Motorola Edge review

Quad-camera on the back of the Motorola Edge

The Motorola Edge has a quad-camera on its back with different snappers and a ToF sensor. There is a 64MP primary shooter, a 16MP ultrawide snapper, an 8MP tele cam for 2x zoom and portraits, and the fourth ring contains the 3D ToF camera. A single LED flash is around, if you ever need it.

The primary camera uses a 64MP 1/1.72" ISOCELL Bright GW1 sensor by Samsung with Quad-Bayer filter, 0.8µm pixels and f/1.7 26mm lens. Phase-detect autofocus is available.

The ultrawide camera uses a 16MP OmniVision OV16A10 1/3.06" sensor with 1.0µm pixels behind f/2.2 13mm lens. Autofocus is available and thus you can also shoot macro photos at about 4-8cm distance.

The Motorola Edge also offers a zoom camera for 2x magnification and portraits. It uses an 8MP 1/4.0" OV8856 sensor by OmniVision with 1.12µm pixels and comes with f/2.4 52mm lens. Phase-detection AF is available, as well. This camera saves 16MP images by default and there is no 8MP mode, so you will always get upscaled images. Native 8MP resolution is available only for manual and portrait modes. Why?

Last is the ToF camera, which should help the portrait mode and also assist the autofocus when necessary.

For selfies, you get 25MP Quad Pixel camera. The 1/2.8" sensor is Samsung S5K2X5 ISOCELL Slim with 0.9µm pixels behind an f/2.0 aperture lens that has a fixed focus. Being a Quad Bayer type of module, the selfie cam takes 6.2MP images by default, but this one can be set to output 25MP shots if that's necessary.

Motorola has been installing its own custom Camera app on the otherwise mostly stock Android software, and that's the case on the Edge, too. It is straightforward and functional with a swipe action for switching between stills, video, and assorted modes (tapping on the icons works too).

A set of quick settings is available in the viewfinder for the HDR modes (Auto/On/Off), flash modes (Auto/On/Off), self-timer (Off/3s/10s) and Active Photos (Auto/On/Off). There's also a shortcut to the settings menu right in the viewfinder.

The Manual mode is accessed from another toggle in the viewfinder - not the extra modes. It lets you dial in your own ISO (100-3200), shutter speed (1/6000s-1/3s), or exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV and 0.5EV increments), as well as pick a white balance by light temperature (with markings for common light types), and you can manually adjust focus - all pretty standard. There's also a tiny live histogram.

Camera app

Image Quality

The 16MP daylight images from the main camera are very good. They present excellent contrast and dynamic range, and true to life colors even if sometimes a bit cooler. There is no noise visible noise whatsoever. Those are not the most detailed images we've seen, but other than that - we got only positive impressions.

We shot the photos below with Auto HDR as intended by Motorola. And it triggers all the time during the day. It boosts the dynamic range a lot, plus - it also gets rid of noise. There might be minor loss in detail because of the HDR, but it is barely noticeable, and we suggest leaving the HDR setting to Auto.

Motorola Edge 16MP photos

A high-res 64MP mode is available, but the 64MP photos are poor in detail. They look more like upscaled from the default 16MP images. We tried and downscaled one of these to 16MP and it has just a notch better detail than the regular 16MP pictures, but the whole hassle is definitely not worth it.

Motorola Edge 64MP photos

We are liking the 16MP ultrawide photos. They are quite detailed and have some superb contrast and dynamic range to go with that ultra-wide-angle field of view. The noise is very low too.

The color saturation is quite pleasing even if a bit warmer than reality.

Motorola Edge 16MP ultrawide photos

Due to the fact that there is autofocus on the ultrawide camera, you can also use it for Super Macro photos. They aren't the most detailed we've seen, but they still capture a lot more than the widespread 2MP macro imagers.

Motorola Edge 16MP macro photos

The 8MP telephoto camera shoots 16MP images by default, just like on the Moto G8 Power. We suspect this is either down to a software issue or by poor design choice. And the poor detail due to the upscaling is rather obvious.

The photos surely present great contrast and dynamic range. The color presentation is good, but a bit off from both the main and ultrawide shooters. Can't we just have a proper balance across all cameras for once?

