First things first and cutting to the chase, this really is a lovely phone as I muse and reflect on continuing to really like what Moto do with Android over pretty much any other OEM. The Edge 50 Pro was sent over for review by Moto PR UK but there's been no pressure to promote it from them or say anything here that I don't believe.
Anyway, back to the latest and (arguably) greatest current Moto. The Edge 50 Pro. I say arguably, because there is technically a higher up-the-line flagship out there, the Edge 50 Ultra, but it seems to be this one which is getting the attention - as differences are minimal and it represents much better value for money. Talking of which, at time of writing, the Edge 50 Pro in the UK is officially £599 (and Edge 50 Ultra, £999). You can check the differences yourself at GSMArena, but I don't feel as though the £400 more justifies the few extra features, personally. Stick with the Edge 50 Pro!
The Edge 50 Pro was released here in the UK in April of this year, though it also got a release as the X50 Ultra (just to confuse) in the far-east. And the Edge+ in the USA. I think. I do wonder about these regional naming protocols - they just seem to add confusion, frankly! Anyway, it arrived in the now-familiar 'scented' and eco-friendly box, looking buff and, well, tree-coloured! I guess that's the point - with 80% recycled materials. The model that I have is Black Beauty, but you can also get it in Luxe Lavendar, Moonlight Pearl and Vanilla Cream. Nice choices, all of which have been cooked up by Pantone, the graphic, product, printing and colour design firm in liaison with Moto.
Inside the box (at least, in the UK) there's a 125W TurboCharging brick (hurrah), a minimalist hard-plastic case, various papers, of course, and a decent-looking USB-C to USB-C cable. In some regions, it comes with a 68W charger instead, but that's still pretty good - and - it's in the box. Included with the sale! Well done Moto for continuing to buck the trend.
The device itself is incredibly similarly-sized and weighted to the Edge 30 Ultra, both being slightly taller than the more dinky Edge 40 from last year. This year's 50-series doesn't (yet) have a baseline vanilla version, but as I write, there are rumblings about a possible India release of such a model. The globally released 50-series units are the 50 Fusion, this 50 Pro and the aforementioned Ultra. So yes, 186g and 161.2mm tall x 72.4mm wide x 8.2mm fat. Clearly the less-tall Edge 40 is slightly more pocketable and one-handed-use-friendly, but it's not a huge difference.
Nobody seems to know what kind of glass is on the front of the phone and Motorola don't appear to have said, but I'm guessing that it's Gorilla Glass 5 as the 50 Fusion has that. The 50 Ultra has been given the Victus version, so take your guess along with me! Time will tell for those of us who refuse to use screen-protectors as to the appearance of micro-scratches. The back, though, has the same vegan/eco-leather as some of the Edge 40 series devices and it's very nice to the touch. It's kind of smooth and velvety - doesn't really feel much like leather - but it does afford slightly more grip than shiny plastic or (certainly) glass.
Unlike some of the cheaper models, this one has a colour-matched aluminium frame around the edges with the required plastic relief here and there for aerials. Motorola have now started to certify for IP-ratings (instead of nano-coating and 'resistance' claims) and this one gets 6(dust)/8(water). So that's certainly reassuring for those intending to carelessly dunk and chuck! The buttons on the right are metal, too, and clicky, firm, not wobbly.
The Black Beauty colour really does make the phone look sleek and sexy as the screen curves around the front to meet the frame, then onto the back. The camera 'island' on the back is top-left and the smooth back slopes up from the sides to meet the 'platform' very stylishly, like Oppo did with the Find X3 Pro. If the phone is used with no case, it will wobble on a desk of course - a payoff for being able to enjoy the build and style all the time!
Down on the base there's a SIM Card Tray, USB-C port, speaker and nothing left and top. At the top of the screen there's the second speaker doubling up as the phone's earpiece in the usual way and there's a small Selfie camera circle up-top and centre. The bezels top and bottom are tiny and round the edges, virtually non-existent. I haven't noticed any touch-intrusions from fingers on edges, but I guess some might complain about that. Style over substance? I don't think so. I like it as it is.
Talking of which, the 6.7" front panel is a slightly curved one (left and right) which gives the phone a classy and premium look and feel. I realise that there's divided opinion on this now with many OEMs going back-to-flat for pragmatic purposes, but laying that aside, I don't think many will argue that it looks good and feels great in the hand. It's also the same pOLED screen that I rave about often here on my blog - wonderfully bright (up to 2000 nits) with lovely, vibrant colours. It has a maximum refresh-rate of 144Hz and a pixel-count of 1,220 x 2,712. The ratio is 20:9 and it returns 446ppi. As always with modern Moto phones, I have no complaint at all about the screens.
