Motorola expanded the Edge 30 series in India by launching the Edge 30 last month. The phone has a lot of quirks and one of the most sellable points of the smartphone is that it is the thinnest phone in the world. Now, slim phones are a rarity in the market. Xiaomi attempted to change things a little by launching the Mi 11 Lite last year but Motorola has taken away that title from Xiaomi. Not only is it the thinnest phone in the market currently, the spec sheet of the Moto Edge 30 also makes it a pretty dependable option under Rs 30,000.

Moto Edge 30 draws its power from the Snapdragon 778+ chipset, features a pOLED display with 144Hz refresh rate and uses a 50-primary sensor. While all this under Rs 30,000 does sound like a steal deal, it would be interesting to see whether the phone has an edge over its competition? Let us find out in the India Today Tech review.

Motorola phones may not be the best-looking devices available in the market, but are extremely practical and meet all the basic requirements. However, with the Motorola Edge 30, the company has at least tried to change the way people perceive their phones. The Edge 30 also offers a solid hand feel and is extremely comfortable to use all through the day.

The Edge 30 is arguably the slimmest and most lightweight phone I have used in a long time. It weighs only 155 grams and is 6.79mm thick. The Mi 11 Lite 5G, which is its closest competitor, weighs 158 grams and is 6.8mm thick.

The smartphone offers a polycarbonate back with a PMMA-acrylic glass finish on the top. The frames sport matte finish as opposed to the glossy plastic finish that you would find in most phones in this segment. The good thing is, despite the polycarbonate body, the phone does not look cheap at all. But what is not so good is that the rear panel is a fingerprint magnet. So, you will surely need to use a TPU case with the phone.

The Motorola Edge 30 has borrowed the flat-edged design from the iPhone 12 but they don’t cut into my palms. Despite featuring a flat-edged design, the edges are still curved, offering a solid grip. Since I use the iPhone 13 as my daily driver, I have a thing for smartphones with a flat-edge design over curved rear panels, but most people out there will like the design of the Moto Edge 30 for the comfortable in-hand feel it offers.

On the rear panel, the Motorola Edge 30 includes a rectangular camera module that houses three camera sensors and an LED flashlight. The camera module jets off a bit from the rear panel. When you keep the phone on a flat surface, it wobbles a lot. The volume rockers and the power button are positioned on the right side of the phone, and the SIM tray along with USB Type-C port and the speaker are placed at the bottom. The buttons offer tactile feedback and make one-hand operation easy.

The Motorola Edge 30 features a 6.5-inch display with FHD+ resolution, uses a pOLED panel and supports a high refresh rate of up to 144Hz. This is the highest I have seen on a mid-range phone. Most phones in this segment have capped the refresh rate to 120Hz. The high refresh rate on the Motorola Edge 30 makes scrolling and gaming extremely smooth.

The display supports a 10-bit panel, which produces a billion colours. The bezels are quite narrow around the corners but relatively thinner chin, which as a result offers a great viewing experience. The screen is protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top.

The smartphone offers good viewing angles and the colour reproduction is fairly accurate. Although the refresh rate of the phone was set to 90hz automatically, it did switch to 144Hz occasionally. However, if you want to permanently experience smooth scrolling through menus, there’s an option to lock the refresh rate to 144Hz

The Motorola Edge 30 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778+ and coupled with 6GB and 128GB variants. Interestingly, the Edge 30 is the first phone in India to get the Snapdragon 778+.

In my few days with the phone, it handled the basic tasks without any lags. My usage was mostly limited to watching shows and movies, playing games and using light photo editing tools. The apps loaded faster on the Edge 30 and switching from one app to another is not an issue either. The video experience was further enhanced by the stereo speaker that is bundled into the phone. The speaker produces a loud and rich sound output.

I played Asphalt 9 on the Edge 30 with the frame rate set at high. I did not come across any lags while playing the game, but the phone did get a little warm to touch after 20 minutes of gaming. There was a significant drop in the battery too, but the performance wasn't throttled at any point in time.

The Edge 30 comes with an in-display sensor, which isn't the fastest in the segment. I used the Face ID to unlock the phone most of the time.

On the software front, the Motorola Ege 30 runs on Android 12 out of the box. Similar to all other Moto phones, it one too offers a near-stock Android experience. So, users will not have to deal with the spammy bloatware and annoying notifications from these unwanted apps.

In a time when even some of the budget phones come with a 6000mAh battery, the Motorola Edge 30 packs a humble 4500mAh battery.

I was apprehensive about the battery life of the Motorola Edge 30 because it uses a smaller battery unit as compared to the competition. Motorola has reduced the size of the battery to accommodate it in a slim form factor.

The Edge 30, though, took me by surprise by lasting for one full day, which includes 5-6 hours of screen time on a single charge. It is as good as any other phone with a 5000mAh battery. The Edge 30 is bundled with a 33W charger. So, to refill the juice completely, the phone takes a little over an hour.

The Motorola Edge 30 has not only borrowed the camera module from its elder sibling, the Edge 30 Pro but also uses the same sensors. The phone features a 50-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilization accompanied by a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens, which also doubles as a macro sensor. There is also a 2-megapixel depth sensor.

The primary sensor manages to capture sharp, crisp images in daylight conditions. The colour reproduction was warm and the sensor did manage to edge out details in the pictures. For instance, the picture showing the Kolhapuri chappal has a lot of detail, it is vibrant and even the minutest work on the chappal has been captured with ease. The details do not get distorted even when you zoom in.

I compared the picture of a flower using the Edge 30, the Vivo T1 Pro 5G, and the iQOO Neo 6. Although the Vivo T1 Pro captured a vibrant image, I quite liked the warmer colour tone in the image captured using the Motorola Edge 30.

The colour reproduction is commendable and it also does not oversaturate the pictures but captures the natural color. In the picture of an accessories stand, you can see a host of necklaces in different colors. Even the bright colours like red and green don’t appear too bright. If you compare with what you see with the naked eye, you will notice how the Edge 30 camera is closer to reality. The phone offers a good dynamic range too.

The macro sensor too offered good performance. The sensor not only captures details but the background blur really makes the phone stand out of its pack. In the picture showing a yellow flower, the leaves have been blurred to the T, which also casts a bokeh-like impression.

The lowlight camera also surprisingly did not disappoint. It managed to capture sharper, noise-free images. This is very much unlike the phones that were launched by the company recently, as most of them faltered in low-light conditions.

The night shots were bright and a good number of details were captured. However, the pictures did appear too bright and washed out at times. The phone takes a while to capture a night shot, so it is advisable to keep your hands still else you might lose sight of the subject or end up with blurry images.

The Motorola Edge 30 is a phone you should consider if you are looking for a solid mid-ranger under the price of Rs 30,000. The phone is recommendable and can put many flagships to shame.

It is good to see that Motorola for the first time has diverted all its attention toward the design of the phone. The device is not only the thinnest phone in the world but also offers a great in-hand feel, it is extremely lightweight too. The 144Hz display is the icing on the cake at this price and the clean UI with promised upgrades to Android 14 will give you more reasons to consider this phone in the mid-range segment.

The cameras also do a decent job and in a long time, the low-light performance of the Edge 30 does not feel tacky. The battery for its size also does a good job. Performance-wise, the phone uses a Snapdragon 778+ chipset that manages basic usage well. But if you want a phone for gaming or video editing or any related heavy tasks, you should look for options in Xiaomi or OnePlus.

Overall, if your budget is not more than Rs 30,000 and you want a phone that has an eye-catching design and powerful set of specifications, the Edge 30 is the phone for you.

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