Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: The perfect iPhone 14 Pro alternative

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the first 200MP phone that has premium specifications and is sold below the $1000 mark. In fact, the 12GB + 256GB model of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is sold for €899.99 in Europe making it a very interesting smartphone. Some Apple fans might not like it but the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra gives the Apple iPhone 14 Pro a run for its money. How did we know? Well, we did a review of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra and it truly is an interesting device.

This Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review detailed how good this smartphone is and why it is the perfect alternative to the iPhone 14 Pro. If you can’t afford the iPhone 14 Pro and you don’t like the new Dynamic Island punch hole, then you should consider the Edge 30 Ultra. Don’t just take our word for it. See the full Motorola Edge 30 Ultra review below and maybe at the end, you’ll share our view.

See Also: Motorola Edge 30 Ultra European Pricing; Showcasing 200MP camera 

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review

Note that the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the same as the Moto X30 Pro launched in China a few months back.

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: Display, Design, and Durability

The display and design of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra are just too good. The 6.67-inches P-OLED display of the device has a 144Hz refresh rate, supports HDR10+, and has a peak brightness of 1250nits. The display of the Edge 30 Ultra is not very bright under direct sunlight but it’s still usable. But, the display is smooth, fast, and very responsive. Another thing that makes this phone really good is the design.

The front screen is slightly curved to the frame and the single punch hole on the screen looks really neat. And if you place the front screen of the Edge 30 Ultra side by side with that of the iPhone 14 Pro, 95% of the time, you’ll prefer the front screen of the Edge 30 Ultra. The back panel design is also very simple but elegant. There is a small camera module on the top left corner of the back panel but it does not protrude much hence.

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is made of a Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back (Gorilla Glass 5), and aluminum frame. These are solid and durable materials and although the phone is made with water-repellant materials, it is not certified to be IP68 water and dustproof (which is a bummer). But aside from the IP68 disappointment, the frame, back panel, and front screen of the device are solid.

The display of the Motorola Edge 20 Ultra can auto-refresh between 144Hz and 60Hz. But if you prefer, you can rock the full 144Hz for a smoother display experience (but also drains battery faster), or use the 60Hz and save battery but not so smooth display experience. It’s better you leave it in auto-refresh mode to enjoy the nest of both worlds i.e 144Hz and 60Hz.

See Also: Motorola Edge 2022 is now available for purchase for $599

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: Chipset and Performance

The chipset inside the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. This 5G chipset is built on a 4nm process technology. It has an Octa-core CPU (8-core processor) that is paired with Adreno 730 GPU. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset brings a whole new level of power and efficiency to Android phones (Edge 30 Ultra inclusive).

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset is power efficient, has fast CPU cores, and has a very powerful GPU. This chipset can play games for a long time without issues. It is also very power efficient and after playing games for a long time on the Edge 30 Ultra, the phone does not get hot, does not throttle, and does drop frame rates quickly.

The user experience on the Edge 30 Ultra is smooth and fast thanks to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The phone does not lag and the animation is very smooth. The chipset inside the phone also has support for AI and the ISP that comes with the phone processes images very well.

See Also: Apple A16 Bionic vs Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1: Which is better

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: Camera

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the first phone to feature a 200MP camera sensor outside China. The 200MP main camera has an f/1.9 aperture and OIS stabilization. The photos and videos from the main camera are very sharp. But by default, the camera quality is resized to 50MP but you can switch and use the 200MP sensor. But using the 200MP main camera means the photo and video size will be large.

There is also a 12MP telephoto lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens. Both the 12MP telephoto lens and the 50MP ultra-wide lens are also very good. The 12MP telephoto can do 2x optical zoom and also double as the portrait lens. On the front, the Edge 30 Ultra has a 60MP front camera. The 60MP front camera is very sharp and can take really good photos.

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra can record videos in 8K resolution at 8K@30fps and 4K@30/60fps. It also has features such as gyro-EIS and HDR10+ and can shoot photos in RAW format. The photo stabilization and video stabilization features on the phones are very good. Both the back and front cameras are very good and take quality photos and record high-quality videos.

See Also: Best Motorola Phones 2022: 5 Motorola Phones you can buy this year

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: RAM, Storage, and Software

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra has up to 12GB of RAM. The available internal storage option is up to 512GB. It has no space for storage expansion via a microSD card slot. Depending on your region, the base model starts with 8GB + 128GB of storage which might be too small considering the sizes of the photos and videos produced by the 200MP main camera.

For example, a single photo shot using the 200MP main camera in RAW format has a size of about 80MB while a normal photo shot using the 200MP main camera has a size of up to 10MB. This means, if you take photos a lot, you might fill up the 128GB storage of the Edge 30 Ultra sooner than you expect. So, we recommend that you buy the 256GB storage model for fair storage space.

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra boots Android 12 out of the box and will be getting up to three years of major software updates and four years of monthly security patches. So the phone will be upgraded to Android 15. You can download and install apps from the Google Play Store. The software is clean without much bloatware and the user interface is neat.

See Also: Motorola Moto Razr 2022 Review: Is it better than the Galaxy Z Flip 4

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: Battery and Charging

Powering the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is a 4600mAh non-removable battery and has support for 125W wired fast charging. You can charge the battery from 0 to 100% in about 20 minutes. Motorola Edge 30 Ultra has support for Fast wireless charging 50W and Reverse wireless charging 10W. A single charge of the battery can last you for a full day but if you’re a heavy user and always on your phone, you can get up to 8 hours of use.

Other features available in the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra are a Fingerprint (under display, optical), NFC, Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by), stereo speakers, A-GPS, etc.

See Also: Sony Xperia 5 IV Review: Still good, offers vital features, and is now affordable

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: Price

The price of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is €899.99 for the model with 12GB RAM + 256GB of storage. This makes it a good alternative to the iPhone 14 Pro whose price starts at $999 for the 6 + 128GB model. The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is cheaper in Asia and you can buy the phone using the details in the table below.

Buy Motorola Edge 30 Ultra

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra	Price
Buy on Giztop	€749.00
Buy on Amazon(EUR)	€899.99

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review: Conclusion

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is one of the best camera phones and performance. It offers all the best features you need in a smartphone. Below are the PROS and CONS of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra.

Our Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Review showed that it’s the perfect alternative to the iPhone 14 Pro. It has a very fast, bright, and smooth display, good performance, a long-lasting battery, good camera sensors, a nice user experience, and a nice design. But it has no microSD card space and no support for a 3.5mm headphone jack.