Motorola Edge 50 Pro Review: Classy Customer

At a look

Skilled’s Ranking

Execs

• Glorious display high quality
• Smooth, tactile design
• Tremendous quick wired and wi-fi charging
• Person-friendly software program expertise

Cons

• Curved display false inputs
• Middling secondary cameras
• Longer software program help out there elsewhere

Our Verdict

Whether or not it deserves the Professional designation or not (it in all probability doesn’t), the Motorola Edge 50 Professional is likely one of the most aesthetically pleasing mid-range telephones available on the market, whereas its show, software program, and charging provisions are among the many finest. You may get higher cameras, efficiency, and battery life for the cash if these are vital to you.

Value When Reviewed

Not out there in US

For the longest time, Motorola was finest recognized for its low-cost and cheerful Moto G telephones, however the Lenovo-owned model has been quietly making a reputation for itself a bit of additional up the pricing scale of late.

The Motorola Edge 50 Professional is one other instance of an aesthetic mid-ranger with a few flagship-level options. Even so, it won’t be fairly what you’re anticipating.

Motorola has had a little bit of a rethink in regards to the positioning of its three smartphone choices in 2024. The Motorola Edge 50 Professional isn’t really a direct follow-on from the flagship Motorola Edge 40 Professional from 2023, however somewhat is much nearer in value and spec to the mid-range Motorola Edge 40.

For £599 you’re getting a handsome cellphone with a fantastic show, fast charging, crisp software program, and a correct triple digicam set-up. In fact, this isn’t the one ‘premium mid-range’ smartphone available on the market… however is it one of the best?

Check out the handsets the Edge 50 Professional should compete with in our greatest mid-range cellphone chart.

Design & Construct

• Vegan leather-based again
• Slim and light-weight
• IP68 rated

As has change into a signature characteristic of the Edge sequence, the Motorola Edge 50 Professional seems and feels pleasant.

It has that just-so really feel within the hand, partly right down to a thickness of 8.19mm and a weight of 186g. It’s in that Goldilocks zone the place it feels substantial however not unwieldy.

One other issue within the cellphone’s nice really feel is its vegan leather-based again. Its pronounced texture lends grip, resists greasy marks (no less than on my Luxe Lavendar mannequin), and feels heat and alluring. You may as well choose the cellphone up in Black Magnificence and Moonlight Pearl, the latter of which switches the rear materials to a extra conventional type of plastic.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

No matter end you go for, the digicam module steadily melts into the physique somewhat than standing out like Desk Mountain – just like the Samsung Galaxy A53 – which is an method I can get behind. You additionally get a sandblasted aluminium body, which is suitably premium.

The sense of high quality continues with an IP68 ranking, which makes the Motorola Edge 50 Professional as water and dirt resistant as many a £1,000-plus flagship.

One other outstanding design characteristic is the cellphone’s dual-curved show. I’ll focus on the sensible repercussions of this within the subsequent part, however it undoubtedly seems the half no less than.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Display screen & Audio system

• Sharp ‘1.5K’ 144Hz pOLED
• 6.7-inch
• Clear stereo audio system

Motorola has been going the additional mile with its Edge shows for some time now, and the Motorola Edge 50 Professional continues the nice work. It’s a big, vibrant 6.7in LTPS pOLED panel with a variable refresh charge.

You’ll be able to go away it to robotically alter the refresh charge by default, or else manually select between 60-, 120-, and 144Hz. I cranked it proper as much as the max for the take a look at interval, as is the Tech Advisor approach, however as at all times Motorola has in all probability gone a bit of OTT with that 144Hz determine – 120Hz is lots. Players will profit from a 360Hz most contact charge, which ought to guarantee responsive efficiency in fast-paced video games.

Motorola has improved the Edge 50 Professional display in two most important areas. For one factor, it packs a sharper 2712 x 1220 decision, which many would name ‘1.5K’. This presents a pleasant steadiness between FHD+ and QHD+ (aka 2K), leading to good crisp textual content and well-defined picture previews.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The opposite enchancment pertains to color accuracy. Motorola is making an enormous deal out of its ‘Pantone Validated color’, which feels like a gimmick, and it would nicely be. All I can attest to are the details and figures, which embody an sRGB gamut protection of 99.5% and a mean Delta E of 0.64. That’s distinctive.

True, you’ll want to change away from the default Vivid color scheme and choose the Pure various with the intention to hit these extra correct figures, however that’s the case with nearly each Android cellphone I’ve ever examined.

Brightness is stable too, with a claimed peak brightness of 2000 nits in HDR eventualities (there’s help for HDR10+). With autobrightness turned off, I recorded a most brightness of round 472 nits, which is respectable.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

My one criticism of the Motorola Edge 50 Professional display is a well-known one. The selection to make use of a dual-curved show might have produced a good-looking cellphone, however I encountered loads of false enter points throughout my couple of weeks with it. There have been loads of events the place a display press merely wasn’t registering, just for me to understand it was as a result of a portion of my holding hand was already making contact with the sting of the show.

