The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, with features like 200MP primary lens, and 144Hz refresh rate is a good all-rounder but faces stiff competition from OnePlus and iQOO who are already offering equally prominent features | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Motorola is a decades-old electronics maker and one of the pioneers of mobile phones. Recently, it unveiled two models in its Edge 30 series: Moto Edge 30 Fusion and Moto Edge 30 Ultra. The new Moto Edge 30 Ultra is the first phone to debut with a 200MP camera lens, 8+ Gen1 processor, and a 125W fast charger. The phone falls under the flagship range and will be taking on the likes of the Pixel 7, OnePlus 10T, and to some extent the iPhone 14. 

Motorola has opted for a sustainable approach in designing the box which we liked. Inside the box, you obviously get the phone, a 125W adapter, Type C- Type C cable, a plastic case, SIM tray ejector pin, and documentation. 

In our first encounter with the phone, it looked like one of the phones from Samsung more like the S22 series. The new Moto Edge 30 Ultra looks very sleek and feels light and premium. The phone lives up to its name by including a true edge display with minimal borders all around. The build of the phone is sturdy as it comes with a sandwich glass body divided by an aluminum frame. The company has used Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and rear sides. Despite the glass body, the rear side is not slippery, and it does not attract smudges. 

On the rear side, one can spot an island frame comprising three camera lenses and a flash. At the front side of the phone, you will see the tall display with a punch-hole selfie sensor occupying very less space. Also, just above the display lies the earpiece which also acts as a secondary speaker. 

On the right side of the phone lies the power button and the volume rockers whereas the left side is completely blank. The SIM tray, Type-C port, and the main speaker lie at the bottom side of the phone. The phone comes with an IP52 rating to protect the phone from water and dust which is quite dissatisfying to see in a flagship phone because one can get IP52-certified phones even in the budget range.

The new Moto Edge 30 Ultra comes with a 6.67 inches OLED display with a screen resolution of 1080x2400 pixels. The screen space is wide and the bezels so thin that they are not visible. The display has an aspect ratio of 20:9 and 309ppi density. The phone outperforms its competitors by including a refresh rate of 144Hz which helps in playing games requiring fast touch response. 

It comes with 1,250 nits of peak brightness meaning that you can watch any content on the screen very clearly and easily even under bright sunlight. The presence of HDR10+ support enhances the viewing experience by delivering content in HD quality. The colors reproduced are very vivid and punchy and all the colors on the screen were very detailed. The phone offers a choice between three refresh rates and in Auto mode, it automatically adjusts the refresh rate based on the action performed on the screen.

The new Moto Edge 30 Ultra runs on Android 12 and comes with various smart features. The Gesture feature available on the phone is quite fancy as it can be used to launch the camera app and even the flashlight while the phone is locked. The new Moto Edge 30 Ultra comes with the ‘Ready for’ feature as well which the company introduced in 2021 allowing the phone to be connected to a TV or a monitor allowing you to display your content on the larger display.

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra has the fastest and the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 (4nm) processor. We have used this previously and just like those times the processor also offers a seamless experience in performing any task. For the graphics, the company has used Adreno 730 GPU. The games ran very smoothly in their highest settings and the 144Hz refresh rate adds more fun to the gaming experience. The “ready for” mode also allows you to cast your games on a bigger screen and view details more clearly, enhancing the gaming experience.

One of the main highlights of the Motor Edge 30 Ultra is the presence of a 200MP Samsung HP1 main primary rear lens with an aperture of f/1.9, PDAF, and OIS. The company has used a 12MP telephoto lens with an aperture of f/1.6 with 2x optical zoom. The third rear sensor is a 50MP ultra-wide lens with an aperture of f/2.2 and 114 degrees POV. For selfies, the company has placed a 60MP lens using an OmniVision OV60A sensor which has an aperture of f/2.2.

Although the main rear camera lens is 200MP it captures images in 12.5MP by default. The images captured in daylight were very sharp and bright. The color balance is on point with excellent texture. You can also switch to a 200MP lens which we suggest not to use in case you are looking for capturing images quickly as it takes a few seconds to capture and requires your hands to be kept steady. The 200MP images are also large which takes up extra space.

The telephoto lens does an excellent job by capturing the right colours at the right levels, without oversaturating or overcasting. The ultrawide lens does a good job too but we cannot say that the results are way too impressive. For capturing images at night/low light the new Motorola edge 30 Ultra comes with Auto night vision which processes and enhances the images resulting in detailed and clear low-light images. However, we will suggest using the Night mode to capture more stable and well-defined images at night. The rear lenses are very good at keeping noise and graining disturbances at bay as we did not encounter any of them while capturing images both at night and day.

The selfies can be captured in 60MP, 15MP, and 8MP. We will suggest using the recommended 15MP to capture selfies as it is able to capture more detailed selfies with great accuracy and vibrant colors. The subject detection is very good which you can notice in the portrait selfies.

The main camera on the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra can shoot videos at high to 8K30, the telephoto and ultrawide lenses are capable of capturing videos in 1080p30. The 8K video is encoded using the less efficient h.265 codec by default, but you get the option to change so in settings. All modes aside from 8K allow for stabilization, and audio is captured at 256kbps in stereo.

The new Moto Edge 30 Ultra comes with a battery of 4,610 mAh which is less than what we saw in the flagship phone from OnePlus. The battery lasted a day quite comfortably with normal usage like playing movies and indulging in games. The charging speed is quite fast as the 125W charger fires up the battery power from 0-100% within almost 30-35 minutes. 

While the charging is fast, it is not as fast as the OnePlus 10T’s charging speed. Also, the phone seems to get heated a bit while charging which we disliked as the other flagship phone we used within the same range maintained the heat quite smartly. The charge dissemination is slow due to the latest 8+ Gen1 processor. The phone also supports 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse charging.

The new Motorola Edge 30 Ultra could be considered an all-rounder and the features like 200MP primary lens, and 144Hz refresh rate help the phone offer something exciting and unique to users. But it will be hard for the phone to take a lead in the flagship segment despite being heavyweight as OnePlus and iQOO are already offering equally prominent features.

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Printable version | Oct 25, 2022 4:34:07 pm | https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/motorola-edge-30-ultra-heavyweight-with-serious-competition/article66052668.ece