Motorola Edge 30 Pro review

2x50MP cameras on the back, 60MP one on the front

The Edge 30 Pro comes with a very interesting camera setup that will nevertheless raise some eyebrows coming from the Edge 20 Pro and may put it in a tough spot against competing efforts. Let's try and elaborate.

On the back of the phone there are two 50MP actual cameras and a 2MP depth sensor (that we'll never speak of again). The two 50MP units each have something special about them, in hopes of making you forget about the missing telephoto - there's no dedicated zoom camera on the Edge 30 Pro.

The primary camera uses an OmniVision sensor and it's one we haven't seen before. Dubbed OV50A (or OV50A40), it has a 1/1.55" optical format, so it's fairly large. Individual pixel size is 1.0µm, and since it's a 4-cell design (OV's nomenclature for what Sony calls Quad Bayer and Samsung - Tetrapixel), you're effectively getting 4-to-1 binned 12.5MP images with 2.0µm pixels - that last number is stamped on the back of the phone next to the cameras.

The sensor has 2x2 on-chip lenses and all-pixel phase detection autofocus - basically this but from OmniVision.

The lens in front of the OV50A has an f/1.8 aperture and is stabilized.

The other camera has an ultrawide lens that covers a 114-degree field of view, and has an f/2.2 aperture. It supports autofocus unlike your garden-variety ultrawides, which means you can use it for emphasizing nearby subjects, but also for proper closeups ('macro'). The sensor that's capturing the images is the Samsung JN1 (S5KJN1) - a Tetrapixel imager with a 1/2.76" optical format and tiny individual pixels at 0.64µm.

The selfie camera is intriguing in its own right. It's based on another sensor that's new to us and that too comes from OmniVision. Announced on 2 January this year, the OV60A has even tinier pixels - 0.61µm, and crams 60 million of them in a 1/2.8" optical format unit. The 4-cell color filter means you can treat it as a 15MP sensor with 1.22µm pixels. The lens aperture is f/2.2. There's no autofocus on this camera.

Despite the general Pixel-ness of the software, the camera app on the Edge 30 Pro 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. There's a Pro mode giving you full control over the camera's settings like white balance, ISO, autofocus, shutter speed, and exposure compensation, and Pro mode works on both cameras.

Additional settings for each camera mode can be found by swiping up in the viewfinder - there's a tiny arrow hint to indicate that. It's here that 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.

Camera UI

Daylight image quality

The photos out of the Moto's main camera are very good, though they don't leave an entirely 'flagship-grade' feeling. Mototola has opted for a contrastier look and isn't treating the tonal extremes with all of the HDR we'd like to see - dynamic range is okay, but shadows and highlights can be a bit harsh.

Detail level is excellent and noise is low to non-existent. There's a particular unpleasant quality to how detail is rendered in certain circumstances, however, like random textures in grass (5th and 7th samples) or jaggies along slanted lines at just the right angle (the roofline above the Joy Station sign). Neither is a dealbreaker, it's just a couple of things we noticed.

We have little to complain about when it comes to color rendition - we saw no white balance missteps or color casts and saturation is at a very pleasing level.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

The Edge 30 Pro has no telephoto camera and isn't encouraging you to use the main one for zooming in - there's no direct 2x toggle in the viewfinder, which we find to be a very honest approach. You can still pinch or tap on one of the zoom levels and slide to zoom and we tried our luck at 2x and 3x.

You can see from these images why Motorola isn't actively pushing digital zoom into your hands. Already at 2x, the photos are relatively soft when viewed from up close and you start to see grain in the skies that wasn't there at the native zoom level. More prominent sharpening halos can be seen along contrasting edges too. Ultimately though, you can easily get away with using these at fit to screen magnifications and for social media - they're good enough for that.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x zoom)

Daylight samples, main camera (3x zoom)

At the nominal resolution we're looking at hike in noise and there's also a fair bit of false color in complex areas that are particularly difficult to reconstruct precisely - take a close look at the tree against the white dotted panelling in the lower right of the 5th image or the twigs in the 6th sample.

Even in controlled situations like our studio scene, where some phones deliver a lot of extra detail (which they can't necessarily do in real life), the Moto doesn't make a solid case for its 50MP mode on the main camera.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

Moving on to the ultrawide, we're looking at images that don't quite make us go 'wow', but are pretty good nonetheless. Noise remains very low and detail is good for an ultrawide, if more of a midrange ultrawide level.

We're not huge fans of the color reproduction - we're looking at bleached lifeless shots that could use a healthy boost in saturation. Dynamic range is hardly praiseworthy either.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x)

The detail benefits of shooting at 50MP remain questionable.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 50MP

Low-light image quality

The Edge 30 Pro's main camera is a capable low-light performer, even if its results continue to lack a true flagship-level look. In Photo mode we're getting contrasty shots with deeper shadows than we'd like. Point light sources do have their immediate vicinity blown out, but it's well within reason. So ultimately dynamic range is not bad.

Noise is unobtrusive and there's a high level of detail throughout the areas of more balanced lighting.

Colors can look a bit muted at first sight and particularly warm street lights aren't rendered... that warm. But we'd say it's really most other phones that are to blame for conditioning us to expect a more orange output than it is the Moto's fault for its neutral take.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x)

Night mode brings some noticeable, if subtle, tonal changes. It's the highlights that get most of the benefit, with clipped areas around light sources now down to a minimum. Shadows also see some treatment, but it's not necessarily in the areas you'd want it the most - the night sky might turn navy, but you won't get extra real shadow detail.

