 3300 mAh battery is depleted, you'll need a charger because you can't swap in a spare battery.                               Performance                                                                        Pinch zooming is fluid, apps launch quickly and Adobe Flash Player 11 is fairly smooth with fairly responsive controls (Flash isn't slickly fast and smooth on Android in general). The phone has 1 gig of RAM (standard for Motorola Webtop phones) and 16 gigs of internal storage complimented by a 16 gig microSD card. The phone runs Android OS 2.3.6 with Motoblur (though Motorola has toned down Motoblur and no longer refers to it by name since it wasn't well-received in its first year)

Google, as always with Nexus devices, also sells it direct from the Google Play website if you're OK paying $649 full retail up front for the unlocked Nexus 6. The Nexus 6 supports both GSM and CDMA networks and 12 LTE bands, so the single available model works on the big 4 US carriers (and some smaller carriers). The carrier model sold in your local store is physically the same, but it will have a few carrier apps pre-installed such as an account management app, but it won't carry the usual hefty load of bloatware. The T-Mobile version is unlocked, and the Verizon Wireless version will be unlocked because all of their 4G LTE phones are unlocked due to government requirement. The Sprint version is also unlocked but the AT&T version sold in AT&T stores is locked to AT&T. AT&T also places their own boot screen on the phone and graces the back (ahem) with their logo. For those of you who love to root and play with alternative ROMs, true to Nexus form, all have unlockable bootloaders.

The Nexus 6 marks Google's return to flagship level phones. The first Nexus was very high end in its day, but more recent models strove for decent specs with a very reasonable price tag. So Google's returning to the high line and as a result, the Nexus 6 should age well. This Android 5.0 smartphone is made by Motorola, a company that Google owned during the Nexus 6's development period (Lenovo recently took over Motorola Mobility). Moto's design language shines through here and the Nexus 6 looks like a really big 2014 Moto X, minus the customizable back options. Sorry, there's no wood or leather here, but you do get a robust metal frame, a rigid polycarbonate back and two color choices: blue or white. They're matte and our blue model adores fingerprint oil (you'll need a damp rag with a hint of liquid hand soap to clean them off).

Think of the Nexus 6 as an even more well-endowed 2014 Moto X. It runs on the even faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad core processor clocked at 2.7GHz with Adreno 420 graphics, and it has a lovely QHD 1440 x 2560 AMOLED display. Bigger phones allow for larger batteries, so the Nexus has a 3220 mAh battery (the same capacity as the Galaxy Note 4). The battery is sealed inside and it supports Quick Charge 2.0 and Qi wireless charging. Other amenities include dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, a GPS and LTE 4G on 12 bands. It has a rear 13MP camera with 4K video recording and a front 2MP camera.

If you've seen second generation Moto X (colored plastic versions, not the wood or leather versions), then you'll have a good idea of the Nexus 6's styling and materials. The metal frame is robust and is both structural and part of the visual design. The back is solid with no creaks and all seams meet cleanly with no unsightly gaps. No, it's not a unibody metal phone like the iPhone 6 Plus and HTC One M8, but the Moto X and even the Nexus 6 manage to look like quality pieces--I don't believe a metal casing is required to make a phone look and feel like high end goods. Designs often look less attractive when significantly sized up, and I'd argue that the iPhone 6 Plus is less attractive than the iPhone 6. The Nexus 6 doesn't look quite as stunning as the Moto X, but it's 90% there, which is impressive since it's hard to make a 6" phone look good and still feel like a phone rather than a tablet. Moto's distinctive design language is a plus: no one else does the compound curves and palm-friendly backs the way Moto does.

In terms of comfort, big hands are recommended, though those with small hands can two-hand it. It honestly feels a little silly holding such a big phone to my head when making a call, but these days so many folks use big phones that no one stares. The Nexus 6 is a little bit bigger than the 5.7" Note 4 and it's thicker than both the iPhone 6 Plus and Note 4. Given the size of the phone, Motorola and Google dropped the power and volume buttons down toward the middle of the right side since most folks' fingers might not reach to the upper half when holding the phone with one hand. Unlike iOS 8 and TouchWiz on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, there's no real concession to one-handed use like dropping the UI down as with the iPhone 6 Plus or dropping the dialer screen down and to the side with the Samsung. The phone's back curves make it comfortable in the hand (again, assuming large enough hands) and the tapered edges make for a slim looking phone. The sides have straight enough edges to provide better grip without digging into your hand.

