Motorola Edge 30 Ultra hands-on review

200MP primary camera with two sidekicks, 60MP unit on the front

The Edge 30 Ultra is the first phone we get to see that utilizes the 200MP Samsung HP1 sensor. With a 1/1.22" optical format, it's among the largest sensors you'd find in a smartphone. And it better be, in order to fit so many pixels - tiny as they may be at 0.64µm. The sensor uses 16-to-1 binning for an effective pixel size of 2.56µm to output 12.5MP images - Samsung calls this design Tetra2pixel (or, rather, Tetra-to-the-power-of-two pixel). The lens for this camera is stabilized and has a 23mm equivalent focal length and an f/1.9 aperture.

Here are a few samples.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 12.5MP

You do, of course, get to shoot at the nominal resolution as well. The phone itself points out that it's best to do it in bright lighting for optimum results. In our experience, the process takes an extra second to capture and we're reminded to keep still.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 200MP

The ultrawide camera is based on the Samsung JN1 sensor - a 50MP Tetrapixel unit (so 'only' 4-to-1 binning) with a 1/2.76" optical format and the same 0.64µm pixel pitch. The lens has a 14mm equivalent focal length and an f/2.2 aperture. Most importantly, this camera features autofocus, so you can also use it for close ups. We'll have some of those for the full review, but in the meantime, have a look at a handful of general shots.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 12.5MP

The ultra-res mode does allow you to shoot at the ultrawide camera's native resolution.

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

At the opposite end of the zoom range is the 2x telephoto, which Motorola also calls a portrait camera and lists its equivalent focal length at 50mm - the f/1.6 aperture should help too. The sensor here is a Sony IMX663 (1/2.93", 1.22µm). Once again, we'll explore its capabilities in more detail in the coming days, but here's a taste.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (2x), 12MP

Over on the front, the 60MP selfie camera is based on the OmniVision OV60A sensor - this one with even smaller pixels at 0.61µm. The fixed-focus lens has a 23mm equivalent focal length and an f/2.2 aperture.

Selfie samples, 15MP

Selfie samples, 60MP

Wrap-up

The high-end segment could use some spicing up and the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra has potential to do so. The 200MP main camera will help the marketing team, but it can prove useful too - more thanks to the sensor's size and what the binning can bring rather the sheer resolution. The telephoto camera reach is rather short, but there is a tele at least, and the autofocusing ultrawide is a most welcome sight.

Of course, the 144Hz display is a nice touch, we just need to see how it fares when it comes to brightness and color. The 125W charging is similarly eye-catching on paper but that too needs some level-headed testing and let's not forget battery life. We're expecting solid performance from the latest Snapdragon, and we got nicely stable results under prolonged loads too from past Motos - particularly nice if you're going to make use of the desktop PC functionality of the Edge 30 Ultra. We'll elaborate on all these and more in the full review, so stay tuned.