Motorola’s Moto Edge 5G is a tricky promote subsequent to the Pixel 6

Timing is all the things, and sadly for Motorola, any overview of the brand new Moto Edge 5G UW boils all the way down to this one query: how does it examine with the Google Pixel 6? After all, not solely did the Verizon variant arrive in shops on October 14th, 2021, simply 5 days earlier than the Google Pixel 6’s launch, it even ended up with near-identical costs because the Google flagship.

The Verizon-locked Moto Edge begins at $549.99 for a 128GB mannequin, and you may double that storage for $599.99, which is $200 cheaper than the unlocked model offered in retail shops. That’s twice as a lot storage for a similar value as an unlocked Pixel 6, plus the Edge helps Verizon’s fast-but-limited millimeter wave (mmWave) community. Given how good a telephone the Pixel 6 is, the Moto Edge has its work lower out.

As a midrange telephone, the Edge has some spectacular specs and options on paper. It has a uncommon 144Hz refresh charge LCD show, 108-megapixel primary digicam, 6GB RAM, and the power to undertaking its display to a bigger show by way of its Samsung DeX-like “Ready For” mode. In follow, although, the high-megapixel depend digicam isn’t as nice because it sounds, and its 5,000mAh battery can drain too rapidly, however these aren’t even its worse offenses. The Edge’s largest crime is that it’s simply too middling.

The Moto Edge is all in regards to the monochromatic look, splashing the identical “nebula blue” everywhere in the telephone — from the buttons to the plate beneath the digicam array. It’s an enormous telephone at 6.65 x 2.97 x 0.35 inches, nevertheless it’s skinny and skinny sufficient for one-handed use. That mentioned, it’s only a contact too tall for my fingers to maneuver across the display and maintain the telephone in the identical hand. Despite its all-plastic physique, the telephone weighs about as a lot as an iPhone 13 Pro at 0.44lbs (200g or 7.11oz). Its properly curved edges and again make this telephone a pleasure to carry, however that additionally means its very shiny again cowl is a cesspool of smudges and dirt.

The rims across the three rear digicam lenses remind me of these on the iPhone 13. While their raised edges defend the lenses from scratches, that additional peak means the telephone can’t actually lie flat on the desk when the display is dealing with up — it finally ends up rocking facet to facet. This, mixed with its slick again cowl, means the Moto Edge is vulnerable to randomly slide off tables and different surfaces, so that you’ll wish to defend it with a case.

Like the Pixel 6 and OnePlus 9, the Moto Edge doesn’t have a devoted Google Assistant button or a 3.5mm audio jack anyplace. Its quantity rocker and two-in-one fingerprint sensor and energy button are on its proper facet. For a $500 telephone, it solely has a mono speaker that blasts from the underside of the telephone. It’s louder than you’d count on and turns up the bass by default, so you’ll be able to actually hear the percussive beats in Succession’s theme music.

Unlike Motorola’s G sequence telephones, the Edge has NFC for contactless funds, however doesn’t assist wi-fi charging. Out of the field, the Moto Edge runs Android 11 although it’s unclear when it’ll get Android 12. While Motorola has dedicated to offering two main OS upgrades and two years of bi-monthly safety updates to the Moto Edge, it additionally mentioned it’ll adjust its software support policy based on how long users will keep using a device, so its promise might be somewhat fluid.

The Moto Edge’s facet fingerprint sensor and face unlock options work rapidly and supply good haptic suggestions when the unlocking is profitable. Face unlock has some customization choices: you’ll be able to select to press the ability button to activate the characteristic or to easily elevate the telephone and face the entrance digicam to unlock the telephone.

The spotlight of the Moto Edge must be its 144Hz show, despite the fact that it’s only a 1080p, 6.8-inch LCD panel. The excessive refresh charge makes it a breeze to scroll by way of Twitter and transfer my pokémon round in Pokémon Unite. It’s too unhealthy the display is comparatively dim, so I’ve to set its display brightness to about 90 to 100% for indoor and out of doors use — any dimmer than that and I’d have hassle studying textual content in direct daylight.

I’ve been testing the $549.99 mannequin with 128GB of inside storage, which is in any other case similar to the $599.99 256GB model. The Moto Edge makes use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor, a midrange chipset, with 6GB RAM as assist. Unsurprisingly, it’s the Pixel 6’s flagship-level elements that outperform the midrange Moto Edge.

