Revisiting Motorola Edge 30 Pro - Solid build and decent performance

We will revisit the sub PHP 35K phone which first arrived in the country last April this year.

Revisiting Motorola Edge 30 Pro

In a nutshell, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro features a 6.7-inch OLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and 1080p+ resolution. It also has a 4,800mAh battery capacity with USB-C 68W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, and 5W wireless power-sharing.

This top-of-line handset is also equipped with a 50MP f/1.8 primary shooter with Omni-directional PDAF and OIS and another 50MP f/2.2 50MP  f/2.2 ISOCELL S5KGM1 114-degree ultra-wide-angle with Macro Vision and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor to complete its rear triple camera set-up.

Read on.

Unboxing/Accessories

Unboxed Motorola Edge 30 Pro

In the box with the Motorola phone, you will find a 68W charger, a USB to USB Type-C cable, a clear silicone case, a SIM ejector tool, and documentation. 

Upon closer inspection of its display, you will see that it has a pre-installed screen protector. There are no earphones included in the box.

Build Quality/Design

Motorola Edge 30 Pro in Cosmic Blue

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is pretty eye-catching and beautiful out of the box. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that the device comprises a high-quality metal, glass, and polycarbonate.

It seems weird that the company uses a plastic back for a flagship phone. Luckily, the handset packs more weight than other phones, so it did not feel cheap. For me, it's just a tad tall for comfortable single-hand use.

A sturdy handfeel from a "Pro" device

The 6.7-inch screen is nicely balanced with the phone's size and width. It has curved edges, so it is easy to hold despite its bulky form. However, I find the Edge 30 Pro hard to use one-handed with my smaller hands.

The company loaned us a unit in a stunning deep blue color called Cosmic Blue. We love that it got a matte finish, but the holographic shimmer flashes a lighter blue with green tones.

Gorgeous yet low maintenance frosted glass design!

Thanks to its matte finish, the fingerprint and smudges are almost unnoticeable. On the other hand, you may opt to put the clear jelly case in the box to ensure protection from scratches or accidental bumps.

Motorola has given the Edge 30 Pro an IP52 rating, which means it has a water-repellent design with a nano-coating finish. To clarify, it's not water-resistant but allegedly can survive light splashes to be used on a sporting adventure.

We wished that the company equipped this with an IP68 rating since it got a fairly steep price tag.

In front, you'll find the aforementioned 6.7-inch OLED screen w/ 144Hz refresh rate, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution, and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Super-slim bezels around the panel with a slightly thicker chin and a punch-hole camera placed in the upper middle of the screen.

Top view

Bottom view

On top are antenna lines and a microphone port. At the bottom, you can locate the SIM tray, microphone, USB-C port, and single-firing speaker grill.

Left side

Right side

Meanwhile, the left side is clean and then the right side houses the volume rocker and the power button, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner. I found the positioning of the sensor a bit high up on the phone since I typically use my thumbprint for unlocking.

The phone measures 163 x 75.9 x 8.79 mm and weighs 196g grams.

Multimedia Experience

OLED screen with a high refresh rate

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro sports a 6.7-inch OLED display with HDR10+ certification and a 144Hz maximum refresh rate. The front of this phone is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection with an oleophobic coating.

This panel also offers excellent viewing angles and does get bright enough at 393 ppi, even when used outdoors. You may opt to customize your screen settings and explore its Night light and High brightness modes. 

We noticed that it reduced visible screen flicker with the new DC dimming technology. Motorola claims that dimming helps conserve battery power which is correct in theory.

With an HDR10+ certification, we enjoy vivid colors when watching our favorite series on Netflix!

Almost true-to-life colors and deep blacks!

Due to the 144Hz refresh rate, transitions and effects on the phone are smooth like butter. The refresh rate is set to auto, meaning the device will select a refresh rate to suit your activity. But when we tried to set it at the highest rate, we saw a difference when scrolling through social media apps.

The dual stereo speakers with tuning by Dolby Atmos produce outstanding quality. The speakers can match the more prominent phone brands and provide a truly immersive experience.