Night mode will tend to smooth out textures and fine detail, however, and it's a fine balance between that and the tonal improvement benefits. And that balance might need to be assessed on a case by case basis.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night mode

Those trade-offs are all the more apparent at 2x zoom. Photo mode shots are sharper and have finer detail but are substantially noisier. Night mode counterparts are cleaner, but way softer. Photo mode shots have dark shadows (pretty well contained highlights, actually) which cover up some detail that the brighter Night mode shadows do reveal. Ultimately though, we'd probably go with Photo mode for low-light zoom purposes.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x)

Low-light samples, main camera (2x), Night mode

The ultrawide's low-light results in Photo mode look okay at fit to screen magnification in terms of dynamic range and tonal development. Colors do have that desaturated vibe we observed in daylight too. From up close, you'd be looking at relatively soft detail, particularly in darker scenes shot at higher ISOs.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x)

Night mode brings a number of improvements. You get brighter shadows and better contained highlights, but also lower ISOs in general, resulting in overall sharper images. So when it comes to the ultrawide, Night mode is definitely the way to go.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x)

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Motorola Edge 30 Pro stacks up against the competition.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro against the Galaxy S21 FE and the Realme GT2 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Portrait mode

The Edge 30 Pro takes pretty convincing portraits. Subject detection is excellent for simpler scenes though it can be fooled when you introduce objects between the camera and the subject or if your subject has unruly hair. Overall, we saw no blunders with clothing or clipped ears. The default blur level is on point too.

Portrait mode samples

Selfies

Selfies come out at 15MP by default, but you could opt for the 60MP mode though an the 'but why?' question would be the first thing on our minds. At 15MP the images have great detail and low noise. Dynamic range is nicely wide, but colors can be a little overly conservative, particularly in indoor scenes.

Selfie samples

Subject detection in portrait mode is again very good and the restrained blur level helps with making these look natural. There's no appreciable change in sharpness or dynamic range, so these are among the better selfie portraits you can get. You cold bump up the saturation in post though.

Selfie samples, Portrait mode

Closeups

The Edge 30 Pro's ultrawide camera can autofocus and that lends it some close-up shooting capabilities. Being an actual real camera, as opposed to one of those dedicated 2MP or 5MP macro modules, this one takes great closeups with nice fine detail.

Since it's an ultrawide and you have to get really close to your subject, it's not well suited to critters, but still subjects cooperate well. Mind you, because of the necessarily very short subject distances you'd be looking at relatively thin depth of field.

Close up samples

The above images were taken at the regular 0.5x zoom level, but there's also a 'macro' mode which still uses the ultrawide camera, but applies some digital zoom to make your subjects larger in the frame at the expense of some per-pixel sharpness and detail. These do remain very good for the smartphone 'macro' category, if not quite as crisp as the ones above.

Close up samples, 'macro' mode

Video recording

The Edge 30 Pro can record video up to 8K30 with its main camera. 4K30 is also an option, but 4K60 isn't available. That is to say, the menu will lead you to believe you can shoot in 4K60 if you switch to the 'full' aspect ratio (20:9). In this case you'd indeed get 60fps footage but it will come out at an unusual 3264x1468px resolution, which is far less than 4K in 20:9 aspect ratio (3840 x 1728px), let alone true 4K (3840 x 2160px).

Even more confusing is that once you select 4K60 in 20:9, the camera will keep recording like that even if you switch back to 16:9.

The ultrawide camera, meanwhile, maxes out at 1080p at 30fps - rather disappointing.

Stabilization isn't available in 8K, but you can have it for 4K on the main camera and 1080p on the ultrawide. The UI for operating this is a bit roundabout, because the resolution is changed from the arrow menu in the viewfinder, while the stabilization toggle is in settings. So you're in 4K mode, and switch to 8K and you go to settings to check for stabilization, you see that the toggle is switched off, you turn it on, and all of a sudden you're back in 4K, without having an immediate clue about the change. For what it's worth, 8K mode does not disable the stabilization in 4K, so you won't end up with no stabilization by accident.

As is the norm, you get to pick between the h.264 and h.265 codecs. Somewhat unusually, 8K can be encoded with h.264 too - most other phones do lock you into h.265 for 8K regardless of what you choose for the rest of the modes.

8K footage is, somewhat surprisingly, quite decent. The bit rate is 131Mbps and there is some real detail in there, without compression or demosaicking artifacts. It's not the sharpest we've seen, but it's certainly among the better ones. Exposure, dynamic range and colors are really good too.

4K30 (50Mbps) is also properly good. It maintains the global properties of 8K so you get rgeat colors and dynamic range, and detail is excellent.

The ultrawide's footage could use some extra pop in both colors and contrast but is otherwise fine - though the bar for 1080p from an ultrawide isn't all too high.

Stabilization on the main camera is good but not ideal. It will combat walking shake with some degree of proficiency but exhibits a tendency to float when you're just pointing the phone in one general direction and at the beginning and end of pans.

The ultrawide's handheld footage with stabilization on is in the same boat as the main camera when it comes to stability, but the image quality drops significantly when you enable the stabilization. There's no such deterioration in quality on the main camera. Perhaps it's worth coming up with other means of stabilizing the ultrawide footage than the built-in stabilization.

In low light you're going to get noisy videos from the main camera with some issues at both ends of the tonal range - haloing around light sources and softness in the shadows. We'd still call this footage relatively good, though - detail is decently sharp, the colors maintain saturation well.

The ultrawide's lowlight results are dismal. The footage is noisy and soft, as well as being underexposed and with limited dynamic range.

Here's a glimpse of how the Motorola Edge 30 Pro compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro against the Galaxy S21 FE and the Realme GT2 Pro in our Video compare tool