Motorola Edge 30, hands on: A very thin mid-range phone with a 144Hz AMOLED screen

Costing £379.99 within the UK, Motorola’s Edge 30 is an inexpensive mid-range telephone, though some trade-offs have been made to realize this value level. 

So far as appears go, the Moto Edge 30 punches above its weight. It is obtainable in only one color, which Motorola calls Meteor Gray, though it is truly moderately bluish in tone. The again is plastic moderately than glass, but it surely nonetheless tends to select up finger marks. 

The 6.5-inch display screen sits in slim bezels, and the handset measures 159.38 mm tall and 74.236 mm vast. That ends in a claimed display screen to physique ratio of 87.6%, though we calculated it at 86.2%. The Edge 30 weighs 155g and has an especially skinny profile at simply 6.79mm.  

Clearly which means the rear digital camera bump protrudes considerably, leading to instability on the desktop when the display screen is pressed. Motorola supplies a transparent plastic bumper, which though it obscures the Meteor Gray livery, does present each safety and stability. Mud and water ingress are prevented, to some extent, because of an IP52 score (‘mud protected’ and proof against ‘dripping water’). 

The display screen is that this telephone’s most spectacular characteristic. It is a 6.5-inch AMOLED show with FHD+ decision (2,400 x 1,080, 20:9, 405ppi), HDR10+ assist and a most refresh price of 144Hz. This may be set to be all the time on, or you possibly can go for 60Hz always, or let the handset deal with the refresh price mechanically. I discovered the display screen clear and sharp on auto mode. There’s an in-display fingerprint sensor. 

Sadly the audio system do not dwell as much as the display screen by way of high quality. They pump out loads of quantity, however audio is moderately tinny and missing in bass tones. There isn’t any 3.5mm headset jack. 

There are three cameras on the again: 50MP f/1.8 vast angle with OIS; 50MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle (118°); and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor. You possibly can shoot 4K video at 30fps, 1080p video at as much as 120fps and 720p video at as much as 960fps. The entrance digital camera is a 32MP f/2.25 unit that may shoot 4K video at 30fps. 

The check images I shot have been acceptable as on a regular basis snaps, and the front-facing digital camera, sitting within the prime centre of the display screen, takes adequate selfies. My restricted night-time testing revealed some weaknesses, with over-exposed lights and brighter areas, and under-exposed darker areas. 

The Motorola Edge 30 is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 778G+ 5G chipset with 8GB of RAM. This platform turned in Geekbench 5 CPU scores of 819 (single core) and 2843 (multi core). That is fairly respectable, on condition that modern handsets at present rating round 1000 and 3500 respectively. The Edge will accommodate two Nano-SIMs, however there is no such thing as a assist for a MicroSD card to spice up the 111GB of storage that is still when the OS has taken its share of the put in 128GB. Motorola supplies a refreshingly light-touch Android 12 set up with out bloatware. 

The Edge 30’s 4020mAh battery stored the handset working for simply 7 hours and 22 minutes underneath the PCMark for Android Work 3.0 battery life check. The 33W ‘TurboPower 33’ charger is not any match for the 150W chargers of main flagship handsets, however you will must maintain it useful for top-ups in the course of the day when you’re working any demanding workloads. 

Motorola’s Edge 30 is one thing of a combined bag. It’s totally slim and lightweight, with the 144MHz AMOLED display screen the star of the present, together with respectable mid-range efficiency. It appears good sufficient, though the construct high quality displays its inexpensive pricing. Different trade-offs embrace the dearth of MicroSD storage growth, reasonable battery life and so-so cameras – particularly in low-light circumstances.  

Motorola Edge 30 specs

Options to contemplate

As the price of dwelling rises, many smartphone patrons are shifting their focus from costly flagships to mid-range and finances handsets. There’s an rising vary of alternative at lower cost factors — listed below are three main contenders.

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