Motorola Edge 50 Ultra hands-on review

Software

The Edge 50 Ultra is, of course, running on the latest Android 14 out of the box with Motorola's own features baked in. However, don't expect any new ground-breaking features like Samsung and Xiaomi's AI-driven functionalities. Motorola does offer generative AI capabilities for wallpaper customization purposes, but other than that, AI is pretty absent in Motorola's current software.

Still, the OEM insists that AI algorithms are implemented throughout the whole system working in the background. AI-powered algorithms are supposed to optimize performance, battery life and search.

Camera

Undoubtedly, one of the Edge 50 Ultra's centerpiece features is the camera. Motorola hosted a special press event in Morroco where we had a chance to try out a pre-production unit of the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra along with the rest of the Edge 50 lineup. The camera samples included here have all been shot in the course of a single day at locations and events organized by Motorola.

• Wide (main): 50 MP, 1/1.3", f/1.6, 2.4µm, multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; 2160p@60fps
• Telephoto camera: 64 MP, f/2.4, 1.4µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; 2160p@30fps
• Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.0, 1.28µm, 122˚, AF; 2160p@30fps
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/1.9, 1.28µm, AF; 2160@30fps

When it comes to camera hardware, the Ultra stands out in the Edge 50 family with a total of four potent cameras. The main one uses a big 50MP 1/1.3" sensor coupled with a wide f/1.6 aperture and stabilized optics.

Daylight main camera samples

Low-light main camera samples

The telephoto camera is 64MP, having 3x optical zoom reach and f/2.4 aperture.

Daylight telephoto camera samples

6x zoom camera samples

Low-light telephoto camera samples

And the second auxiliary camera is a 50MP ultrawide unit with wide 122-degree FoV, f/2.0 aperture and autofocus support for macro shots.

Daylight ultrawide camera samples

Close-up shots: Main camera • Ultrawide camera

Low-light ultrawide camera sample

The selfie camera is particularly impressive, at least on paper, as it has 50MP resolution, wide f/1.9 aperture and supports autofocus. It's 2024 and we barely see phones with AF-enabled selfie cameras, so kudos to Motorola for adding this feature.

Selfies

But not just the camera hardware itself, the software features and optimizations too. Even though AI isn't the main focus in the software department, Motorola is making a huge deal out of its the AI-powered camera optimizations.

Let's start with Action Shot. The camera software automatically increases and adjusts the shutter speed in low-light environments to minimize the blur of moving objects. We did a brief test of the feature and found that in some cases, the shutter speed goes from 1/50 up to 1/200, while at the same time the ISO is doubled from 3100 to 6200. And that's without any noticeable increase in noise thanks to the AI-powered noise-reduction algorithm. Here's a brief example.

Action Shot samples

Adaptive Stabilization works in video mode and dynamically adjusts the stabilization level based on your hand movement and scenario.

Auto Focus Tracking is another video-based feature that improves footage clarity of subjects moving fast through the frame. This one will be available with a future update.

Notably, Motorola offers a choice between Natural and Auto Enhance shooting modes, with the former being the default one.The Auto Enhance mode will supposedly take longer for the software to capture images, but we didn't notice any slow-downs when using it. Also, it's not exactly a Motorola-exclusive feature. It's actually the Auto Enhance feature we all know from Google's Photos app. Motorola decided to integrate that feature into the camera app for convenience, but the system saves only the "enhanced" photos, not the "natural" ones.

It's a bit too early to comment on the camera quality since we took the samples with a pre-production unit. But before we get a production-ready handset, let's take a look at some videos taken with all the cameras.

Video sample playlist

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

Verdict

As always, it's a bit early to tell whether the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra is a good buy, but we can say it's definitely a promising one. It has all the bells and whistles of a true flagship phone while starting at €999, which is considered affordable in today's flagship segment. With time, the price will trend down, and the handset will become an even more enticing option.

In any case, despite the promising hardware, a full review will reveal whether the 4,500 mAh battery will be enough for dependable endurance and it's going to be interesting to see how the new camera system will fare against the competition. The Moto Edge 50 Ultra is expected to come to market by the end of May and a lot could change in that timeframe.