Moto Edge Plus

amazon Moto Edge Plus reviews

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 giant step towards the Westworld novel. It’s almost all-screen, and thanks to its fast Qualcomm processor, 5G support, RAM, and a smooth 90Hz display, it responds to your touch with an unnatural speed. There’s a subtle Motorola logo on the back, but otherwise, it’s sleek and unbranded.

Despite its futuristic design, Motorola is also trying to outdo the competition. The Moto Edge Plus costs just $1,000. That’s a lot, but also less than the flagship flagships from Apple and Samsung. That is a bold phone.

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 slick, curved screens aren’t all new (believe it or not, the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is five years old), but the Moto Edge Plus is part of a new generation that takes it to the next level. Edges wrap around the edges a full 90 degrees, all but eliminating side edges when the phone is viewed straight.

Phones like the Huawei Mate 30 Pro embraced this design concept last year, but the Moto Edge Plus has already gone live. Perhaps more importantly, it is widely available in the US, while Huawei and Oppo phones are difficult to find and use in North America. That is a first for your average US smartphone buyer.

The Endless Edge display is a beautiful OLED touchscreen with many features, including FHD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color support, and HDR10+ certification. The uncommon and impressive 21:9 aspect ratio results in a phone that feels tall and narrow. That is an advantage when texting, browsing the web, or reading a book because it increases the content you can see without expanding the phone’s width.

However, it can be a problem when streaming videos or games, as most are produced with the 16:9 aspect ratio in mind. A 21:9 display will display black bars on the sides when viewing 16:9 content, effectively reducing usable screen space. Most videos and games will let you zoom in on the content to take up the entire screen, but this will crop part of the image.

The touch screen can also be difficult to use. It looks appealing and futuristic but makes the phone difficult to handle without triggering touch input when it’s not intended. That wasn’t an issue for me when browsing the web, but it did become an issue when gaming. In Minecraft, I’ve never found a grip that is comfortable and 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 depend on whether you love this display or not. It’s a surprise, and it’s futuristic, but it’s not perfect. Phone enthusiasts will happily adjust to the screen’s quirks and enjoy the eye-catching looks. However, if you care more about function than form, consider a more traditional large-screen phone like the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus.

Design

The Moto Edge Plus is a phone designed around its display. Its tall, narrow, blocky body is designed to accommodate the tall, narrow 21:9 aspect ratio.

Despite the rounded edges, the phone feels chunky compared to an Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus. Official figures put the phone’s diameter at bulky 37 inches. The iPhone 11 Pro Max is 0.32 inches thick, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is 0.31 inches, and the OnePlus 8 Pro is 0.33 inches. That makes the phone harder to hold than its narrow profile would suggest.

It’s slippery. Even the slightest tilt will allow the phone to slide away slowly. It flew off the edge of my desk, my couch, and a few chairs. It always feels ready to escape your grasp.

The phone also feels the heaviest, as it’s tall, and you’ll naturally hold the phone near the bottom. My review unit weighs 7.2 ounces, more than a Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus but less than Apple’s 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 supports both 5W mmWave and sub-6Hz networks, and according to Motorola, can reach 4Gbps network speeds under ideal conditions. I can’t test this myself as 5G hasn’t been rolled out to my area yet. Still, it’s good to see support for 5G networks, as it will improve connectivity and unlock access at the fastest possible speeds.

The phone is exclusive to Verizon. You will need to be a Verizon subscriber to use this phone or be willing to switch to Verizon’s network.

You’ll also find support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. I’d expect to see the latest wireless connectivity standards in a new flagship phone. Still, it’s good to see Motorola hasn’t omitted any features in an attempt to maintain the $1,000 price point.

Wired connections include USB 3.0 Type-C and a 3.5mm audio jack, both located on the bottom lip 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 of one of my flowers makes it look almost fluorescent, while it’s warmer in real life. Colors can become so extreme that they crush detail, removing visible subtle patterns or blemishes. It’s not bad for Instagram, but sometimes it’s far from reality.

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 at 6,016 x 4,512 resolution – already higher than 4K. 108MP photo output at 12,032 x 9,024 resolution. Much higher, but you need a monitor with a higher resolution than 4K to appreciate the difference.

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 decided to compare them side by side by taking pictures of the text at a distance, then cropping the photos to see which showed the most detail.

The telephoto lens delivers outstanding sharpness. That’s not an insult to Ultra-res mode, as the detail here is impressive. These tight crops cover less than 1 percent of the more than 108,576,768 pixels in the 108MP image. However, the crop from the telephoto lens is easier to read.

However, you will notice a noticeable difference in the look of each shot. Photos from Ultra-res mode have noticeably more colors than those from the 8MP camera. That makes sense, as the 108MP main camera has an f/1.8 aperture, while the telephoto camera has an f/2.4 aperture and, therefore, captures 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

A 16MP ultrawide camera offers a 117-degree field of view for more expansive shots, and it performs well. The impressive shots you can take with the ultrawide lens work well with the Moto Edge Plus’ tendency to oversaturate colors.

Are the results realistic? No – but that’s not the point of ultrawide smartphone cameras. It’s an exciting, versatile option that can deliver a sense of scope and grandeur that is often not possible on a smartphone. I enjoyed using it, and the photos I took were easily among the best I could take during the 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 shares an oversaturated look from other cameras, but I don’t think that’s a problem for selfies. My skin tone doesn’t glow, but there’s still a bit of warmth here.

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 main camera, which does best in good light with colorful backgrounds. It’s Instagram-friendly, sacrificing balance and realism for a vibrant, saturated look that stands out on any screen.

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. It can record video at up to 6K resolution or 1080p video at 60FPS (frames per second). Other features include optical image stabilization, a video portrait mode, and a video capture feature that can pull 20MP still images from video during movie recording.

I have little experience with video recording on smartphones, so I can’t seriously test the video quality. However, I found the video quality to be very strong, with sharp details and vibrant colors.

The performance of the phone is well maintained even when recording 6K videos. I saw no noticeable lag or processing time before or after shooting at 6K.

There’s also a slow-motion mode, which can shoot up to 120FPS in FHD or 240FPS in HD.

Sound

Stereo speakers tuned by Waves, a Grammy-winning audio technology company, give the Moto Edge Plus voice.

At full volume, the phone delivers a powerful, balanced sound that can cope with a wide range of content, from bass-heavy tracks to the heaviest action movies. The phone doesn’t offer the most bass, but it does deliver a crisp, distortion-resistant experience. Dialogue or vocals are still distinguishable even next to the roar of a jet engine or a deep, constant bass beat.

where can you get a Moto Edge Plus online

Motorola Moto Edge Plus (XT2061) – 256GB – Edge+ GSM Unlocked Smartphone Droid – Baltic Gray: Buy it now

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 included in the box or a 15-watt wireless charger. Wireless power-sharing is also available with a capacity of up to 5 watts. These numbers do not add up to a flagship standard because, on the contrary, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus could charge up to 25 watts, while the OnePlus 8 Pro supports 30 watts. Still, I do not think this mediocre charging speed is a cause for concern with such long battery life.

Software

The Moto Edge Plus comes pre-loaded with Android 10, a version that is already obsolete. A bulk of the bloatware on my device originates from Verizon and not Motorola, but it is not even that cluttered. Apps such as My Verizon basically are irrelevant unless users care to look at them.

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.