Lenovo-owned Motorola continues to dive deeper into the smartphone market by introducing the Motorola Edge 30 Pro – the brand’s flagship bearer in a mid-range price tag.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro’s box comes with no surprises. It goes straight to the point with just the power brick, charging cable, and earphones on board.
Design
This 6.7-inch device is coated in three builds: a Gorilla Glass 3 in front, a Gorilla Glass 5 at the back, and a plastic frame.
Located at the back is the triple camera setup, a matte-coated rear panel, and the Motorola logo.
The right edge holds the phone’s volume and power keys.
At the foot are the USB-C port, speaker grills, and the SIM card slot that can hold up to two SIM cards. Sad to say, this phone has jumped into the bandwagon of smartphones that do not support 3.5mm headphones and storage expansion.
Personally, we loved the phone’s colors (Cosmos Blue and Stardust White). They are sleek, modern, and projects the flagship feel. Texture-wise, if you’re the type of user who believes that premium means metal, then this phone may not be meant for you as the device’s matte, plastic frame would consistently remind you of its mid-range nature. Nevertheless, the Edge 30 Pro, when it comes to design and looks, can definitely go head-to-head against other phones with more expensive price tags.
Weighing 196 grams, holding the Edge Pro 30 can be tough. Its matte finish at the back makes it slippery when placed on some surfaces, and at the same time helps to grip it better while on hand.
Typically, picking up a phone case can untangle this little drawback. Unfortunately, the Edge Pro 30 is not as popular as the other smartphones, hence the shortage of options in the phone case department.
Software
Fresh from the box, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro runs an Android 12 operating system that offers great amount of new function and security features. Motorola also lives up to the brand’s ambition to become “pure Android,” offering Android apps right off the bat while dropping bloatware.
What we don’t like about Edge 30 Pro’s UI is its inability to select multiple apps on home screen when sorting. The phone’s UI sticks to the old fashion of sorting apps one by one as compared to other UIs that allow you to select multiple apps and easily drag-and-drop them into their category folder.
We also found Edge 30 Pro’s notification panel complex, especially when connecting to the Internet. Toggling Edge 30 Pro’s Internet connection through the notification panel requires users to tap a drop-down menu and choose between Wi-Fi or data usage. This added layer might irritate consumers who are used to having two separate buttons for each function.
Some of you might say that navigating across a 6.7-inch screen can be physically demanding – and we think that it’s a valid thought. In fact, using this device in typical back-home-apps navigation bar makes the Motorola Edge 30 Pro unfavorable to people with tiny hands.
However, thanks to Edge 30 Pro’s Gesture Navigation – which allows users to swipe at the phone’s edges to perform back, home, and apps functions – your app-hopping could be easier than you thought.
Despite everything we mentioned above, we loved Edge 30 Pro’s aesthetics. Motorola allows you to tweak the phone’s UI to your liking as shown below.
With Edge 30 Pro’s smart features, we felt that we’re holding a 2022 smartphone. It’s more intelligent, more thoughtful to your needs, and it tries its best to become a valuable device whether you’re into gaming, productivity, or entertainment.
Speaking of entertainment, you can never go wrong with a 6.7-inch, 1080 x 2400 (FHD+) screen. Although we feel like an FHD+ on a 6.7-inch screen is a little short in today’s standard, Edge 30 Pro’s screen sharpness and vivid colors were enough to compromise.
Hardware
We tested out Edge 30 Pro’s 4,800mah battery in two rounds: first, we had to use the phone in 60Hz; second, the power-sucking 144Hz screen. Either way, we were impressed by Edge 30 Pro’s performance.
Its huge battery allows you to leave your power banks at home, and charging it back to 100% takes shorter time thanks to its 68W, fast charging power brick. Not to exaggerate, but this device lives up to its claim of 50% power in just 15 minutes.
The fingerprint mechanics, however, isn’t as accurate as you wish. With the fingerprint sensor painted over the lock/power key, it was quite tricky to pick which finger should we enroll for unlocking given its length and placement.
The Motorola Edge Pro 30 houses a Qualcomm SM 8460 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and a minimum of 8GB RAM for each variation. Having said that, you can expect a polished operation of your apps – whether it is for gaming, productivity, entertainment, and others. Capable of connecting to 5G network, the Edge 30 Pro also aces in surfing the Internet.
For benchmark results, please see the tests we made using PC Mark, GeekBench, and 3DMark.
Camera
Honestly, we could feel Edge 30 Pro’s midrange persona while testing the camera.
Despite being peppered with photography features while being equipped with 50-megapixel rear cameras and a 60-megapixel front shooter, the Edge 30 Pro cannot compete with other smartphones tagged in the same price range. Check out the photos below.
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro has clearly chosen to build up on other aspects of the phone, leaving the photography department unexciting. And for a smartphone user (like me) who prefers performance over photography – that compromise makes perfect sense.
Verdict
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro may not be a perfect smartphone, but it surely picked the right features to specialize on. Priced at P34,995, it is effortlessly convincing to anyone who does not want to cough up extra cash for a more expensive option.
