Motorola Edge 30 Review: Lacks the EDGE over its rivals | Mobile Reviews

Motorola Edge 30 Review: Lacks the EDGE over its rivals

Motorola Edge 30, the slimmest and light weight phone has attractive features on paper. But in order to consider it worth buying you need a reality check. Read the full review here.

By: PRIYA KUMARI
| Updated on: Aug 22 2022, 12:25 IST
Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 comes with a starting price of Rs. 27,999. (Priya/HT Tech)
Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 comes with a starting price of Rs. 27,999. (Priya/HT Tech)

Some phones like to sell you a gimmick or two -- flashy design, or the highest resolution camera, or the fastest charging solution you can imagine in a phone! And then there are phones that just try to do a bit of everything and end up not good at most things! If you catch the drift, you have got the sense of what we are going to say about the Motorola Edge 30! After a fantastic package that was the Motorola Edge 30 Pro, Motorola's outing in the sub- 30,000 space is rather an uninspiring offering.

On its social media portals, Motorola claims the Edge 30 to be the slimmest, thinnest and what not! It also debuts the Snapdragon 778G+ chipset, which is currently the fastest 700 series chip we have seen on our shores. It even gets two 50MP cameras on the back, and a 144Hz pOLED display! A drool worthy spec sheet! But is that as drool worthy to use as in the real world? I used the Edge 30 for about 10 days to find out.

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Motorola Edge 30 Design

Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)
image caption
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)

For a phone that is called the "Edge", it is obvious to expect something edgy; something flashy that turns heads. The Motorola Edge 30 sadly isn't any of that. Handsome looking? That for sure but eye-catchy it is not! By giving the Edge 30 a boxy look, Motorola definitely tried to step into the design segment which companies like Apple, Samsung, and others are following but by making the Edge 30 far more lighter. As the phone is sleek (6,79mm), and light weight (155 grams) it feels very handy and comfortable to hold. However, The back panel including the camera hump attracts smudges. Moving to the front, the Motorola Edge 30 has a decently big display of 6.5 inches with thin bezels, a selfie camera at top center, and in-display fingerprint sensor at the bottom.

Motorola Edge 30 Display

A big screen with decent viewing angle, quick touch response, and popping colours are some of things which you want from a mid-range priced phone. And Motorola Edge 30 did check the boxes right. With the screen size of 6.5 inches, the phone offers a decent viewing experience. It features a 10-bit pOLED display along with 144Hz of refresh rate. You can change the refresh rate either to 60Hz, 144Hz or Auto. Initially, I used the phone by keeping the refresh rate at 144Hz, which worked perfectly, even the touch response was quick and did not show any lag. However, the battery consumption increased. You will notice a difference in the same as you switch to the auto mode or 60Hz refresh rate.

Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)
image caption
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)

From binge-watching, playing games to scrolling social media, or just surfing the internet, it all managed to work impressively. While coming to the colour accuracy, the saturated mode is on by default which results in brightening some of the colours, and someone who prefers the natural colours will have to change it to the same by going to the settings.

Motorola Edge 30 Performance

Motorola with its Edge 30 brings the Snapdragon 778G+ 5G chipset to India. The phone runs on Android 12 and performs amazingly well. The Edge 30 is free of bloatware or any pre-installed apps, hence offering you a great user experience with its clean and easy to use UI. From loading the apps, using multiple apps, to doing other basic daily activities like calling, browsing the internet, playing games, using social media applications to more- whatever task you throw at the phone it handles it with ease and class without throwing any tantrums or bothering you in any ways.

If you are a gaming enthusiast, Motorola Edge 30 is a phone you may like. From light weight games like Subway Surfer, Temple Run to high end games like Call of Duty, BGMI, among others- the phone is capable of providing you an impressive gaming experience. You will enjoy better graphical performance when compared to phones using the Snapdragon 778G, or the Snapdragon 695 chip.

Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)
image caption
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)

And then there's the software experience, which is easily one of our favorites. You get the Google Pixel-like user interface with Material You elements, which is all clean and sorted out. It looks funky and is devoid of any bloatware apps, or adware. It is not exactly stock though, as Motorola sprinkles its own custom elements on top to make it easier to live with. In fact, there's enough for customisation fans to play with. The Motorola Edge 30 also supports gestures, one hand mode, video calls effects, and much more. With the video call effect switched on, you will be able to use effects blurring the background, audio zoom, and subject tracking, thus making your video calling experience more exciting and enjoyable.

