This is the Edge 50 Pro, and it wants to continue Motorola’s winning streak with its Edge series.
You see, last year, the massive success of the Edge 40 series helped reignite Motorola’s presence in India.
So, the Edge 50 Pro retains all the highlights of the Edge 40 series, but also focuses on amping up the camera and charging capabilities. Can it disrupt the ₹30,000-35,000 segment?
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Design & Utility
The Edge 50 is one good looking smartphone. I really like the way its camera island seamlessly blends with the back panel. The placement of the camera sensors is also symmetrical which gives it a clean look.
Although I must mention that this smartphone wobbles quite a bit on a flat surface, which can be annoying.
Hold the Edge 50 Pro in your and, and it immediately impresses with its sleek profile and well-distributed weight. The phone's sleek curves on both sides give it a slimmer profile.
By the way, the colourways on this smartphone are all validated by Pantone, which is a company known for establishing colour matching standards.
This Luxe Lavender colourway also comes with a nice vegan leather back, making it extremely soft and grippy to hold. It also adds a touch of elegance.
But, vegan leather backs are notorious for being hard to maintain. Motorola knows it, so they’ve bundled a good quality, colour-matched hard case with the phone as well.
Additionally, this smartphone is also quite durable thanks to its IP68 rating.
Motorola has also provided an optical fingerprint reader on the Edge 50 Pro and it worked well in my experience.
There’s also a pair of Dolby Atmos stereo speakers on this smartphone which are loud and output a decent level of low frequency tones as well.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Display
The Motorola Edge 50 Pro boasts a 6.7-inch pOLED curved display with a 144Hz refresh rate.
But, like on many other competing phones, 144Hz will only be unlocked in certain benchmarks and games, otherwise, the UI maxed out at 120Hz.
The display is a top-notch panel that delivers vibrant colours, excellent viewing angels, and it is further enhanced by HDR10+ support. It is also claimed to have a peak brightness of 2000 nits.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Camera Review
Please watch the video to see camera samples.
The Edge 50 Pro's camera system has impressive specs on paper: a 50MP main sensor, a 13MP ultrawide shooter, and a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom.
Specs aside, this is also the world's first Pantone-validated camera system, promising accurate colours, especially skin tones.
But here's the thing, while the main camera captures detailed photos, the colours are a different story. They lean heavily towards the contrasty and saturated side, which feels at odds with the Pantone validation claim.
The 10MP telephoto lens is a similar case. It's good for portraits, but skin tones tend to be warmer than natural. There's also a weird quirk with portrait mode sometimes missing focus on the subject's face.
The 13MP ultrawide camera is a good performer for the price. Its dynamic range isn't amazing, but it holds its own compared to competitors. It even doubles as a macro shooter offering a new perspective.
However, the colour processing on this can be inconsistent with the other sensors.
Let's now talk about the video recording, and it definitely isn't a highlight here. All three rear cameras can shoot in 4K at 30fps, but the footage suffers from exposure jumps and lacks detail.
On a brighter note, the 50MP front camera is a good performer, capturing detailed selfies. Plus, you can record 4K selfie videos at 30fps, which is a nice bonus.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Performance & Software
Starting with the Edge 50 Pro, Motorola is shaking things quite a bit in the software department. Gone is MY UX and instead, what you get is Hello UI based on Android 14.
It's a very light Android skin and only comes with Motorola and Google apps. So no annoying bloatware or glance lock screen here. However, I do wish Moto made a Gallery app for this phone, because I really dislike Google Photos.
You still get handy Moto features such as gestures to enable certain features and the Ready For app, which connects your phone to a windows computer really well.
There's also an AI theming feature called Style Sync that uses AI to create custom wallpapers, and I found it to be really underwhelming.
With the promise of 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of security updates, the Edge 50 Pro also highlights Moto’s newfound commitment to software. However, let’s hope they can deliver it on a timely basis.
Under the hood, the Edge 50 Pro packs a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset. Daily tasks and multitasking are handled smoothly for the most part. However, there are occasional micro stutters in the UI.
Here is my peculiar observation - I've used three phones with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3: this, Nord CE 4 and Vivo V30, and all three had these micro stutters. So, are there some optimisation issues with this chipset that all brands are struggling with?
That being said, you should have no problem with casual gaming on it. Call of Duty Mobile, for example, ran just fine for about half and that I played on it, that too on high + max settings.
One thing that raised eyebrows was Motorola's choice of UFS 2.2 storage for a phone priced over ₹30,000.
But, compared to the Nord CE 4 in benchmarks, the Edge 50 Pro scored faster random read and write speeds. It looks like Motorola has done some commendable optimisations here.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Battery Life
The Edge 50 Pro is quite a curious case when it comes to battery and charging.
It has a 4,500mAh battery which is barely enough by 2024 standards. Its battery life kind of reflects that - you can get around 6.5 to 7 hours of screen time with mixed use, which is not bad but not great either.
In fact, if you use two SIM cards like I do, you are most likely going to be desperately looking for a charger by the end of the day.
Moto has tried to balance it out with some high-end charging tech. The phone supports a mind-blowing 125W wired fast charging, which can fully refuel the battery in under 20 minutes!
Just note that this crazy fast adapter only comes with the higher-end 12GB/256GB variant. The base model gets a 68W adapter, which is still quite fast, but not bonkers like 125W.
This smartphone also remains the one of the mid-range smartphones to support wireless charging, which is a nice bonus.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Review
The Edge 50 Pro is a polished phone with a lot to offer.
Its combination of great design, clean software, and impressive charging tech are bound to win many people over.
It definitely isn’t the camera phone that I was hoping for, and I do believe that it deserves a bigger battery. Still, it's a phone that offers a lot to like.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro Pros & Cons
Pros
- Clean new Hello UI: Motorola ditches its MY UX for a fresh start with Hello UI based on Android 14. This lightweight skin offers a bloatware-free experience and a clutter-free user interface.
- Charging: The 125W wired charging can fully juice up the battery in under 20 minutes, while the 50W wireless charging offers a convenient cable-free option, making it a standout feature in the mid-range segment.
- Bright and vivid display: The phone's 6.7-inch pOLED curved display with a 144Hz refresh rate delivers vibrant colours and excellent viewing angles.
Cons
- Average cameras: Despite being the world's first Pantone-validated camera system claim, the Edge 50 Pro's camera performance falls short. Photos tend to be oversaturated, while the videos are very unimpressive overall.
- Battery capacity: With a 4,500mAh battery, the Edge 50 Pro falls behind some competitors in terms of battery life.
Also watch: OnePlus Nord CE 4 review
