REVIEW: Motorola Edge 30 Pro

After a few good years without a flagship to call its own, Motorola has brought to market the intriguing Edge | edge+ in 2020. Fortunately, in the following years, the idea of ​​a high-end smartphone was no longer abandoned and now in 2022 we are back with the Motorola Pro Edge 30.

The company's new bet on the premium market brings the Android 12 out of the box and is the first smartphone in the world to be equipped with Qualcomm's new chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 — although the line Galaxy S22, from Samsung, has arrived first with this processor to the Brazilian market.

The experience of testing this device was wonderful for me, since I was one of the adherents of the “Moto G1 movement” in its glory days, so being able to go back to working with a Motorola model after years and seeing the evolution in so many aspects was something very Good.

Design

O Motorola Pro Edge 30 it's constructed of glass on the front (Gorilla Glass 3) and back (Gorilla Glass 5), although it doesn't appear to be glass on the rear — which features its triple camera array without having a big bounce. Plus, it came with a case from the factory, which is great.

On the right side, we have the volume and power buttons - which also serves as a biometric reader. About this reader, I had no problems registering my fingers, but on a daily basis, I found its use strange. I don't know if it's because it's in a very high region of the device, but I didn't like it.

At the bottom, we have the USB-C input, sound output and the chip drawer that unfortunately no longer supports memory cards. Both on the top and bottom we have microphones, and the left side has no features. In terms of protection, the Edge 30 Pro It has an IP52 certification, which provides protection against dust and water splashes.

Despite the name Edge, the new model is flat, following the current trend and even the previous model (Edge 20 Pro). Although I like the current design, I admit that the first Edge stood out much more in this aspect because it actually had an edge.

O Edge 30 Pro arrives in Brazil in blue and white, and the model I received to test was blue. Moving away from the current trend of flagships without anything in the box, the model not only comes with headphones, but also a 68W Turbo Power charger and a protective case.

Fabric

Over the past few months, I've been able to walk through some smartphone models and test some screens, and the Motorola Pro Edge 30 It's one of the best I've had the pleasure of testing. It is very fluid, thanks to its 144Hz refresh rate.

With a size of 6,7 inches, the OLED screen supports HDR10+ and will deliver everything you need in games, movies and series, with excellent contrast and vivid colors. Also, because it's OLED, when using the smart screen mode (Always on Display) it won't have that grayish black.

The resolution here is Full HD+ (1080×2400) and has around 393ppi pixel density. At the time of putting this screen to play, I had only praise. YouTube videos turned out great, watching movies got a Tchan and when it comes to games, 144Hz makes all the difference.

Speaking of games and refresh rate, the flagship Motorola has a 360Hz ring sampling rate and low latency, which helps a lot in competitive gaming. In short, we have a screen of respect and will probably please everyone, including gamers.

Battery

O Motorola Pro Edge 30 comes with 4800mAh of battery, an excellent size for a smartphone of its category and I can say that if it had even a little more, it would be a good size. In my daily use with social media, YouTube, Spotify and camera tests, it lasted about 1 full day with about 10% left over.

It's a very good performance, since I used it frequently in tests, practically without giving the device a break. On the smartphone's own graphics, it had a performance of about 5 to 6 hours of screen on, which is also very good and will allow you, who likes to play, not to have major problems.

It is good that the battery optimization is up to date, however the main highlight of the device is its charger 68W Turbo Power which — amazingly — comes in the box. With this charger, Edge 30 Pro went from 15% to 100% battery in about 40 minutes. Pay attention to the detail that he reached 50% in just 15 minutes.

This fast charge is excellent in every way, but it's much appreciated when you're low on battery and little time to recharge. By the time you take a shower and get ready, it will have enough charge for good hours of use.

Performance

O Motorola Pro Edge 30 is the first smartphone in the world to be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 from Qualcomm, and this results in a very interesting performance. To help with this task, it comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, more than enough for you to enjoy a little bit of everything.

