This in itself is a bit of a cliché, but it’s still true; It’s becoming increasingly difficult for smartphone manufacturers to produce devices that truly stand out and can easily communicate and emphasize to consumers that their specific products are more competitive than ever to a large extent.
Take Motorola’s Edge 50 Pro for example. It costs around £600 and has just been launched. For the same price, you can basically buy a Pixel 8, Nothing Phone 2, OnePlus 12R, or a host of other things that make compromises here and there but all offer a pretty solid overall experience for a lot less than more expensive flagships.
Motorola has a habit of spending a little more, but will that be the case this time? First off, it’s worth mentioning that while you can get two cute vegan leather backs in the Black Beauty and Luxe Lavender models, we received the slightly odd MoonLight Pearl, which is said to be handcrafted in Italy by Mazzucchelli. It looks a bit like marble but holds in the hand like plywood – avoid this one and buy another one.
For the rest, this time Motorola didn’t take big risks with the design. Visually it integrates well with the rest of the rear panel of the device, with IP68 certification, 125W charging via the charger supplied with the phone, 50W wireless charging, WI-FI 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 and stereo speakers. In other words, it’s all here.
Here is an announcement:
Inside we find the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, up to 12 GB of LPDDR4X RAM (yes, a slightly slower variant) and 256 GB of UFS 2.2 storage (yes, also a rather slow variant). Then there’s the 4500mAh battery, which isn’t the largest but still offers the same battery life as the latest Edge phones we’ve tested. These two short days did us good.
From charging to the SoC, from RAM to the various peripheral components, Motorola offers us what we need and even more, and it is even impossible to complain about the lack of wireless charging or IP certification anymore. Plus, the Edge 50 Pro’s 6.7-inch pOLED is truly gorgeous. It runs at 1.5K and 144Hz, with a screen peak of around 2000 nits, easily enabling HDR10+ support. Plus, we’re talking 10-bit color, and the whole thing is Pantone verified.
Perhaps more concerning is the move from the old thin UI to the new “Hello UI”. Of course, the software runs on Android 14, so there’s really no need to worry. In fact, Hello’s UI is almost better than before and is available almost exclusively on stock Android without bloatware. There are a few extra features here and there, like Ready For, Moto Unplugged, and some custom fonts and icons. It’s still subtle, casual, and easily customizable if you want.
Here is an announcement:
On the back there are three cameras, including a 50-megapixel main lens with f/1.4 aperture with optical stabilization, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with 120 degrees and finally a 10-megapixel 3x optical telephoto lens. There is also a ToF sensor and an autofocus module. Additionally, there are still mode choices at the intended resolution, ranging from Pro mode, night mode and dual capture, to 4K super slow motion video. Motorola likes to focus on the fact that this is “the world’s first Pantone verified camera system”, especially talking about the color chemistry which is supposed to be more realistic, but let’s be honest, this is the essence of “pretty without being flashy” . There’s nothing wrong with Motorola’s camera system, it just lets us know. If you give light to the lenses, they offer excellent HDR, solid depth, and don’t have any major issues. However, there’s none of the fire-and-forget reliability of the Pixel camera, nor any significant hardware differentiation like increased optical zoom, a periscope lens, or anything else. It’s so good that you can trust this camera system.
So, in many ways, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro is like many other Edge phones before it. It’s the interplay of all the great specs that makes the experience great, not one particular feature that stands out. Is this something I recommend over any of the other competitors mentioned? Well, maybe, but it’s a crowded market and perhaps Motorola in particular needs a cosmetic overhaul of its phones. Ditch the MoonLight Pearl and give us something bolder.
#Motorola #Edge #Pro
