Motorola is back with a bang! It re-entered the flagship space in April last year with a mobile phone that gave tough competition to top-selling products in the category.
No doubt the Motorola Edge Plus has amazing specs, 3 rear cameras, and an eye-catching display, but all of it comes at a price. Introducing a costly model at a time when sales for the category are declining might affect the company’s expected revenue. Furthermore, due to the fact that high-end Motorola phones have been out of sight for a while, users have started associating the brand with its affordable G series and mid-market Z series. Hence, the necessary repositioning and limited availability of the product in the US market may be a few of the challenges that Edge Plus might have to face.
Also, it must be kept in mind that Verizon is the only network Edge Plus will operate on. Carrier exclusivity might be a concern for some people who do not want to switch.
If you are looking for an unbiased opinion on purchasing the phone, continue reading the Motorola Edge Plus Review.
Overview
Let’s admit that, for a Motorola smartphone, the Edge Plus is a bit costly. However, it keeps up with all other contenders in its price range by offering equally good performance, usability, and features.
Furthermore, Edge Plus did not let go of features that have been a symbol of Motorola’s brand identity. The recognizable android skin, for example, has been transferred onto the new model from its predecessors. Besides, the iconic “Moto Action” that allows users to open the phone’s camera with a twist may revoke associations that Motorola fans held for this brand, back when it was a must-have in every household.
Coming with three in-built cameras, this phone may be pure bliss for those who love photography. The main camera has a resolution of 108MP. Amongst the other two, one is a 3x telephoto whereas the second is an ultra-wide camera with a resolution of 16MP. However, despite being at par with few of its rivals, the zoom ability offered by it is not up to the mark when compared with top tier phones in this range. Hence, it can be said that the zooming ability of Motorola Edge Plus is one of the drawbacks of its camera.
What makes this phone particularly desirable for users of multiple networks is its ability to connect to sub-6 as well as the mmWave 5G networks.
Display
Talking about seeing the most curved display panel ever, we’ll present to you the Motorola Edge smartphone. Yes, we agree that its curved “waterfall sides” are quite a shift from the perfectly flat glass you were used to seeing in Moto Z4.
In fact, the curve on its sides is greater than that of the Samsung Galaxy S20 and the OnePlus8. Motorola proudly refers to it as the “Endless Edge”.
Pros and cons of the curved display panel
Since the menu on the display panel extends till the edges, it is difficult to tap and select the option you want. The fact that somewhat makes up for this drawback is that this phone does not face the issue of “false positive”. Imagine multiple unwanted apps opening up on your phone because you accidentally tapped the wrong icon. Thankfully, this is not going to happen if you are using the Edge Plus!
Another drawback of the “waterfall” display is that light passing through the curved glass sides makes the white content appear blue. This may be irritating for a user as it decreases the usability of the screen, by limiting the area which can be viewed properly.
Moving on to the pros, the element of dimensionality makes the user’s experience more enjoyable. As the screen and its components extend to the curved sides, it gives a satisfactory feeling that the display is actually larger than what it appears to be. Some users find this quite amusing.
Thus, whether you like the Endless Edge or not depends on what your preference is between usability and style. Also, the Motorola Edge allows you to set additional digital buttons on one of the sides that might enhance the gaming experience.
In case you are wondering about its exact size, let us tell you that this phone has a 6.7-inch OLED display which projects a far greater sharpness than one would expect from its full HD+ (2340 x 1080p) resolution.
The Motorola Edge Plus display even has a fingerprint sensor which is far better than those present in other phones like the LG V60. The reason being that it has the capability to recognize registered users, no matter in which direction and at what angle their finger touches the screen. Additionally, it has a refresh rate, which, at its maximum speed, can be 90 Hz. However, it can drop down to 60 Hz.
Even though this refresh rate is low as compared to the major competitor, Samsung Galaxy S20, it is still better than most other phones which do not offer a refresh rate higher than the standard 60 Hz.
Design
The first impression given by the Motorola Edge Plus is that of a premium phone. Unlike the Moto Z-series, this phone does not come with a flat glass rear where a contact strip connects the Moto Mod and the round camera. In fact, the sleek design and the multiple back cameras suggest that the Motorola Edge Plus has taken inspiration from the stylish Motorola One series.
A rather obvious, but very interesting feature of Motorola Edge Plus’s design which immediately comes into notice is its size. Though the phone’s width is less than that of the Moto Z4 whereas its length is only a few millimetres longer, its actual display is larger than its forerunner. The credit for this goes to the curved-edge display and smaller bezels on the top and the bottom of the phone.
