Motorola Edge X30 debuts with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Special Edition carries under-display camera

It took just over a week after the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 announcement and we already have the first phone to officially use the brand new flagship chipset. Welcome to the Motorola Edge X30. It comes in two versions with the X30 Special Edition sporting a trendy under-display selfie camera while the regular X30 makes do with a punch hole solution. The rest of the specs for the two phones are identical. Motorola also announced a Snapdragon 888+ wielding Moto S30 on stage.

Motorola Edge X30

Motorola Edge X30 sports a 6.7-inch OLED display with FHD+ resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. The regular version has a tiny punch hole cutout below the earpiece for the 60MP selfie cam with a 1/2.8-inch sensor and 0.61µm pixels.

Motorola Edge X30 in Phantom Black and Glacier Blue (images: Motorola)

The Special Edition uses the same module but hides it under the display, it will be interesting to see how the two stack up against each other.

The displays on both X30 phones output 10bit color and HDR+ content natively.

Based on Motorola’s testing, X30 should offer a 20% leap in CPU performance, 30% better GPU scores and a staggering 400% improvement in AI tasks compared to the Snapdragon 888+ chip. These numbers match what Qualcomm quoted during its 8 Gen 1 announcement. Motorola shared X30 managed an AnTuTu score of 1,061,361 points which is the highest score on the platform to date. The phone also uses speedy LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.

Motorola Edge X30 key specs

Around the back, we have a 50MP main cam with OmniVision’s OV50A 1/1.55-inch sensor with OIS. It has 2.0μm sized pixels when 4in1 pixel binning is applied. There’s a second 50MP ISOCELL S5KGM1 ultrawide shooter while the third sensor is 2MP depth of field module. You can record up to 4K video natively.

Edge X30 has a 5,000 mAh battery with 68W wired charging support while the software front is covered by Android 12.

Motorola Edge X30 starts at CNY 3,199 ($501) in its 8/128GB trim. There’s also an 8/256GB version for CNY 3,399 ($532) and a 12/256GB one for CNY 3,599($564). The X30 Special Edition with its UD camera is priced at CNY 3,999 ($627). First sales in China tip-off on December 15.

Motorola Edge S30

While the fancy new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is going to be all the rage on Android flagships from now on it doesn’t mean its predecessor is suddenly slow. The Snapdragon 888+ sits at the helm for the Motorola Edge S30 which is the maker’s new upper-midrange offering. It sports a 6.8-inch IPS LCD panel with FHD+ resolution and a variable refresh rate which can go as high as 144Hz or as low as 48Hz depending on the task at hand.

The camera department has a 108MP main sensor at the helm alongside a 13MP ultrawide snapper and a 2MP depth helper. The front-facing cam snaps 16MP shots. You also get a 5,000 mAh battery here but with slower 33W charging. Unlike its flagship brother, Moto Edge S30 boots Android 11.

Motorola Edge S30 in Phantom Black and Glacier Blue (images: Motorola)

Motorola Edge S30 will retail for CNY 1,999 ($313) in its baseline 6/128GB trim. The top of the line 12/256GB variant will cost CNY 2,599 ($407). Official sales tip-off on December 21.