Motorola Edge 20 review

Design, build quality, handling

The Motorola Edge 20 is not like the original model, which was called Edge for a reason - for its curved screen with, well, prominent edges. Let's say this new Edge 20 model is edgier because it has no curves whatsoever, but we do love its trendy flat edges. Yes, that's enough wordplay.

The Edge 20 is not like your typical smartphone for a number of reasons. First - it's quite thin at 7mm and is flat all around. It also feels incredibly light for a device of such caliber. The matt rear panel is pretty good looking, while the traffic light-like camera setup is not exactly what you'd expect. Oh, and the Edge 20 is splash-proof like many other Moto phones.

We are happy that Motorola decided to overhaul the Edge design and take a completely different approach. While the original Edge was a looker, it wasn't that easy to handle. And now, the Edge 20 is the epitome of excellent handling experience with its flat metal frame, flat matt back and flat front. And weighing a mere 163g is just the cherry on the cake.

The Edge 20 has no official IP rating, but Motorola is advertising it for its water-repellent design and claims it is splash-proof. This means it is sealed well enough to survive light rain and splashes, but it should not be submerged into water.

The front of the Motorola Edge 20 is occupied by the 6.7-inch OLED screen with HDR10+, 10-bit color support, and 144Hz refresh rate. Sounds as flagship as OLEDs come, that's for sure. Protection is handled by a Gorilla Glass 5 piece - not the toughest to break, but not as easy to scratch.

The screen has reasonably thin and balanced bezels; it also has a tiny cutout for the selfie camera centered around the top.

There is no fingerprint reader underneath though, Moto Edge 20 has that biometric sensor on its side.

The last feature of interest at the front is the unbelievably thin and almost invisible earpiece. It's not acting as a second speaker though - the Motorola Edge 20 doesn't feature a stereo setup, unfortunately.

The Frosted Gray back panel is lovely. It is made of a flat Gorilla Glass 3, but its matte finish is what's cool. Our Gray model looks black if there is no direct light, but when this changes - the Edge 20 catches and shifts some light through its frosted panel. It's a subtle yet captivating effect.

The dark paintjob and matte coating make the back one massive fingerprint magnet. Worse - it's not that easy to clean. You can use the supplied case and avoid both smudging and wobbling, or you can opt for the Frosted Emerald or Frosted White versions (both with Aurora-like effects) and avoid the smudginess.

Motorola has put a superb triple camera on the back of the Edge 20 in a traffic light-like classic arrangement. But it's a tri-step design, quite thick at that. First, a large piece of glass is jutting out of the back - it contains the dual-LED flash and what looks like a microphone, probably for Audio Zoom. Another smaller glass is then jutting out of the first one, containing three rings, each of them sticking out even further.

So, top to bottom - the first camera is the 16MP ultrawide camera, followed by the 108MP primary shooter, and last is the 8MP tele snapper with 3x optical zoom. The whole setup is thick and makes the Edge 20 wobble when lying on a flat surface. In fact, it's one of the wobbliest phones we've experienced lately, so the case sounds like a must - it takes care of this but also makes the phone quite thicker.

Let's look at the nicely flat sides of the Motorola Edge 20 now.

The top has a lonely mic. The bottom has the mouthpiece, the dual nano-SIM tray, the USB-C port, and the loudspeaker grille. As we said, there is no second speaker on this Edge 20.

The side key is on the left, and it triggers Google's Assistant. The left has the volume key and the power button, which also houses the fingerprint scanner - always-on and blazing-fast. Both the power and volume keys are placed uncomfortably high, and it took us some time until we got used to the finger gymnastics.

The Motorola Edge 20 measures 163 x 76 x 7 mm and is amazingly light at 163 grams. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy A72 has a similar 6.7" AMOLED, measures 165 x 77.4 x 8.4 mm and weighs 203 grams.

It was a pleasure to work and play with the Motorola Edge 20 during our time for this review. The phone is grippy and light and fits great in pockets despite its large size. We used it without a case because we wanted to experience its design, and we sure loved it, though the smudges and wobbling were somewhat distracting.