The back isn't removable, and thus the battery is sealed inside. iFixit has taken the Nexus 6 apart, and it's apparently quite serviceable, unlike some sealed phones. There's no microSD card slot and the nano SIM card slot lives under a door that releases with a paperclip or the included poke tool. We love the front facing stereo speakers located above and below the display. They're rich and loud, and give HTC's BoomSound stereo speakers in the HTC One M8 serious competition.

Motorola makes good voice phones with strong reception; particularly strong reception on CDMA networks (Verizon and Sprint). The Nexus 6 has good reception on AT&T and T-Mobile (we're using the unlocked version sold by T-Mobile) and strong reception on Verizon Wireless. In a world where most Android phones use the same chipsets and radios, we don't see much variation between coeval models and brands, but the Nexus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 have the best reception in Verizon poor LTE coverage areas. Data speeds on the various carriers' 4G LTE networks were similar to other flagship phones. The Nexus 6 supports 12 LTE 4G bands and both GSM and CDMA, hence one model works on many carriers. We did notice when switching to a different carrier's SIM card that the phone took up to 5 minutes to register the change and find a signal. It sets data connection settings (APN) for you, so you don't have to worry about looking up and entering those.

Voice quality is very clear and full and volume is average. Given the size of the phone, it's easy to hold the phone too low with the earpiece below the ear canal (hint, raise the phone and voila, incoming volume is fine). The mic location isn't an issue since modern smartphone mics are designed to work well in a variety of positions and even distances. Our call recipients said we sounded particularly loud and clear on the three carriers we tested (we didn't have a Sprint nano SIM handy to test on that network). Our T-Mobile unit doesn't have support for WiFi calling, but T-Mobile has said that will be coming. We expect voice over LTE (VoLTE) some time next year, which Verizon also calls Advanced Calling.

Nexus phones, not unlike the top Samsung models and the iPhone, are scrutinized heavily by both reviewers and shoppers. There's only one Nexus a year, and even when it's priced in the midrange, folks have high expectations. Thus the poor Nexus 6 has already been praised by reviewers (for the most part) and pummeled by some shoppers, even before the phone has been available in significant quantities. So let's start with the facts: it's a 5.96" AMOLED QHD 2560 x 1440 display. That's impressive stuff--that's top dog resolution at the moment. Honestly, at 493 PPI pixel density, I don't hope to see even higher resolution smartphone displays because it's simply overkill. Samsung makes AMOLED displays, and most Galaxy models use this technology that provides super-saturated colors, near infinite contrast and deep blacks. Whites and brightness aren't AMOLED's strong points, though Samsung has managed to get some impressive brightness out of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The Nexus 6 display looks brighter than the 2014 Moto X (also AMOLED but 1080p) and Motorola Droid Turbo, but its auto-brightness setting is simply too dim. It you look at it in a store where the factory default adaptive display setting is enabled, it will look dim next to the Note 4. Disable that and set brightness to 50% in manual mode and it perks up quite a bit. It's actually a decently bright display, even though it can't match the Note 4's retina-burning max brightness. It's viewable outdoors in sunlight and it's more than bright enough for indoor use. Colors are warmer than on the Note 4 and many other competing phones as well as laptops. That's fine with me because it's closer to a proper white point--these days most devices are much too cool (toward the blue rather than yellow) from the factory. I do miss Samsung's color options though--there are no color saturation and temperature settings here. Remember, it's vanilla Android so you don't get manufacturer tweaks and apps to enhance the basic Android experience. While it doesn't beat the Note 4, it's nonetheless a lovely and very sharp display.                                                     Horsepower and Performance

In a way there's little to say here, because the Nexus 6 is downright fast and it uses what is currently the fastest Android phone processor on the market, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805. The Nexus 6 and Galaxy Note 4 are the first two phones to use the CPU, and as you might expect given their identical resolutions, they benchmark very similarly. The 805 is a 32 bit processor (we'll have to wait for the Snapdragon 810 for 64 bit in an Android phone). Don't obsess too much over 32 bit vs. 64 bit just yet: the first benefit is the ability to address more than 4 gigs of RAM. No phone has more than 3 gigs, and RAM isn't upgradable, so 64 bit won't make a difference there. The other benefit is potentially faster application execution, which could be useful for extremely demanding apps like 3D games and video editing apps. It will take a while for developers to compile for 64 bit--you'd be surprised how many years it took Windows PC programs to make the change, and many iPhone apps are still 32 bit (Apple has mandated that apps have to support 64 bit by Feb. 2015).

