The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is an excellent successor to the Edge 20 Pro and one of the most reasonably priced Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones available right now. While the Edge 30 Pro is marketed as an improvement, and it does seem like one most of the time, it does have some drawbacks. If you’re searching for a phone to play games on, consider the ROG Phone 5s, and if superb cameras are important to you, consider the OnePlus 9RT (review) or Samsung Galaxy S21 FE.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro review: Design
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro has a similar design to the Edge 20 Pro (Review). My Cosmos Blue unit appeared to be high-end. The Edge 30 Pro features a huge 6.7-inch display with a tiny camera hole on top and thin bezels on all sides. Motorola chose a glass back that is curved on the sides to make the phone more comfortable to handle. It is, however, quite large. and the weight is substantial at 196g. The Edge 30 Pro has a plastic frame, which is unusual for a flagship smartphone. The power and volume buttons of the Motorola Edge 30 Pro are on the right and slightly higher than we would have like. The left side is empty. We had to stretch my thumb to unlock this smartphone because the fingerprint scanner is embedded in the power button. Motorola might have shifted the volume buttons to the left and lowered the power button. The secondary microphone is located at the top of the frame, while the SIM tray, primary microphone, USB Type-C connector, and speakers are located at the bottom.
Display
The Moto Edge 30 Pro has a 6.7-inch pOLED HDR+ display with a refresh rate of 144Hz. Because of the high refresh rate, everything appears smooth and easy on the eyes. The phone’s scrolling is incredibly smooth. With a touch sampling rate of 576Hz, it is extremely responsive to touch. Even a light touch of the fingertip activates the app or performs another function. It has a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9 with HDR10+ support. When watching HD and HDR videos, the visual quality is superb. The graphics are crisp, clear, and vibrant, displaying every detail. With a max brightness of 700 nits, sunlight legibility is quite good.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro review: Software
The tablet ships with Android 12 preinstalled, which allows for customization through alternate fonts, accent colours, and other options. It also allows for lower location accuracy for select apps and has a privacy dashboard that allows you to see exactly which apps have been allowed which rights. Motorola guarantees three years of security patches in addition to two major Android updates. Motorola has kept the operating system mostly unaltered, with only the Moto and the Ready For apps preloaded. Facebook was the only third-party app we discovered. Connecting a computer to this smartphone is simple, and you can use Chromecast, Miracast, and USB-C to mirror your smartphone’s display to a larger screen. Motorola, on the other hand, goes a step further with Ready For, which offers a customised user interface as well as support for a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard for a full office PC experience. It also enables smartphone mouse cursor movement and data access on either the linked PC or the smartphone itself.
Hardware and Performance
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU powers the latest model, which is the most powerful processor available. With 12 GB of RAM, you can expect uncompromised performance. Everything works flawlessly quickly and smoothly, including the UI, programs, and even the most resource-intensive games. It should be mentioned, however, that Qualcomm’s latest generation processor proved to be just as ‘hot’ as the preceding 888th. Even with a modest load and basic applications (no 3D games), the Edge 30 Pro became visibly warm. However, it cannot be argued that the heating is so intense that you are unable to hold the handset. You can, but it will still get very hot. The phone warmed up twice during the test, making it uncomfortable to hold once during a stress test and once when charging. In the popular 3DMark Wildlife stress test, the phone got 62% stability. And the outcome of the CPU throttling test was 83%, which is even better. Other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 devices are less stable. In the case of the Edge 30 Pro, we believe we can see the benefits of Motorola’s efforts to improve the quality of the software and its clear link with the hardware used. Moto has consistently demonstrated that it is more stable and performant than many of its competitors.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro review: Camera
Motorola phones were never particularly well-known for their cameras. This is because the corporation never produced the greatest camera-performers available. The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is equipped with a brand-new 50MP triple-camera system. The primary sensor is 50MP with an f/1.8 aperture and OIS. This sensor also has QuadPixel technology, which combines four pixels into one larger one, boosting low-light photography and reducing memory usage. During the day, this main camera delivers excellent results. Even with moving objects, photos have correct saturation and exposure while retaining good detail. Focus is quick, and OIS aids in making the shooting process feel stable and dependable. The images taken with the Edge 30 Pro aren’t the most detailed, but they’re more than adequate for most people. This Motorola flagship phone’s ultra-wide camera is another 50MP sensor. It features an aperture of f/2.2 and employs QuadPixel technology. This sensor gives me conflicting sensations. While images taken during the day seem fine and have good exposure, detail is lacking. It’s not horrible, but when you try to zoom in, the image becomes blurry.
Battery life
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is the first smartphone to employ Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. It loaded apps quickly and could handle pretty much anything we threw at it. Scrolling was silky smooth thanks to the 144Hz display. The Edge 30 Pro’s AMOLED panel produced vibrant colours with good contrast. The dual speakers aided in making the video viewing experience even more enjoyable. However, these speakers were not properly balanced; the bottom-firing one was noticeably louder. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner was a little out of reach, but it reliably unlocked the smartphone. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 enabled the Edge 30 Pro to achieve outstanding results in benchmarking apps. It received 9,41,189 points on AnTuTu. The Edge 30 Pro scored 1,194 and 3,542 points on Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. It achieved 81fps in GFXBench’s Car Chase test. While these results were greater than the competition at this price point, I noted that the phone became extremely hot while the SoC was under load.
Motorola Edge 30 Pro review: Price and Availability
The Edge 30 Pro is priced at costs $999 for a model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. For a limited time, SBI credit card holders may get a discout instant discount on Flipkart and a Rs 5,000 cashback at retail stores, bringing the price of the phone down to Rs 44,999. Even at its normal price, the Edge 30 Pro is a no-brainer, but at the offer price, it becomes a steal. This phone isn’t perfect, but it gets most things right and is enjoyable to use. Above all, the Edge 30 Pro ushers Motorola back into the flagship game with a bang. It wouldn’t be unexpected if it turns out to be the dark horse this year, unless Motorola has something even better in store.
Final Words
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is an excellent successor to the Edge 20 Pro and one of the most reasonably priced Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones available right now. While the Edge 30 Pro is marketed as an improvement, and it does seem like one most of the time, it does have some drawbacks. The main camera is excellent, and the ultra-wide camera is adequate, but the existence of a depth sensor rather than a far more capable telephoto lens limits the versatility that would otherwise have improved its camera game.
