Motorola Edge X30 Review: The Motorola Edge X30 is the cheapest smartphone to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. For a price starting at $599, this device is definitely one of the most powerful phones at an affordable price. But, there is a catch to this.
In fact, Motorola made lots of compromises to be able to make the Edge X30 affordable. So, in this article, I’ll explain all the compromises made and if it’s still a good device to buy for its price.
See Also: Best Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Phones you can buy in 2022
Motorola Edge X30 Review
Display, Design and Build
Motorola Edge X30 comes with a 6.7-inch display, OLED panel, FHD+ resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ support. Its peak display brightness is 700 nits which are not the brightest of displays.
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Its build materials are Glass front, glass back, and aluminum frame. It has a flat display and has a water-repellent design. The display is also protected by Gorilla Glass 5 but it has no official IP water and dust resistance rating.
The most impressive feature of the display is the 144Hz refresh rate. This will give users a fast and smooth user experience when playing games and using the device in general.
Camera
At the rear, Motorola Edge X30 comes with a 50MP main camera with Dual Pixel PDAF and OIS feature. It is supported by a 50MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP depth sensor. Upfront it comes with a 60MP selfie camera placed in a punch hole (the special edition uses under-display camera technology).
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There are so many camera features that are lacking in the camera. Although you can shoot video in 4K resolution and you can record steady videos, the camera is limited to just digital zoom. There is a telephoto lens to take quality photos from a far distance and there is no macro lens to take quality photos of small objects.
The camera department is where Motorola made lots of compromises to keep the price of the device cheap. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the camera of the Edge X30 is very bad. The cameras and their features just don’t level up to a true 2022 flagship phone.
See Also: Motorola Edge S30 Price in UK and Availability
The 60MP front camera is pretty good and does a decent job. Motorola took the fun of cameras away by limiting the camera features of this phone. For regular users who care less about photography and videography, these missing features won’t even matter that much.
Chipset and Performance
The chipset inside the Motorola Edge X30 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This is one of the most powerful chips that’ll power premium phones in 2022. In fact, Edge X30 is the first phone to be mass-produced with this chipset inside.
See Also: Motorola Edge X30 Price in UK and Availability
At its peak, the download speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip is 10 Gbps. Its GPU is the Adreno 730 and this chip has powerful ISP, AI, and NPU. The performance of this chip is never in doubt as it promises 20x better performance and 30x better efficiency than the Snapdragon 888 5G chip.
However, early users complained that this phone overheats and throttles. This is mainly because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip inside the device was fabricated on Samsung’s 4nm process. Motorola has said it’ll roll out an update to fix the heating issues.
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RAM and Storage
The smartphone comes in three RAM and storage combinations to choose from: 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. There is no space for storage expansion via microSD card.
The RAM technology inside the device is the LPDDR5. And the internal storage technology inside the phone is the UFS 3.1. So, you can expect fast RAM and storage with these latest storage technologies.
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Battery
Edge X30 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery with a 68W fast charge. You can charge the battery from 0 to 100% in about 35 minutes. There is no wireless charge and reverse wireless charging but Motorola was kind enough to include charging brick inside the box.
Software
Motorola Edge X30 boots MYUI 3.0 based on Android 12 out of the box. Motorola has promised up to 3 years of major software updates and security patches for this phone. Apps and games can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and you have access to use the Google Mobile Services (GMS).
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Other sensor features in this phone are Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, and Google Assistant. The smartphone comes in three colors: shadow blue and white.
Motorola Edge X30 Review: Conclusion
Motorola Edge X30 is probably the cheapest most powerful smartphone you can buy in 2022. But it’s safe to say the device is half-baked. It seems in a rush to be the first to bring a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone, Motorola rushed the Edge X30 and left out important phone features.
Why some won’t like to buy the Motorola Edge X30
- Has no official water and dust resistance rating
- It has no 3.5mm jack port
- No space for storage expansion via microSD card
- Not the best photo and video quality
- Limited camera features
- Not the brightest of display
- No wireless charging technology
Why you should buy the Motorola Edge X30
- Very cheap compare to other phones in same category
- Nice design and build quality
- Has a very powerful chipset with fast CPUs, GPUs, AIs, and ISPs
- Smooth 144Hz refresh rate
- Comes with charging brick in the box
- Big 5,000mAh battery with 68W fast charge
Price
The starting price of the Motorola Edge X30 is $599 for the 8GB + 128GB storage. While the 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 256GB of storage are little more expensive. You can buy the device using any of the links in the table below.
Where to buy the Motorola Edge X30
| Motorola Edge X30 | Price |
| Buy from GizTop | $599 |
Images: Tech Nick
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