The phone also shows total duration of phone usage and that too divided in sections and app wise. It further shows how many notifications you receive and unlocks done, under the Digital wellbeing and parental controls section in Settings. You can even set up Bedtime mode and Focus mode to stop getting disturbed or distracted from notifications and alerts that are not important. Also Read: Motorola Edge 30, 'world's thinnest 5G phone', launches in India; Check price, specs here

The phone is equipped with two stereo speakers that support Dolby Atmos and Snapdragon Sound. The audio was loud and clear and thus helped in enhancing the entertainment experience. Even when the phone is connected with earphones, the sound performance was stellar. Talking about the calling experience and Wi-Fi or internet connectivity, the phone offers 5G technology, which is still something yet to come in the country. While, with the 4G connectivity, doing both the audio and video calls were satisfactory.

Motorola Edge 30 Cameras

Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)
image caption
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)

When you get excellent camera performance from phones ranging under Rs. 25,000, like Oppo F21 Pro, among others, your expectation with Motorola Edge 30 rises. For me, the images clicked did not impress; they are just average. The Motorola Edge 30 sports triple camera setup with 50MP main rear camera, 50MP Ultra-wide angle, 2MP depth camera and 32MP front camera.

The pictures extracted the colours accurately, clarity and sharpness were also fine. However, compared to the camera outputs from other phones under this price range, you can get a bit disappointed. Also compared to the pictures clicked in day light in normal or portrait mode, I liked the ones taken at night more using the night vision mode.

You can check the camera samples here for more clarity.

Coming to the videos, they also seemed fine. There are several other camera modes that you can explore like- Pro mode, Spot colour, Panorama, dual capture, among others.

Motorola Edge 30 Battery

Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)
image caption
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)

Battery capacity is another area that disappoints! At a time when companies are offering 4500-5000mAh battery along with 65W charger and faster, Motorola Edge 30 is equipped with a 4,020mAh battery. Though this could be one of the reasons behind the light weight of the phone! With around 4000mAh battery and a 144Hz display, a good battery backup cannot be expected and yes, Edge 30 will give you only around a day of battery life on a single charge with normal usage of around 4 hours which include calling, surfing internet, scrolling social media, and more.

On weekends, if you are in the mood of watching a 3 hour-long movie, or playing high end games for around 30 min or more, you will have to charge the phone twice in a day. The phone also comes with a 33W charger and hence takes around 50 minutes to an hour to get fully charged from 10 percent.

Verdict

Motorola Edge 30
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)
image caption
Motorola Edge 30 (Priya/HT Tech)

Trying to ace the spec sheet makes the Motorola Edge 30 struggle in most areas. With this phone, you get a decent design and overall performance, but the phone fails to impress with its camera output and battery backup, especially for the price it is being offered. The phone does bring the Snapdragon 778G+ 5G to India, and is slim and light weight but these things alone make it tough to ignore the competition in the sub- 30,000 smartphone space. When it comes to better cameras with fun modes, the Oppo F21 Pro and Realme 9 Pro+ can be considered as better options. For better battery life with fast charging, you can consider the likes of Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge, and Realme 9 Pro+. Even the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5G is a good lightweight option to consider, especially with its 10-bit AMOLED display and the Snapdragon 778G chip.

However, the Motorola Edge 30 offers one of the nicest Android experiences at this price range, and also one of the fastest chipsets in this segment. If you are seeking a solid Android experience with a powerful chip, and a good display, you can consider the Motorola Edge 30. For those wanting good cameras, strong battery life, and faster charging, the competition has better products to offer.

Rating
3.5 out of 5
Price
INR 27,999/-
Product Name
Motorola Edge 30
Brand Name
Motorola
Pros
  • Decent performance
  • Okayish design
  • Smooth and fast responsive screen
Cons
  • Poor battery backup
  • Slow charging
Specifications
  • Display
    6.5-inch pOLED display
  • Battery
    4020mAh
  • Rear camera
    50MP+50MP+2MP
  • Front camera
    32MP
  • OS
    Android 12
  • Chipset
    Snapdragon 778G

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First Published Date: 17 May, 16:05 IST
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