The curved-edges help the display wraparound the sides of the phone far more than it does in any other smartphone within this category. Though this curved-edge display or the waterfall design is mostly seen in phones offered by Samsung, the Motorola Edge Plus beats Samsung in its own game by curving the edges of the screen even more than those of the Samsung Galaxy S20.
However, since the screen has been extended so much, there is little room left for side buttons. Hence, the Motorola Edge Plus offers razor thin side buttons for power and volume. These side buttons are somewhat similar to the side buttons offered in Motorola Razr. However, since the Motorola Edge Plus is a much larger phone than the Motorola Razr, these buttons are more comfortable to use in the Motorola Edge Plus.
Talking about the large size of the phone, it is important to highlight that the Motorola Edge Plus is not only larger but also thicker than most phones in the same category. The thickness of this phone is 9.6 mm, which is considerably more than most phones such as the Galaxy S 20, which is only 7.9 mm thick. However, this extra thickness does not make the phone unmanageable, and when using the phone, it only takes a little bit of time to get used to it.
As the Motorola Edge Plus takes inspiration in design from the Motorola One series, it is free from the obligation of having Moto Mods, unlike the Moto Z series in which the Moto Mods were a highlighting factor. Hence, just like the Motorola One series, the Motorola Edge Plus also has its rear cameras positioned on the top left of the phone in an upright alignment. Though this arrangement of cameras when compared with some other phones is not the ugliest, it does seem like multiple camera lenses are sticking out from the camera block, thus giving a rather unattractive appearance.
A thorough analysis of the phone’s rear would uncover that just along the camera block, sits a depth sensor and a flashlight. Other than these, and the Motorola logo which is positioned in the middle, the remaining portion is made up of very sleek looking glass.
When looking at the phone from the front, a premium finish along with the curved edge display, complemented by an inward curve at the top and bottom, give an attractive look. The speaker is positioned on the bottom right of the phone whereas a microSD slot is available on the bottom left. The USB-C port is located between the speaker and the microSD. The phone also offers a 3.5mm jack, which these days is a rare sight in phones of this category. However, the positioning of the 3.5mm jack could have been better as it is located on the top and would make it inconvenient to use, especially when holding the phone sideways.
Camera
Motorola Edge Plus Review would be incomplete without talking about its cameras. It has 3 rear cameras, 1 front camera and a video camera.
Below is a summary of the features of each one:
Rear Camera |
● Main: 108MP, ƒ/1.8, 0.8μm pixels, 1/1.33 “sensor, OIS ● Telephoto: 8MP, ƒ/2.4, 1.0μm pixels, 3x optical zoom, OIS ● Ultra-wide/Macro: 16MP, ƒ/2.2, 1.0μm pixels, 117-deg. FoV ● Time of flight sensor |
Front Selfie Camera: 25MP, /2.0, 0.9m pixels, Quad Pixel for 1.8m |
● |
Video Camera |
● 6K, 4K, FHD, 19.5:9 |
The phone’s main (108 MP) camera uses the process of pixel binning to merge 4 pixels into 1. As a result, brightness is enhanced while slightly compromising on the detail. The outcome is photographs with a resolution of 26 MP. Though this is quite impressive, Edge Plus’s 8MP 3x optical telephoto is the black sheep amongst the trio of this phone’s rear cameras. It disappoints the users by resulting in blurry photographs at the far end of the zoom. These poor results make the benefit of zooming in by up to 10 times kind of worthless.
Talking about the front camera, a regular selfie taken from this phone turns out absolutely fine. It is as clear and sharp as one would have expected it to be. However, portraits reveal that there’s something seriously wrong with the “edge detection” feature of this camera.
Motorola seems to have made the right decision by incorporating a 6K rather than 8K video camera in this phone. The captured footage can be downsampled as well. The videographer may also alter the aspect ratio and make it 19.5:9 if s/he does not want to shoot at a full resolution. Thus, the videos shot on this phone are pretty awesome.
Overall, the Edge Plus is a fairly good choice for regular photography, but as is typical of Motorola phones, the clarity of images is significantly reduced in low light. Also, minute details are much less noticeable in shadow when compared to pictures clicked via the Samsung Galaxy S20.
The camera feature’s user interface is also dispersed.Selecting any mode besides the standard one would require you to open the menu and search for it. Zooming in and out via the virtual button is quite troublesome, therefore the old-school pinching method is what works well with this phone.
On the bright side, activating the manual photography mode is easy.
Performance
Motorola Edge Plus comes with the Snapdragon 865 chipset. This is the same chipset that also powers almost all other Android phones in the same category, such as the Samsung Galaxy S 20 series launched in 2020. This, along with a TKRAM and 256 GB storage, makes it safe to say that the Motorola Edge Plus has similar specifications to other phones in its category. However, the fact that the 256 GB storage offered by Motorola Edge Plus is non-expandable can be a turndown as Motorola’s own phones like Motorola Edge offer expandable storage.
