Motorola Edge 30 Ultra hands-on review

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra hands-on

The Edge 30 Ultra is the only current member of the family to stay true to its name - Edge was originally supposed to mean curved display sides. While the novelty of that design touch wore off in recent years, it's still one of those things you associate with 'premiumness' and the effect is here on the Ultra as well.

Nearly disappearing into the sides, the 6.67-inch OLED panel has minimal bezels top and bottom too, completing the high-end look. Then again, the 'Endless Edge Display' branding Motorola has given it may be stretching it a bit.

The rear panel matches the curvature of the display and the two meet at the thin aluminum rails on the sides. That works neatly for making an already decently thin handset feel even more svelte in the hand.

You'd think that the slim sides would make it difficult to pick up the Edge 30 Ultra off a table, but you get assistance from an unlikely ally - the camera assembly. The triple-cam island sticks out far enough to actually tilt and raise the phone enough to make picking it up a non-issue. The flip side is rather obvious - the Ultra will tend to wobble if you're to type on it when it's resting on a surface.

Despite its three-level stepped design, the camera island does have a rather minimal and to-the-point styling, we reckon. The big main camera asserts its dominance, the other two are symmetrically arranged, the specs only list the main unit so there's not a whole lot of text either. There's no excessive accents either - just the iconic bat logo and small-ish 'motorola' inscription further down.

Our review unit is the Interstellar Black colorway, and its rear panel has the kind of finish that glitters in the sun - we've seen it a number of times already. It's pretty slippery, but at least it doesn't hold fingerprints, which is a common trade-off. It's glass - we checked with a blade (don't tell the Motorola reps), but we're not sure exactly what make and model.

The other color option goes by Starlight White and has the same finish so it feels identical. We'd say that it sparkles that little bit more. Plus, it's not black, which is enough for some folks to choose it over what is a somewhat boring alternative.

Black or white, the Edge 30 Ultra has the same IP52 rating for dust and water resistance, which isn't a whole lot of resistance. Motorola says it should be good for 'accidental spills, splashes or light rain' but explicitly states it's not designed to be dunked in water. That's one area where the handset doesn't quite live up to the flagship standard.

It's hard to complain about the internals, though, with the Edge 30 Ultra boasting a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The base 8GB/128GB version may be limiting when it comes to storage but 256GB and 512GB options will also be available and those come with 12GB of RAM too.

The 6.67-inch OLED display has 1080p resolution - not as sharp as 1440p panels, but certainly good enough and adequate for the price (€900). As we've come to expect, Motorola one-ups the competition in another area - this panel can refresh at up to 144Hz next to the 120Hz of mainstream (non-gaming) high-end phones. Now, how much of a difference that makes to the user experience is debatable, but numbers are numbers and 144>120.

Not breaking the mold in the software department, the Edge 30 Ultra ships with a mostly stock-looking build of Android (12 in this case). There's the familiar set of Moto customizations grouped in the Moto app - the double flick of the wrist to launch the camera is a personal favorite, but there's a host of other useful gestures too. There's also the 'Ready For' phone-turns-desktop-PC functionality that can be just what you're looking for.

The 4,610mAh battery capacity is about par for the course, though the 125W charging capability has potential to delivery top-of-the charts results for charging speed. All too often that power rating turns out meaningless, so we'll hold off our excitement until we're able to clock it. There's wireless charging on the Moto too, rated at up to 50W.