Colours can be adjusted in the display settings between Natural, Radiant and Vivid with an additional colour-picker, some presets (for warm/cool) and custom options. The difference between Natural and Radiant/Vivid is significant in terms of saturation but not so much between Vivid and Radiant. I think for the first time Pantone have also been cited as being involved with the reproduction of natural skin tones (particularly) via the screen/camera. Not sure if that's tokenistic or not as we can't really see what it would be like, on any given device, without it!
The refresh rate can be set to the top 144Hz so it gives the best performance (when being used - otherwise it drops to 60), but also 120Hz or even 60Hz to save battery. There's also an Auto setting which functions between 120Hz and 60Hz. So, you can't get 144Hz on all the time - but can when interacting with the screen. (If you want to test any of this stuff, there's a live display-readout via the Developer settings, by the way.)
Setting up the phone I used the Edge 30 Ultra as my 'go-from' and cabled-up (or wireless if you prefer). Everything restored perfectly using the base Google Backup/Restore functionality. Homescreen layouts, widgets, wallpaper, the lot - leaving me to do the sign-ins to (mainly) financial apps, having trusted Google to sign me in to most other things with a tap (or two). Media/data can also be selected, though it obviously takes a little longer, or you can do that afterwards from a PC, SSD/thumb-drive or whatever. There were a handful of bloatware apps but all uninstallable, thankfully. The usual suspects.
Motorola have promised 3 OS updates to Android during the life of this phone. It arrived on Android 14, so presumably, 15, 16 and 17. I hope they get their finger out and make sure those are timely (like for the ThinkPhone) and not months and months late. Talking of which, it'll be August in a day or two and the Google Security Patch (which is the responsibility of the OEM of course) is back on March 2024. So 4/5 months out of date, which is not a good sign, nor does it invoke confidence going forward. They say that the phone will get 'quarterly' security updates for 4 years, taking it to April 2028. I'll give them the benefit here as HelloUI is new and to be fair, all the 40-series Edge phones I have here are being kept pretty-much up-to-date.
HelloUI is the new front-end replacing MyUI on anything older than 50-series devices (even the otherwise-favoured and prioritised ThinkPhone). There is talk of Moto bringing it to last year's models, possibly, when they are updated to Android 15. But no promises, as usual with Moto - all I can say is that none of them here in my hands have it (yet) and (as I said above) they are mostly up-to-date with security patches (and on Android 14). So we'll watch this space on that. It's fair to say that, mostly, HelloUI is a paint-job. A very nice and pretty paint-job, but most of the core functionality of the skin was there before. Some exceptions, but not a huge amount.
HelloUI sticks with the tried-and-trusted (almost) vanilla flavour of Android, which we know and love. Well, I do! The usual range of 'gestures' are available, like 3-finger screenshot, chop-chop for torch, twist-twist for camera, one-handed mode, swipe-to-split screen, Quick Launch (tap the back), lift-to-unlock, flip for DND, Edge Lights, Gaming control panel and so on. The UI has been improved and modernised but most of it is consistent with MyUI. The Security functions have been brought across to most of these modern Moto Edge phones now from the ThinkPhone and offer toggles for all sorts of protection and detection, network security, checking apps, offering a Secure Folder for them too. Some of it is Android 14, like Privacy dashboard and SOS stuff, but mostly it at least feels home-baked and well worked out. As we know, it's questionable as to whether Android really needs this level of protection for the average user, but I guess it doesn't hurt.
Personalising Themes and Fonts is basically similar as well, but again, made pretty and modernised in look/feel. Some might say 'cartoony' but I actually think they've done just enough, not too much. So yes, icon shape, font choice system-wide, fingerprint animation, edge lighting - all present to tinker. The AI generated Wallpaper is new - "Made with AI" - this lets you grab or select a photo, then generates a kind of pattern based on what you offer it - including pointing it at yourself or today's outfit and Style-Syncing! Frankly, it's a bit rubbish and needs much work to get anywhere close to what Pixel and Samsung are doing, but at least they're trying something a bit different from the pack!
Like Samsung, Moto have also been diving into Apple-copying and offer a choice of Control Centre Notification drop-down instead of the standard Android one. Thankfully it is a choice (at least for now) which I appreciate as I really don't like the big-buttoned, clunky Apple-style Control panel UX. Nasty. Google Feed to the left of course, which is optional, size and numbers of homescreen icons/layout, but also - more Apple et al - the option to change the standard App Drawer with laying one's icons all across multiple homescreens (or in folders). Again, it's a choice, so great. Some may like it - particularly defectors - but I like it just the way it was, thank you!