Thanks to the exceptional power this phone has, it is very smooth to run. When browsing through applications or playing games, it is very unlikely that there will be any hitches. The Geek bench 5 average score of Motorola Edge Plus is 3,344, which is 40 points more than that of its competitor, Samsung Galaxy S 20 Plus. In simpler words, it means that this phone has a very good processor that is capable of handling all the needs of its users without any hiccups.
Upon using this phone, no lag was observed when switching applications. Hardly any lag was found when starting a media stream. This, combined with dual speakers tuned by the well-known company Waves Audio, ensures that sound flows evenly regardless of which direction the phone is spined in.This makes the Motorola Edge Plus an ideal phone for multimedia use.
Since the Motorola Edge Plus is offered as a Verizon exclusive smartphone in the United States, it is capable of connecting to mmWave and sub-6 5G networks. However, because the phone can not yet be bought as an unlocked device, it is uncertain if it will be able to connect to 5G networks offered by other service providers, whether within the United States or anywhere else in the world. As there are no plans for a global launch of the phone in the near future, it seems difficult to find out if the phone will be compatible with different 5G network providers.
The Motorola Edge Plus comes with Android 10. Also, the software skin which Motorola users have previously been used to, is present in the flagship phone as well. This means that users can perform a variety of Moto actions, such as chop-chopping to activate the flashlight and twist-twisting to launch the camera.
A new option has been introduced in the form of a button above the display’s Endless Edge which can be swiped to steer for application shortcuts. This is there to assist with using the tall screen. Though this option may not appear to be very appealing at first, it can prove to be a useful addition after some time.No such shortcut tabs are available on similar phones such as the Galaxy S 20 series.
Battery life
If you are someone who needs to go without charging your phone for more than a day, the Edge Plus seems to be a suitable choice for you in terms of battery life. In fact, its 5000 mAh battery can last even longer if the settings are adjusted to a lower refresh rate, say 60 Hz, and the brightness is significantly decreased.
However, a major limitation exists in the form of Edge Plus’s extremely slow 15W Turbo Charger. It takes almost 2 hours to fully recharge the phone’s battery. Honestly speaking, no one has that much time in today’s faced-paced lifestyle.
With phones like Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra coming with chargers that support as high as 67W, Motorola should have at least considered offering 30W.
Although the long battery life serves as a saviour for the phone and eliminates the effect of slow charging speed, since even a 50% battery can last the whole day.
The charger does support reverse charging, but at a slow rate of 5W whereas the standard these days is 10 W.
Audio
The Edge Plus, with its powerful audio, will have you covered if you ever come across a situation where your sound system breaks down right before a house party. This smartphone has in-built stereo speakers which allow it to produce sound that is sufficiently loud to roar across an enclosed room, the size of a deck or garage.
When using an earpiece, the sound coming via it combines with that emerging from the speaker at the bottom of the phone. Together, the two give a “stereo effect”. However, often a higher sound is produced by the speaker than the earphone, thus disbalancing the output and ruining the experience. As we mentioned before, Motorola has partnered with Waves Audio for tuning of the sound.
Another advantage is that the Edge Plus comes with a 3.5 mm headphone jack. This allows for it to be plugged into any speaker to benefit from the enhanced sound effect.
Liked features:
- The attractive display design features curved, “waterfall” edges.
- Long battery life that may last up to 2 days.
- 6K video recording
- The 3.5 mm headphone jack
Disliked features:
- It does not offer resistance to water and dust.
- Extremely slow charging speed
- The camera performs poorly in low light conditions-even turning on the “night mode” can improve the results to a certain extent as this feature only works for the main camera.
Buy If:
- If you are a Verizon user or planning to switch your mobile network to this carrier (the phone would otherwise be of no use).
- If you want to reap the full benefits of 5G.Even though most network providers do offer sub-6 5G, Verizon, with its mmWave network, is much faster.
- You are a fan of curved displays. If so, you’ll be delighted by the waterfall display along with a full HD screen.
Don’t buy if:
- You are looking for an affordable option. The advanced features of this phone mean it comes at a higher price.
- You are someone who would be disappointed with below par zoom photography. As discussed, the phone’s zoom capabilities are limited. You might find other options like OnePlus 8 Pro, or Samsung Galaxy S20 that have it better in the same price range.
- You do not live in the United States. Unfortunately, at this moment, the phone can exclusively be operated on a US based mobile carrier, Verizon. Therefore, it would be useless to make this purchase if you won’t be able to use it.
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