The Motorola Edge Plus is a simple Android flagship with no gimmicky options or nostalgia to prop it up. The end result is an efficient however dear telephone that may’t fairly compete with the present class chief.

The premium Android market within the US is dominated by Samsung, with an honorable point out to Google and its Pixel 6 Professional. That’s about it. LG left the social gathering final 12 months, taking its high-end Wing with it. OnePlus has been a no-show in early 2022 (although the corporate has stated its 10 Professional might arrive earlier than the top of the month), and different Chinese language gadget makers are nonetheless steering away from the US market.

Whereas there’s loads of room for extra gamers, the stakes are set excessive. Samsung has been strengthening its assist coverage, dashing up its Android replace tempo, and because of robust relationships with carriers, providing some tempting incentives to these prepared to improve to a pricier limitless plan. Google has additionally produced its greatest high-end telephone but, although it’s been hampered by software program issues lately.

This iteration of the Edge Plus drops its namesake “Edge” display screen, which the 2020 Edge Plus supplied. That’s for one of the best because it wasn’t very helpful anyway. The newest Edge Plus continues to supply the high-end specs you’d anticipate from a flagship Android telephone, together with a Snapdragon 8 gen 1 processor, which is Qualcomm’s newest and biggest chipset.

The $999 MSRP additionally makes a return, and in some ways, it behaves like a telephone worthy of that prime price ticket. Efficiency is great, tons of storage is included, there’s a high-quality display screen, and quick charging comes courtesy of a 30W charger that’s included within the field. Think about that!

However within the US, at the least, it must measure as much as the present best-in-class, and that’s the extremely succesful Galaxy S22 Plus. That’s no simple feat, and the Edge Plus isn’t fairly as much as it.

The Motorola Edge Plus contains 8GB or 12GB of RAM with its top-shelf Snapdragon processor. The model I examined has 12GB, which is lots for day-to-day duties and sufficient to run a graphics-intensive sport like Genshin Impression easily. It does get noticeably heat, even outdoors of gaming, although I didn’t see any destructive impact on velocity because of this.

The telephone’s 6.7-inch OLED panel options modest bezels on all sides and, at 1080p decision, falls just a bit wanting the 1440p decision of the Pixel 6 Professional’s display screen. In use, although, it’s sharp sufficient, and I didn’t miss any of the additional pixels that it might need had. It affords a 144Hz refresh price, and although I can’t actually spot the distinction between this and 120Hz, it does make for a really easy expertise. It’s a pleasant, vibrant display screen, and its tall 20:9 facet ratio means it will possibly present you just a bit greater than the S22 Plus’ 19.5:9 show. The marginally narrower kind issue makes it simpler to carry one-handed, but it surely’s too huge to make use of comfortably with one hand.

The Edge Plus contains Gorilla Glass on each the back and front panel, with no “glasstic” in sight, however the rails are plastic reasonably than aluminum. I’m not precisely certain, however possibly that’s why this telephone feels much less “premium” than a Samsung or a Pixel. It’s additionally much less sturdy than the competitors; the S22 Plus and Pixel 6 Professional supply IP68 waterproofing, however the Edge Plus is merely “waterproof.”

The again panel options a pretty end that’s generally inexperienced and generally blue, relying on the angle you’re viewing it from. The one correct strategy to describe this impact is that it seems to be like the colour of a mermaid’s tail. I defy you to give you a greater description.

There’s additionally no in-screen fingerprint sensor; Motorola opted for one embedded within the energy swap. The optical fingerprint scanner could also be a premium characteristic proper now, but it surely’s one I didn’t really miss within the Edge Plus. The side-mounted scanner is way sooner than even in-display sensor, and as a bonus, it doesn’t care when you’re sporting a masks, like most facial unlock methods do.

I’m much less eager on a few of Motorola’s software program adjustments. Moto usually affords one in all my favourite Android skins with a lighter contact than Samsung’s extra heavy-handed strategy. Peek notifications, which develop with a protracted press on the lock display screen to indicate full notification textual content, are nonetheless an effective way to get the best info at a look whereas minimizing interruptions.

However Motorola has finished somewhat rearranging within the app drawer, including a “steered hyperlinks” part that takes up quite a lot of area and, at the least to date in my expertise, hasn’t been terribly helpful. I additionally agreed to let an organization known as “Department” use my knowledge to personalize my strategies based mostly on my conduct, and even after just a few days, it doesn’t appear to be any higher at understanding what I need to do with my telephone.

The system additionally defaults to exhibiting you a keyboard if you open the app drawer so you may seek for the factor you need reasonably than scrolling for it. Helpful in idea, however I’d reasonably simply discover the best icon alone, so I disabled this characteristic, which is well finished. It took little or no work to get the app drawer again to the association I favored, however that’s not one thing I anticipate to should do on a Motorola telephone.

In any other case, there aren’t many surprises in Motorola’s tackle Android 12. There are many personalization choices that you may customise individually or apply by means of a handful of preset themes. The Edge Plus isn’t fairly as customizable because the Pixel 6, however you do have entry to loads of choices like totally different icon shapes and fonts — sufficient to make it simple to spend half-hour tinkering along with your selections. The Verizon model I examined comes with quite a lot of pre-downloaded apps and Verizon software program, a few of which could be uninstalled.

