Motorola Droid Maxx 2 Vs Droid Maxx: What is new?

Motorola Inc. (NASDAQ: MSI)- The Lenovo company has recently announced its Droid Maxx 2 smartphone so we put it head to head against its predecessor to figure out what has changed.

Despite what Motorola said about the Moto X Play not being headed to the US, Verizon rebranded the device as the Droid Maxx 2 and here we are, not one week later watching leaked pictures of the phone that confirmed its existence.

But that should at least make us wonder, what has changed between the Droid Maxx 2 and the original Droid Maxx?

Camera

For starters, the camera is a major improvement. The Droid Maxx is equipped with a 10MP main shooter and a 2MP front one, whereas the Droid Maxx 2 sports a 21MP primary camera and a 5MP secondary one.

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Not to mention all the additional camera features that Motorolla added to the 2015 Maxx; including phase detection autofocus and dual-LED (dual tone) flash, or even the extra shooting modes such as Burst mode, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Panorama and Night mode.

Design

This is probably the biggest change between the two smartphone. Starting with the dimensions which is a pretty accurate primary indicator, we see that the Droid Maxx 2 is measuring at 5.83 x 2.95 x 0.43 inches (148 x 75 x 10.9), which is a noticeable growth in size from the 5.41 x 2.80 x 0.33 inches (137.5 x 71.2 x 8.5 mm) of the Droid Maxx.

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But that’s not all. The new product is not only bigger, but also rounder, with a kind of rubbery, soft-touch finish with aluminium siding and splash resistant. On the contrary, its predecessor uses kevlar on the main body which is the same pattern Motorola used in the RAZR Maxx HD. The rest of the phone’s rear is arranged just like the Ultra.

Display

Needless to point out that due to the growth of size, the screen is also bigger on the Droid Maxx 2. Not that it’s necessary, but it wouldn’t make much sense if it wasn’t. So the new handset is 0.5-inches larger than the Droid Maxx. In numbers, we have 5.5 inches vs 5.0 inches.

Now combine the 5.5 inches with the TFT technology and the 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution (which results in a pixel density of 402 ppi) and what you get is a much enhanced display than the original Droid Maxx which sports an AMOLED screen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and a matching pixel density of 294 ppi.

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At this point – even if it’s slightly out of topic – we have to mention that while both phones feature a decent display, none of them reaches up to the company’s new flagship, the Motorola Droid Turbo 2, which is unique in terms of screen technology thanks to a feature that the company calls ShatterShield.

Specs

Besides the appearance and performance, there are also some worth noting modifications taking place under the hood. The biggest one of them is the swift from the Dual-Core Motorola X8 processor that clocks at 1.7Ghz to the Octa-core, 1.7 GHz, ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit  processor with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 8939 system chip.

The specific chip was most likely chosen to classify the Droid Maxx 2 as a midrange option rather than an elite one, where it would fruitlessly strive to keep up with the competition.

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Both smartphones pack 2GB of RAM while the Droid Maxx has 32GB of internal capacity, which is twice as much to the Droid Maxx 2 humble 16GB – and to make things worse only 11GB are user-available. However, there is a storage expansion option up to 128GB which could make things a lot more convenient.

And at this point you get a pretty good idea of what is new hardware-wise, but for the shake of comparison, we take a step further.

The Droid Maxx embodies an Adreno 320 GPU that clocks at 400MHz whereas the new device comes with the Adreno 405 GPU. The names may not ring any bells or make any difference to the unexperienced eye, but that is actually a key point that indicates the level of improvement from one device to another.

Battery

For the Droid Maxx 2 Motorola says: “Life doesn’t slow down. Neither should your phone. Go up to 48 hours without stopping to recharge, and enjoy watching movies, browsing the web, playing games, and anything else on the go.

That might give you a good idea of the battery life. More precisely though, the handset is fitted with a non-removable 3630 mAh battery. That is one more change added to the list, since the Droid Maxx came out with a 3500 mAh one, along with a charging pad.

Are you planning on picking up the new Droid Maxx 2 smartphone? Let us know in the comments below.

Senior reviews editor at Technology News Extra.

4 comments

grunt0300 says:

To me, the Moto Droid Maxx 2 sounds better than the Turbo 2.

Richard Bradley says:

Wish I had never “upgraded” to the Maxx 2. It sucks!

Denise says:

Why does it suck?

Michael says:

I just purchased the Droid Maxx 2 🙂

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