Since the Nexus 6 runs clean and vanilla Android with no UI overlays or added applications that load at boot, it's as fast as an Android device with this hardware can be. The phone ships with Android OS 5.0 Lollipop, and will get OS updates quickly for quite some time. The Nexus 6 feels very fast and responsive--iPhone fast. It's doesn't suffer the occasional lag of Samsung TouchWiz phones and is zippy like the 2014 Moto X and Nexus 5 upgraded to Lollipop. Does navigating the app drawer and home screen feel faster than the Nexus 5 with Lollipop? Not really since both are more than capable of handling those tasks with great speed. Where you'll notice the difference is when playing a demanding 3D game like Asphalt 8, editing photos and videos and multitasking. Given how fast technology moves, it's hard to call any smartphone future proof, but the hardware here is good enough that the Nexus 6 won't feel like a dud in a year or even two.

The phone has 3 gigs of RAM, which is plush since it's running a clean and minimal OS and UI. You can get it with 32 or 64 gigs of storage. There's no microSD card slot for expansion since Google abhors removable storage, so if you like to carry a huge library of music or a healthy video library, go for the 64 gig model ($50 more expensive).                        Cameras

Motorola and Google have an abysmal track record with cameras. The Nexus 6 uses a 13 megapixel Sony sensor for the rear camera, as does the Moto X second gen, but the Moto X's camera failed to impress us. Happily, something went right here, and the Nexus 6's rear camera with f/2.0 lens actually takes very pleasing photos and good video up to 4K resolution. We hope some of that camera driver magic trickles back down to the Moto X! The camera app itself isn't ripe with features and settings, but the results are generally very colorful, balanced and bright with good lighting. The rear ring LED flash (two LEDs with a ring diffuser around the camera lens) helps in lower light and isn't overly harsh, and the Nexus 6 is a decent but not great camera in low light. It does a better job than the Nexus 5 and 2014 Moto X, but it doesn't come close to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The Galaxy Note 4 isn't a superb low light camera either, but overall we give Samsung's camera the edge over the Nexus 6 for both good and poor lighting shots. We're particularly fond of the optical image stabilization (OIS) that helps reduce handheld camera shake that causes blurred photos and jumpy video.

The Snapdragon 805 and 801 chipsets support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0, and Google happily includes a Motorola Turbo Charger (quick charger) in the box. If you've doubted those lofty claims that this charger can charge 30 to 50% in just a half hour--it's no lie. Given the high capacity 3220 mAh battery (same as the Note 4 that also ships with a Quick Charge charger), that's a lot of charging in a short time. Despite the big battery and Android 5.0's "Project Volta" for improved battery life, the Nexus 6 doesn't have miraculous runtimes. Rather the Nexus 6 is an all day and right up to bedtime phone, but it's not a 2 day beast if you're a moderate to heavy user. Google may improve Android 5.0's power frugalness, so there's hope, especially because the Nexus will receive more OS and firmware love direct from Google. That's not to say the Nexus has bad battery life, it's just not as wondrous as expected, and it falls short of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (same screen resolution, CPU, RAM and battery capacity) by about 30 to 45 minutes of screen on time.

The Nexus 6 supports Qi wireless charging out of the box. Given the curved back, it can be a bit challenging to position the phone on a wireless charging plate, but once you find the sweet spot (along the Nexus logo), it works well. Wireless charging isn't as quick as wired charging, let alone charging with the included Turbo Charger, but it's convenient.