Motorola has additionally included a pair of Dolby Atmos-tuned stereo audio system, which yield impressively loud and spacious audio. I used to be significantly impressed by the readability of vocals in film content material. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, for no matter that’s price to you.

Specs & Efficiency

• Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
• 12GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 512GB storage

Motorola has turned to Qualcomm’s newest mid-range chip, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, to energy the Edge 50 Professional.

It’s a succesful processor, although benchmark exams counsel that efficiency has really taken one thing of a backwards step even from final yr’s vanilla Motorola Edge 40 and its punchy MediaTek Dimensity 8200, by no means thoughts the Motorola Edge 40 Professional with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

It additionally falls nicely behind the equally priced Nothing Cellphone (2) with its Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. In fact, in every of those circumstances, the Motorola Edge 50 Professional is working a sharper show, which goes to take a bit out of GPU efficiency. Even so, with that Professional moniker, you might need anticipated extra spectacular efficiency.

What actually issues is how the Motorola Edge 50 Professional handles these further pixels, particularly at elevated refresh charges of as much as 144Hz, and the reply is nicely sufficient. At no level throughout my time with the cellphone did I discover it lagging or dropping frames of animation when skimming by means of the UI.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The supply of 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM (no less than right here within the UK) little doubt helps with that, as does Motorola’s delightfully light-weight UI.

Even in superior video games the Motorola Edge 50 Professional proved as much as the duty. Working each Wreckfest and Genshin Influence on ‘Excessive’ settings, the cellphone didn’t break a sweat, and largely hit its 60fps goal.

There’s ample storage for such hefty apps too, with the only UK mannequin coming with a formidable 512GB of inner storage. That’s a greater inventory provision than most flagship telephones.

Motorola Edge 50 Professional benchmarks

Cameras

• Essential 50Mp f/1.4 sensor
• 13Mp ultra-wide
• 10Mp 3x telephoto
• 50Mp selfie cam

For the Edge 50 Professional’s digicam set-up, Motorola seems to have basically replicated the Motorola Edge 40’s most important and ultra-wide, added a devoted telephoto, and upgraded the selfie digicam. Possibly that’s a little bit of an oversimplification – there’s additionally a brand new ToF (time-of-flight) sensor for superior autofocus – however the principle sensor definitely performs equally.

As soon as once more, that unusually quick f/1.4 aperture is nice for scooping up gentle, along side a pretty big 1/1.55-inch sensor. I used to be impressed by the separation and pure bokeh captured when taking pictures human topics, even with out using the Portrait mode. Nonetheless, it may well additionally imply that components of close-up pictures stray out of focus.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

In robust daylight, the Edge 50 Professional’s most important sensor takes good pictures, whereas that mixture of elements additionally leads to some fairly good leads to indoor lighting. The devoted Evening mode isn’t the strongest I’ve encountered on the value, although I admire that Motorola resists pulling a budget over-brightening trick that may make every part look unnatural in cheaper telephones.

The 10Mp telephoto is the newcomer right here and is a uncommon discover for a cellphone on this value bracket, however you received’t encounter it till you zoom in to 3x. At 2x, the Edge 50 professional merely crops in on the bigger most important sensor. This leads to 2x pictures which are much better uncovered and simply plain simpler on the attention than their 3x brothers, which are usually dimmer and flatter. Nonetheless, it’s a welcome inclusion in a cellphone of this value.

The 13Mp ultrawide is equally murky, missing the colourful pop of that most important sensor. It will possibly do a job on landscapes, however the 50Mp most important sensor actually is the star attraction right here. Certainly, you may want to make use of the ultrawide’s autofocus capabilities within the service of comparatively sharp macro pictures.

Motorola’s 50Mp selfie digicam can produce good pictures with pure display tones and respectable topic sharpness, full with autofocus – one thing of a uncommon inclusion on a extra inexpensive cellphone – and it may well additionally change between a better view and a wider one.

I did choose up on the occasional bodged selfie the place the publicity was approach too darkish, however fortunately this was a uncommon fumble.

Video seize tops out on the common 4K at 30fps, although most individuals will probably nonetheless with 1080p at both 30- or 60fps. Motorola additionally helps HDR10 recording, although solely at 30fps.

Battery Life & Charging

• Barely pokey 4500mAh battery
• Ridiculously speedy 125W charger included
• 50W wi-fi charging

Battery life is one thing of a blended bag within the Edge 50 Professional.

On the optimistic aspect, the cellphone is good and environment friendly usually utilization, and I used to be in a position to get by means of a day of reasonable use (4 hours half-hour of display on time) with round 50 to 60% left to play with.

Alternatively, the PCMark Work 3.0 battery take a look at – which simulates a sustained blended workload – produced a reasonably poor results of 9 hours 34 minutes. That’s higher than the Edge 40, however greater than an hour in need of the Pixel 8 (now out there for the same value), and virtually 5 hours in need of the Nothing Cellphone (2).

