If you look at it from the outside it is difficult to distinguish it from last year’s model, unless you have chosen the version with a white body (the other color available is a nice blue). Double camera and depth sensor, screen with symmetrical frames, light weight (196 grams), wireless charging. The new Motorola Edge 30 Pro is all here. It is very similar to the previous version, but inside it changes a lot if not everything, starting with the excellent one 5G connection and WiFi 6E, from the dynamic refresh of the screen and the processor finally up to par. All seasoned with a brush of artificial intelligence prepared by Motorola and administered thanks to the excellent Qualcomm processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform.
Italian.tech was able to test it in preview for two weeks and below, more than the usual, boring technical specifications, you will find what we liked most and least of the new Motorola flagship. Starting with the box.
Box
Motorola has decided to lighten the package: more eco-sustainable and compact, in the package we find a transparent silicone cover (very useful), the 65W charger, the Usb-C to Usb-C cable, the headphones. There is no Usb-C-Hdmi adapter present in the previous package (which also created a lot of space): it is sold separately. Motorola continues to pursue the strategy of a desktop experience on the go and you can connect your phone to a monitor, keyboard and mouse to turn it into a small desktop computer. The desktop system works very well, but its use is quite residual. We haven’t even tested the integrations with Android Tv, Windows 11 and with Motorola’s virtual reality platform: all possibilities that they are not yet essential in the daily experience of a smartphone.
Price
Let’s take the bull by the horns right away: the price. The new generation of Edge Pro, which are the flagship Motorola, takes courage and begins the climb to the top of the sector. The Edge 20 Pro, which we reviewed here, cost around 500 Euros (699 at launch) while the new Edge 30 Pro debuts with a price tag of € 849.90 for the only device available: white or blue version with 256 GB of memory and 12 GB of Ram. It’s a high price tag, but more than commensurate with the performance of the device – Motorola has created a flagship economic compared to the threshold of one thousand euros of Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and the work done over the past years of steadily growing and improving the appliances shows that it is credible.
Connectivity
The 5G of the phone is available on both nano-sims and the WiFi connection is the newest WiFi 6E. Bluetooth 5.2, Nfc, Usb-C 3.1 port, three microphones and dual speaker stereo audio output plus Dolby Atmos. In home use, where we have a WiFi 6E router, the limit has become the fiber connection, which in the city is often congested. The 5G / 4G connection is very stable with both Iliad and Fastweb, the two mobile operators that we used in parallel with the physical dual sim. As is happening more and more often with new generation smartphones, if there are connectivity problems the “node” is always on the side of the network providers and not of the devices. The Motorola is no exception. The audio experience (if you are still interested in calling) is very good: in business and family calls we asked all interlocutors if our voice “sounded good” and no one pointed out any problems.
Android 12 Stock
Android is now even easier to use. With the new Edge 30 Pro they substantially improve the performance of the phone compared to the previous generation thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform processor with Android 12 and the enhanced camera (also substantially improved the software of the serial app for photos ) while maintaining Motorola’s distinctive features: stock interface, reliability, pleasantness of use. Many improvements are due to the Qualcomm platform which facilitates artificial intelligence functions, allowing the phone to do a very wide range of “smart” adjustments in fluency. The phone will have two annual Android updates and security patches for three years.
Version 12 of Google’s operating system changes a few things for Android users, but making a difference as always are the implementations of individual phone manufacturers. Motorola is part of the group of those who use an Android Stock enriched with some interesting ideas. The user experience is pleasant without being too loaded with features or personalization apps, which in our opinion is just fine. The only thing that can be reproached, apart from a configurator at the beginning a bit invasive and a series of non-standard but some comfortable gestures (“Watchful screen” that doesn’t go out if we look at it) is that after a while it gets boring. As always, after testing Motorola’s Launcher, we downloaded another third-party one (Niagara) with other customizations (set of icons and fonts with the excellent Klwp to build wallpaper animations) and we completely changed the experience of use. It’s Android’s strength, after all.
Display
Great: it was already good in the previous version, now it’s even better. It is a 6.7 “OLED with symmetrical bezels, small hole for the 60 megapixel front camera and refresh rate dinamico da 60Hz a 144Hzunlike that of the previous generation which had to be set manually. Precise touch, colors and adaptable refresh are its strengths. He is the one who makes the experience of using the phone very pleasant. Apparently in our test the impact on the battery was very limited, and this is good.
Camera
It was the thing we liked least about the previous model and Motorola’s engineers had to be aware of it too, so much so that it’s one of the areas where the biggest changes have been made. New software that better manages the different situationsmassive use of artificial intelligence and the same approach with two lenses plus one: two 50 megapixel sensors (normal and wide angle), optical stabilization on normal, third depth camera, quad-pixel, 8K UHD and slow video shooting motion FHD 120 fps. Beyond the technical data, which in the end leave the time they find, the user experience and the images taken especially in low or variable light conditions are excellent compared to that Edge 2o Pro and mid-tier phones. Fortunately, the delay in shooting is gone and the rendering of images with low light has taken a significant step forward. We really like the macro shot.
Two things about the charge
The Edge 30 Pro has a 65W stock charger that allows a very fast boosted “TurboPower” recharge. The charging curve is steep: the first twenty minutes charge 80% of the battery, but ten are enough to exceed half of the 4,800 mAh battery. During the test it became practically useless to test the autonomy of the phone (almost two days of normal use) because the possibilities of recharging so fast make the batteries practically infinite. In addition, the phone has standard 15W wireless charging (works with most third party accessories on the market) and also a very convenient thing: the ability to charge in mode wireless power sharing other accessories with 5W of power. We used it to charge the case of the Bluetooth headphones on the train and it’s a useful feature.
Conclusion
The previous generation lacked a true flagship: the Motorola Edge 20 Pro was more of a mid-tier. Now Motorola with the Edge 30 Pro it raises the game: it costs more (849.90 list), it offers more. In our opinion, it is not worth upgrading from last year’s phone, the difference is not that marked or revolutionary, even if practically all the roughness of the previous model is smoothed out. For the rest, the positioning of the Edge 30 Pro is excellent. A true economic flagship, in the price range under a thousand euros, dominated by Apple where even Samsung and Xiaomi are in difficulty. Motorola’s market shares still do not reflect this, but in our opinion it is time to take the Lenovo group brand seriously in the top segment of mobile telephony as well.