It doesn’t cost a fortune either.
The Edge 30 Pro is hands down the smoothest Android phone in the market today. Period.
The underlying hardware—which is very powerful—obviously has a lot to do with this, but it is Motorola’s immaculate software optimisation that drives this phone to near perfection from a pure performance point of view at least. No other phone, at the time of writing this review, comes close to delivering the same level of speed and fluidity.
You can say that the Edge 30 Pro is like the Google Pixel (6 Pro), but you can actually buy it in India. Moreover, Motorola’s “unique” take on Android—called MYUI—with its thoughtful customisation set make the Edge 30 Pro more useful than it would be, generally, with plain, stock Android. So, it won’t be wrong to say that Motorola has made Android even better in a sense.
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Those are two solid points in Motorola’s favour right there, which is to say, if you’re pro-Pixel and tired of waiting, and if a OnePlus is no longer an option because you’re probably wary of the growing Oppo-fication there, camp Motorola can be your next home.
Finally, a Motorola flagship
When was the last time Motorola launched a flagship phone? Don’t sweat it because it’s been a while. The company came “this” close to launching a high-end phone, last year. It was called the Edge 20 Pro. It was a fantastic phone, but it was borderline flagship-killer, at best. The Edge 30 Pro is Motorola’s first true flagship phone in years.
It comes as no surprise then that it’s rocking Qualcomm’s latest and greatest mobile chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This is paired with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB UFS3.1 storage. The phone boots Android 12 right out of the gate and supports 13 5G bands.
There’s a large and pretty stacked 6.7-inch 10-bit OLED HDR10+-ready display with a 144Hz refresh rate on the front. There is a hole punch cutout at the centre of this screen housing a whopping 60MP selfie camera that can record 4K (@up to 60fps). On the back, there are three cameras—a 50MP main (f/1.9 OIS), 50MP ultrawide that doubles as a macro, and another 2MP portrait. The primary is capable of 8K recording (@24fps).
Powering the phone is a 4,800mAh battery with 68W fast wired and 15W wireless charging. The phone can pull 5W wireless power sharing, too. The Type-C port, here, is also USB 3.1.
Rounding off the package are dual Dolby Atmos speakers, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC.
A day in the life with a Motorola flagship
The model sold in China—under the name of Edge X30—was rife with issues of excessive throttling and overheating setting alarm bells ringing for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, as well, leading many to call out Motorola and Qualcomm. We had our reservations, too, initially when Motorola decided to bring the phone to India—whether it was even a good idea.
The Edge 30 Pro proved us wrong, conclusively, though. It seems Motorola took time out to iron out each and every reported issue prior to India launch so much so it feels like it made a whole new phone from scratch for the Indian market. The most striking aspect of the Edge 30 Pro is its performance. It is absolutely stellar.
We pit the Edge 30 Pro against the iQOO 9 Pro (Snapdragon 8 Gen 1), Asus ROG Phone 5s (Snapdragon 888+) and Xiaomi 11T Pro (Snapdragon 888). As it turns out, the Edge 30 Pro struck the best balance of next-gen performance (scoring 9,53,581 in AnTuTu) and efficiency (it was the only phone that was able to complete its 45-minute stress test). Throttling stats were within permissible limits but the biggest takeaway was, the phone never really got hot enough to become uncomfortable. The iQOO 9 Pro was able to break the 1 million figure that Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped phones are supposed to justifying its gaming phone stature, but it was prone to overheating when stressed. The ROG Phone 5s, with the second-best Qualcomm chip around, throttled the least with wonderful peak performance in lieu of its exhaustive cooling mechanism.
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Now, benchmarks don’t tell the complete story, but they can give you a rough idea about the worst-case scenario. They’re important, also, because these are flagship phones with the best of specs, and pricing to match, and therefore, they should be—theoretically— up to the task. Those tasks may vary, but it always helps to know, you’re getting your money’s worth. Speaking of which, the Edge X30 Pro—if it wasn’t clear already— is big bang for your buck when it comes to performance. The thing just flies through every job, whether it be day-to-day chores or heavy-duty gaming.