In daily use on social networks or just digging through all its functions, the device has excellent fluidity, whether when opening apps or closing them, or when scrolling the timeline, which is excellent thanks to 144Hz.

In more intensive use, as in games, I was able to test the titles Free Fire MAX, Asphalt 9, Sky: Sons of Light e Genshim Impact. In all of them, I managed to put the maximum of the graphics and also the frame rate allowed by each of them. In terms of performance, everything flowed very well, but I had another problem: the Edge 30 Pro it warmed up a lot.

The back heats up, but doesn't get in the way. The front, especially in the Genshin Impact, it got burned to play at a certain point. It's nice to see that even in these situations the good performance was maintained, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be solved. It's something very uncomfortable and hopefully Motorola and Qualcomm can find a way to better optimize the smartphone.

Already on streaming services, YouTube or multitasking, the smartphone did not present any problems and delivered one of the coolest experiences of recent times, without stuttering, easy use and good compatibility with almost everything.

For benchmark tests, I used the 3DMark with Wild Life to show its full power. In the simplest test, the benchmark evaluates for 1 minute everything the smartphone has to offer. Check the results below:

System and interface

Fortunately Motorola has already sent its new flagship to Android 12 of manufactures. As usual, it doesn't have many changes compared to what Google offers in the core of Android and uses the system My UX, from Motorola itself.

I've always really liked the idea of ​​“pure Android”, but Android 12 is a mixed bag on this issue. It has interesting improvements in terms of privacy, improving transparency, but it left me a little confused with its new taskbar.

In addition, interesting features such as being able to choose to turn down the volume of only a specific app instead of everything at once turned out to be a bit buggy. They work right away, but even after closed, they continue to appear in the volume pop-up.

A very good thing about Motorola smartphones that are fortunately still here are the Moto functions. There are gestures for the camera, flash, to put it in Do Not Disturb mode and others that killed my nostalgia for the Motorola system.

Of all this, however, what I like the most is the “Moto Tela”, popularly known in other brands as “Always on Display”. By default, the feature is enabled full of “lights”, but I've set it to be as simple as possible, emphasizing the use of the OLED screen and it's just perfect.

Camera

In order not to lose the habit, the moment of controversy has arrived. Despite many cameras, Motorola never seems to reach its peak in this regard. In this model I got good results, but I had some disappointments.

That's because Motorola decided not to put a telephoto camera anymore and instead, just a 2MP depth sensor. In practice, this leaves the rear camera a little “covered”. We have a triple set here, with a 50MP main camera and another Ultra Wide and Macro Hybrid, also with 50MP.

This kit manages to deliver good photos in ideal conditions (good lighting) but, in darker places, expect a slightly boring level of grain. Night mode doesn't help much, so I recommend not using it, in most cases.

One thing I've noticed is that the cameras differ from each other when it comes to colors. In one, we have more vivid colors, in another, more bluish colors. Check out:

Test 1 (Main on the left and Ultrawide on the right):

Test 2 (Main on the left and Macro on the right):

As nice as the Macro function is, having a 3x or 5x zoom without losing quality is something much more interesting, don't you think? And well, it doesn't make sense to remove any of these functions in this model, since in the previous version we had both.

I didn't particularly like the more washed out tones of the ultra wide camera. For me, leaving these photos with this “Zack Snyder filter” doesn't help much when taking that panoramic photo of a beautiful landscape or sunset, or sunrise, for example.

Selfie Camera

If on the back I was disappointed, I can't say the same about the selfie camera. Motorola has put a 60MP wide sensor and f/2.2 aperture. With this camera, I was able to make good selfies with a high level of detail, in addition to a coloring that I liked a lot.

In the functionalities part, we have the effect bokeh (the famous blurred background) made entirely by software and with great performance, reinforcing my idea that I didn't need a lens for this on the rear camera.

