Motorola Edge 30 Pro review

Introduction

Always special in some way that is entirely their own, Motorola high-end phones never fail to excite. The Edge 30 Pro is their latest flagship and it comes with an extra smooth display, a trio of high-res cameras, desktop PC functionality, and, this time around, top-tier chipset.

One phone, three alter egos. The Motorola Edge 30 Pro we have here is also sold in the US as the Edge+ with a 2022 attached to set it apart from a 2020 phone by the same name, and it comes with a different charger and supported network bands. The two are a spin-off of the China-only X30 announced late last year, which differs only in that it can be had with an under-display selfie camera, though a regular version also exists.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro • Motorola Edge X30

With that cleared up, let’s start unpacking. Motorola’s been one-upping the competition by offering 144Hz displays on premium models for a while now, and the Edge 30 Pro continues along that path – 120Hz is so 2020. It’s not a super high-res panel, but at 1080p it’s good enough and it’s an OLED too.

There’s plenty of high-res bits on this Edge, however. Take the 60MP front-facing camera, for example – outside of a couple of flippy Zenfones that’s the highest pixel count on a selfie camera we’ve seen.

No such records on the back, but you get two of them – both the main camera and the ultrawide have 50MP sensors, pretty large ones for each of their applications, too. The ultrawide also has AF capability to double as a macro shooter. One notable omission is a telephoto camera – the third lens you’re seeing is a ‘depth’ sensor, and we’ll have to pay close attention to how the main camera deals with zooming.

Unlike last year’s Edge 20 Pro, which used a one-notch-lesser Snapdragon, the 30 Pro is equipped with Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon for 2022, the 8 Gen 1. A ton of memory options exist too, ranging from 8GB/128GB all the way up to 12GB/512GB.

You may not need all that, but it couldn’t hurt, and we can see it being particularly useful in ‘ready for’ use cases – Motorola’s take on turning a phone into the heart of a desktop PC. And that’s not all of the unconventional functionality on offer – the phone also supports stylus input, though you’ll have to buy that one separately or look out for the right bundle.

Always bundled is a charger, though, and as we all know that’s not guaranteed as of late. It’s a pretty high-powered one too, at 68W, and you’ll probably need to use it often if you opt for the always-144Hz display mode, though the battery’s 4,800mAh capacity doesn’t sound inadequate.

Here’s a quick rundown of the specs of this international version Edge 30 Pro we’ll be looking at on the following pages.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 163.1×76.0x8.8mm, 196g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 3), glass back (Gorilla Glass 5), plastic frame; Water-repellent design.
• Display: 6.70″ OLED, 1B colors, 144Hz, HDR10+, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 393ppi; Always-on display.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 12.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 1/1.55″, 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.2, 114˚, 1/2.76″, 0.64µm, AF; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 60 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.61µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 10-bit HDR10+, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/120fps.
• Battery: 4800mAh; Fast charging 68W, 100% in 35 min (advertised), Fast wireless charging 15W, Reverse wireless charging 5W.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; Ready For support.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro unboxing

The Edge 30 Pro ships in a navy two-piece cardboard box with minimal, yet unmissable shiny branding on top – that bat logo must be shown off. The ‘ready for’ support and 5G capability also get some ad space.

Inside the box, we get one of the most compact 68W USB Power Delivery chargers we’ve seen, and a USB-C cable to go with it. There’s also a soft silicone case included. For those of you in the US, however, the Moto Edge+ (2022) bundle includes a 30W charger instead.