There's more to the Droid Turbo than updated looks and a cleaner OS: its specs outdo the 2014 Moto X and all flagship Android phones currently on the market except the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The Droid Turbo and the Note 4 run on the latest, greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad core CPU with Adreno 420 graphics, 3 gigs of RAM and 32 or 64 gigs of storage. It's called the Turbo because it comes with Moto's turbo charger in the box, and that's a charger that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for extreme quick charging. It has a 3900 mAh battery, which is higher than batteries in phablets like the Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus. And then there's the QHD, 2560 x 1440 AMOLED display for incredible sharpness and strong color saturation. It makes the Moto X 2014 seem less stellar, though we understand if you still prefer the more stately design and customizable backs on the X. Like all Droids, the Turbo is exclusive to Verizon in the US, though it will be sold as the Droid Maxx in South America.Design and Ergonomics

Given the very large battery inside, the Droid Turbo can't be as svelte as the Moto X, even if they share the same 5.2" display size. The Turbo weighs 6 ounces (6.2 ounces if you opt for the ballistic nylon back) and it's 0.31-0.42" thick. The red and black models have metalized glass fiber over Kevlar and the ballistic nylon model has Kevlar underneath. They might not stop a bullet, but they'll die trying. The Turbo models have a water repellant coating, but they're not water resistant for immersion as are the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z3v. The phone feels sturdy and rugged, and in fact it is. Gorilla Glass 3 protects the front. You might expect the ballistic nylon to be the more grippy finish, but in fact it feels pretty slick in the hand and we had an easier time with the standard smooth matte finish red and black models.

The phone's nano SIM card slot is in an unusual place: under the volume rocker. You'll pull the volume rocker out using a fingernail to access the card slot. Since most folks don't swap SIM cards often this doesn't bother us, and honestly, it's no harder to access than SIM card slots that require a paperclip to open. The volume and power buttons are on the right side, the headphone jack is up top and the micro USB 2.0 port is on the bottom. The battery is sealed inside and there's no microSD card slot. The speaker lives under a long, thin grille above the display and it doubles as the earpiece.

At 5.2", this is considered a mainstream size phone that's dwarfed by the Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus, but it's not much smaller than the impressively compact 5.5" LG G3. The ergonomic curves feel great in the hand, and it's comfortable and easy to hold. It's a bit heavier than average thanks to the huge battery, but it's not so heavy as to feel like a burden.Display

There are quite a few AMOLED lovers out there, and Motorola has put a truly lovely 2560 x 1440 AMOLED display in the phone. That works out to an insane 565 PPI pixel density, and no matter how keen-eyed you are, you won't be able to discern individual pixels. Moto tuned the display to be more accurate in terms of colorcast so human skin looks warm and natural and white backgrounds don't have the blue-magenta bias we've seen on some Super AMOLED panels. It's very saturated but not over the top (as AMOLED goes), and it has AMOLED's deep blacks and near infinite contrast. If you liked the shape and resolution of the LG G3 but found its IPS LCD too dull, you'll likely be pleased with the Droid Turbo. It's brighter than the 2014 Moto X, but not as bright as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (and we're not talking about Samsung's insane 750 nit outdoor high brightness mode, just regular brightness levels). We had no trouble seeing the Turbo's display outdoors, though the LCD picks up and shows fingerprints more than some other phones, and those obscure the display outdoors.                                                                                 Horsepower and Software

As you might guess, since the Moto is one of two Snapdragon 805 phones on the market, it's one of the fastest. In fact, it scored very similarly to the Galaxy Note 4 running the same CPU and the same display resolution. Honestly, the 2.7GHz quad core with Adreno 420 graphics is faster than most of us really need. But Android is all about specs wars, and since some phones run heavy overlays (Samsung and LG), no one complains about more horsepower. The Droid Turbo shows Google's influence over Motorola (they owned Motorola until a few weeks ago), and that's a good thing. We have a very clean Android AOSP version of KitKat 4.4.4 here, and the Droid Turbo is supposed to get Android 5.0 Lollipop quite soon. The clean Android experience and fast CPU mean the Turbo is a very responsive phone that doesn't bog down when switching between apps. It has 3 gigs of RAM to keep multitasking fluid, and we couldn't make the phone stutter or lag. It's obviously a great choice for serious 3D gaming and is as future proof as any smartphone can be at the moment. Of course, technology marches on quickly and there will be something even faster a year from now, but the question is: do we really need more speed? In the case of the Turbo, probably not.