The Edge Plus has a 4,800mAh battery, and stamina is mostly good. With most telephone settings at default, I can simply get by means of over a day of reasonable use, but it surely’s not exhausting to run down the battery a lot sooner than that. With brightness maxed out and 144Hz refresh price enabled always (it’s on auto by default) and on 5G reasonably than Wi-Fi, I noticed the battery drain about 10 p.c in half-hour of Instagram and TikTok viewing.

All advised, it appears to have somewhat extra stamina than the Galaxy S22 Plus and can final a full day of reasonable and a few heavy use. Streaming quite a lot of video or doing extra gaming will in all probability require a recharge throughout the day, however there’s nice information on this entrance: Motorola features a wall charger within the field that helps the Edge Plus’ 30W high wired charging velocity. It could possibly take a totally flat battery to full energy in about an hour — speedy certainly. You received’t discover a charger included with both the Galaxy S22 Plus or Pixel 6 Professional, in order that’s nothing to sneeze at nowadays. Wi-fi charging at as much as 15W can be supported.

After all, the Edge Plus affords 5G, together with C-band assist. That’s positively good to have when you’re on AT&T or Verizon and fewer necessary when you’re on T-Cellular. The unlocked model doesn’t embrace mmWave, which is the very quick, extremely scarce model of 5G you may encounter in a soccer stadium and principally nowhere else. The model bought by Verizon does embrace mmWave 5G as a result of Verizon has traditionally insisted that it’s included on all of the telephones it sells, although Apple apparently will get a go on that.

Sadly, one place the place Motorola hasn’t stored up with Samsung and Google is its software program replace coverage. It’s solely promising two OS updates and three years of safety updates for this high-end gadget — nicely behind Google and Samsung’s five-year safety assist coverage. The Edge Plus’ {hardware} is able to maintaining for longer than 5 years, in order that’s a disappointment and one thing to think about when you’d like to hold onto your telephone so long as doable.

You’ll discover three cameras on the Edge Plus’ rear panel, however solely two of them are really helpful: a 50-megapixel f/1.8 commonplace huge with optical picture stabilization and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. The third digicam module homes a 2-megapixel depth sensor that ostensibly helps out with portrait mode. There’s a 60-megapixel f/2.2 digicam on the entrance panel that produces extremely detailed 15-megapixel selfies — possibly even too detailed. Video recording at as much as 8K / 30p is supported, together with 4K / 30p and 1080 at 30 or 60p. An HDR10 Plus setting is offered when recording in 4K / 30p, which does a pleasant job of pulling again blown highlights.

What’s lacking from the Edge Plus’ digicam {hardware} configuration is a telephoto lens — the 2020 mannequin had one, but it surely wasn’t excellent. Each the S22 Plus and Pixel 6 Professional supply a telephoto digicam. In any other case, the Edge Plus’ cameras are simply superb with out notably standing out in any method. As is the case with most high-res telephone cameras, each the usual and ultrawide use pixel-binning to supply 12-megapixel pictures. They each take good photographs in daylight, although the ultrawide leans towards a barely hotter white steadiness.

Pictures from the principle digicam are somewhat oversharpened for my style, however total, I like the way it handles high-contrast scenes with out going overboard making an attempt to rescue highlights or brighten shadows. Pictures in low indoor lighting look good, too — the telephone strikes a pleasant steadiness between sustaining particulars and noise discount. Dim gentle photographs from the ultrawide look somewhat softer, as I’d anticipate, however are positively a lower above what you get from a lower-res ultrawide digicam in a finances and even midrange telephone.

Samsung and Google have put quite a lot of work into the software program behind their portrait mode photographs, and Motorola can’t fairly compete. The Edge Plus’ topic isolation simply isn’t as subtle — trying shut, you may see the place it provides up on slicing out strands of hair and simply blurs superb particulars into the background. It’s not as savvy because the S22 Plus at figuring out beards and glasses rims, both. Night time mode is an identical story — Motorola’s Night time Imaginative and prescient produces pictures that look artificially over brightened.

The midrange Moto Edge we examined lately had some autofocus issues, and Motorola has averted them within the Edge Plus by including extra autofocus pixels to the principle digicam sensor. Focus is fast for stills and video recording, and I didn’t see any AF failures even when taking pictures in low gentle.

This model of the Edge Plus proves that Motorola could make mainstream, no-funny-business, high-end Android telephone. However “good” isn’t a adequate promoting level if you’re up towards Google, Samsung, and Apple, which all supply gadgets across the identical value with stronger cameras, construct high quality, and assist insurance policies.

Most individuals received’t pay the Edge Plus’ $999 asking value and can both purchase it at a reduction from Motorola or have it financed by means of their service. In case you do discover it for value and also you’re a fan of Motorola’s finances or midrange telephones, then the Edge Plus is a superb alternative. You get far more storage than the bottom mannequin Pixel 6 Professional or S22 Plus, an excellent display screen, and a telephone that’s fulfilling to make use of and simply will get out of your method for probably the most half.

We might not have many premium Android telephones to select from within the US, however the gadgets we do have are actually good. It takes one thing particular to warrant a advice when the S22 Plus and Pixel 6 Professional are on the desk, and the Edge Plus doesn’t fairly have it.

Pictures by Allison Johnson / The Verge