The Edge Plus is the first genuine flagship from the brand in years, and packs all the specs and features necessary to compete with the best from Samsung and Apple.<\/b>
\n2020 has been a big year for Motorola already: first its own foldable phone, the throwback Motorola Razr, and now we have the Motorola Edge Plus \u2013 a full-fledged flagship with specs and features to match.
As the more premium smartphone sibling of the Motorola Edge, the Edge Plus is the brand\u2019s first serious foray into flagship territory in years \u2013 and it\u2019s 5G-capable, too.
The Edge Plus isn\u2019t just a rebranded Z-series phone; it\u2019s a fresh start for the company\u2019s product line, a device pushed to extremes, and which can compete with the best Samsung Galaxy and Apple handsets \u2013 along with the growing number of 5G phones.
To get there, Motorola has jettisoned some iconic Moto features \u2013 and, yes, that means the Edge Plus doesn\u2019t work with Moto Mods. The company is being coy about whether this means the end for the accessories, so it\u2019s possible that an as-yet unconfirmed Moto Z5 will indeed come out that supports the beloved add-ons. However, given how Mods compatibility hamstrung Motorola phone design, we aren\u2019t optimistic, as the Edge Plus has signaled a dramatic changed in direction for the design ethos of top-tier Motorola phones.
Not that this means the Edge Plus looks particularly original, as we found when we mistook the phone for a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G on account of its \u2018waterfall\u2019 curved display (or as Motorola calls it, \u2018Endless Edge\u2019). However, with its powerful specs, gorgeous screen, and 5G connectivity (both mmWave and sub-6), this is a phone that, on the inside at least, is thoroughly cutting-edge.
Which isn\u2019t in any way a slam on the company \u2013 the Z-series was beloved for delivering admirable performance at a lower cost than most leading phones. The corollary here is that the Edge Plus competes with flagship phones, but it costs as much as those competitors.
We’ve had a little time with the phone, and so far, the Motorola Edge Plus lives up to its flagship pricetag. Its fast enough for browsing and gaming, the display is as vivid as they come, and the sound (both through headphones and speakers) is impressive.
Despite not being quite as high-resolution as the Samsung Galaxy S20 line’s WQHD+ display (3200x1440p), the Motorola Edge Plus’ FHD+ (2340 x 1080p) screen is sharp enough for our needs. We found the Moto Gaming overlay most helpful when it adds capacitive ‘shoulder buttons’ on the top right and top left edges of the display. This feature is hampered by the less-curved screens on other devices, like the LG V60, but the Edge Plus’ screen spills over the side far enough for the buttons to be a bit more useful.
The real standout might be the audio: when listening through the headphone jack, songs had a broader range of sound than, say, the bass-heavy sound on the iPhone 11 Pro Max (both wired through its Lightning port and wireless via AirPods Pro). The Edge Plus’ dual surround sound speakers aren’t bad, either, though we’re eager to put them up against our favorite speakers on the Google Pixel 4.
Whether those perks are unique enough to seize the spotlight, we know just having a 3.5mm jack could be enough for audio standbys.
The Motorola Edge Plus, like many phones introduced this year, was planned to be revealed at MWC 2020. When that show was shut down in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, Motorola held off publicly launching the phone until April 22.
The Edge Plus will cost $999 (around \u00a3812 \/ AU$1,581), and will be released in the US on May 14 exclusively through Verizon for $41.66 per month for 24 months. Customers trading in phones can get up to $550 off the list price.
Yes, exclusively \u2013 meaning there won\u2019t be an unlocked Motorola Edge Plus in the US. It will be sold in Canada through Rogers, Bell and Telus.
As far as we currently know, the Motorola Edge Plus is not coming to the UK. It will be available in May in a handful of EU countries, including Italy and some Scandinavian nations, at a starting price of \u20ac1,199. Around the same time, it should go live in India, UAE at Etisalat and du and in KSA at stc.
The phone will come in two colors: Thunder Grey and a pinkish Smoky Sangria.
In shifting away from the Z-series design, Motorola has furnished the Edge Plus with many elements from leading flagships, taking a few leaves out of Samsung\u2019s book in particular \u2013 the screen curving over the sides looks unmistakably like the \u2018waterfall\u2019 edges of the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Samsung Galaxy Note 10 lines of phones.
Or, to take another example: the rear camera strip is reminiscent of the rear lens arrangement on the Huawei P30.
That Motorola has taken design cues from other Android flagships isn\u2019t surprising \u2013 given that the design of its Z-series phones was constrained by the need for those handsets to be compatible with Moto Mods, the company had some catching up to do. And the result is that the Edge Plus is a handsome device with a flagship polish we haven\u2019t previously seen from the brand.
The aforementioned curved display edges make the phone a little easier to handle than its 6.7-inch screen would suggest, especially given the phone\u2019s outsized 9.6mm thickness \u2013 and yes, you\u2019ll notice this, given that most phones hover around the 8mm mark, such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 at 7.9mm, or, at most, the 8.8mm Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
The Edge Plus isn\u2019t that much harder to handle, but the phone\u2019s flat top and bottom make the thickness apparent.
If anything is awkward, it\u2019s the placement of the volume rocker and power button high up on the phone\u2019s right side, although we\u2019ll wait until we\u2019ve used these for a while during our full review process to see if this is an actual issue.
