Motorola’s new flagship phone, the Moto Edge Plus, looks like something out of HBO’s Westworld series. The program describes handsets as meaningless displays largely lacking in identifying features in addition to a sharp, bright screen. They’re not smartphones, really – just smart devices, a cross between a tablet, a phone, and a PC.
The Moto Edge Plus feels like a huge leap towards the Westworld novel, kinda. It’s almost all-screen, and because of that fast Qualcomm processor, plus 5G support, decent RAM ,and a really smooth 90Hz display, it reacts to your touch with this kind of weird unnatural speed. There’s a subtle Motorola logo on the back, but beyond that it stays sleek and kinda unbranded.
Even with that future looking vibe, Motorola is still trying to outshine the competition in a very direct way. The Moto Edge Plus goes for just $1,000. That is a lot, yeah ,but it’s also less than the top top flagships from Apple and Samsung. That is a bold move, honestly.
Screen
Motorola’s Moto Edge Plus has a clear, massive headline feature that you’ll stare at every time you pick up the phone. That’s the 6.7-inch display of the End End Edge Edge.
Phones with sleek, curved displays aren’t totally new, the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is like five years old already, believe it or not. Still the Moto Edge Plus feels like it belongs to a newer batch where they pushed the whole idea further. The edges wrap right around the sides by a full 90 degrees, which basically cuts down on the visible side areas when you look at it straight-on.
This kind of thinking showed up earlier with the Huawei Mate 30 Pro last year, but the Moto Edge Plus has already launched. And honestly, that timing matters, because it’s also easy to actually find in the US. Huawei and Oppo models are not so simple to track down, and even using them in North America can be a hassle. For a typical US smartphone buyer, this is kind of a first.
Now for the Endless Edge screen: it’s a gorgeous OLED touchscreen with a bunch of extras, including FHD+ resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate 10-bit color support and HDR10+ certification. The oddball but very cool 21:9 aspect ratio makes the phone feel tall and skinny. Which, sure, helps for texting , web browsing, or reading, since you can see more content without the device getting wider.
But theres a catch. It can get messy with streaming videos or games, because a lot of that stuff is built for the 16:9 layout. With a 21:9 display, 16:9 content ends up leaving black bars along the sides , so you kind of lose real estate . Yeah, a lot of videos and games let you use zoom so the content covers the whole screen, but then it crops part of the view, which is kinda annoying.
The touch screen can be hard to wrangle too. It looks appealing and futuristic, but it also makes the phone difficult to hold , without accidentally triggering touch input when you dont mean to. That didnt bother me much while browsing the web, but once i started gaming it became a problem . In Minecraft, i havent found a comfortable grip that avoids accidental input.
There are two other quirks to show. First, text often ends up on the sides of the phone when viewing web pages or documents. While it’s still readable, it’s an odd look. The extreme curve also distorts colors and brightness at the edges due to odd viewing angles. That is evident when viewing any uniform color gamut on the screen, such as the pure white background of many web pages. I tweaked it, but I call it a flaw.
Your appetite for the Moto Edge Plus , more than anything, will boil down to whether you like this display or not. It’s kinda a surprise, and it feels futuristic but it’s not exactly flawless.
Design
The Moto Edge Plus is built like, around its display. Its tall, narrow, blocky body is made to fit the tall, narrow 21:9 aspect ratio.
Even with the rounded edges, the device feels chunky compared to an Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max or a Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus. Official specs claim the phone has a diameter of 37 inches, which … doesn’t sound right and yet here we are. The iPhone 11 Pro Max comes in at 0.32 inches thick, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is 0.31 inches, and the OnePlus 8 Pro lands on 0.33 inches. So even if the form factor feels sleek and narrow it turns out, in the real world, it s kind of more awkward to keep a clean grip.
It’s also slippery. Any tiny lean and the phone just slides along, slow but sure. It went flying off the edge of my desk, then my couch, and even a couple of chairs. It always seems one moment away from leaving your hand.
And it feels extra heavy, mostly because it’s tall, so you tend to grip it around the lower area. My review unit came in at 7.2 ounces, heavier than a Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus but lighter than an Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Moto’s entire 2020 lineup is explicitly built to offer classy design at a lower price point, and the Edge Plus succeeds. The classy blue finish of my review unit, combined with the narrow look of the phone, makes for an elegant, professional device. The Moto Edge Plus looks like it belongs in a meeting room or private jet.
Optical fingerprint reader
Moto Edge Plus uses an optical fingerprint reader for secure login. It appears on the bottom of the phone and is very easy to use.
