The Motorola Edge 20 is a perfect mid-ranger with some corners cut.
Motorola Edge series has had a great start this year and recently we had seen Motorola’s change in design with the Edge series as now you are getting good-looking Motorola smartphones with a slim form factor. The Motorola Edge 20 Fusion (Review) is a great mid-range smartphone that packed in some very good specifications and was priced aggressively.
Now there is another smartphone from the Edge series i.e. the Motorola Edge 20 which packs in some very good specifications that include a good slim design, a 144Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset, a good set of triple cameras at the back with the main sensor being 108MP and much more.
There are certain misses present on the smartphone though like lack of glass back, stereo speakers, etc. However, it is priced very aggressively and directly competes with the OnePlus Nord 2 (Review), POCO F3 GT (Review), etc. So how good is this Motorola Edge 20 and would you consider it in comparison to the other premium mid-range smartphones? Let’s find out in the full review.
Motorola Edge 20 Design:
The Motorola Edge 20 series comprises a new design philosophy that is a lot different from the G series from Motorola. The Motorola Edge 20 has a newer flat design like on the iPhone 12 series launched in 2020. The back of the smartphone is made of polycarbonate and has a frosted matte finish and this back shines when light strikes at it.
This frosted matte finish catches very few fingerprints and is easier to grip while holding in hand. The edges are not as round as other smartphones and around the sides, there is an aluminum frame which makes it premium but still the back is polycarbonate. However, the back does have an IP52 rating making it splashproof and also dust resistant up to some extent.
There is a triple camera setup with an LED flashlight in a rectangular module to the top left corner where the camera module and all the three cameras bulge out quite more and you can feel it while keeping the smartphone flat on the table. Here Motorola has provided a true triple camera setup which we would discuss in the camera section later.
In terms of weight distribution, Motorola has nailed as the smartphone weighs around 165 grams making it very light. Around the sides, the left side has the volume buttons below it is the power button that doubles up as a fingerprint scanner which is very accurate and fast. The Google Assistant key is located on the right side and it cannot be mapped which is a slight letdown.
On the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone only whereas the bottom has the loudspeaker grille, a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, and a dual SIM card slot. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack here which most of the manufacturers skip on smartphones in the premium mid-range segment. On the front, there is a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels around the sides.
The Motorola Edge 20 is available in three different colors- Frosted Emerald, Frosted Black, and Frosted Gray. Overall, the design is refreshing and looks good plus you have an IP52 rating also but the use of polycarbonate at the back is a letdown compared to other smartphones in the premium mid-range segment that sport a glass back.
Motorola Edge 20 Display:
The Motorola Edge 20 sports a larger 6.7-inches Full HD+(1080×2400 pixels) Super AMOLED display and this is a 10-bit display so it produces 1 billion colors instead of 16 million colors as found on an 8-bit display. Since this display is Super AMOLED, you are getting great color reproduction and viewing angles. On the front, there is Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.
This display has support for 144Hz which is the highest refresh rate found on a display on any smartphone. Here you have three different options – 144Hz, 60Hz, and Auto Switch also. When you switch to the Auto-Switch option, the display adjusts to different refresh rates automatically depending on the application in use but it is restricted to 120Hz only not 144Hz.
When you compare a 90Hz or a 120Hz side by side to a 144Hz panel, there is not much difference but definitely, the 144Hz display feels smoother and faster also. The 144Hz refresh rate combined with the 576Hz touch sampling rate is a great combination as touch responses feel faster in all games and also multi-tasking is a breeze.
The display also has support for HDR10 and HDR10+ so you can stream HDR from Youtube and play you do get Widevine L1 support that allows streaming HDR content from OTT platforms but till now Netflix does not have support for HDR content yet. There is no optical in-display fingerprint scanner though having an AMOLED display, so you have the side-mounted one which is fast and accurate.
This display can achieve a peak brightness of around 650nits which is good for an AMOLED display but not the best when compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X (Review) that achieves 1300nits of peak brightness and is priced similarly to the Motorola Edge 20. This display has good legibility under direct sunlight and also in dark. You do have two different color profiles to choose from – Natural and Saturated.
In Natural Mode, the colors are well saturated and this display covers the DCI-P3 gamut scale whereas in Saturated, the colors look slightly boosted in blues and reds. However, you can set the color temperature from warmer to cooler tone under Saturated. Overall, Motorola has provided a great display with support for 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ making it a good one for media consumption.
Motorola Edge 20 Performance:
The Motorola Edge 20 sports a powerful Snapdragon 778G chipset which has been found in most smartphones like the Realme GT Master Edition (Review), Samsung Galaxy A52s (Review), etc. This chipset provides great performance in all daily tasks and there is no stutter or lag as such. The 144Hz refresh rate handles everything smoothly. All games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc. ran smoothly.
In BGMI, the smartphone ran at an Ultra frame rate with HDR graphics and the gameplay was very smooth without any frame drops. There is also an option for Smooth graphics and Extreme frame rates. However, there were some minor frame drops present but after long hours of gaming, the back does not feel hot though there is no dedicated liquid or vapor system present.
The Motorola Edge 20 is available only in one variant – 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB UFS 2.2 storage. It would have been good if Motorola could have provided a 256GB storage option also. UFS 2.2 feels faster but still the Mediatek Dimesnity 1200 powered smartphones have UFS 3.1 that does feel slightly faster in read/write speeds and also in applications opening/closing.
There is also a RAM boost feature present which does increase the performance a bit. The Snapdragon 778G has support for 11 bands of 5G and no such one or two bands of 5G which makes it future-proof and great for connectivity. When it comes to stability, the Snapdragon 778G is one of the best stable processors as in CPU throttling tests, there is very minimal throttling present.
