Motorola Edge 30 Ultra review
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is a high-end smartphone that aims to impress with its stacked spec sheet, featuring a 200-megapixel main camera, 144Hz refresh rate screen, and blazing-fast 125W charging speeds. But does it live up to its promise? Our review delves into the device's design, performance, cameras, and battery life to see if this phone is more than just a sum of its impressive specs. Can it deliver on its potential to sway consumers and become a top choice in the market?
Build Quality and Design
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra boasts an impressive build quality that justifies its flagship status. The device's design is minimalistic yet elegant, featuring a frosted Gorilla Glass 5 back panel that provides a premium feel in the hand. The typical Moto logo is situated at the center of the back panel, adding a touch of sophistication. The three-step camera bump on the Edge 30 Ultra adds a unique flair to the device's design, making it easily recognizable as a high-end smartphone. While not necessarily attention-grabbing, the design is cohesive and refined, ensuring that the phone looks and feels like a premium device. One area where the Edge 30 Ultra falls short of expectations is its ingress protection rating. Despite being a flagship device, it only boasts an IP52 rating, which means it's only protected against dust and light splashes on the front. This is somewhat disappointing considering what you'd expect from a top-of-the-line smartphone. Despite this limitation, the Edge 30 Ultra's build quality is still impressive, with a solid construction that inspires confidence in its durability. The device's weight and size make it comfortable to hold and use, even for extended periods. The overall design of the Edge 30 Ultra exudes a sense of premium-ness, making it a phone that looks and feels like a high-end device. While it may not be perfect, its build quality is certainly on par with other flagship smartphones in the market. If you're looking for a device that combines style and substance, the Edge 30 Ultra is definitely worth considering. In conclusion, the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra's build quality and design are major strengths of this smartphone. While it may have some limitations, its overall aesthetic makes it a compelling option for those seeking a premium mobile experience.
Battery Life
Battery Life: A Mixed Bag for the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra One aspect where the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra falls short is its battery life. While it's decent, it's not great. The phone packs a sizable 4,610mAh battery, but unfortunately, it can't quite deliver all-day performance. In our tests, we found that the phone lasted around 92 hours on a single charge, which is respectable but not impressive. The culprit here seems to be the device's high refresh rate display and powerful processor, which consume more power than you'd expect. Additionally, the 144Hz screen can be quite demanding, particularly if you're using it at its maximum brightness setting. However, Motorola has mitigated this issue somewhat by including a fast charger that can top up the battery to 95% in just half an hour. This is indeed impressive and will undoubtedly appeal to users who need to quickly get back to work or gaming sessions. While not ideal, the Edge 30 Ultra's battery life is still usable for most users. If you're a light user, you might find it's sufficient for your needs. However, if you're someone who relies on their phone all day or enjoys marathon gaming sessions, you may want to consider carrying a portable charger or taking other power-saving measures. Ultimately, Motorola has prioritized the phone's display and performance features over its battery life, which is understandable given the Edge 30 Ultra's premium pricing. However, we'd have liked to see more emphasis on optimizing the phone's power consumption to match its impressive specs.
Display
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra boasts an impressive 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. One of its standout features is the fast 144Hz refresh rate, which provides smooth swiping experiences. However, to conserve energy, the phone can cap the refresh rate at 120Hz in auto mode. The display's sharpness and contrast are also noteworthy, with a maximum brightness of about 500 nits that can boost up to nearly 1,500 nits in auto mode when exposed to bright sunlight. The HDR10+ support further enhances the viewing experience. One area for improvement is color accuracy, as the panel tends towards bluish hues. Nevertheless, users can adjust these through color settings. While not perfect, the display's overall performance justifies its premium feel and makes it a solid choice for those seeking an immersive visual experience. Underneath the screen lies a fingerprint reader, adding to the phone's sleek design. The display itself is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, offering robust scratch resistance and durability. In terms of display quality, the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra delivers a captivating visual experience that complements its other impressive features.
