So far, Motorola has launched quite a few smartphones in 2022 and according to us, the Moto Edge 30 is one of their finest devices. We have used it as our primary smartphone for about 3 months. We bought it back in January for Rs. 29999 from Flipkart. Hence, this is our full long-term review of the Moto Edge 30.
Let's get started!
Design & Build:
Let us start with the build & design of the device. The Moto Edge 30 is a slim and lightweight device and that is one of its biggest plus points. The 155g weight and the 6.8mm thickness make it one of the slimmest and lightest smartphones in the segment. We loved using it with one hand and my hands are not fatigued after prolonged use like with some other big smartphones we have used in the past.
Having said that, it's not a small device at all. The screen is plenty big and the width is also enough to make it difficult for you to reach all four corners. The matte polycarbonate back is quite slippery as well, which adds to the overall difficulty of usage.
The power and volume buttons are located on the right side of the phone. Both of which are tactile and good to use. On the bottom, it has the USB Type-C port, the sim card slot, the primary microphone, and the bottom-firing speaker. The top only houses the secondary noise-canceling microphone.
The Front of the Moto Edge 30 looks quite good with the slim enough bezels around the display and the tiny punch-hole camera with the 32MP sensor in it. There is Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the front and we haven't seen any major scratches on it even though am using it without tempered glass. Although something like Gorilla Glass 5 would've been better.
The haptic feedback is also quite pleasant from the Moto Edge 30. Although the haptic motor has been calibrated well, it has not been implemented well enough throughout the UI.
Overall, the Moto Edge 30 is a well-built and solid device, we haven't seen any issues with the build as of yet.
Display & Audio:
Now, let's move on to the Display and Audio sections. The 6.5" FullHD+ 144Hz 10-Bit pOLED display of the Moto Edge 30 is a very good overall display. The colors are punchy and the display is crisp. It is also HDR10 certified, so you can watch HDR content on it. And the media experience is top-notch. You do get the widevine L1 certification to playback full HD content on all OTT platforms but there is no HDR support on any of them.
It is quite bright, both indoors and outdoors, but we would've liked the display to be a bit brighter, especially for outdoor usage.
Some users are facing a green tint issue with the display of the Moto Edge 30, but we can say that mine is certainly safe from all that as we haven't noticed any green tint on the display of my Moto Edge 30.
The proximity sensor also hasn't been calibrated well. The display randomly turns on while taking calls and stuff keeps happening on the screen. The same thing happens when the phone is in your pocket especially while music is playing.
The 144Hz refresh rate is very smooth and you can choose between 60Hz or 144Hz. And there is even an option to automate this but in the Auto setting, the display only climbs up to a maximum of 120Hz. It only refreshes at 144Hz when you force it.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is good, but sometimes it's a little finicky while unlocking the device as it struggles to scan your finger properly. We would suggest you register the same finger twice for better accuracy. You can also change the unlock animation in the settings.
The Moto display or peek display, which is what it's being called nowadays, might just be the ideal replacement for an AOD. It works on both OLED and LCD displays and is way more interactive compared to your regular AOD.
There is also an option to adjust the colors if you are not happy with the default calibration. And Moto does give you an Anti-Flicker toggle which is frankly a lifesaver, especially at night. So overall, the display of the Moto Edge 30 doesn't disappoint.
For the audio section, you miss out on the 3.5mm headphone jack but you do get a set of stereo speakers that get really loud. There is a bottom-firing speaker and the earpiece acts as the secondary speaker. It's mostly a 60-40 combination. The Moto Edge 30 also has support for Dolby Atmos and it genuinely helps in uplifting the audio quality of both the speakers and Bluetooth accessories. The only con we noticed is that the phone starts vibrating when you move to the higher volume levels.
Performance & Battery Life:
The Snapdragon 778G+ is a decent performer when it comes to day-to-day tasks. It doesn't break a sweat for the most part. Holds its ground even while gaming if the recommended settings have been selected. Motorola does bundle a RAM boost option but we wouldn't recommend that as the RAM management is pretty good whether you choose the 6GB or the 8GB variant. The RAM used is the newer LPDDR5 RAM. We have been using the 8GB variant and most apps manage to stay in memory for quite some time. You are only limited to 128GB of UMCP5 storage on both variants and there is no SD card support. So, that is a bummer. The RAM and Storage are baked into the same chip and hence result in a better day-to-day performance.
