Motorola Edge review

Introduction

The Edge series is Motorola's return ticket to the major league. The company gave up making flagships some three years ago. The Moto series remained focused solely on budget and mid-range devices. Until the Motorola Edge duo came to be.

The vanilla edition of the Motorola Edge seems nicely balanced and it may as well earn a place among the renowned flagship killer niche, while its Edge+ sibling is a full-fledged flagship, complete with the premium price tag.

So, the Motorola Edge, one very curved smartphone by the name and the looks of it, features a large OLED with steep slopes, topped with 90Hz refresh rate. The selfie cutout is quite small, and we are already intrigued by the panel for sure.

The vanilla Edge is still cutting edge when it comes to the choice of chipset. The Snapdragon 765G is one of the most recent mid-range Qualcomm chipsets and it's got promising performance, as well as 5G connectivity.

The chipset is one of the major differences between Edge and Edge+ - the more expensive Plus model comes with the flagship Snapdragon 865 chip instead. The storage is also of a different kind - UFS 2.1 on the Edge vs. UFS 3.0 for Edge+ - but a sort of a silver lining is that only the regular Edge offers a microSD slot.

Finally, the quad-camera on the back is worthy of a flagship even if there is no OIS on either of snappers. There is a 64MP primary, a 16MP ultrawide, an 8MP tele for 2x zoom, and a 3D ToF camera.

Typically for Moto, the Edge comes with a handsomely sized battery and stereo speakers. It also offers a 3.5mm jack - a rarity nowadays, and it runs on vanilla-looking Android 10 with promised major updates for the next 2 years.

Motorola Edge specs

• Body: 161.1x71.4x9.6mm, 203g; Gorilla Glass 5 front, plastic back. Splash-resistant.
• Screen: 6.7" OLED, 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 385ppi; 90Hz refresh rate, HDR10 certified.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 765G (7nm): Octa-core CPU (1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime & 1x2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver); Adreno 620 GPU.
• Memory: 4GB or 6GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB built-in UFS 2.1 storage, microSD slot.
• OS/Software: Android 10.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64MP, 1/1.72" sensor, 0.8µm pixel size, 26mm equiv. focal length, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF. Telephoto: 8MP, 1/4", 1.12µm, 52mm, f/2.4, PDAF. Ultra wide angle: 16MP, 1/3.06", 1.0µm, 13mm, f/2.2, AF. 2160p/30fps video recording.
• Front camera: 25MP, f/2.0, 0.9µmm, fixed focus. 1080p/30fps video recording.
• Battery: 4,500mAh, 18W wired charging support
• Misc: Optical under-display fingerprint reader; NFC; stereo loudspeakers; 3.5mm headphone jack.

The only thing we are missing on this spec sheet is the rated water and dust resistance. The Motorola edge has P2i water-repelling coating on its internals, but so do much cheaper Moto phones so perhaps IP67 would sit better with the target audience. Well, the Moto Edge is priced reasonably, so it deserves a pass for that.

Unboxing the Motorola Edge

The Motorola Edge comes in a stylish black box that contains the 18W charger and the USB-C cable. Inside you will also find in-ear pair of Moto headphones.

If you look inside the top paper compartment, you will find a thin silicone case to go with your new Motorola Edge. Because of its curved screen, there will be few, if any, third-party case makers, so we appreciate the bundled accessory.