Camera
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra boasts an impressive camera setup that's sure to turn heads. At its core is a staggering 200 megapixel main camera, accompanied by a 50 megapixel ultra-wide lens and a 12 megapixel telephoto camera. While the sheer pixel count may be enticing, how well does it deliver in terms of image quality? The good news is that the Edge 30 Ultra's main camera produces excellent results, with great detail, nice exposure, and expressive colors. However, there are some caveats to consider. The white balance can sometimes lean towards a cooler tone, and while the dynamic range is good, it leaves some extremes underdeveloped. The addition of an ultra-wide mode allows you to capture even more detail, but this comes at the cost of processing time and storage space. It's worth noting that not all shots benefit from this mode, and sometimes you may get better results without it. For portraits, the Edge 30 Ultra's "portrait camera" is a decent option, providing slightly better sharpness and detail on the subject. The edge detection is impressive, but the background blur can be inconsistent if the subject is too close to the camera. The ultra-wide lens produces good quality photos with lively colors, sharpness, and contained noise. However, the macro mode using the ultra-wide camera can produce some nice results when shooting with the main camera in low light. One of the most impressive features of the Edge 30 Ultra's camera is its ability to handle night shots. The auto-night mode processing brings highlights into check and works wonders for shadow development. The darker the scene, the more dramatic the result. The sharpening gets a kick too, and noise is reduced when shooting with the telephoto cam. However, when shooting without night mode, results can be a little underexposed and soft, especially in the shadows. The ultra-wide photos are desaturated and have limited dynamic range without night mode processing. Selfies from the 60 megapixel front-facing camera come out in 15 megapixels and are great with excellent detail, wide dynamic range, and lively colors. Overall, while the Edge 30 Ultra's camera has its strengths and weaknesses, it's a solid offering that delivers not just in terms of sheer pixel count but also in image quality. If you're looking for a high-end phone with a capable camera, the Edge 30 Ultra is worth considering, despite some minor drawbacks.
Price and Value
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is a flagship device that boasts impressive specs, including a 200-megapixel primary camera, 144Hz refresh rate screen, and 125W fast charging. However, when it comes to value for money, the phone falls short. Priced at a premium, the Edge 30 Ultra is positioned as a top-tier device, but its price tag doesn't quite match its overall performance. While the camera is certainly impressive, with excellent detail and expressive colors, there are some caveats to consider. Firstly, the high refresh rate screen is not always utilized, as it can only operate at 144Hz in auto-refresh mode, which caps at 120Hz when saving energy. This means that users may not get the full benefit of the high refresh rate. Secondly, the phone's battery life, while decent, doesn't quite live up to expectations, with an endurance rating of around 92 hours. While this is still respectable, it falls short of other flagship devices in its price range. Lastly, the lack of full ingress protection (IP68) is a surprising omission, given the phone's premium pricing. Overall, while the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra offers impressive specs and performance, its value for money is compromised by these shortcomings. While it may be tempting to splurge on this device, there are other options available that offer more comprehensive feature sets at similar price points.
Performance
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is an ambitious device that promises to deliver top-notch performance with its highest-tier Snapdragon chipset, a whopping 200-megapixel main camera, and fast charging capabilities. But does it live up to the hype? In this review, we'll take a closer look at how well it performs. Firstly, let's talk about the processor - a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, which is currently Android's top flagship chipset. As expected, the performance is excellent, ranking near the top of the charts. The phone handles heavy games and multitasking with ease, making it perfect for those who need a device that can keep up with their demanding lifestyle. However, thermal management is where the Edge 30 Ultra falls short. During stress tests, both CPU and GPU performance dropped significantly, even after just a few minutes of intense usage. This might not be an issue for casual users, but heavy gamers or multitaskers might find themselves facing some heat-related problems. Despite this, the phone's daily performance is generally smooth and responsive, making it suitable for everyday use. Additionally, the fast charging capabilities mean you can quickly top up your battery when needed. Overall, while not perfect, the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra delivers solid performance that's on par with its high-end competitors. If you're looking for a reliable phone that can handle demanding tasks, this device is worth considering.
Pros
1. Motorola has gone for a minimalistic and elegant sort of design here, with frosted Gorilla Glass 5 on the back and a thin aluminum frame.
2. The phone's display is sharp enough and is quite contrasty, supporting HDR 10+ and having impressive brightness levels.
3. The fingerprint reader located under the display is fast and reliable for biometrics.
4. The stereo speakers with the earpiece doubling as the second one earned a score of very good in our loudness test and had nice sounding vocals and some bass.
5. The phone has a 4,610mAh battery that delivers decent battery life, although not mentioned explicitly.
6. The camera's ultra-wide mode produces some nice results when shooting with the main cam and low light, and night vision mode works wonders for shadow development.
Cons
1. The telephoto cam only allows for limited zoom capabilities, and photos taken without auto-night mode processing can be a bit on the soft side.
2. The ultra-wide Cam's photos aren't amazing but they're quite good, with colors that are lively and sharpness that's good as Ultra wides go, but noise is well contained and processing adds plenty of additional sharpening.
3. The macro mode uses the ultra-wide camera but zooms it in to match the main camera's field of view, which may sound like a recipe for bad quality, although surprisingly produces some nice results.
4. Full Ingress Protection is not available, only splash proofing.
5. 4K video recording on the telephoto and Ultra wide cameras is limited to 1080p resolution.
6. Selfies from the 60 megapixel front-facing cam can be a bit desaturated when recorded in lower resolutions.