With the launch of the edge+ smartphone, Motorola is clearly looking to sail into premium Android handset waters that are home to the likes of Samsung. The company's new flagship rocks Qualcomm's latest mobile platform, a responsive FHD+ display and a two-day battery life.
Leading the premium charge for Motorola is an eye-popping 6.7-inch OLED display at 2,400 x 1,080 resolution and a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, which could come in handy when tapping into the suite of Snapdragon Elite Gaming features. The touch sampling rate using fingers is reported to be 360 Hz, while using the smart stylus bumps that down to 240 Hz. And there's 10-bit color delivery and support for the DCI-P3 gamut too.
As quickly mentioned above, the edge+ supports the company's first smart stylus, though this isn't included in the box – Motorola intends to sell the stylus separately or as part of an in-box bundle that includes a folio case. The cost for such optional extras has yet to be revealed.
The second-generation handset (the first edge+ was launched in 2020) is powered by Qualcomm's Android platform of choice, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, supported by 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512 GB of storage. And it comes with a 4,800-mAh battery for up to two days of per-charge usage, with 30-W fast charging and 15-W wireless charging supported. The new handset can even wirelessly share power with other devices.
On the photo/video front, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The 50-MP main camera boasts a 1/1.5-inch sensor, a F1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization, and the array also includes a 50-MP ultra-wide and a 2-MP depth camera. What's missing is the usual dedicated telephoto shooter, but a quad pixel arrangement combines four pixels into one large one for improved brightness and sharpness in low light and there are "32x more focusing pixels using instant all-pixel focus."
The rear camera array can record video at up to 8K UHD resolution at 24 frames per second, 4K UHD at up to 60 fps or slo-mo Full HD at 960 fps, and the setup is reported to meet HDR10+ standards for color accuracy, color range, brightness and contrast.
To the front is a 60-MP selfiecam capable of 4K UHD at up to 60 fps or slo-mo FHD at 240 fps.
Motorola has included a bunch of camera software and features for the onboard cameras, including Night Vision, AR Stickers, Macro Vision, Timelapse, Auto Smile Capture, Shot Optimization, RAW Photo Output and Burst Shot.
Elsewhere, the edge+ features Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity as well as 5G, runs a clean version of Android 12 "with no clunky software skins or duplicate apps," sports a side-mounted fingerprint reader, benefits from a triple mic array and hosts a single USB-C port (no headphone jack here folks). Two large speakers with Dolby Atmos tuning promise "an amazing audio experience."
Sadly, Motorola has decided to treat the phone to IP52 splash resistance only, unlike other flagships that can be fully submerged in the drink thanks to IP68 protection, and it has a plastic frame with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 out front and Gorilla Glass 5 around back (again, not really flagship Victus quality).
The Motorola edge+ 2022 (or edge 30 pro outside the US) will be available in blue or white for a list price of US$999.99, though for a limited time there will be a hundred bucks off that ticket price. That puts it squarely between Samsung's recently-launched Galaxy S22 and S22 Pro phones.
Actual availability has not been revealed at this time.
Product page: Motorola edge+ Gen 2