The Side Bar was added to last year's models a while back and that's a neat addition. Not as exhaustive as the developer-driven Samsung version, but still useful and much nicer to use than, say, the Sony Xperia one (which was mostly turned off here)! Assign whatever apps you like to the bar, sit the customisable handle where you like, resize it, then choose whether you want apps to opened up full-screen or in a floating window (with various resizing, docking or closing tools). Works well and I use it all the time.
There's still no 'proper' Always on Display and Peek Display has not come back, so we have various ways of arranging Lock Screen now (which is new) and adding widgets to that (like with others so far) in a limited fashion. I like the one which is very Samsung-like which gives a clock/weather and choice of circular status icons - not a huge choice, but enough. The sleeping display can be woken by incoming notifications of course, or by nudging the phone or lifting it and so forth. This area works in tandem (or not) with face unlock (which is very good - easy to set up and reliable) and the under-display, optical fingerprint scanner (which works similarly reliably in my tests). So depending on how you're set up, the lock screen, sleep-screen, waking-screen, notifications and on-screen buttons for glimpses of what's come in, will work differently. Again, a good choice and for me, it works well enough. I would rather have an always-on display, but this is a decent-enough second-best.
I do think that the paint-job is a nice one and has been thought through well by the developers. Lots of options, pretty and colourful - but not clunky, cartoony and over-the-top. Lots to play with a decent level of customisation. The integration with Smart Connect (formerly Ready For) works well in tandem with HelloUI and I'll come to that.
In the meantime, we'll turn back to the hardware and supplied chipset. That being the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (4nm). From what I read, this is a decent, modern chipset and a step-up from the Edge 40's Dimensity 8020 but arguable not matching the Edge 30 Ultra's 8+ Gen 1. Or does it! Geeky testbench work will reveal (or not) all sorts of technical data about chipset performance, but the truth is, for me, most modern smartphones with most modern chipsets perform perfectly well for the vast majority of people doing the vast majority of their tasks. It'll be people pushing phones to their limit with heavy gaming or rendering video who will want/need faster/better hardware, but for the rest of us it's just fine. I have experienced no slowdown using this phone in any way at all - even copying large amounts of data by cable from the PC. I have indulged in some basic game-playing (my usual car-racing test) and I see no breakup, breakdown or juddering. I really don't think that the 98% of users need to worry - and the 2% won't be reading this, considering this hardware, anyway!
The very well-specified Edge 50 Pro that I have been supplied with has got 512GB of storage space and 12GB RAM but depending on region, there are also 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM and 256GB 12GB RAM variations at different price-points. Whether or not the user can make use of this amount of storage and RAM is personal to them, but my view is always that more is better! Supporting Smart Connect and increasing amounts of processing for AI activity means that if you have more, you won't be wanting later. And Moto seem to be, at least in my region, even with their less expensive phones, putting decent components, like these, right inside from the off. There's also no microSD expansion port, so again, it makes sense to get more storage built-in at the outset, if it's affordable.
The battery is a 4,500mAh unit and, as I mentioned above, is capable of charging with the 125W brick in the box. This produces staggeringly fast charge-speeds, from 0-100% in less than 20 minutes. There's also 50W wireless charging available (though good luck getting a Moto one in the west) and even 10W reverse-wireless thrown in. As I say, I can't test the (speedy) wireless but can confirm that Moto's claims for the 125W speeds seem to be spot-on. Armed with fast wireless charging and the ability to charge up on-the-go if needed, I can't see how anyone could complain about the options. Well done again, Moto.
The battery's performance is fabulous in my testing here, as is so often the case with Moto phones. It seems to simply last and last all day - and then for another day if pushed. Because of all the above, of course, it's not really that much of a concern, but great that it is so good. In my 10% Reading Test it returned the best part of 3 hours and the all-day, average use for me test, yes - towards to the end of Day 2. But armed with 125W and Qi Charging, as I say, whatever your use of the device, however much you kill it, there are great options waiting in the wings.
The sound coming from the speakers is decently loud, with decent-enough quality for the vast majority of people. Audiophiles might complain a little when comparing to the best of the best just now, but again, the vast majority will be fine with the output. Particularly if not sitting the phone side-by-side testing/comparing like us! This is in keeping generally with the Edge series phones over the last few years, Moto clearly continuing to use decent components. There are equalisation options of course, via Dolby Atmos with a wide range of tweaks that can be made including, new (to me at least on a Moto), Spatial Audio. This adds a broader soundstage and can be appreciated more in landscape, at desk-distance. As always, when playing with equalisation, there are payoffs - often in terms of volume, but there's enough of that here to cope with the shift. The speakers' output is not up there with Galaxy S24 Ultra or Sony Xperia, but it's perfectly good enough and nice to hear.
