Motorola Edge 50 Pro review: Reliable phone with feature-rich camera

The company is offering the Motorola Edge 50 Pro in two variants-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage-- with prices starting at Rs 31,999.

Last week, Motorola launched the new Edge 50 Pro series in India.

The company is offering the device in two variants-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage-- with prices starting at Rs 31,999.

It comes with big upgrades over the predecessor in terms of build quality, performance and camera hardware. Does it live up to the hype, let's check it out.

Design, build quality and display

Motorola's latest phone flaunts a gorgeous unibody design with a slim profile (with just 8.2 mm thickness). Its beautiful curved display smoothly cascades to the mid-frame on the left and right sides.

Our review unit is Luxe Lavender. It looks lovely in the sunlight and is made of premium materials. The rounded sturdy aluminium frame has a matte finish and blends beautifully with the high-quality silicone-based rearside. It has a leather-like natural texture.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro series.

The company also offers the device in black colour with a similar finish. And, there is also a special moonlight pearl variant with a super smooth acetate finish. Motorola has collaborated with Italian designer firm Mazzuchelli to handcraft the back case for each moonlight pearl variant. They come with a smooth premium case featuring a marble-like wavy design, unique to each variant.

Motorola phone comes with IP68 certification, meaning it can survive an accidental drop in the water for up to 1.5 metres (approx. five feet) depth for close to 30 minutes.

Also, the company offers a free high-quality colour-matching silicone-based translucent cover case with the retail box, which comes in an eco-friendly package with no plastic.

The cover case can protect the device's back from getting damaged during accidental falls. But, due to the curved display design, it cannot protect it if the device falls with the screen facing down and falls on a hard surface.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro series.

On the front, the company has incorporated Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 shield. It may not protect glass from getting cracked during a fall on a rough surface, but surely can protect the display against scratches when kept in a backpack or in the pocket with pens, keys or small articles that come in contact with the display in tight spaces.

On the top, it has a smooth clean layout with a lone microphone and on the bottom, it houses a type-C port, speaker, microphone and dual-SIM slot.

The device supports stereo speakers and is tuned with the Dolby Atmos system. Though the device is slim, the speakers are amazingly good at delivering clear audio output with less distortion even when the volume is put to the max.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro series.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro sports an amazing 6.7-inch 1.5K (2712 x 1220p) pOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate. It supports 10-bit one billion colours, HDR10+ content and can offer up to 2,000 nits peak brightness.

It is touted to be the world's first smartphone with a Pantone-validated display and camera (more than the latter later).

[Note: New Jersey-based Pantone is renowned for its Pantone Matching System (PMS). Top global printing and designer cloth companies use Pantone's standardised colour-matching system as a reference for their products.]

Here on Edge 50 Pro, the display is calibrated to reproduce the natural colours of the subjects in the video or in the photos. Yes, it does a fine job of delivering a good viewing experience.

Also, the screen can automatically calibrate the frequency of refresh rate of the display to achieve a smooth scrolling experience on social media platforms and web browsing. And, while gaming, it can ramp up the refresh rate up to 144Hz to deliver the best gaming experience.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro series.

And, it comes with SGS Eye Protection technology, which ensures to control of harmful blue light emission from the screen. It lessens the strain on the eyes while binge-watching videos or reading novels for long hours, particularly during the night.

Like in any other phone, the in-display fingerprint of the Edge 50 Pro works smoothly with less rejection rate, as long as the finger is dry and clean. It also supports PIN, numeric security features in addition to face recognition. But, the latter struggles in the night and dark room.

Performance

It is powered by a 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 octa-core (2.63 GHz Cortex-A715 x 1 + 2.4 GHz Cortex-A715 x 4 + 1.8 GHz Cortex-A510 x 3 cores). It can clock peak CPU speed up to 2.4GHz. The Qualcomm chipset comes paired with Adreno 720 GPU, 8GB / 12GB LPDDR4X RAM with 256GB UFS 2.2 storage.

Our review unit comes with a 12GB RAM + 256GB RAM configuration. It performed smoothly without any serious issues to complain about. The notable aspect was the that device managed to remain stable and efficiently manage heat dissipation. It never showed any slightest sign of lag-ness nor got warmed up too fast.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's performance score on Geekbench 6.0 app.

Also, it comes with the game mode and there the device owner can set performance mode, adjust display refresh rate, and display resolution and even enhance the touch sensitivity to get the best gaming experience. During the testing, it did live up to the hype. I had a good time playing the Asphalt 9: Legends on the Edge 50 Pro.

The new Motorola phone runs Android 14-based Hello UI, which is way better than the previous iteration of MyUX. It is clean, and on par with the pure vanilla Android experience we get on Google Pixel phones. There are no bloatware. It has a core Google suite of apps and a handful of Motorola's proprietary utility applications along with Facebook and LinkedIn.

Like in the premium Samsung and Google Pixel phones, the latest Edge 50 Pro also supports several generative Artificial Intelligence features including the personalised wallpaper creator.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's AI feature to create custom wallpapers.