However, it does not avoid the flaws that have launched this technology. While fingerprint recognition usually works, it usually takes some time to recognize my fingerprint. That’s sluggish compared to the near-instant login traditional systems can offer. The system also has a lot of trouble handling any water or dirt on your hands.
5G, wireless, and gateway
The Moto Edge Plus gets both 5W mmWave and sub-6Hz networks, and Motorola says it can hit up to 4Gbps network speeds if everything is perfect. I can’t really test it on my end yet , since 5G hasn’t been rolled out in my area. That said, it feels pretty reassuring to see full 5G support because it should boost the connection overall and open the door to top-tier speeds as soon as it’s available.
This phone is Verizon exclusive. You’ll need to be a Verizon subscriber to use it, or you’ll have to switch to Verizon’s network. There’s not much wiggle room there.
You’ll also notice it comes with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. I mean, I’d honestly expect to see the newest wireless standards in a modern flagship kind of device. Still, it’s nice that Motorola didn’t toss out useful features just to keep the $1,000 price tag held steady.
For wired connections, it includes USB 3.0 Type-C along with a 3.5mm audio jack. Both ports are placed on the bottom edge of the phone.
Camera quality
The camera is the other headline feature on the Moto Plus Edge Plus. The triple-lens system has a 108-megapixel main camera, a 16-megapixel ultrawide lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens.
It also includes optical image stabilization, video stabilization, and laser autofocus with a time-of-flight sensor.
Yep, 108MP. As with the Endless Edge display, the phone’s 108MP camera isn’t a unique feature, but it’s very advanced and a bit unexpected on a $1,000 phone.
Main camera quality
Despite having a 108MP sensor, the Moto Edge Plus defaults to pixel binning. This technique, which Moto calls Quad Pixel Technology, combines light from four pixels into one. That reduces the output to 27MP but increases the image’s brightness, contrast, and color – at least in theory.
At first glance, Moto Edge Plus makes a strong impression. The camera appears wobbly in outdoor shots with the vibrant, saturated look common in flagship phones. These photos are sure to catch the eye and look great on multiple screens.
However, I feel the Moto Edge Plus has issues with colors. A close-up on one of my flowers makes it look kinda fluorescent-ish, yet in person it feels warmer. The colors get so intense, they can crush the detail, and then you lose those fine subtle patterns or even the small blemishes you can actually see. It’s kinda alright for Instagram, but most times it’s a far cry from what’s real.
Colors were skewed in the opposite direction when I took pictures indoors with medium to low light. While the photos looked sharp and bright, colors fell sharply. The camera seems to be particularly obscured by the yellow wall in my kitchen and is often skewed towards a weak pastel, which isn’t quite right.
Portrait mode does a solid job of enhancing the look and feels of portraits, and it does quite well even in moderate lighting conditions, although it does show more grain than photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy Apple’s S20 Plus or iPhone 11 Pro Max.
The Moto Edge Plus is at its best when taking photos at a moderate distance under moderate to bright light. It can take great photos in these conditions, but the main camera isn’t as versatile as I’d like it to be.
108MP / Telephoto Super Resolution Quality
While the 108MP sensor uses pixel binning by default, you have the option to turn that off and take a full 108MP photo. Do that, however, and you’ll run into some problems. Using 108MP Ultra Ultra res mode significantly increases image processing time. The photos themselves are huge, consuming several times more space than the default 27MP photo.
You will be disappointed if you expect a definite increase. 27MP photo output comes in at 6,016 x 4,512 resolution, which is i mean already higher than 4K. Then there’s 108MP photo output at 12,032 x 9,024, much higher for sure. Though, you really need a monitor with more than 4K resolution to even notice, the difference clearly.
Motorola is not indifferent to this and quickly points out the added versatility of a super-high-resolution photo. Super high-resolution images can enhance digital zoom, as there’s more detail to work within the first place. Still, the Moto Edge Plus also has an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.
I figured id compare them side by side, so i took pictures of the text from a distance, then cropped those shots to figure out which one had the most detail, kinda.
The telephoto lens comes through with really outstanding sharpness. This isnt meant as a jab at Ultra-res mode, because the detail here is genuinely impressive too. Those tight crops only cover under 1 percent of the 108,576,768 pixels in the 108MP image. Still , the crop from the telephoto lens is easier to read.
Now, you will probably notice a pretty clear change in the overall look between each shot. Images from Ultra-res mode show noticeably more colors than the ones from the 8MP camera. That checks out since the 108MP main camera uses an f/1.8 aperture, while the telephoto camera sits at f/2.4 and , as a result, it grabs a bit less light.