I performed one spherical of Pokémon Unite on the Moto Edge, which began out snappy and simple to navigate my Charmander. However, the sport turned so laggy that it was laborious to maneuver my pokémon to keep away from assaults or to attain a objective within the final minute. I performed the identical recreation on the Tensor-equipped Pixel 6 to match. While I couldn’t transfer my pokémon as simply with the Pixel 6’s slower 90Hz display refresh charge, the pace of the sport stayed extra constant, making it doable for me to attain a last-minute objective.

Motorola’s “Ready For” mode is meant to have the ability to flip the telephone’s 32-megapixel entrance digicam right into a webcam for a suitable sensible TV or laptop, however I couldn’t make it work with my Surface Pro 4 in any respect. The font on the Ready For PC’s interface was method too tiny to be legible on my 12.3-inch display. Worst of all, there was a lot lag between my mouse clicks and what was occurring on-screen that this entire characteristic was a flop for me.

While its 5,000mAh battery lasts about two days with common use, the Moto Edge’s battery can drain in a short time if you happen to’re doing one thing intensive. On days the place I’m totally on Wi-Fi and doing light-weight duties like on-line procuring, social media doomscrolling, and

listening to a few podcasts, I may squeeze virtually 11 hours of display trip of this telephone. However, after I was gaming and testing its video options, I managed to empty a whopping 29 p.c of the battery inside simply a few hours.

Recharging the Moto Edge can also be unnecessarily annoying, because of the dearth of a charger contained in the field — all you get is a double-ended USB-C cable. I needed to plug the Edge into my Pixel 5’s 18W charger for a recharge, which took virtually two hours. If you don’t have a suitable charger helpful, you’ll must price range $20–$30 for a brand new cable or charger.

The Moto Edge has three cameras on the again cowl: a 108-megapixel primary digicam, an 8-megapixel ultrawide-angle with Macro Vision (119-degree), in addition to a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It additionally has a 32-megapixel front-facing digicam that sits in the midst of the display, although you don’t actually discover that black dot after some time.

As spectacular because the Moto Edge’s 108-megapixel primary digicam sensor sounds, its outcomes are surprisingly unpredictable. On one hand, its f/1.9 aperture and bigger pixel dimension means every pixel can seize extra gentle, even in low-light circumstances. I used to be stunned how effectively some photographs from an indoor interactive artwork exhibit turned out, despite the fact that some pictures weren’t as crisp as others and seemed a bit noisy

Grid View

Photo samples from the Moto Edge 5G UW and the Pixel 6.

On the flip facet, the Edge’s cameras have hassle discovering and specializing in topics, whether or not I’m taking out of doors photographs of Christmas decorations or well-lit photographs in portrait mode. It usually takes a number of pictures and a number of other processing seconds earlier than the digicam figures out which a part of the picture is the topic and which is the background that must be blurred.

I used the Pixel 6 to take photographs of the identical scenes, and those from the Google flagship are persistently sharper, with colours which are extra true to life. Photos from the Moto Edge are likely to look flat, skew blue, or are overexposed.

The Moto Edge 5G UW (2021) could also be an honest telephone: its unusually excessive 144Hz refresh charge on the LCD display works nice; and it has two days of battery life, with a digicam that may deal with low-light pictures if you will get it to focus. But that’s not sufficient to be aggressive within the midrange telephone race. Unless Verizon or Motorola additional drop its value, I discover it laborious to suggest the Moto Edge over others that provide a greater worth.

For the value of the 256GB Moto Edge, you may as effectively get the unlocked Google Pixel 6 as a substitute. It includes a quicker processor, quicker and sharper cameras, and a extra energy-efficient battery. While the $599.99 Moto Edge gives double the onboard storage as the bottom Pixel 6, its flagship-class elements and early entry to Android software program and safety updates make it the higher funding in the long term.

If you’re a Verizon buyer, the Moto Edge may seem to be a greater deal than the $699.99 mmWave-equipped Pixel 6, however don’t be fooled by the Edge’s cheaper price tag. The flagship Google telephone is value the additional $100.

If the $549.99 Moto Edge is barely past your price range, the $499.99 Samsung Galaxy A52 5G is an much more inexpensive 5G telephone different. The A52 includes a 120Hz OLED show and a headphone jack however doesn’t assist Verizon’s mmWave community. That’s not one thing that issues to most individuals, however the Edge does have it if you wish to use Verizon’s 5G community. Plus, you’ll be assured 4 years of software program assist from Samsung for the A52 — who is aware of if Motorola will even observe by way of on its two-year promise.

Photography by Gloria Sin / The Verge