In the Personalise section in the settings, the phone offers a 'Made with AI' feature that allows user to create matching wallpaper based on their outfit. It does a fine job with creative wallpapers, but there is room for improvement. It can be improved with future software updates.

The device also comes with the Moto Secure feature. It is powered by Lenovo's ThinkShield for Mobile security that not only secures the most sensitive information, photos and videos on the phone from malware, phishing, and other cyber threats.

To make good use of the dual-curved screen, the company has come up with a creative Edge ambient lighting feature. It offers custom lighting with different colours for notification of incoming calls and messages on the edge of the screen.

The company has promised to offer three years of Android OS updates (up to 2027) and an additional year of security software support (up to 2028).

Motorola Edge 50 Pro comes with new Hello UI.

It houses a 4,500mAh battery. With a full charge, it can easily last a full day under normal usage.

However, if the phone is fully dependent on cellular data for watching TV series or movies on OTT apps or binge-watch reels on Instagram for several hours a day, one might need the help of a power bank.

Also, it should be noted that the company offers a 125W TurboPower charging adaptor with a 256GB storage model. It can power up the device from zero to 50 per cent capacity in under 10 minutes and reach the 100 per cent mark within 20 minutes.

However, with the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage model, the company offers a 65W charger. With this, one can fully charge the device in around 40-45 minutes. It can reach the halfway mark in 20-25 minutes.

The device also supports 50W wireless charging capability. With this, the device can be fully charged in less than an hour.

And, it can share power via reverse wireless charging to another compatible phone with up to 10W charging speed.

The new Motorola Edge 50 Pro supports 15 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e) and Bluetooth 5.4 (BLE).

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

Photography

As noted earlier, besides display, the Edge 50 Pro boasts Pantone-validated photography hardware, a first for a mobile phone in the world.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

The triple-camera hardware of Motorola's new phone is tuned with Pantone's colour-matching system to capture clear photos with near-accurate skin tone and colour of the human face, flowers and other objects in the photo frame.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

Add to that, the Edge 50 Pro also comes with an AI Photo Enhancement Engine to further improve the quality of the image in terms of dynamic range, clarity, resolution, and reduction of noise (grainy elements, particularly in zoom photos).

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

It houses a triple-camera module-- main 50MP camera (with f/1.4 aperture, OIS: Optical Image stabilisation, Quad Pixel Technology) with a 13MP 120-degree ultra-wide autofocus camera (with f/2.3, macro option) and a 10MP 3X telephoto camera (with 50x hybrid zoom) with LED flash on the back.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

It takes brilliant photos in all light conditions. The Chrysanthemum (locally called Shevanthi) flower looks amazing in the sunlight.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

They look soo vibrant in the golden orange hue. I instantly made it my wallpaper on the phone and you can scroll back to the display section, to view the Edge 50 Pro's cover photo.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

The phone excels in clarity, dynamic range and colour accuracy. Though it boosts the colours of the flowers, it maintains a natural look on humans and pets.

The portrait mode captures our pet dog's facial features in great detail. The brown shiny eyes, and the interramal whiskers (tufts) on the chin are very well captured. And, the edges around the ears and head are so well defined and ensure the background is blurred to deliver a natural bokeh effect.

Also, it supports multiple portrait options --25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm. There is no change in the quality of the photos captured. All samples look good. It also supports advanced long exposure. You just need a tripod for stability and a lively busy road to get that amazing lively picture.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample with 3X zoom.

The new Motorola phone also supports 3X optical zoom. The photos come with sharp details and there is hardly any noticeable loss of quality. It also supports up to 50X hybrid digital zoom. The photos begin to accumulated noise beyond 10X zoom.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample with night mode on.

At night too, it takes brilliant photos by balancing the light coming from street lamps, neon light-based billboards and most importantly the darkness, the main essence of the night is captured in the frame.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample with ultra-wide angle mode.

In ultra wide-angle mode, it supports up to 130-degree field of view. As you can see in the sample photos, it does well in getting the vast expanse of the Chrysanthemum plants-laced field dotted with coconut trees.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample with 2X zoom.

In close-up shots, the Edge 50 Pro excels in delivering stellar photos. The green-yellowish tough Jackfruit's exterior rind with carpel apices looks so natural and clear in the photo.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample with macro mode.

It also features a 50MP autofocus front camera with f/1.9 aperture, and Quad Pixel technology. It does a decent job with selfies in all light conditions.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample.

It comes with superficial smart adjust tools that can help the user to alter their facial features such as eye size, nose shape, chin, and skin tone, and smoothen the face to get rid of those acne scars.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro's camera sample with 3X zoom.

Both the front and main cameras can record 4K videos. The video quality is really good, on par with rival brands in its class.

Final thoughts

Motorola's Edge 50 Pro is a complete package. It ticks all the right boxes: it takes stunning pictures, its premium metallic frame feels great in your hand, has a beautiful display, keeps up with all your tasks, and lasts all day on a full charge.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro series.

The company is offering the Motorola Edge 50 Pro in two variants-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage (with 65W charger) and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage (with 120W charger)-- for Rs 31,999 and Rs 35,999, respectively. It will be available in three colours--Luxe Lavender, Black Beauty and Moon Light with pearl finish

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