Motorola Droid Ultra

Motorola Droid Ultra Review: Slim, Durable, and Fast

The Motorola Droid Ultra, released in 2013, was part of Motorola’s Droid lineup, designed to provide a fast and durable smartphone experience. It combined sleek design, strong performance, and exclusive features tailored for Verizon users. Here’s a detailed look at what made the Droid Ultra stand out:

Design & Build

The Droid Ultra boasted a sleek, slim design, measuring just 7.18mm thick, making it one of the thinnest smartphones at the time. The phone’s Kevlar-coated back not only added durability but also gave it a unique, textured feel that set it apart from other smartphones. It was lightweight at 137 grams and came in glossy finishes, though the glossy design tended to attract fingerprints easily.

Display

The Ultra featured a 5-inch 720p Super AMOLED display with 1280×720 resolution. While not Full HD, the display offered rich colors, deep blacks, and good brightness levels, making it ideal for media consumption. However, compared to competing devices with 1080p displays, the Droid Ultra’s screen resolution was lower, which was noticeable for users who prioritized pixel density.

Performance

Powered by Motorola’s X8 Mobile Computing System, which included a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.7 GHz and 2GB of RAM, the Droid Ultra provided smooth performance for multitasking, gaming, and everyday use. The X8 architecture also featured dedicated cores for natural language processing and contextual computing, which powered features like Google Now and voice control.

Battery Life

The Droid Ultra packed a 2130mAh battery, which provided decent battery life, lasting a full day of moderate use. While not as impressive as some of its competitors, Motorola’s software optimizations helped extend battery life through features like Active Display, which minimized power consumption by only lighting up necessary parts of the screen.

Camera

The Ultra came with a 10MP rear camera using ClearPixel technology, designed to capture more light and improve low-light performance. While it offered solid performance in daylight, low-light photos were still hit or miss, with noise present in darker environments. The 2MP front-facing camera was serviceable for video calls and selfies.

Exclusive Features

  • Touchless Control: One of the standout features was Touchless Control, allowing users to interact with the phone using voice commands without touching the device. Simply saying, “OK Google Now,” could activate voice commands, even when the screen was off.
  • Active Display: This feature displayed notifications on the screen in a minimalistic way without waking the entire display, helping conserve battery.
  • Motorola Assist: A smart feature that automatically adjusted the phone’s behavior based on context, like silencing calls during meetings or reading out texts while driving.

Software

The Droid Ultra ran on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with minimal Motorola skinning. The near-stock Android experience was fast and fluid, and Motorola’s subtle additions, such as Active Display and Touchless Control, added value without bloating the user interface.

Conclusion

The Motorola Droid Ultra was a solid smartphone, especially for Verizon customers looking for a sleek and durable device. Its Kevlar build, Touchless Control, and Active Display features made it stand out, though the 720p display and average battery life left room for improvement. Overall, the Droid Ultra was a great option for users seeking a thin, fast, and voice-activated smartphone in 2013.