Overall, these results make me think that skilled smartphone photographers will find a lot to tap. Ultra-res mode and telephoto lenses are both suitable for different situations. On the other hand, less skilled photographers will likely skip the Ultra-res mode and use the telephoto lens when zooming is needed.
Ultrawide and macro
So this 16MP ultrawide camera, it gives you a 117-degree field of view for more expansive shots and well yeah it performs well. The kinda impressive shots you can grab with the ultrawide lens, they do pair nicely with the Moto Edge Plus and its tendency to oversaturate those colors a bit, which honestly can look pretty striking.
Are the outcomes realistic? Not really – but that’s kind of the point with ultrawide smartphone cameras anyway. It’s more like an exciting, flexible choice that can bring a sense of scope and grandeur, the kind that often isn’t possible on a smartphone. I liked using it quite a lot, and the photos I took were among the best I managed to produce during the whole review.
Your phone’s macro mode has a job to do, but it may be more specific than you expect. It can deliver solid quality when very close to a subject. I’m talking inches away. Otherwise, I find the main camera can take sharper, more colorful photos.
Front camera
The Moto Edge Plus has a 25 MP front camera with Quad Pixel technology like the main camera. It sets 6.2MP images by default.
My isolation haircut doesn’t make me the best subject, but I think the camera is solid. Images from it are vivid, clear, and sharp. The photo kinda has this over saturated look, kinda like from other cameras but i dont think it is a real issue for selfies, really. My skin tone doesn’t glow a whole lot, but there is still a bit of warmth, more like in a subtle manner.
However, you will need reasonable lighting to get the most out of the camera. Even with the pixel pitch effect, the front camera can’t avoid a grainy look in dim indoor lighting, never mind a dark environment. There’s no Night Mode, or anything like that, to improve quality in limited light.
Summary of camera quality
The camera on the Moto Edge Plus throws plenty of options at owners hoping that a few will stick. Outdoor shots look great on the primary camera, it does best when there is good light and colorful backdrops, like really nice contrast. It feels very instagram-friendly, but kinda gives up balance and realism for a punchy, super saturated vibe that pops on whatever screen you use.
I like the 108MP camera. That is not something most owners will use often, but it increases the phone’s versatility. You can take photos with 108MP Ultra-res mode, then crop them down for best results.
It’s a great camera system for sure, but it doesn’t stand out. All modern flagship phones offer excellent picture quality. The Moto Edge Plus can take spectacular photos, but it doesn’t disappoint.
Video quality
The Moto Edge Plus delivers the heat in video specs, like it really knows what it’s doing. It can capture video at up to 6K resolution, or go for 1080p video at 60FPS ( frames per second ). Alongside that, you also get optical image stabilization, a “video portrait mode” , and a video capture feature that can pull 20MP still images from the video while you’re filming, kind of neat.
I have a pretty small amount of experience with recording video on smartphones, so I can’t really test the video quality in a strict, technical sense. But from what i saw, the video quality is honestly kinda strong, like it looked very decent overall. You get crisp details and vibrant colors, without that dull look.
The phone’s performance stays steady even when you record in 6K. I didn’t notice any obvious lag, or extra processing time either right before or right after shooting in 6K. Everything feels fairly responsive.
There’s also a slow-motion mode, it can shoot up to 120FPS in FHD, or 240FPS in HD.
Sound
Stereo speakers tuned by Waves, a Grammy winning audio technology firm, give the Moto Edge Plus that voice.
When you crank it up to full volume, the phone puts out a bold, well judged sound. It can handle a whole mix of content, like bass heavy tracks or even the most intense action movies. It’s not chasing the absolute most bass, but you get a clean, crisp vibe that stays distortion resistant. Vocals, dialogue , they are still easy to pick out even when you’re next to the roar of a jet engine or under a deep steady bass beat.
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Performance
Moto Edge Plus is powered by the Qualcomm 865 processor, which is the latest in Qualcomm’s line of offerings meant to power 8 cores. It is paired with a 12GB and 256GB storage connected with the UFS 3.0 storage standard. Motorola will not be releasing any other models with more memory and there is no SDcard expansion.
Most Android phones tend to use Qualcomm processors, so really there is no a definite edge of the Moto Edge Plus here. Nevertheless, this is one fast processor. Only Apple’s excellent A13 Bionic will beat it.
910 Geekbench 5 single core:
3,297 Geekbench 5 Multi-core:
9,415 throwing 3DMark:
I’ve mentioned in prior comments that the performance of smartphones has reached a stage at which pretty much all smartphones would be more than good enough. But you feel the edge an elite phone like Moto Edge Plus has over any phone housing a mid-range Qualcomm 600-series processor.
