The Motorola Edge 30 Pro may not look significantly different from the Motorola Edge 20 Pro, but the former packs loads of upgrades to gain an ‘edge’ over competitors. We get two 50-megapixel cameras and a depth sensor on the back, a 60-megapixel front camera, 68W fast charging support, and Wi-Fi 6e for faster internet connectivity. It is also among the first smartphones in India (and globally) to carry Qualcomm’s most premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that currently powers a handful of phones. And all this comes at a price of Rs 49,999 which does not seem absurd when we look at competitions like Samsung Galaxy S22 (Rs 72,999) and iQoo 9 Pro (Rs 64,990) – both powered by the same chipset. If you’re looking for an ‘affordable’ flagship in the Android space, here’s what you need to remember.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro design and display: For starters, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro does not look unattractive by any metric despite featuring a similar design as the last year’s model. Like most Moto smartphones, we get a 6.7-inch OLED display that is indeed pretty big in your palms. During a special press screening, the company told News18 that the size of the screen is decided based on an internal survey that it conducted some time back. In other words, we might not see a compact Motorola smartphone soon.
The screen has Gorilla Glass 3 protection while the back gets Gorilla Glass 5 protection – quite an unusual decision for a ‘flagship’ smartphone that generally receives the latest Gorilla Glass protection on both panels.
The rear panel has a curve that makes it comfortable to hold. As expected, the back panel has a smooth finish, and the rear camera module has a minimal bump. Additionally, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro weighs 179 grams that makes it roughly 10 grams lighter than the old-gen Motorola Edge 20 Pro.
Overall, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro does feel premium even though the company could’ve worked harder to choose a new design. I also do not like the placement of the power button/ fingerprint scanner and the volume rockers. One will need to stretch their thumb to reach the two buttons on the right side.
That being said, the display performance won’t disappoint. The OLED screen delivers a fantastic viewing experience, and the black spots are darker than usual. Thanks to Full-HD+ resolution and HDR10+ support, the colours are rich and vivid, making the viewing experience further delightful. Lastly, the screen gets up to a 144Hz refresh rate that makes the scrolling and gaming silky smooth.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro Camera: Motorola is heavily banking on the phone’s camera performance. On paper, the camera system should perform well as we get a 50-megapixel primary camera with OIS (optical image stabilisation), a 50-megapixel wide camera that also acts as a macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. At the front, we get a 60-megapixel selfie camera without OIS.
To quickly summarise, Motorola Edge 30 Pro does not offer any swanky camera features that many flagships promise, but the quality is more than satisfactory. Images via all sensors are vivid and with good attention to details. The primary camera is evidently the ‘MVP’ among the other three sensors that also manages to record sharp videos. We can record Full-HD videos at up to 60fps, 4K at 30fps, and 8K at 30fps.
When you tweak the settings, make sure you’ve enabled the stabilisation mode to get the best results. Similarly, the 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera performs efficiently, but only during daylight. Night photography on the Motorola Edge 30 could’ve been better. At night the colour contrast is fairly accurate, but we lose on sharpness.
Speaking of the selfie camera, I compared the results with the Vivo V23 5G which also comes with an impressive front camera system. Although the 60-megapixel front camera on the Motorola Edge 30 Pro manages to capture sharp images in the daylight, the saturation level is a tad bit high that some users may not like.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro Performance: At the heart of the phone, we get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC with 128GB of non-expandable UFS 3.1 storage and 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM that scored an impressive score during the Geekbench CPU test. It attained 1,186 points on the single-core test and 3,488 points on the multi-core test. Similarly, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro scored 6,463 points with an average of 38.7fps on the 3D Mark GPU test, which is not bad at all.
If we keep numbers aside, users can run multiple apps simultaneously without any stutters. The gaming experience on the Motorola Edge 30 Pro was extremely smooth as I played heavy titles like Asphalt 9 and Pokemon Go. I was getting roughly 55fps while playing the heavy-duty Pokemon Go. To put it simply, the chipset coupled with the OLED screen offers one the best mobile gaming experiences.
Despite a great CPU and GPU performance, there’s a big caveat.
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro isn’t perfect, and I say this because there’s evidently a heating issue that many reviewers noticed on Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Be it gaming, 8K video recording, or charging with the bundled 68W charger, the chipset unfailing throttles. Although it does not affect the performance, you will see a significant battery drop.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro Battery: The Motorola Edge 30 Pro packs a large 4,800mAh battery that even supports reverse charging. With the bundled charger, the phone attained 81 percent in 30 minutes which isn’t bad at all. With a 144Hz refresh rate enabled and multiple apps running in the background, we get roughly 12-14 hours of battery. Naturally, it will increase if we limit the refresh rate to 60Hz or use battery saver mode. As mentioned, the battery will drop under severe stress. I noticed a 7 percent battery drop after playing a 10-minute round of Pokemon Go.
Watch Video: Vivo V23 5G Review: For The Selfie Lovers
Motorola Edge 30 Pro Verdict: In a nutshell, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro is an all-rounder smartphone. The display is crisp, the camera system is reliable, and battery backup is fairly decent. However, what I like the most about Motorola smartphones is the clean Android experience that we noticed on this one too.
The phone runs on Android 12 and will get two years of Android updates, which needs to change with Android smartphones in 2022. And it is not impossible as rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphones are promising four years of Android updates. Another feature that Motorola Edge 30 Pro could’ve offered is more inbuilt storage. It seems the phone is designed to compel users to upgrade after two years. Lastly, the stereo speaker that supports Dolby enhancements offers loud sound, but I wish there was a secondary output channel for a more immersive listening experience.
Despite these tiny flaws (read: feedback), the Motorola Edge 30 Pro is totally worth recommending.
Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.
