Motorola Edge 30 Fusion review

Triple rear cameras and an autofocus selfie cam

The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion has a triple camera setup on the back. The main camera uses a 50MP OmniVision OV50A sensor behind an f/1.8 lens. It has an 8192x6144 native resolution, 1.0 µm individual pixels and a 1/1.5" sensor size. QPD enables 2x2 phase detection autofocus (PDAF) across the sensor's entire image array. Here, the sensor is also implemented with an OIS-capable lens.

Moving on we have the ultrawide camera. It is based on a 13MP SK Hynix HI1336 sensor behind an f/2.2 lens. It has 1.12 µm individual pixels and a 1/3" optical format. It also has enough resolution (4208 x 3120 pixels) to capture UHD@30fps, which is not necessarily true for many modern ultrawide sensors. The ultrawide camera also has autofocus, which allows it to double as a macro cam.

Last and probably least, the Edge 30 Fusion includes a depth sensor. It uses a GalaxyCore GC02M1B sensor - 1.75 µm individual pixels and a 1/5" optical format. It is just a simple 2MP, f/2.4 unit.

On the selfie side, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion uses a 32MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KGD2 sensor. It sits behind an f/2.2 lens and has a 1/2.8" total size. The important bit of the selfie hardware, though, is arguably the inclusion of autofocus, which could elevate the photo and video experience.

Despite the general Pixel-ness of the software, the camera app on the Edge 30 Fusion is entirely Motorola's. As such, it's mostly unchanged from what we've seen on previous Motos.

The camera modes are arranged in a customizable carousel formation, with the hamburger menu at the rightmost end of the carousel holding the more seldom used shooting modes.

Pro mode gives you full control over the camera's settings like white balance, ISO, autofocus, shutter speed, and exposure compensation, and Pro mode works on all three cameras.

Camera UI

Additional settings for each camera mode can be found by swiping up in the viewfinder - there's a tiny arrow hint to indicate that. Here, you'll find flash and self-timer settings in Photo mode, and resolution and frame rate in Video mode. The gear icon for the general settings menu houses even more settings, including photo resolutions.

Daylight photo quality

The 50MP main camera on the Edge 30 Fusion has a Quad Bayer pixel arrangement and captures 12.5MP stills by default. These look very good overall. The detail is plenty, colors are nice and true to life. There is plenty of contrast, too.

These photos are not perfect and have some issues as well, though. The finer detail looks a bit soft when pixel-peeping but generally, they are quite alright for the segment.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP main camera samples

The Moto Edge 30 Fusion has something called Ultra-Res mode, which produces photos with a resolution a bit over 50MP. These photos aren't drastically different from the regular ones. You don't really stand to gain a lot of extra detail. Instead, if you are into pixel-peeping, you'll notice that the 50MP stills have softer edges with less sharpening applied, which, when looking at the photo at 1:1 zoom level, isn't particularly noticeable.

The 50MP stills don't take any longer to capture, but they have a less-processed, natural look overall, but that also means less denoising and HDR stacking. Dynamic range is also not as good in this mode. Overall, we don't think it's worth using it.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion main camera samples: 12.5MP • 50MP • 12.5MP • 50MP • 12.5MP • 50MP

The Edge 30 Fusion lacks a dedicated telephoto camera of any kind. It can still do digital zoom, and the 50MP main camera has the pixels. At 2x zoom photos look very clean and practically identical in quality to 1x ones. Hence - perfectly usable.

However, there is no quick toggle for 2x in the camera UI, so you have to pinch and zoom, which is a bit of a hassle.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP main camera 2x zoom samples

Despite autofocusing on its main and ultrawide cameras and two separate zoom settings within the portrait mode, in both cases, portraits are captured using the main camera on the Edge 30 Fusion. It can be a bit fiddly to get the subject in focus, but once you have that down, portraits look very good, with nice subject detection and separation and great background blur.

Skin texture could be a bit better. It looks too smooth, particularly since we had disabled any in-camera beauty filters or enhancements.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

Portraits of non-human subjects look great as well.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

Before we move on, here's how the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion stacks up against the competition in our extensive photo compare database. Pixel-peep away.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion against the Motorola Edge 30 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 in our Photo compare tool

The ultrawide camera saves stills in exactly the same 12.5MP resolution as the main camera. These look very decent overall with a good amount of detail, a nice color rendition, even if not a great match to the main camera and a pretty good dynamic range for an ultrawide. The autofocus rarely misbehaves, and the vast majority of regular shots come out looking perfectly in focus. Even edge softness is practically not an issue.