The content slides very smoothly through the Moto edge plus, with very few occasions of it hesitating even while scrolling through long lists of high-resolution images or movies. It’s not flawless, but it’s close. With the 90Hz display, it’s definitely a notch or two above the 60Hz screens that formerly ruled most of the flagship phones, and it’s just pleasurable.
The Moto Edge Plus flies over the content.
I said before that the only benchmark to look at for comparison is the one where Apple’s A13 Bionic is supposed to be faster: single-core Geekbench and in multi-core. If the case were translated for a fair fight, Apple’s iPhone SE would score a 1.24 in single-core Geekbench and 3,192 in multi-core Geekbench. This is not to say that Apple’s $400 phone offers massively better speed per core than the Moto Edge Plus. The Apple iPhone SE is also multi-core competitive. But do you really see that speed while using it?
I didn’t notice it, except while using the camera. For instance, taking a flurry of photos will highlight that newer iPhones can snap a similar number within a much tighter timeframe, and do so with an almost “lag” or noticeable difference in feel while doing it. It feels smoother while multitasking as well (in spite of the Moto Edge Plus’ RAM).
Still good though, still true. Would a current iPhone feel more responsive? True. But in 99% of cases, who really cares?
Qualcomm’s 865 comes with an inbuilt Adreno 650 GPU, and thus will run smoothly any game that Android will throw on you. After all, this is Qualcomm’s current flagship component; there is no out-of-the-box chip for Android game developers to target for their products. The game flies running at the high frame rate and with great quality settings.
I don’t have the iPhone 11 Pro Max available for direct comparison. Still, the benchmark results on 3DMark lead me to believe that the iPhone 11 Pro Max and Moto Edge Plus probably offer similar experiences. You won’t see much difference among the several other Android flagships, all having the same Qualcomm 865 part with the same Adreno GPU.
As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve got some complaints about how the design of the phone might make the game-playing activity difficult when you depend heavily on the touch controls, but I certainly can’t complain about the performance.
Life of Battery
It is enhanced and fuelled by a major 5000mAh energy battery that the Moto Edge Plus carries. Such capacious batteries aren’t par for the course in 2020; in this sense, the Edge Plus beads its competitors. For example, the OnePlus 8 Pro comprises thus a 4,510mAh battery, with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus power in quantity constructs at 4,500, while Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max used a battery of 3,969mAh.
Most of the people who do the day-to-day work end the day with battery usage of 30 to 50 percent.
Motorola quotes a battery life of two days, which has proven to be true for me. If you really put it through the ringer, that could be stretched to three days when you turn the phone on or do some unplugging. Most people, I would assume, would finish their day with at least 30 to 50 percent battery left.
The phone comes with either an 18-watt fast charger that is in the box, or a 15-watt wireless charger too, sort of. There’s also wireless power-sharing available , with a output around up to 5 watts. Now, these numbers don’t really line up with what you’d call a flagship standard, because on the contrary the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus could charge up to 25 watts , and the OnePlus 8 Pro supports 30 watts. Still, I don’t really see this kinda average charging speed as an actual problem, especially with that long battery life.
Software
The Moto Edge Plus arrives pre-loaded with Android 10 , which is already outdated. A good portion of the bloatware on my unit seems to come from Verizon rather than Motorola, but honestly it isn’t even that cluttered. Apps like My Verizon feel more like background decoration unless users want to check them out.
The Moto Edge Plus does not support Moto Actions, another differentiator of all Motorola phones. Such gesture-based shortcuts are used for quick access to several functions. For example, a double cut over the air instantly turns on the flashlight, while two quick turns can activate your camera.
I am a long-time Moto lover, hopping on the Moto G3 for the first time, and the primary reason for my choice is Moto Action. Simple, successful, and highly used features that will be available to you every day.
My grievance concerning the most is regarding its camera app, which has a very basic look, as found in most Android devices, and even makes it simple enough. And it would not quite match the iOS camera app or even that of Google’s Pixel phones as to look, and the small icons and options menus can be far from intuitive. It is usable but definitely not as user-friendly as some of its competitors.
Motorola also mentioned that the Endless Edge screen would serve as a notification display in my briefing about the phone, and I noticed it light up. However, I did not get much in terms of benefits whatsoever from that light show. I am hardly surprised. Every single mobile phone that has ever asked for an edge in terms of curvature will always say how useful its notifications are and then goes on to show no widgets in the real world for me.
Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.