But what gives us even more joy is the software in this phone. Every OEM has its distinct take on Android. While trying to give you, what they think, is the best version, often times, they would chop off some or the other feature you’re bound to miss, especially if you’re a purist. Take Google’s Android 12 Material You theming for example. You don’t get it in the iQOO 9 Pro for some reason. The Edge 30 Pro has it, but the implementation could have been slightly better. Well at least, the feature set is intact.
On top of all this, you get marquee Motorola smarts such as attentive display and gestures like power touch, quick capture, fast flashlight, and three-finger screenshot all of which make your usual run-off-the-mill stuff fun and interesting. There is also a very useful “ready for” screen sharing feature, in the Edge 30 Pro, that lets you connect it to a PC wired and wirelessly.
Unlike Samsung, the overall approach here is a little more direct and does not require you to sift through multiple settings to get to something. You’re basically good to go the minute you boot the phone up. It helps that the Edge 30 Pro ships with almost no bloatware, too. There are virtually no spammy notifications either.
That said, the Edge 30 Pro is eligible for only two major OS and three years of security updates and Motorola has generally been slow with rollouts. Our review unit runs the January 2022 patch at the time of writing even as Samsung’s Galaxy S22 phones are well into March 2022 (also, they will receive four major OS updates and five years of security updates). Motorola has some work to do there.
Battery life is neither great, nor too bad. Your mileage will vary depending on your choices, especially with regards to the screen. The Edge 30 Pro has this big, beautiful screen with a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz which can be a major resource hog. It’s not an LTPO panel and there are only three options—auto, 60Hz and 144Hz. A 120Hz or even 90Hz option would be nice to have. Gaming and photography will, obviously, deplete the battery faster. Most users though, should get at least a day’s worth of usage but be sure that battery life isn’t the Edge 30 Pro’s strongest point. But it does charge very fast. It took us about 53 minutes to go from 0-100% using the bundled 68W charging brick which is nice.
Cameras, too, are not the Edge 30 Pro’s big selling point though we have to admit, we do like Motorola’s close-to-real-world colour tuning. The phone has, what we would call, competitive cameras that really shine in good lighting. The wide and the ultrawide, both, take photos with good detail, contrast, and little to no metering issues. These photos are well exposed, mostly, and offer some of the most compelling output at the phone’s asking price. Low-light photos, though, could be better. The Edge 20 Pro’s periscope telephoto is sorely missed here. Instead, we get a 2MP depth that—to no one’s surprise—is just a spec-filler.
The front camera is largely similar. It takes pleasing selfies with warm colour tones and lots of detail when lots of light is available, but the quality goes for a toss as the intensity of light goes down.
Motorola has played it relatively safe with the all-round design of the Edge 30 Pro. It would be a very familiar-looking phone for those who have been following its recent work. The phone has a glass back which is smooth to the touch. This is Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The sides are made of glossy plastic, while on the front, you get Corning Gorilla Glass 3. You get a IP52 water-repellent rating, too.
The Edge X30 Pro won’t win any big design awards but at least it is original. There are some caveats though. At 8.79mm and 196g, it is clearly not the slimmest or lightest phones around but while that’s still alright, Motorola chose to place the power button (which also doubles as a fingerprint reader) and volume rocker way higher up than usual, something that might not be a good fit for people with smaller hands. There is no extra shortcut/Google Assistant key, either, which is a staple among many Motorola phones.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro | Should you buy it
Okay, we’ve been saving the best for the last. Get this: the Edge 30 Pro price in India is set at Rs 49,999 for a version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. SBI credit card users are eligible for a Rs 5,000 instant discount on Flipkart and Rs 5,000 cashback on retail stores for a limited period bringing the price of the phone down to Rs 44,999.
The Edge 30 Pro is a no-brainer even at its original price, but at its offer price, it becomes a steal deal. This phone is not perfect, but it gets most things right and it is fun to use, too. But most importantly, the Edge 30 Pro brings Motorola back into the flagship game with a bang no less. It won’t be surprising if it turns out to be the dark horse this year, unless of course Motorola has planned something even better.
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Pros | Cons |
Fast performance | Dated design |
Clean software | Cameras could be better in low light |
Loud stereo speakers, solid haptics | Battery life could be better |
Good display | Storage limited to 128GB |
Quick charging |