The Motorola Edge 50 makes a strong case for itself in the sub-₹30K market. Its premium design, durable build, and impressive HDR10+ display make it a strong contender in its price range. While the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition may not satisfy hardcore gamers, it handles daily tasks with ease and offers a smooth user experience. Hello UI is a notable highlight, providing a clean and customisable interface without unnecessary bloatware.
Motorola has unveiled the Motorola Edge 50, aiming to make a splash in the sub-30K mid-range smartphone market. This new addition to the Edge 50 series offers a mix of premium features and a robust build at an appealing price. With its sleek design, capable cameras, and high-end features, the Moto Edge 50 carries forward the Edge 50 family’s signature style. Yet, it faces stiff competition from devices like the OnePlus Nord 4 (review), POCO F6 (review), and realme 13 Pro (review). So, does the Motorola Edge 50 deliver on its promises and stand out as the best value in its class? I’ve tested it thoroughly to see if it lives up to the hype.
The Motorola Edge 50 stands out in the crowded mid-range market with its sleek and opulent design. Its curved screen and rear panel provide an ergonomic feel, while the stunning vegan leather back enhances its aesthetic appeal. The phone’s aluminium frame is a rare find at this price point, making it one of the more premium builds in its segment.
Available in three colours—Koala Gray, Jungle Green, and Peach Fuzz—the Jungle Green variant features a vegan leather back, while the other colours use vegan suede material. The camera module, though protruding, transitions smoothly into the raised area without abrupt lines. I really enjoy the visual identity of the Moto Edge 50 series; it is instantly recognisable.
The phone is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, an upgrade over competitors like the OnePlus Nord 4, which uses Panda Glass. The under-screen fingerprint sensor is both speedy and accurate. Additionally, the Edge 50 boasts an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, allowing it to handle splashes and brief submersions with ease.
At just 7.5mm thick, the Motorola Edge 50 is the slimmest MIL-810H-rated curved smartphone in its segment, offering durability that surpasses rivals like the Realme 13 Pro and OnePlus Nord 4. This combination of build quality and premium aesthetics makes the Motorola Edge 50 an excellent choice for those seeking a well-built, stylish smartphone.
The Motorola Edge 50 features a captivating 6.7-inch pOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate support and 1.5K resolution. With slim bezels and a 92.2% screen-to-body ratio, the phone delivers a nearly edge-to-edge viewing experience.
The display supports HDR10+, which allows for vivid and sharp HDR content with excellent colour reproduction and viewing angles. The addition of HDR support gives it a leg up over competing products that miss out on HDR, such as the Realme 13 Pro.
Under direct sunlight, the display can achieve a peak brightness of 1162 nits as per our tests, making it highly readable even in bright conditions. The Dolby Atmos stereo speakers further elevate the multimedia experience, providing immersive sound quality that complements the stunning visuals. Whether you’re watching videos or playing games, the display and audio combination offers an engaging and enjoyable experience.
Powering the Motorola Edge 50 is the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition, a chipset that aims to balance performance with efficiency. It comes with 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256 GB of UFS 2.2 storage. I’m disappointed that Motorola didn’t opt for UFS 3.1 storage, as competitors like the Realme 13 Pro and OnePlus Nord 4 have faster UFS 3.1 speeds.
While the chipset manages everyday tasks efficiently, it struggles with more demanding gaming scenarios. For games like Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI, it only provides smooth frame rates at Medium settings. Additionally, I noticed some lag in the camera app, though performance is generally smooth in other areas.
In benchmark tests, the Edge 50 lags behind the OnePlus Nord 4 but performs slightly better than the Realme 13 Pro. It falls far behind the OnePlus Nord 4 in AnTuTu and GPU benchmark tests, which indicates that the Nord 4 is a better option for power users and mobile gamers. However, the Edge 50 does exceedingly well in PCMark Work which suggests that it is a great option for productivity-related tasks such as Excel sheets, Google Docs, and more.
On the software front, the Edge 50 runs on Hello UI, Motorola’s custom user interface. The UI is modern, bloatware-free, and highly customisable, offering a clean and user-friendly experience. Notably, the device comes with a promise of 3+4 years of OS and security updates, respectively, ensuring relatively long-term software support.
AI features on the Edge 50 are relatively limited, with the primary function being the generation of wallpapers via prompts. While this feature is neat, it doesn’t add significant value to the overall experience. In our Digit AI-Q test, the Motorola Edge 50 scored 26/100. Although this is respectable for its price range, it falls short compared to the OnePlus Nord 4, which scored 33/100.
The Moto Edge 50 stands out as one of the rare smartphones priced under ₹30,000 to feature a telephoto camera. This inclusion allows the device to capture impressive portraits with a more flattering focal length for portraits without sacrificing on quality. The phone houses a 50 MP primary camera, a 10 MP telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom, and a 13 MP ultrawide camera.
Portraits on this phone are stellar with exceptional skin tone accuracy, detailed textures, and a well-balanced dynamic range. However, the edge detection in portrait mode occasionally appears somewhat artificial, which can detract from the overall realism of the image.
The main camera excels in daylight conditions, producing vibrant and natural-looking photos with excellent dynamic range. It effectively captures the essence of scenes with rich colours and well-preserved details.
The 10 MP telephoto lens also performs admirably, offering clear and detailed images. On the other hand, the ultrawide camera falls short, particularly at the edges where it struggles to maintain detail and sharpness. The ultrawide shooter also doubles as a macro camera which clicks decent shots.
Colour consistency across the different lenses is an area that could be improved, as there is a noticeable variation in colour reproduction between the main, telephoto, and ultrawide cameras.
The 32 MP selfie camera, while capable of delivering sharp images with good colour accuracy, could benefit from better portrait edge detection to enhance the quality of selfie portraits. For video enthusiasts, the Moto Edge 50 supports 4K recording at 30 fps across all lenses. While the video quality is generally good, the dynamic range, especially in the main camera’s footage, could be better. Highlights in videos are prone to overexposure, which impacts the overall video quality.
When it comes to battery life, the Motorola Edge 50 delivers a decent performance. Casual users will find that the phone comfortably lasts a full day on a single charge. However, heavy users who frequently game or take photos might need to recharge midway through the day.
The device comes with a 68W charger that can quickly top up the battery from 0-100 per cent in just 56 minutes. Additionally, it supports 15W wireless charging, a feature that is relatively rare at this price point.
The Motorola Edge 50 makes a strong case for itself in the sub-₹30K market. Its premium design, durable build, and impressive HDR10+ display make it a strong contender in its price range. While the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition may not satisfy hardcore gamers, it handles daily tasks with ease and offers a smooth user experience. Hello UI is a notable highlight, providing a clean and customisable interface without unnecessary bloatware.
The phone’s telephoto camera adds significant value, delivering high-quality portraits with accurate skin tones and dynamic range. However, the ultrawide lens and colour consistency across lenses could be improved. Overall, the Moto Edge 50 is indeed a bang-for-your-buck phone for most users, but gamers may want to consider alternatives such as the OnePlus Nord 4, or perhaps, the more powerful POCO F6.