The phone has 32 gigs of internal storage with 23 gigs available. There's no storage expansion, so that's all you've got. The ballistic nylon model is available with 64 gigs of storage (52 gigs free) for $50 more. That's a reasonable price for double the storage, if you need it.

Verizon includes their usual bloatware including VZ Navigator and seemingly every Amazon app available for Android. These aren't removable but you can disable and hide them using app settings if you wish. Moto includes Droid Zap for wireless transfer of photos to and from other Android phones and their excellent Moto apps like Moto Assist, Moto Voice, Moto Display and Moto Actions. These are the same great software features that we loved on the 2014 Moto X, and they make using the phone more streamlined and convenient.Moto Voice, Actions, Assist and Display

Want information with little effort? Moto Display allows you to wave your hand over the display and IR sensors on the front tell the phone to show you the informative lock screen with notifications. No need to turn on the phone or even double-tap. See an email notification on the lock screen? Press and hold its icon to get a preview of the email, or swipe it up to launch the mail program with that message open.

Voice control has gotten even better, and it's a Moto custom solution, not just Google Now. You don't have to say "OK Google Now", you can say anything you want as the wake phrase, as long as it's at least 4 syllables long (their suggestion is "hi Droid Turbo"). Once you train it with your waking phrase (hint, don't use something you say all the time), all you have to do is say it, followed by what you want the phone to do. Leave it sitting on your desk or the center console of your car, sleeping: it's still listening.

Moto actions handle things like quiet time overnight, switching to driving mode where it will do things like read text messages aloud or go into meeting mode if your calendar has a meeting. For driving mode, you'll need to activate the more accurate GPS location setting.

Motorola generally does well with both reception and voice quality, though their DSPs have a tendency to make the caller's voice sound slightly digitized when calling from noisy locations. The Moto Droid Turbo has good reception, and these days most phones have similar reception as measured in decibels (don't go by the bars on the top of the display, they're a bit arbitrary). That said, our office is in a weak Verizon 4G LTE neighborhood, and the Turbo managed to tenaciously hold onto LTE while the Sony Xperia Z3v occasionally dropped to 3G (both measured 113 db. or worse on LTE). The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is the reception king if you're in a weak area and it typically had a 5 to 10 db. stronger signal, which is significant. If you're in a moderate or stronger coverage area this won't matter, but for those in fringe coverage areas, we'd say the Droid Turbo is strong but bested by the Note 4. WiFi reception on our 802.11ac network was just average, once again beaten by the Note 4. We particularly noticed that range was below average--it wasn't outright bad, but it wasn't what we'd call good.

Voice quality is very good for incoming and outgoing voice, with little of the digitization on outgoing voice that we've noted on some Motorola phones. Earpiece volume is below average, and that's compounded by the earpiece speaker being offset to the right (if you don't notice that and keep the phone centered, it's very quiet). Volume through speakerphone, headphones and Bluetooth is normal.

OK Moto, maybe now that Lenovo has bought you, they'll throw some camera engineers at your problem. Motorola phones have mediocre cameras, despite using some good hardware like the Sony sensor and fast f.2.0 lens in the Turbo's rear camera. It's not much better than the 2014 Moto X's 13MP camera, and the software has to be the weak link here. We like the UI in the camera app quite well, it's the image processing software and focus times that lag behind the better competition. In good lighting, the camera does well other than occasional autofocus mishaps, and video recording, particularly 4K, is quite good. Low light photos are definitely better than the updated Moto X, but not as good as the LG G3, Nokia Lumia Icon, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 or iPhone 6.

Here's the star of the show. Rather than release a Droid with a standard capacity battery and another model with a super capacity battery, Verizon's cut to the chase and released one Droid with a monstrous 3900 mAh battery that's sealed inside. That's significantly higher capacity than standard size phones or big screen phablets. Verizon claims 2 days of use on a charge, and while that's optimistic, we averaged 1.5 days with moderate to somewhat heavy use. The screen is a big consumer of power, so we stuck with auto-brightness, which we found adequate. If you spend hours playing 3D games or navigating with the GPS, runtimes will of course be shorter, but for the average day with calls, web, email, messaging and streaming a half hour video, the Turbo is hard to kill.