Motorola Edge 50 Fusion review

Android 14 with Hello UI on top

The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion runs Android 14 with Motorola's in-house customizations on top, now called Hello UI ("Hello, Moto!"). Motorola has promised three major Android updates and four years of security updates for the Edge 50 Fusion.

We've repeatedly said that Motorola's software looks a lot like AOSP with some added in-house features and finishing touches, which remains true to a large extent.

Something as simple as a font can add a lot of personality, though, and Motorola has been doing that expertly. An AI-generated wallpaper option is also available if you're after personalization - Motorola calls it Style sync, and the idea is to have a wallpaper tailor-made to your current outfit.

There is also an edge lighting feature on the display, which offers a bit of extra flair.

The customizations live in the usual Moto app "hub", which has been restyled for this iteration. Things are now more neatly organized, with categories with many entries, like Gestures, fitting things on a single page, no scrolling required.

Moto app

Speaking of, the info page for each gesture now has an even better visual explanation.

Moto app gestures

Moto Unplugged and Family Space are two features meant to restrict access to apps and features for one of two reasons - relaxing or staying focused yourself, on the one hand, or limiting a child's phone usage, on the other.

Moto Unplugged • Moto Unplugged • Family Space

As already mentioned, the Edge 50 Fusion unfortunately lacks support for wired video output. However, you can still connect the device to a PC or external monitor (Miracast, Chromecast) via the new Smart Connect app. The new app replaces the old Ready For app and merges all of the connectivity options under one roof.

Smart Connect app

While the OS and UI themselves are very clean and clutter-free, the Edge 50 Fusion did install a whole bunch of apps and games out of the box without giving us the option to opt out.

You can, of course, uninstall them afterward, but it is still annoying.

Benchmarks and performance

Motorola shied away from MediaTek chipsets in the Edge 50 family thus far and went for Qualcomm parts instead. The Edge 50 Fusion is based on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 - a recent chip announced in Q3 2023 and based on Samsung's 4nm 4LPE manufacturing process. Despite being a pretty modern chip, as the "s" in the name denotes, according to Qualcomm's naming convention, the 7s Gen 2 doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a modern chipset. For instance, it lacks a trendy new "prime" CPU core. Instead, its CPU configuration has two quad-core clusters. One with ARM Cortex-A78 cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz and one with four Cortex-A55 cores, working at up to 1.95GHz. The CPU is paired with an Adreno 710 GPU.

The Edge 50 Fusion is available in a total of four memory configurations: 128GB/8GB, 256GB/8GB, 256GB/12GB and 512GB/12GB. We have the latter top-tier 512GB/12GB variant for this review. The RAM chips are LPDDR5, while the storage ones are UFS 2.2. There is no expandable storage, so be sure to get as much storage as you need.

We also remind you that we are reviewing the international variant of the Edge 50 Fusion. The one in Latin America runs the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset instead.

Moving on to some actual benchmarks, we will start with CPU tests and GeekBench. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 doesn't shine particularly brightly in the CPU department. It is about as powerful as the Samsung Exynos 1380 of the Dimensity 7030. The lack of a powerful prime core definitely hurts the single-core performance, and the chipset does a bit better in multi-core scenarios. Still, you can get a lot better CPU performance in this price range.

AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark with GPU and memory tests. It is not overly favorable towards the Edge 50 Fusion, either. Still, at least it has devices like last year's Edge 40 Neo and the ever-popular Redmi Note 13 beat. It is positive to see the Edge 50 Fusion perform roughly in line with other devices rocking the same Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset.

The Adreno 710 GPU inside the Edge 50 Fusion isn't particularly powerful either. Still, the Edge 50 Fusion does better than the Edge 40 Neo and the Moto G84, as well as the Samsung Galaxy A35 and Redmi Note 13.

We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.

Thermal-throttling

The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 might not be an overly powerful chip, but it doesn't run too hot. The Edge 50 Fusion does a great job of cooling it down and shows some excellent thermal-throttling behavior.

Thermal throttling

The phone's surface remains warm but still comfortable, even with prolonged stress testing.