In terms of calls, the microphones can pick up audio effectively. The noise cancellation is good enough that our callers never complained about voice quality. 

Also, they were able to record our voices clearly even if we spoke very quietly. The speakerphone worked very well and without any issues.

Camera

Triple cameras on the rounded-rectangular hump

At the back is a triple camera set-up of a 50MP f/1.8 OV50A w/ Omni-directional PDAF OIS, 50MP f/2.2 ISOCELL S5KGM1 114-degree ultra-wide-angle, Macro Vision, and 2MP f/2.4 depth, and dual-LED flash.

The stock camera app includes the following modes: Photo, Video, Portrait, Single Take, Pro, Panorama, Night Vision, Portrait Video, Cutout, Spot Color, Cinemagraph, 50MP ultra-res, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Scan, and Dual Capture.

Rear Camera Samples

Daylight normal

Daylight wide

Daylight zoom 2x

Daylight 5x zoom

Indoor normal

Indoor wide

Indoor zoom 2x

We roamed around Tagaytay and Amadeo to test the device's capabilities in terms of mobile photography. Under bright lighting conditions, the 50MP primary camera captured superb and IG-worthy photos. 

While we're taking these pictures, it seems like the sky has a lot of flares. But once the image had been processed, the photos of the sky appeared more clearly.

The details are almost perfect, with an excellent dynamic range and color reproduction. The colors appear to be leaning towards warm tones, but saturation is pretty decent.

Using pixel binning, the photos captured by this handset showed impressive sharpness and natural colors with just the right balance. 

The wide-angle lens did a great job on daytime and indoor photos. On the contrary, zooming in 2x up to 5x gave out decent but grainy images. It can go high as 10x digital zoom, but the outcome is muddy and nowhere near optical zoom.

Macro shot of a flower on a curbside.

The 2MP depth lens with Macro Vision can focus closely, but you must manage your expectations and have steady hands. Still, it gives a nice amount of detail and sharpness with good subject-to-background separation.

Bokeh shot of our dog Chewy

The portrait mode for the bokeh effect is impressive, and it's helpful that the camera app guides us to move further away from the subject until it can read the subject pretty well. Just like the macro mode, it gives a natural-looking blur.

Low-light normal

Low-light wide mode

In terms of low-light photography, the Edge 30 Pro seemed to be more prone to blurry photos if you struggle to keep the camera still. Using it to capture photos in dim areas needed about three seconds to take a shot so that's a bit faster than the average.

Nevertheless, the device rendered much clearer and brighter images compared to the ones without the night mode. 

We just noticed that the ultra-wide angle lens produced photos with less contrast and noticeable graininess. It can do better in terms of night photography to compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple.

The selfie camera is housed in a punch-hole display

Meanwhile, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro boasts a 60MP selfie camera that is located on the punch hole in the top middle area of the screen. The company also equipped it with typical camera modes such as photos, night mode, portrait, video, and other add-ons.

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie

Daylight selfie with portrait blur

Indoor selfie

Group selfie with a beauty filter

Selfie in a dark environment with LED flash

The 60MP front-facing shooter can also deliver impeccable images with good contrast, but it can be sensitive to motion blur. You need a steady pair of hands when snapping a photo,  especially when lighting conditions are far from ideal.

Without turning on the beautification feature, my skin tone seems a bit paler than the actual both in indoor and outdoor scenarios. The field of view is not that wide so it can only fit 3-4 people during group shots.

On the contrary, the colors on my clothes, hair, and make-up are on point. I also like the fact the beauty filter only softens the complexion but did not totally remove the flaws. 

When it comes to portrait mode, we noticed that subject-to-background separation is pretty good. You can even tweak the level of background blur according to your liking.

In low-light selfies, the Edge 30 Pro failed to impress us since they lack the certain sharpness and vibrance of the typical flagship phones. We think that Motorola can definitely level up its game in this aspect.

For videos, the device supports up to 8K at 30 fps or FHD at 60 FPS.