As for earphones and headphones, I can tell you that there's no surprise to find no 3.5mm legacy audio-out port but testing with basic adapters from the USB-C port, dedicated USB-C earphones and various bluetooth options, the output is very good indeed. The latest Bluetooth 5.4 is supported here and I'll point you here to my separate review of the Moto Buds+ which I was also sent to test and was very impressed with for the price. I cover the Dolby Atmos options with earphones more over there. Also tested here though, various Sony headphones, Samsung buds, a whole range in between and have always been pleased with the sound.
Smart Connect seems to be living up to its name as I explore - and seem to find something new every time! It used to be called Ready For (thankfully they changed that now) and it does what it says on the tin and more. A system to connect smartphones, tablets and PCs to share files, mirror screening and control devices remotely. Using the various tools on offer, users can share files between devices, mirror the phone's screen in a number of ways on a number of devices for gaming or media consumption, control a TV, monitor or PC using other devices. In this phone's case, it can be done wirelessly or with a USB cable. Some of the cheaper phones in some Moto ranges only support wireless, but as tested by me in other blog post reviews, that's also very good now too. Cable is certainly better with a PC so as to keep one's phone's battery topped up!
Starting with the PC, like some components of Microsoft's Phone Link, Smart Connect can stream Apps from a connected device, create a mirror of the phone's screen in a handy right-side pop-out, sync wallpaper, transfer files, create a desktop environment with either big-button controls or a Windows-like UI. Utilise the other device as a webcam for whatever messaging app you want to use with video - making use of its cameras (with various adjustment tools), create an on-the-fly connection hotspot for the PC via the phone/device, make calls, take calls, route audio, make use of a Smart clipboard - which I do all the time, copying stuff from the phone to PC and back (easier than Quick Share) and much more. In some ways, it's more fully-featured than Samsung's DeX and it seems that Motorola are more interested in developing for it than them. If you have a Lenovo Chromebook, you also get specific hooks into that, like a PC Mode. It's a veritable playground and productivity tool.
Then there's the TV and a user-friendly front-end with big-buttons or a desktop-like experience, a Games-centric hub or Video/streaming control suite. This, with this phone, can, again, be done wirelessly or wired with an HDMI adapter and USB-C cable. It works fabulously well and armed with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, a person could set up a 'proper' mobile office with whatever monitor they could find. Or take one with them! No keyboard or mouse? No worries as the phone can be used as an air-pointing device (point it at the telly and move) or via a trackpad on the phone's screen. It's all very clever stuff and I haven't found many flaws really. Well thought out and executed. Even wireless lipsync/latency is covered (though some apps are better than others in this respect). If you get the chance to play with Smart Connect, I'd strongly recommend that you do - or better still, grab yourself a Moto device that supports it and get stuck in.
The camera options are lots of fun and very functional. There's a 10MP f2 3 x optical zoom in the mix, a 13MP f2.2 auto-focusing wide-angle (for some stunning close-ups), a 50MP main shooter with OIS and 'fast' f1.4 aperture - and even a very decently performing 50MP f1.9 Selfie. I've had some fun with the cameras and on testing the f1.4 lens against another of Moto's f1.8 otherwise equivalent, I can certainly see a shallower depth of field in shots, with no need for AI creating it or even Portrait mode - this, from the main shooter, no tricks. Tons of modes to play with in the camera's app as usual, from Spot Colour, Night Vision (which is actually decent), document scanning, pro-mode to tweak and tinker manually, to some degree, the Portrait mode with 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm (35mm equiv.) settings, slow motion video and yes, oodles of other stuff. As usual, I've had great fun playing but I'm no digital photographer (bring back film, I say!) so as usual, I'll hand you over to our good friends at GSMArena who conduct a deep-dive starting on this page. Do check them out as they conduct great reviews and provide us all with a great deal of data, opinions and help.
Last, but not least, is connectivity which I have tested with Bluetooth, as above, providing very good connection which various pieces of test equipment holding on for good distances and through various obstructions and the 5G connection here is solid for data. Making calls is great (being heard and hearing), GPS I have tested on various mapping/location apps and services and it seems to be good, NFC has been working nicely - in fact, in shops using Google Pay/Wallet it connects to various terminals without a hitch (unlike some, much more expensive, phones, I might add). The phone I have here has got a single nanoSIM Card slot but the phone can also be hooked up using an eSIM - so all bases covered.
I've really enjoyed my time with the Motorola Edge 50 Pro. So much so that it will be holding my SIM Card going forward, which is not something that I can say for many phones that come through my review clutches! It has a wonderful screen, very good camera options, the very smart Smart Connect, huge storage and RAM, amazing Turbo power options, nicely updated UX with HelloUI, a perfectly capable chipset and is beautifully built and designed. I think you have the idea now that I like it a lot! It stands out, even for me, a self-confessed MotoFan - and amongst the other Motorola phones available to me. Very highly recommended indeed.
