Motorola Edge 50 Pro Review — Great looks and solid performance at a remarkable price

I’m going to get straight into it. The Edge 50 Pro is in the middle of this year’s Edge device range — although the top “ultra” device in Australia — but I genuinely believe this is a winner in so many areas. In my eyes, what makes this such an impressive devices is the sub $1,000.00 price point but we’ll explore the experience more throughout the review.

The reality though, is that Moto have positioned themselves among some very competitive options like the Google Pixel 8 range, some of the mid-range Samsungs, and even iPhone 13 devices if you’re prepared to have a device a couple of generations old.

What’s in the box?

The phone is an obvious inclusion in the box, with the device being well presented and a clip-on case that protects the back of your device (not the sides or edge of the screen— understandably) from knocks and scratches.

In a bit of a change from the norm, Motorola included a charging brick with the Edge 50 Pro. That’s important for two reasons: one, you get one and aren’t reliant on other chargers you already have, and the second, it’s a high-power brick to get you remarkable charging speed; the 125W power brick will get you 12 hours of use from just 5 minutes of charging time.

The look and feel of the phone

The Edge 50 Pro is a nice-looking device, offering users a bit of colour and flare without being too lavish or getting ridiculous. The back of the device (when you don’t have the provided case on) has a soft, textured rubber feel to it which gives you the confidence holding it that you’re not going to drop your brand new phone. Whether or not it’s actually more sturdy than other devices, I didn’t drop it to test, but I feel like the back would certainly hold up better than a glass-backed device if you did drop it.

For me though, the real driver to put (and keep) the provided case on the phone is the cameras. They’re in a little raised area that, without the case is going to be susceptible to a lot more bangs and knocks, and wear and tear when you’re moving about in normal daily activities.

Here’s the interesting bit, the curved edge to the screen has a bit of a double-edged sword to it. I like how it feels in the hand after adjusting to it, and progressing from the early days of edge screens, you don’t get the false positives/touches that previously would plague user experience. It is a nice experience these days and, with the edge of the screen nicely curved, then you’ve got a sense that the screen is actually larger than it is since the side bezel disappears.

That also means though, that the controls that would normally be in the bottom corner of the screen, sometimes also — this is inconsistent from app to app — disappears around the edge. It’s still usable, but it’s a little bit fiddly and has a bit of an effect on the user experience.

Performance and battery life

With the Edge 50 Pro’s specs, it’s not surprising that it performed well in daily use. Apps load quickly, the screen responds really well to touch and the camera actually takes pictures immediately when you hit the shutter button. Even before considering this is under a grand, the performance is pretty nice.

As Alex noted in the launch article, the specs are pretty solid with the internals including 6.7-inch Super HD (2712 x 1220 @ 1220p) display that is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, 12GB RAM and 256GB onboard storage; which all backs up this notable snappy performance.

After a couple of weeks with this in my pocket, I’ve not noted any worries with performance at all.

The camera is very capable

This was a nice surprise to me, even knowing how well Moto typically delivers camera experience and image quality. You’re looking at a 50MP main camera that has 3x optical zoom, and this is an impressive delivery. The quality of images is outstanding, not just at the $999.00 price, but — providing you don’t exceed the 3x zoon — you’ll get a great image even compared to far more expensive devices.

As a useful addition (perhaps aiming to capture some of the corporate fleet market for phones) there’s a “scan” option in the camera menu. Like other options, that’s essentially point and shoot, but you get a scanned document at the end of it. As someone who spends most of my time in the online, electronic world of document control, I’m not sure how much I’d use that feature, but it’s there if you need to scan documents on the regular.

Closing thoughts

The Moto Edge 50 Pro has truly impressed me as not just a good value device, but a good device outright. It delivers a lot of the specs you expect from higher-end devices, with excellent camera results and a really nice, responsive screen.

At $999.00, this is a device that will give you good performance daily and for a reasonable life of the device. Buyers will be getting 3 updates to the Android OS and 4 years of security updates, which takes the update lifecycle for the phone well beyond the 24-month warranty.

Even if you’re not specifically shopping on a budget, I’d say this is a pretty solid buy and shows clearly that — there is some advantages — you don’t need to be spending over $1,500.00 to get a good phone. Motorola has delivered a really good phone, that’s also GREAT value. There really isn’t much room (aside from some pickiness with the camera) to criticise the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, suffice to say; I’m impressed!