The 778G+ is a very efficient chip that translates into the incredible battery life of the Moto Edge 30. We are averaging around 7hrs of SoT with medium to heavy usage with the refresh rate being on auto. This is with 70% on wifi and 30% on mobile data over 1 day of usage on a regular basis. Forcing 144Hz or switching completely to mobile data may result in a shift of around 30 mins in SoT. Considering the Moto Edge 30 only has a 4020mAh battery, the battery performance is quite commendable. The charging speed is also quite fast with the included 33W turbocharger. It takes about an hour to charge from 10% to 100%. So overall, am very impressed with the battery performance of the Moto Edge 30.
Software & Connectivity:
We believe the software is one of the strongest plus points of the Moto Edge 30. It comes with Android 12 on board with Motorola's MyUX on top. Motorola promises 2 years of Android version updates and 3 years of security updates.
MyUX might just be one of the finest Android skins out there. It is a lightweight OS with a ton of features baked in, and most of them are very useful during your day-to-day usage.
The look is close to stock Android which is very popular nowadays and there is little to no bloatware while everything is buttery smooth.
Little things like the peek display, twist to open the camera, chop to turn on the flashlight, swipe on the bottom to initiate one-handed mode, etc. are such useful things. Plus it also has NFC which opens up the possibility to use your smartphone as a payment option with your cards and boy have we used this feature so much.
Ready For is also something we liked a lot with the Moto Edge 30. It is similar to Samsung Dex, but you can use Ready For with any TV having Miracast support and also on your Windows PC through the client application. It’s very useful when you are in a pinch and you need to complete a few tasks that require a desktop setup. Just pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you are good to go.
Right now my device is on the April 2023 security patch and Moto promises to provide bi-monthly updates and has been delivering on it as of now. Their history with software updates hasn't been that good but they seem to have improved a lot.
The only issue with the software that we noticed was that the phone randomly restarted a few times and there was an error about the adaptive volume getting stopped a few times. None of which we could recreate manually.
There is WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 support on the Moto Edge 30. The wifi and mobile data performance is very good. We got 4G+ carrier aggregation in most of the places we have visited with the phone.
The earpiece is quite loud for voice calls and there were no connection drops while on calls. It also has support for 13 5G bands, so this shouldn't be an issue once 5G is launched in your locality.
Google Dialer is the default calling app on this phone, so call recordings will be notified to the other person.
Cameras:
Now, let us finally talk about the cameras. The Moto Edge 30 features a 50MP Wide, a 50MP Ultrawide, and a useless 2MP depth camera on the back, while the front houses the 32MP selfie camera.
The sensors are very capable of producing high-quality images and videos but Moto's processing still needs a lot of work. While the images come out as detailed with quite natural colors, some might find the images to be a little dull.
The HDR is not handled very well by the phone as the shadows get crushed more often than not. But the brighter part of the image stays well exposed.
Night-time photography is also decent as the main sensor does have OIS. But it's nothing to be proud of.
The camera app is feature packed and also provides a rich pro mode for the ones who like to fiddle around. You can shoot RAW images from the camera app and there is also an option to shoot Hi-Res 50MP shots. Auto night mode and auto HDR are also available.
The front camera is also quite decent and clicks crisp, natural-looking selfies. But there is a bit of a reddish skin tone for human subjects on all the cameras.
In the video section, you can shoot up to 4K 30 fps videos with the Main, ultrawide, and front cameras. The videos look crisp, are stable enough and the colors are very much usable.
There is also a macro mode on the Moto Edge 30 even though it doesn’t have a dedicated macro lens. The close focus range of the ultrawide lens is being used in order to achieve the macro mode over here. The results are decent enough and you can also shoot FullHD videos in the macro mode.
So, yes. While the processing is not the best. The cameras of the Moto Edge 30 are competent. Here are some samples for you to check out.
Verdict:
During the online sales, you can find the Moto Edge 30 for as low as Rs. 23000 which is a great deal for a smartphone that provides this much value for the money you're paying.
We have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Moto Edge 30 and we hope you will too if you end up getting it.
That's it for our review of the Moto Edge 30. If you have any further questions then you can leave them in the comments below and you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram for regular updates.