The 203g of weight is about average, and while the phone felt thick, it didn\u2019t feel terribly hefty. It doesn\u2019t have an IP water- and dust-resistance rating, so we\u2019ll have to trust Motorola\u2019s claims about its \u201cwater repellent design.\u201d
Those curved sides mean the microSD\/SIM slot is relocated to the bottom of the phone, to the left of the USB-C port. To the right of the port is the main speaker; its sound is combined with the output from a second speaker out of the top of the phone for stereo audio, with both speakers tuned by audio company Waves, says Motorola (we didn\u2019t get to testing the sound in our short time and cramped test room).
And of course, the top contains one of the rarest of birds on a flagship phone: a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The 6.7-inch Full HD+ OLED display complements the high design polish: it\u2019s large, sharp, and the \u2018Endless Edge\u2019 sides are very attractive. They also curve in a complete semi-circular arc, meaning the edges don\u2019t flatten at all. It\u2019s a novel, if a little funky, look and feel \u2013 and if you don\u2019t like it, you can set which apps wrap around the sides, and which don\u2019t.
The display\u2019s 21:9 aspect ratio makes this phone feel narrow, meaning some people may find it awkward to use one-handed. Like many other flagship phones in 2020, you can set the Edge Plus to light up its sides when receiving notifications, which is a neat if trivial touch that\u2019s nonetheless better than blinking the flash.
While we didn\u2019t have much chance to play around with the display\u2019s brightness and sharpness, its HDR10+ support should bring the Motorola Edge Plus comfortably into line with other flagships, even if its Full HD+ display doesn\u2019t quite reach the WQHD+ resolution of phones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 line.
The Edge Plus display\u2019s 90Hz max refresh rate is a welcome feature, and while it\u2019s bettered by some 120Hz screens on flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S20 and OnePlus 8 Pro the average user won\u2019t notice much difference between those numbers, especially those used to the 60Hz refresh rate on most smartphones \u2013 what they will notice is that navigating between apps or browsing the internet is much smoother.
One feature that\u2019s somewhat rare in other smartphones is present in the Edge Plus\u2019 display: it can create two virtual \u2018shoulder buttons\u2019 on the top edge of the smartphone while you\u2019re holding it sideways to play games. We didn\u2019t get a chance to try this out, but it\u2019s something we\u2019ve seen gaming-tuned phones like the Nubia Red Magic 3 try out.
The Motorola Edge Plus packs a traditional triple rear camera setup. The star of the show is the 108MP main shooter, which can use \u2018pixel binning\u2019 tech that reduces the megapixel count while effectively expanding the size of each pixel to let in more light, though at a cost of less sharp images.
The phone also has an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a 16MP ultra-wide camera, as well as a time-of-flight depth sensor to enable bokeh effects in portrait shots. Sadly, we didn\u2019t get much of a chance to try out the camera features, but the array here is as comprehensive as those on most other current flagships.
The main shooter can also capture video in 6K UHD \u2013 a peculiar interval we haven\u2019t seen very often between the typical 4K and the 8K resolution reached by the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones. It won\u2019t matter too much, given the low penetration of TVs and screens above 4K in consumer households, but there is one nice advantage of shooting in 6K: stop a video recorded at that resolution, Motorola says, and you\u2019ll be able to grab 24MP still images.
The Edge Plus also has a long-exposure mode that enables you to drag the shutter speed out to as much as 32 seconds, and there are some improvements to the Z-series\u2019 Night Vision photography mode, too \u2013 again we\u2019ll wait to comment on that until we try it out.
The Edge Plus also packs a 25MP front-facing camera, which can also use pixel binning.
The refined design of the Motorola Edge Plus isn\u2019t the only thing \u2018flagship\u2019 about it. The phone\u2019s specs are top-tier, from its Snapdragon 865 chipset to the 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is expandable up to 1TB via microSD.
Unsurprisingly, the Edge Plus sports Android 10, launching with the latest version that packs Dark Mode and other enhancements.
As mentioned, the Edge Plus is 5G capable, and works on both sub-6 and mmWave frequencies. While that\u2019s not too surprising in some regions \u2013 it\u2019s only being sold by Verizon in the US, which has a mmWave network and will likely add sub-6 by the end of 2020 \u2013 it does mean units sold elsewhere will have a bit more flexibility when it comes to hooking up to next-gen networks.
The Edge Plus packs a 5,000mAh battery, which Motorola claims will last for up to two days. We wouldn\u2019t be too optimistic about that claim, though, especially if owners drain their battery faster with 5G, location services, or bumping up specs to, say, the 90Hz refresh rate \u2013 again it\u2019s something we\u2019ll test during our full review process.
Sadly, the Edge Plus maxes out at 15W charging, which has been the case with previous Motorola phones. The company claims any more wattage would require a thicker device, and it\u2019s possible that it would up the price as well. But it does support wireless charging, and can donate its own power to other devices via reverse wireless charging.
The Motorola Edge Plus is easily the best phone Motorola has put out in years, with long-overdue strides like abandoning Moto Mods. While Z-series fans won\u2019t be happy, especially given a price tag that\u2019s fully twice that of the Moto Z4, the Edge Plus is a Motorola phone that can compete with the best current flagship handsets.
Specs, looks, cameras, 5G\u2026 the Edge Plus checks a lot of flagship boxes. However, it\u2019s also launching at the worst time for expensive phones since the Great Recession \u2013 and given all the other pricey flagships coming out this year, Motorola\u2019s top-of-the-line offering might not have enough outstanding features to distinguish it from the rest of the pack.
And that would be a shame: the Edge Plus looks like an exciting, capable phone. It\u2019s big, it\u2019s bold, and we\u2019re pleased to see a phone inheriting all the neat refinements from its cheaper cousins (like the Motorola One line), and adding some new ones, to produce what could be the best handset Motorola has ever released.<\/p>\n