Motorola Edge 50 review

Hello UI on top of Android 14

The Motorola Edge 50 runs Android 14 with Moto's Hello UI on top. This particular Android overlay isn't too crazy and it's quite close to the stock Android experience. It has been the case for a while, but Motorola gave its UI a name of its own only recently.

In any case, the Edge 50 is promised 5 major OS updates, which is longer than Motorola's previous policy for phones such as the Edge 50 Pro and Edge 50 Ultra.

We've already covered the UI specifics in our Edge 50 Pro review, so go check that out. It's worth noting that the Edge 50 does not have Always On Display support, unlike some other phones in the series.

  

Hello UI + Android 14

We are also happy to report that almost all features found on the Pro are available on the non-Pro as well. Including the Motorola desktop-like experience, previously called Ready For.

Like on other recent Motorola phones, the Ready For app (for connecting to a PC or a tablet) and Moto Connect app (for connecting to standalone displays, be it wired or wirelessly) have been merged into a new app called Smart Connect. Streaming, mobile desktop, phone to PC, smart sharing, smart clipboard, cross control and more - all features are here under one roof.

Moreover, the Edge 50 supports wireless and wired connections to an external screen.

Hello UI + Android 14

Motorola is particularly proud of its AI smarts, too, which seem to be tailored toward delivering a better camera experience overall.

The moto AI is an umbrella term for camera-centric features like AI-aided image processing, adaptive stabilization, 30X Super Zoom and Long Exposure.

There is also the Style Sync and Magic Canvas AI features. The former creates a wallpaper based on your outfit, while the Magic Canvas creates the wallpaper from scratch based on your prompts.

Magic Canvas

Performance and benchmarks

The Motorola Edge 50 runs on a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated edition. The chipset is based on the older Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC that came out way back in 2022 but the Accelerated part in the name means it has its prime Cortex-A710 CPU core clocked at up to 2.5 GHz instead of the standard 2.4 GHz. But for all intents and purposes, it's the same chip.

The GPU is Adreno 644, which does not feature hardware-based raytracing.

The Edge 50 is available in three LPDDR4X RAM/UFS storage versions - 8GB/256GB, 12GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB (ours).

Let's see some benchmark scores now.

As you can see, the CPU and GPU performance is adequate, though there are some noticeably more powerful smartphones in the same price bracket. This means you will enjoy mostly smooth performance and okay gaming experience, but if you are after high framerates in games, the Moto Edge 50 is not the best €500 phone for that.

Finally, let's explore the sustained performance. The CPU throttled down 55% after 30 min of about 80% of peak performance. The GPU remained at 100% after 20mins of heavy benchmarking, which is great.

The Edge 50 never gets hot, just warm, even after prolonged benchmark testing. Overall, while not the fastest phone in its class, it can be considered as a solid performer.