Motorola Edge 20 Pro review

Clean Android 11, Moto perks, Ready For

The Motorola Edge 20 Pro follows in the footsteps of previous Motos, and offers a stock Android look but with a fair share of in-house features added on top. Key among those is the 'Ready For' functionality, not unlike Samsung's DeX.

But if we keep ourselves to the confines of the phone itself, the majority of the proprietary features are arranged in the Moto app. The first category is personalization allowing you to choose the icon shapes, the quick toggles appearance, the accent colors and the font. There is also a wide selection of wallpapers, the same ones you'd find in the Google Wallpapers app, plus some Moto-specific interactive ones.

Moto App • Personalization

Then come the gestures. Motorola's signature karate chop motion that turns the flashlight on and off and the twisting motion that launches the camera app are here, of course. Both work even when the device is locked.

The lift-to-unlock gesture works well with the face unlock as it unlocks the device as soon as you pick it up and look at the screen.

There is also Power touch. When you double-tap the power button, a shortcut menu appears where you can arrange apps, tools and even contacts for quick access.

Gestures

The display-related features are Peek Display and Attentive Display. The former works as a second-best alternative to the Always-on display but with some added functionality. The screen lights up when it detects motion that's close to the phone or when you pick it up. Once you've received some kind of notification, you can tap on it and see the message itself and even interact with it from the lock screen.

As for the Attentive Display, it's pretty self-explanatory - it disables the screen timeout as long as there's a face looking at the phone. Pretty useful when reading long articles, though you do probably scroll often enough for the screen not to lock anyway.

Display

All of these aside, the rest is pretty much Android 11 as Google intended it to be, now in v.11. Notification grouping keeps your notification shade tidy and focuses on your conversations. Notification cards from ongoing conversations from your messaging apps will appear on top as high-priority compared to other app notifications. Notification Bubbles are available, too.

Nearby Share with other devices running a recent Android version is also possible, making file transfers easier than ever.

And lastly, we have the updated power menu that now displays shortcuts to connected devices such as home automation or Chromecast through the Google Home app.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notifications • Quick toggles

Motorola introduced the Ready For platform earlier this year with the Moto G100 - it enables you to use the phone as the heart of a big-screen setup for several use cases. Ready For is available on the Edge 20 Pro as well.

By connecting a TV or a monitor, you can get a Windows-desktop-like experience, play a game on your phone, display it on the external screen, or even have a big-screen video chat experience.

Ready For desktop

The connection can be done with a cable - either with the Ready For cable (or another USB-C MHL Alt solution) or with a USB-C-to-C cable with a compatible monitor. Alternatively, you can connect wirelessly to a Miracast-capable display.

If you don't have a mouse and/or keyboard handy, the phone's screen can be used as a trackpad and/or keyboard.

Ready For Wireless • Wired with Windows PC • Trackpad

You can also use Ready For on a Windows-based PC - it runs within a window on your desktop. This is helpful for when you want to run an Android app from your computer or to multi-task between devices on just one screen.

Here, you can also enable Phone mode and view your phone's screen on the Ready For big desktop screen, which is on your Windows desktop. That's some inception-level multi-tasking!

Ready For desktop on PC (i.e., same thing but in a window)

Another use case of Ready For on a Windows PC is for video calls, where you can use the phone's camera to capture yourself and an external display to see the other participants.

The final Ready For use case is for gaming on a bigger screen - be it TV or laptop/monitor. You connect an external controller and run the game on the phone, with the obvious benefit being the larger display for gameplay.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Motorola Edge 20 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset, a popular choice for high-flying midrangers this year - or flagship killers if you insist.

The SD870 features an octa-core CPU in a 1+3+4 configuration with the prime core maxing out at 3.2GHz. The Adreno 650 handles the graphics. There are several RAM/storage configurations ranging from 6GB/128GB, all the way to 12GB/256GB, and we have the fully tricked-out version for review.

The Edge 20 Pro showed conservative tuning in benchmarks, posting average numbers for its SD870. It's ahead of Motorola's own SD870-based G100 in both single-core and multi-core GeekBench, and inches ahead of the SD865 Galaxy S20 FE, but the Galaxy does counter with better multi-core performance. SD888 handsets like the Mi 11 and the OnePlus 9 do have an advantage in CPU-intense tasks.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  3673
• OnePlus 9
  3629
• Realme GT 5G
  3555
• vivo X60 Pro
  3490
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  3489
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  3476
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  3296
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  3160
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  3140
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  3050
• Realme GT Master
  2917
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  2909
• Motorola Moto G100
  2860
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2832
• OnePlus Nord 2
  2792
• Motorola Edge 20
  2550
• Poco X3 GT
  2310

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme GT 5G
  1139
• OnePlus 9
  1129
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  1126
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  1091
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  1085
• vivo X60 Pro
  1034
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  1020
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  985
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  972
• Motorola Moto G100
  950
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  906
• OnePlus Nord 2
  814
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  803
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  787
• Realme GT Master
  785
• Motorola Edge 20
  762
• Poco X3 GT
  693

In Antutu, the Moto ranked in the middle of the SD870 pack. A more clear divide can be seen here between the SD870 group and the latest high-end Snapdragons at the top. Conversely, phones based on the lesser 700-series SoCs are trailing behind.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Realme GT 5G
  810433
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  797484
• vivo X60 Pro
  720352
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  717879
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  711090
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  701991
• Motorola Moto G100
  681559
• OnePlus Nord 2
  598022
• Poco X3 GT
  578505
• Realme GT Master
  529263
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  522490
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  497901
• Motorola Edge 20
  488574

In graphics benchmarks, it's a bit more of the same. The Edge 20 Pro posts average results for its hardware - SD888-based phones have the upper hand, SD778 and SD780 units can't quite keep up.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  70
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  69
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  67
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  66
• Realme GT 5G
  65
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  60
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  59
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  57
• Motorola Moto G100
  56
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  52
• OnePlus Nord 2
  46
• Poco X3 GT
  44
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  40
• Realme GT Master
  33
• Motorola Edge 20
  33
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  33

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  62
• OnePlus 9
  58
• Realme GT 5G
  55
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  54
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  51
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  50
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  49
• Motorola Moto G100
  47
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  45
• OnePlus Nord 2
  38
• Poco X3 GT
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  33
• Motorola Edge 20
  29
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  28
• Realme GT Master
  27

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  45
• OnePlus 9
  43
• Realme GT 5G
  38
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  37
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  35
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  34
• Motorola Moto G100
  33
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  30
• Poco X3 GT
  28
• OnePlus Nord 2
  26
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  24
• Motorola Edge 20
  20
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  20
• Realme GT Master
  19

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  43
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  41
• OnePlus 9
  40
• Realme GT 5G
  39
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  33
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  32
• Motorola Moto G100
  31
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
  30
• OnePlus Nord 2
  30
• Poco X3 GT
  29
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  22
• Motorola Edge 20
  19
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  19
• Realme GT Master
  18

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme GT 5G
  5872
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  5757
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  5677
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  5673
• OnePlus 9
  5667
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  4255
• OnePlus Nord 2
  4224
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  4206
• ZTE Axon 30 5G
  4191
• Motorola Moto G100
  4114
• Poco X3 GT
  3991
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  3136
• Motorola Edge 20
  2494
• Realme GT Master
  2481
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2477

The Edge 20 Pro was surprisingly quick to throttle under intense CPU load, certainly one of the steeper declines in performance we've seen on an SD870 handset. It also dropped to a pretty low 69% of the initial results. On a positive note, however, it maintained a rock-solid 99% result in 3DMark's Wild Life stress test.

CPU throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test