Motorola Edge 50 review

Competition

The Motorola Edge 50 is a competent mid-range device with a relatively competitive price tag too. At the time of writing, the handset can be found for around €550 in Europe and for less than INR 30,000 in India. The Indian price, in particular, is quite competitive.

The European pricing, on the other hand, puts it in the same bracket as the recently released Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, OnePlus 12R, Honor 200 Pro and Xiaomi 14T. And all of these phones are considerably more powerful than the Edge 50. The latter uses a dated chip, while some others are running on near flagship-grade chipsets.

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE • Honor 200 Pro • Xiaomi 14T • OnePlus 12R

The Honor 200 Pro and the Xiaomi 14T are slightly better choices for photography-oriented usage as they offer similar focal lengths but deliver higher-quality stills and videos more consistently. The selfies from the Edge 50 are pretty impressive, though.

All competitors also seem to be doing better in the battery department. The Edge 50 posted particularly lackluster battery life scores.

However, the Motorola Edge 50 matches its peers in other important aspects such as the display, speakers, charging and build quality. In fact, we believe the design and build quality are on Motorola's side. The Edge 50 is arguably the device with the most premium-looking design in the group - it's slim, it's slick, it's IP68-protected and complies with the MIL-STD-810H standard, and it's exceptionally lightweight for a 6.7-inch device. And all color versions have vegan leather on the back.

In India, the Moto Edge 50 ends up competing with the likes of OnePlus Nord 4, Realme 13 Pro+, and the vivo v30.

Verdict

The Motorola Edge 50 is a capable midranger with its strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, the drawbacks are hard to overlook - relatively low raw performance for the price and short battery life.

On the other hand, the Edge 50 provides dependable camera performance, good display, fast charging, wireless charging, and exceptional design. It's up to you to decide whether these traits can make up for the unimpressive battery life and the average performance.

Pros

• Exceptionally thin and light, great to handle.
• Great build with IP68 and military-grade level of resistance to extreme temperatures.
• Wireless charging, fast wired charging.
• Dependable camera system, great selfies.
• Feature-rich UI with desktop-like mode and five OS upgrades.

Cons

• Dated SoC with unimpressive performance.
• Battery life could be better.
• Laggy camera app.
• No Always On Display support.