It’s becoming a bit of a cliché in itself, but it’s still true; it is becoming increasingly difficult for smartphone manufacturers to produce devices that really stand out and that can easily tell and emphasize to the consumer that exactly their offer is competitive to a greater extent.
Take Motorola’s Edge 50 Pro, for example. It costs around £600 and has just been launched. For the same money, you can pretty much get a Pixel 8, a Nothing Phone 2, a OnePlus 12R or many others that compromise here and there, but all of which deliver a pretty solid overall experience, and for far less money than the most expensive flagships.
Motorola has a habit of giving a little more for the money, but is that the case this time? Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that while you can get two pretty nice vegan leather backs on the Black Beauty and Luxe Lavender, we were sent the slightly bizarre MoonLight Pearl, which is supposedly handmade in Italy by Mazzucchelli. It looks a bit like marble but feels like plywood in the hand – avoid this one, buy one of the others.
Other than that, Motorola isn’t taking any big chances with the design this time around. Visually, it’s the same camera module that blends in with the rest of the back, it’s IP68 certified, has 125W charging via a charger that comes with the phone, 50W wireless charging, WI-FI 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 and stereo speakers. In other words, everything is in place.
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Inside we find a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, up to 12 GB of LPDDR4X RAM (yes, the slightly slower variant) and 256 GB of UFS 2.2 memory (yes, also the slightly slower variant). And then we have the 4500 mAh battery, which isn’t the biggest, but still has the same battery life as the last phones we’ve tested on the Edge. It’s two short days, and that’s just fine with us.
From charging to SoC, from RAM to the various elements around, Motorola gives us what we need and more, and it’s not even possible to complain about the lack of wireless charging or IP certification anymore. Also, the 6.7″ pOLED screen on the Edge 50 Pro is really nice. It runs at 1.5K and 144 Hz, and the screen tops out at around 2000 NITS, which easily enables HDR10+ support. In addition, there’s 10-bit colors, and all the glory is Pantone-validated.
What is perhaps more disturbing is that they have moved away from the old, subtle user interface to the new “Hello UI”. Of course, the software runs on Android 14, and there’s really nothing to worry about. In fact, the Hello user interface is almost even better than before, giving you pretty much just stock Android without the bloatware. There are a few extra features here and there such as Ready For, Moto Unplugged and some custom fonts and icons. It’s all still discreet, informal and easy to customize if you wish.
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There are three cameras on the back, consisting of a 50-megapixel main camera with f/1.4 aperture and optical stabilization, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle of 120 degrees and finally a 10-megapixel 3x optical telephoto. There is also a ToF sensor and an autofocus module. In addition, there is a fixed selection of modes in the expected resolutions, ranging from Pro Mode, Night Mode and Dual Capture, to 4K ultra slow motion video. Motorola likes to focus on the fact that this is the “world’s first Pantone-validated camera system”, talking specifically about color chemistry that should be more lifelike, but to be honest, this is the essence of being “handsome without being flashy”. There’s nothing wrong with Motorola’s camera system, just to say the least. If you give the lenses light, they deliver great HDR, solid depth and without major problems. But it doesn’t have the automatic fire-and-forget reliability of a Pixel camera, nor is there any significant hardware differentiation here, such as more optical zoom, a periscope lens or anything else. That’s how good it is, and you can trust this camera system.
So in many ways the Motorola Edge 50 Pro is just like the many other Edge phones before it. It is the interaction between all the great specifications that makes for a good experience, and not because one function stands out in particular. Is this one I would recommend over any of the other competitors mentioned? Well, maybe, but it’s a crowded market, and maybe Motorola in particular needs to give its phones an aesthetic overhaul. Ditch the MoonLight Pearl and give us something bolder.