Performance

AnTuTu and Geekbench scores

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro comes new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC which has the same chipset as the Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G. There were no issues in loading multiple apps and could handle multitasking. 

PCMark and 3DMark scores

AI Benchmark and CPTD scores

Motorola Edge 30 Pro benchmark scores:

1. AnTuTu - 969,424

2. Geekbench - 1,196 (Single-Core), 3,523 (Multi-Core)

3. PCMark Work 3.0 performance - 19,498

4. 3DMark Wild Life - 9,974  and average 59.7fps

5. AI Benchmark - 261.3K

6. CPDT - 487.20 MB/s (Sequential write speed), 153.68 MB/s (Sequential read speed)

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro comes new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC which has the same chipset as the Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G. Performance-wise, there were no lags or issues in loading multiple apps and it could handle multitasking.

One of the speediest for the price, but its overall performance is not that optimized versus the competition. 

In playing games such as Mobile Legends and Call of Duty, the flagship phone delivered a smooth performance. Combined with the high-refresh 144Hz display, it works pretty well. 

Unfortunately, we experienced some heating after playing it for a long time. Geshin Impact is playable on this device but we encountered a few lags along our testing.

One of the speediest around, but it isn't as refined as the competition yet

Thanks to the 4,800mAh battery, the Edge 30 Pro can easily last a day of light usage. Sad to say, but the battery benchmarking kept crashing even after multiple tries. 

As for our observation, the device endured about 10 hours of watching shows, social media surfing, casual gaming, and a few round of calls before it went down to 20 percent. 

In addition to that, this phone comes with a 68W fast charge that enables one to charge it fully for less than an hour. This is good for people who are often hurrying to leave the house. 

Moreover, the phone is 15W Qi wireless compatible and with reverse 5W charging for smartwatches or earbuds.

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro runs on My UX 3.0-based on Android 12 and has minimal bloatware that gives it a clutter-free appeal. The company has promised two OS updates and three years of security updates. This way, this handset will get Android 13 and Android 14 updates.

Aside from that, this OS is equipped with great optional customizations possible via the Moto apps. Meanwhile, the attentive display prevents the screen from dimming or turning off while you look at it. 

Motorola Edge 30 Pro Specs

Display: 6.7-inch Gorilla Glass 3 protected, OLED screen w/ 144Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 393 ppi

CPU: 3.0GHz 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno

RAM: 12GB LPDDR5

ROM: 256GB UFS 3.1

Back Camera: 50MP f/1.8 OV50A w/ Omni-directional PDAF, OIS + 50MP  f/2.2 ISOCELL S5KGM1 114-degree ultra-wide-angle, Macro Vision + 2MP f/2.4 depth + dual LED flash

Selfie Camera: 60MP f/2.2

Battery: 4,800mAh w/ 68W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, 5W wireless power-sharing

OS: Android 12 w/ My UX

Connectivity: WiFi 6E, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, water-repellent design, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, cooling system, Gorilla Glass 5 back, USB-C, Colors: Cosmos Blue, Stardust White

Dimensions: 163 x 75.9 x 8.79 mm

Weight: 196 g

Price: PHP 34,995

Verdict

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro might not be the best option compared to other flagship 5G devices but it has its strengths. On its outer appearance, it got an attractive yet not flashy design and an ergonomic build.

Another good thing about this device is the display. The 6.7 OLED with FHD+ resolution is vibrant with pretty colors. It also boasts of a high refresh rate so we did enjoy gaming and binging shows on it.

At PHP 34,995, it is one of the speediest around as well.

We also liked that smartphone has an impressive battery and fast charging capability. The 4,800mAh can easily last a whole day and it's enough for most people.

However, the Edge 30 Pro still lacks the appeal and power of its competitors. The cameras performed well and we got decent output but they are not as great as other flagships. The brand can definitely work on that, especially its night mode feature.

For its price, the Edge 30 Pro is a good value device but Motorola can definitely fine-tune this range to raise its game. Software updates, maybe?

Build/Design - 4.25

Multimedia Experience - 4.5

Cameras - 4

Performance - 4.25

Average - 4.31/5