Motorola Edge 16MP zoomed photos

If you downscale the 16MP photos to 8MP, you will have some great images, that's for sure. But few will be okay with the extra tinkering required and that's understandable. We found a way to shoot in the native 8MP and no, it's not in the camera Resolution Settings where the only available options are 16MP and 12MP.

Switching to Manual mode and leaving all options to Auto is the only way of shooting in the native 8MP resolution of this zoom camera. The good part - you are getting very detailed 8MP 2x zoomed images and accurate colors. The bad news - the photos taken in Manual mode lack any software enhancements like HDR and multi-image stacking and thus - they have low dynamic range and unimpressive contrast.

Motorola Edge 8MP zoomed photos (manual)

The tele camera is also the one taking portraits and they are saved in the proper 8MP resolution. It gets help from the ToF camera, so subject separation should be a hassle-free task for the algorithm.

And it is! The separation is accurate and quite convincing, the faux bokeh effect is quite nice, too. Overall, these are among the better portraits we've seen lately.

Motorola Edge 8MP portraits

The 16MP low-light photos from the main camera are uninspiring. They are poor in detail, with very low dynamic range, noisy - sometimes to extremes, and the colors are often washed out.

Motorola Edge 16MP low-light photos

Night Vision is available only for the main camera and it is what you need to take usable nighttime shots. It won't render more resolved detail, but the Night Vision photos are far less noisy and much brighter. The blown highlights are mostly restored, we do get more details in some of the shadows, and the color saturation is intact.

Long story short, Night Vision must be used at night, always.

Motorola Edge 16MP Night Vision photos

The 16MP ultrawide nighttime shots are simply a no-go. They are extremely poor in detail and plenty rich in noise. The colors are gone, the exposure is very dark, and often - the focus simply fails.

Motorola Edge 16MP ultrawide low-light photos

The 2x photos at night are coming from the main camera - they are digitally zoomed ad cropped. Nothing to see really here, but in case you wonder, here is a bunch.

Motorola Edge 16MP zoomed low-light photos

You can use the manual mode to get native 8MP telephoto images, but do you want to? No. Anything beyond main camera's Night Vision is pretty much useless.

Motorola Edge 8MP zoomed low-light photos (manual)

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Motorola Motorola Edge stacks up against the competition.

Motorola Edge against the Realme X50 Pro and the OnePlus 8 in our Photo compare tool

Selfies

The selfie camera on Motorola Edge has a 25MP Quad-Bayer Samsung sensor behind f/2.0 fixed-focus lens. It saves 6.2MP images by default, as it should, but if you want - you can set it up to save upscaled 25MP photos instead.

The 6.2MP images are excellent in detail and contrast, with high dynamic range and accurate colors. The Auto HDR was left on and it triggers almost every time, but we don't might getting the dynamic boost. These are among the better selfies, we have seen recently.

Motorola Edge 6.2MP selfies

Portraits are possible with the selfie camera and we liked them a lot. The separation isn't ideal, but it is the best you can squeeze from a single camera. The detail, contrast and colors are excellent.

Motorola Edge 6.2MP selfie portraits

Video recording

The Motorola Edge records 4K@30fps and 1080p@60fps videos with its main snapper, while 1080p@30fps mode is possible with all three cameras. You can use electronic stabilization on any camera and any mode.

The 4K footage from the main camera is excellent - there is plenty of resolved detail, the contrast is nice, the colors - accurate. The dynamic range isn't always great, but it is not on the low side either.

The 1080p clips shot at 30fps are great across the board - detail, contrast, colors. They are unnecessary over-sharpened though.

Finally, the Full HD videos at 60fps from the main camera are extremely poor in detail and the processing tries to mask this with excessive over-sharpening. You should stay away from this mode.

This playlist contains all videos from the main camera:

The 1080p clips from the ultrawide camera aren't very detail, but otherwise pretty good.

Finally, the 1080p footage from the tele camera is flagship-grade. The detail is remarkable, the sharpness - just right, the dynamic range and colors - excellent.

And here, you will be able to compare the Motorola Edge to the competition in our Video Compare Tool.

Motorola Edge vs. Realme X50 Pro vs. OnePlus 8 in our 4K video compare tool