Motorola’s Edge: The Edge 20 siblings was live yesterday!


Get on the Edge! We don’t know if that was proper timing as the Huawei P50 was also revealed at the same day

The Motorola Edge 20 series has been unveiled yesterday. Yes the same day as the Huawei P50 series. There are three phones in this flagship series: The Edge 20, Edge 20 Pro and Edge 20 Lite. Let’s start with the Edge 20. The Edge series shows that Motorola is not dead, and is getting competitive like other Android phone makers.

Motorola Edge 20

Motorola Edge 20, courtesy of: GSMArena

The vanilla Edge 20 is the middle child of the three. This phone, like the rest of its siblings, uses a 6.7in. OLED display with Gorilla Glass 5 protection and 108mp camera. The refresh rate for the vanilla variant is 144Hz.

For the cameras, as mentioned, it uses a Samsung ISOCELL HM2 108mp camera along with an 8mp telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a 16mp ultrawide that also functions as a macro camera (cause who needs a silly gimmicky camera anyway?). This phone uses a 32mp front camera for selfies.

For the performance, this phone uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor with 8GB ram and 128GB storage, which means it’s 5G enabled like the rest of its siblings but also has a slower write speed than its flagship variant. All phones run a customised Android 11 skin called My UX. Don’t fret, this UI will have a feel similar to that of Oxygen OS, meaning near-stock Android.

In addition to its custom UI, the phone has an app called “ready for PC” that lets the phone serve as a second screen and/or connect to a PC to be used in desktop mode, as a webcam or a gaming console.

For the battery, it uses a nifty 4000mAh battery with 30W fast charging. This rate is smaller than competing midrangers such as the Mi 11 Lite but it can help you charge quicker when you forget it overnight.

Motorola Edge 20 Pro

Motorola Edge 20 Pro

The Motorola Edge 20 Pro is the main star of the show (hey that rhymes!). This phone is truly flagship level. For the display, it is identical to that of the Motorola Edge 20, carrying a 6.7in. OLED display with 144Hz refresh rate which is similar to gaming phones on the market and is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

For the camera, this phone introduces you to the 8mp periscopic camera with 5x optical zoom, along with its main Samsung ISOCELL HM2 108mp sensor and 16mp ultrawide that also acts like a macro camera, just like the vanilla variant.

For performance, you get yourself a flagship Snapdragon 870 processor. We don’t know why Motorola didn’t go for the Snapdragon 888 but we speculate that it’s for cost-cutting purposes while also acting like a flagship. In addition, you get 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for this variant.

For endurance, you get a 4500mAh battery but also keeps the 30W TurboPower fast charging from the base phone. It also uses a custom Android skin called MyUX that comes with the “Ready for PC” screen casting app.

Motorola Edge 20 Lite

Motorola Edge 20 Lite

The “younger sibling” of the three and the least powerful, but still very capable, the Edge 20 Lite is the most affordable among the three and also has the largest differences between the two.

For starters, while it still uses an OLED display, it’s slightly smaller at 6.67in. and also has a slower refresh rate of just 90Hz. It also uses a Mediatek processor instead of Snapdragon.

As mentioned, it uses a Mediatek 720 processor for its performance and, like the vanilla variant, comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. The phone is still 5G enabled though.

For the camera, Motorola still retained the Samsung ISOCELL HM2 108mp camera as it is the phone’s main selling point. This camera is complemented with an 8mp ultrawide and a pretty useless 2mp depth camera meant for bokeh effect images. For selfies, it retained the same 32mp camera as its siblings.

This phone comes with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner instead of an optical one seen on the first two phones. The reason for this is unknown but it’s more likely cost-cutting. However it does come with a water-repellent design and retains the “Ready For PC” app but with fewer features.

To compensate for its lower-ended nature, Motorola gave this phone the largest battery between the three, with a capacity of 5000mAh and it also retains the 30W TurboPower fast charging that the other two have as well. It runs My UX based on Android 11.

Motorola is known for its long software support and security updates. However for this, Motorola is only committing two years worth of major OS updates which is lacklaster compared to the Galaxy S21 series which offers four years of security updates and three years of major OS updates.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY:

Motorola Edge 20

  • 8/128: EUR 499 (~Php 29.7K)
  • Colours: Frosted Onyx, Frosted Pearl
  • Availability: August; Europe, LatAm, Asia (no plans for the US currently)

Motorola Edge 20 Pro

  • 12/256: EUR 699 (~Php 41.5K)
  • Colours: Dark Blue, Indigo Vegan Leather, White
  • Availability: August; Europe, LatAm, Asia (no plans for the US currently)

Motorola Edge 20 Lite

  • 8/128: EUR 349.99 (~Php 20.8K)
  • Colours: Electric Graphite, Lagoon Green
  • Availability: August; Europe, LatAm, Asia (no plans for the US currently)

Sources: The Verge, GizmoChina, GSMArena