Among other things, we have a function to choose the focus for a color in the scene and the rest is in black and white, giving a very nice contrast. Despite being very interesting, however, she makes the perfect cut only when she wants to.

Finally, in recordings we have options up to 4K30 in selfies and up to 8K24 in the rear. It's strange not having 4K60 functions even with so much power, so it's possible that it will be available in future updates.

Audio and Ready For

The new flagship da Motorola luckily it brings two stereo speakers, which again reminds me of the good times of the Moto X and Moto G2 line. The sound is nice and it's good that they've invested in this feature again. However, I have one small complaint regarding the top speaker.

When we're gaming, naturally we're going to plug the bottom sound output and that's where the stereo sound should shine. What happens here, unfortunately, is that the audio from the top is quite weak, so it doesn't change much when you don't have the bottom sound output at your disposal.

Again, it's good that Motorola is investing in this part and I hope they improve in the next versions. In short, we have a pleasant sound, with Dolby Atmos, but that sins by having one side well below the level of the other.

Released on Edge 20 models last year, we have the system back ready for, Motorola's desktop mode. In our review of the Edge 20 Pro you can see all the details of the platform, but I was also able to test some functions of Ready For.

The platform is interesting and works wired or wireless. I tested the wireless mode a few times and well, I had some delay problems, but the visuals are interesting and attractive. My only problem with these functions is that they are very limited in terms of connectivity.

To connect to a monitor you need a USB-C cable, but then we get into a problem where either the monitor doesn't have a USB-C input or you don't have an HDMI/USB-C adapter for the smartphone. And in wireless mode, Ready For can't find Chromecast or Fire Stick, for example, which would be just fine.

Completion and availability

O Motorola Pro Edge 30 it brings a natural evolution of the Edge line, but it plays very safe, in my opinion. It improves what we already imagined, such as processor, RAM and storage, but it has quite dubious choices in its rear lenses and for not offering IP68 protection, for example.

That said, it's a great smartphone, but depending on what you're after, you'll always feel like something's missing. I feel like Motorola is almost there, but it's missing maybe a little bit of daring.

O Motorola Pro Edge 30 It is already available in the main retailers in the country for the suggested value of R$6.499. At Magazine Luiza he can be found by 6.044,07 in cash or in up to 10 installments of 649,90. And if you buy the device before 31/03, you can redeem the gift of a headset Motorcycle Buds 100 and a wireless charger Motorola, through Buy and Win Promotion.

Technical specifications

Brand	Motorola
Córdoba	Edge 30 Pro
chipset	Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm) CPU: Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510)
Operational system	Android 12 with system My UX from Motorola
GPU	Adreno 730
RAM memory	12 GB
Storage	256GB
Fabric	6,7 inches OLED 144Hz 1080 x 2400 pixels (20:9) Gorilla Glass 3 1 billion colors
Cameras	Main camera (wide): 50MP, f/1,8 multi-directional PDAF, optical stabilization Hybrid Ultra Wide Camera: 50 MP. f/2,2, macro function Depth sensor: 2MP, f/2,4 HDR, dual tone flash Front camera: 60MP (wide), f/2,2 with HDR
Institutional	Front: 4K30FPS, 1080p @ 30/120FPS Rear: 8K24FPS, 4K30FPS, 1080p at up to 960FPS in super slow motion
5G	Yes
Audio	Stereo Audio
Battery	4800mAh with fast charging at 68W Wireless charging at 15W 5W reverse charging
Weight	196g
Dimensions	– Width: 7,59cm – Height: 16,3cm – Depth: 0,879cm
Connectivity	5G; NFC; WiFi 6; Bluetooth 5.2; GPS
IP68 protection	No
What's in the Box	- Smartphone – 68W TurboPower charger – USB-C data cable at both ends – USB-C stereo headset
Price and availability	6.044,07 in cash or in up to 10 installments of 649,90 in Magazine Luiza