From the Nexus 5 to the Moto X and then quickly to the Droid Turbo

This is the Droid Turbo I have (red, glass back).

I loved the Nexus 5 for the 11 months that I had it. But in the end, it started to really struggle with battery life. It’s possible that was the result of how I use the phone as I have another friend who had no issues with the battery life of the Nexus 5. But so be it, I’m a battery hog, better to embrace it :)

Because of that, battery life has become THE “killer app” for me. So when the second generation Moto X came out, which was a little better than the Nexus 5 in every way, I decided to jump on it. And the phone is pretty amazing. Beautiful design, stock Android (which means it doesn’t have a ton of bloatware on it, a MUST for me), better camera, better battery, better screen…just overall better.

But…the battery still wasn’t lasting me all day without having to worry about it. And because of that, I was keeping GPS off, my screen brightness low and being careful about having WIFI off if I wasn’t using it. All of those things will contribute to battery loss and it seemed my #1 mission with my phone was to preserve battery. To me, that’s a problem.

And phones are less fun when you’re worrying about battery life! For example, Google Now – possibly my favorite aspect of Android – is much less useful without GPS.

Then came the Droid Turbo announcement. 48 hours of battery life! Similar in almost every way to the Moto X but with more impressive camera specs (though I’m not sold that it actually takes better pictures) and practically double the battery life. It’s a little heavier and thicker, but not too much. The catch? It currently is only available on Verizon, and I was on AT&T.

So I switched to Verizon.

Battery life is important enough to me that I would go through the hassle of switching carriers. No, that’s not exactly right. The promise of a great battery was important enough for me to switch carriers.

I’ve only had the Droid Turbo for a few days, but I can already tell the battery is going to last me all day with GPS on, WIFI on and screen brightness set however I want it. The camera, however, doesn’t seem very good (pics aren’t great but video is terrific) and that could cause a problem, but fortunately at any family event my wife will have her iPhone so we’ll be covered there. I can live with an “ok” camera if the battery is fantastic. Plus, I’m hoping the upgrade to Lollipop will fix the camera.

My dream phone at this point would be one the size of the Nexus 5 (it’s slim and has a 4.95″ display), the battery of the Droid Turbo, the camera of an iPhone and running stock Android.

Side note: I could have been looking to get the Nexus 6, which was compelling as I loved the Nexus 5, but its a huge phone and I just don’t think I’m ready for a phone that size. It’s very comparable to the iPhone 6 Plus.