In fact, none of these different telephones run a 144Hz show. Peg that setting again to Auto, and even 120Hz, and also you’ll get a a lot better rating, although nonetheless not among the many highest.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The takeaway appears clear right here: the Motorola Edge 50 Professional’s smaller-than-average 4500mAh battery is greater than as much as the duty of lasting by means of a day of lighter on a regular basis duties, however struggles a bit of when the going will get robust.

Fortunately, it additionally options the most effective charging provisions of any cellphone of this value – or any value, for that matter. Motorola bundles in a ridiculously speedy 125W TurboPower charger, which may get the cellphone from empty to full in lower than 20 minutes.

You additionally get 50W wi-fi charging help, which is one other provision you don’t count on to see at this finish of the market. All in all, it makes Samsung’s and Google’s modest charging provisions look a bit foolish. One in every of its solely rivals on this space is the 120W Xiaomi Redmi Be aware 13 Professional+ which doesn’t have wi-fi charging.

Software program & Apps

• Customary clear tackle Android 14
• Considerate Motorola elaborations
• 3 OS updates, 4 years safety updates

Motorola’s method to Android is certainly one of my favourites. It largely sticks to the Google script, providing a devoted tackle Android 14 with broadly the identical menu structure.

The place it ornaments, it typically does so with good style and sound pondering. The Moto app is on the coronary heart of this, providing a slick one-stop portal to Motorola’s enhancements.

It’s by means of this app you can activate customized gestures, such because the helpful double-chop to activate the torch, or the double twist to activate the digicam. They’ve been round a very long time however nonetheless show so helpful.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

You may as well use this Moto app to run customized display capabilities, just like the Edge lights system the flashes out visible notifications from the edges whereas the cellphone is face down. Curiously, although, there’s no always-on display provision. Maybe Motorola was conscious of that small battery and power-hogging show, however it’s a little bit of an omission nonetheless.

Motorola’s UI isn’t completely bloatware free, both. It preinstalls the Opera net browser, which at all times appears pointless when Chrome comes as normal, whereas TikTok and LinkedIn are additionally included whether or not you prefer it or not.

Again to the positives, and Motorola has elevated software program help by a yr in comparison with Edge 40 vary. Meaning three main OS upgrades are assured, and 4 years of safety patches. That’s not up there with Samsung or Google, however it’s nonetheless not dangerous.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Value & Availability

The Motorola Edge 50 Professional prices £599.99 direct from the Motorola UK web site right here within the UK.

Alternatively, you should purchase the cellphone from the same old mainstream UK retailers, together with John Lewis and Amazon. On the time of writing, the latter was knocking £15 off the worth of the cellphone.

Wherever you supply it from, the Edge 50 Professional’s RRP positions it proper up towards the Nothing Cellphone (2) and the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE. Whereas this value is £100 greater than the brand new Pixel 8a, in the meantime, we’ve seen the Pixel 8 discounted to the same value of late.

Within the US, there’s no signal of the Edge 50 vary but although the agency is “excited to share its dedication to increasing the sting household in North America this yr” in response to its weblog publish. It’s obscure however offers us some hope, even when they flip up with totally different names as is frequent.

Discover extra choices in our greatest mid-range cellphone chart.

Do you have to purchase the Motorola Edge 50 Professional?

The Motorola Edge 50 Professional seals it – Motorola is now firmly within the enterprise of constructing elegant telephones out there at cheap mid-market costs. Its title could be downright deceptive – that is no ‘Professional’ cellphone – however there’s no denying it is a beautiful piece of package to make use of.

It seems and feels nice, sports activities the most effective shows in its class, and advantages from a critically spectacular charging provision. We proceed to admire Motorola’s restrained software program, and the efficiency and digicam are aggressive inside their subject, if removed from excellent.

You’re not an ideal providing. The selection to stay with a curved show continues to trigger sensible issues even because it seems nice, whereas the cellphone’s secondary cameras aren’t particularly nice. Battery life, too, isn’t up there with the perfect, particularly throughout intensive use.

Nonetheless, for a mid-range cellphone that offers you a style of the excessive life, you’ll battle to do a lot better than the Motorola Edge 50 Professional.

Specs

• Android 14
• 6.7in, 1.5K, pOLED, 144Hz, curved show
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
• 12GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 512GB storage
• 50Mp, f/1.4 most important digicam, OIS
• 13Mp, f/2.2 ultra-wide digicam
• 10Mp 3x telephoto digicam, OIS
• As much as 4K @ 30fps rear video
• 50Mp front-facing digicam
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 4500mAh battery
• 125W wired charging
• 50W wi-fi charging
• 161.23 × 72.4 × 8.19mm
• 186g
• Launch colors: Luxe Lavendar, Moonlight Pearl, Black Magnificence