In terms of deficiencies, we would say that arguably the biggest one is the very noticeable image distortion near the edges of the frame. Still, these are quite okay for an ultrawide cam in the segment.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP ultrawide camera samples

Thanks to its autofocus, the ultrawide camera is also responsible for macro shots. Interestingly enough, these get saved in just over 13MP resolution for some odd reason. That is the native resolution of the ultrawide sensor at hand, though, so the decision is not entirely arbitrary. Quality-wise macro shots are nearly perfect.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 13MP ultrawide camera macro samples

Autofocus works great, is fast and responsive and lets you really get up close to your subject. Detail is great, and so are the colors.

Selfies

By default, the 32MP selfie camera captures 8MP stills as it's a TetraCell (Quad-Bayer) sensor. These look great overall with nice skin tones and decent skin texture. Hair and other fine detail are captured very well. Autofocus is quick and reliable and keeps the subject in focus almost 100% of the time.

There are two fields of view available for the selfie camera. The narrow option is the default option.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 8MP selfie camera samples

Selfie portraits look very good too. Subject separation isn't perfect, but it is definitely good enough. The fake bokeh looks great.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 8MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video quality

The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion can capture video at up to 8K@30fps on its main camera. These get saved with a standard AVC video stream at around 130 Mbps, a slightly floating frame rate of around 28 fps, and a stereo 48 kHz AAC audio stream. Both are bundled in a standard MP4 container.

Quality-wise, the main camera does great at 8K. Detail is excellent, colors look great, too - nice and vibrant. Dynamic range is nice and wide, and the contrast is also great.

Overall, we have little to no complaints. Just be sure to have a device powerful enough to play back 8K files before you start capturing them. The Edge 30 Fusion itself, naturally, has no issues in that department, thanks to its hardware video decoder.

Here are samples from the main camera in our extensive video compare database in 4K resolution.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion against the Motorola Edge 30 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G in our Video compare tool

The ultrawide camera can capture video at up to 4K@30fps, which is not something you see on every ultrawide these days, most being limited to 1080p. It also saves in a standard AVC (above 60 Mbps) plus AAC, MP4 format. Quality is great here as well. Colors are nice and true to life, though not an exact match to the main camera and slightly duller. Dynamic range is pretty wide, too, and there are no obvious defects like corner softness or excessive distortion.

The selfie camera, just like the ultrawide, maxes out at 4K@30fps. It also saves in a standard AVC (above 60 Mbps) plus AAC, MP4 format. And its quality is stellar. Facial features, color and texture come out looking great with a lot of detail. Colors are good too.

There is stabilization available across all three cameras on the Edge 30 Fusion. The main one has OIS, which already smooths out larger bumps and shakes. Beyond that, there is EIS which does a great job on all the cameras. You can see the results in the following playlist.

One thing worth noting is that, EIS appears to max out at 4K resolution, which means that you just get OIS at 8K on the main camera.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera holds up quite well in low-light conditions owning to some auto night enhancement. There is a decent amount of detail in the shots. Light sources are handled reasonably well, and there is some detail picked up in darker areas. Colors are close to real life too.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

Once you enable the dedicated Night mode, you get slightly sharper, even if a bit overprocessed output. The effect is not as dramatic on some other camera, but the baseline of the regular night-time photos is already quite good. The net effect of the mode is some mild highlight restoration but at least it doesn't take too much time.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP main camera night mode samples

The ultrawide camera is left to fend for itself and does so quite admirably relying on the general auto night enhancement. Sure, these shots are softer than we would have liked and don't hold up to closer scrutiny. But the exposure is quite balanced and the shadows are not too dark, while not all light sources are clipped. Overall, a good showing here, but could have been even better with a dedicated Night mode.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 12.5MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Low-light selfies look great for what they are. Skin texture looks decent, and the facial features are intact.

Colors are a bit off, but we can't really ask for miracles here. Plus, the screen selfie flash seems to be the culprit, at least to an extent.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: 8MP selfie camera low-light samples

Low-light video from the main camera at 8K is solid, but not really flagship-grade. Noise is a bit more than we would have liked. Other than that, detail is good, and so are colors. Light sources are handled well too.

The ultrawide camera is a bit darker and noisier still. Even so, these videos remain very much usable.