Motorola had stopped making flagship phones for a few years. Why should it bother competing against Samsung and Apple when its budget phones were doing so well?. For example, based on reader response to our stories about the
Motorola G7 Power, the 2019 budget-priced phone with the huge 5000mAh battery (providing up to 72 hours of use between charges) was extremely popular.
Last year, Motorola started encroaching on the mid-range market and did so successfully with phones like the
One Action with its rear action camera that records in portrait mode and plays it back in landscape. So the manufacturer decided to get back into the flagship game and today, as we told you earlier,
it unveiled the Motorola Edge and Motorola Edge+. No more pussyfooting around for the Lenovo unit. The
Edge+ has a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a waterfall screen draping over both sides, very thin bezels, and a 21:9 aspect ratio. It also features a 90Hz refresh rate for buttery smooth scrolling and video game animation.
Has Motorola created a competitive flagship?
Motorola dropped a couple of 45 second TV ads today, and the first one is called “The Motorola Edge+ has arrived.” Right off the bat, Motorola uses a clever illusion to show off the waterfall display which it calls the “Endless Edge Display.” Motorola also brags that the phone delivers the fastest data speeds in the world and the most powerful stereo sound.
The second ad is called “Fastest 5G in the world with the Motorola Edge+” Also 45 seconds in length, it once again starts with a cool illusion promoting the Endless Edge Display before pivoting to the phone’s ability to deliver 5G download data speeds faster than 4Gbps. Don’t get too excited, that speed is nearly four times the fastest mmWave 5G download data speeds available to consumers today. The ad then shows sample Ultra-wide, Macro, and Telephoto images from the rear camera.
The Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform powers the Edge+, which will include the Snapdragon X55 5G modem chip for both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G support. This means that T-Mobile’s low and mid-band 5G network will work on the device as will Verizon’s high-band mmWave 5G network. And yes, it will work with AT&T’s 5G signals as well. The Edge+ features 12GB of LPDDR5 memory and 256GB of storage; it also sports UFS 3.0. As we said, Motorola pulled out all of the stops. It has a 5000mAh battery that allow users to enjoy up to 48 hours of 5G use.
The 108MP Primary camera on the back uses 4:1
pixel binning to provide sharp 27MP images. The 16MP Ultra-wide camera is also used for close-up Macro shots, and the 8MP Telephoto camera delivers 3x optical zoom. There is also a Time of Flight camera for enhanced depth calculations and in front is a 25MP front-facing camera. Surprise! The phone does sport a 3.5mm earphone jack. While it doesn’t have an IP rating, the Edge+ will survive a splash and light rain.
The Motorola Edge+ will go on sale May 14th as a Verizon exclusive priced at $999.99, or you can make 24 monthly payments of $41.66. Color options are Thunder Grey and Smoky Sangria.
The Motorola Edge was also announced today and it is not quite the premium device that the Edge+ is. For example, it has the Snapdragon 765 Mobile Platform under the hood and is equipped with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM in North America and 6GB in the rest of the world. The Edge comes with 128GB of storage and a 4500mAh battery. It also has a quad-camera setup in the back with a 64MP Primary camera, 16MP Ultra-wide and Macro camera, 8MP Telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom, and a Time of Flight sensor. It also carries a 25MP front-facing selfie snapper. This model will go on sale later this year and more details will be released during the summer.