In CPU throttling tests, this chipset performs better compared to the Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipset found on the POCO F3 GT, OnePlus Nord 2, etc by maintaining good fps rates. Also in benchmarks, the scores are very good as it scores around 5033234 in Antutu v8 but the scores are not as high as either the Snapdragon 870 or the Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipsets powered smartphones.
Motorola Edge 20 Software:
The Motorola Edge 20 runs on Motorola’s MyUX which is itself Stock Android as Motorola has provided some customizations with Android 11 out of the box. There is no bloatware present and any third-party applications which provide a cleaner look when compared to other UI like OneUI, FuntouchOS, and also MIUI. It provides a lot of customizations when you use the Moto app.
And since this is a Motorola smartphone, you have a lot of gestures present like a karate chop to turn on/off the flashlight, twist to turn on the camera, swipe from the edge of the display enables split screen where you can use two applications simultaneously, tapping on the power button shows the recent applications which is called Power Touch.
There is also the Peek Display which is just like the Always-On display and the display lights up whenever you are lifting the smartphone or hovering your hand on top of the display and you can also get a preview of the notification when you tap on each icon on the lock screen. Another one is the Attentive Display where the display does not turn off as long as you are looking at it.
This time around there is a new feature “Ready For” which works mostly like Samsung DeX.
So you can stream your whole smartphone on a PC or laptop where you can play games, do video calls, and also use the smartphone as a mouse to control things thus providing a Windows desktop-like experience, and also you can connect to receive notifications on the desktop.
However, there is no dedicated Gallery application and you have to rely only on Google Photos. There is also a layer of security called ThinkShield which works between both hardware and software for protection to the smartphone. In terms of software updates, Motorola guarantees two years of Android OS updates and three years of security patches which is really good.
Motorola Edge 20 Cameras:
The Motorola Edge 20 outshines other smartphones in the mid-range segment in terms of cameras as it has a proper triple camera setup which consists of a 108MP f/1.9 ISOCELL Samsung HM2 sensor for the main camera, a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera that can do 3x optical zoom and has OIS. The front camera is 32MP f/2.2 which is good for selfies.
The images from the main camera come out with good details but the dynamic range is not so good as compared to other 64MP or 48MP cameras. The color situation is good and on the natural side but there is slight oversharpening present and some amount of noise is still present. Switching to the 108MP mode, you get even sharper details but it does apply a larger amount of cropping to prevent noise.
At night, the images from the 108MP camera come out with good details with less noise in the background. The dynamic range is good and the colors look well saturated. If Motorola could have reduced the aperture to f/1.7 it would have been good as the larger sensor could have captured more light. However, the noise level is very low and you also have Night Mode also.
With the dedicated Night Mode, the images come out with slightly better dynamic range but the color saturation takes a hit as the images become noisier, and also there is a lot of oversharpening taking place. The blown-out highlights are restored though. So it is most probably better to use the camera without the Night Mode for consistent results.
The 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of images as the subjects look sharper but do have a lot of distortion around the edges but not as much as the 8MP ultrawide camera. The larger 123-degree field of view ensures a wider aperture but things look slightly softer when you zoom into the images. There is some oversharpening taking place but the color situation is natural.
The images from the ultrawide camera during low-light have good details but do suffer from poor dynamic range and the details look slightly softer. The color situation is on the natural side but some amount of oversharpening takes place. However, there is a dedicated Night Mode that corrects the dynamic range and also reduces noise to quite some extent but still, it needs some improvement.
The third camera is an 8MP telephoto camera with support for OIS and the zoomed-in images at 3x have a lot of detail and the dynamic range is very good. There is no noise as such and you get good contrast with no oversharpening present. However, these 8MP images are upscaled to 12MP images by default and here the color saturation is more on the natural side.
Above 3x optical zoom, the images get more noise and up to 5x, these images can be used. There is also 30x digital zoom so if you want to really zoom to that much, these images are good but do introduce a lot of noise and the details look very bad. At 10x digital zoom, you can get usable images with some amount of details.
The telephoto camera does a good job at night with good and sharper details and dynamic range also. The presence of OIS helps it reduce noise to a larger extent. The ultrawide camera of the Motorola Edge 20 doubles up as a macro camera and this takes images very closer to the subject and does apply some crop but provides really good dynamic range and sharper details.
There is no noise as such in the macro images and colors also look natural. In terms of portraits, the telephoto camera takes some very good portraits with perfect edge detection and good dynamic range in terms of human subjects. The background blur is well implemented and you can adjust it accordingly. However, there is some noise when you zoom into the portraits and oversharpening also takes place.
The selfies from the 32MP camera come out with sharper details and good dynamic range but there is slight oversharpening and the skin tones are not natural and at times there is some skin smoothening taking place. The contrast is good but there is some noise present when you zoom into the selfies. The portrait selfies have good background blur but do suffer from oversharpening.
In terms of videos, the Motorola Edge 20 has support for 4K video recording at 30fps and the video footage has very good details and dynamic range though the colors look oversaturated, and also there is some amount of noise present. However, with the presence of EIS, the stabilization is quite good, and also when you switch it to 1080p at 60fps, the videos have a much better dynamic range and noise is less.
The ultrawide camera is restricted to 1080p at 30fps and the videos have good details and decent dynamic range. There is a lot of noise and you do have a Super Stable Mode for slightly better-stabilized videos. There is some oversharpening present though. The telephoto camera takes videos with a much better dynamic range and also due to the presence of OIS, the videos have less noise and color saturation is on the natural side.
On the front, the camera can record videos at 4K at 30fps which results in good dynamic range and a wider field of view. The colors look natural and there is no oversharpening as such. The noise is very low though. The front camera also has a Night Mode that does reduce the noise and also improves the dynamic range in videos. However, the EIS works well on the front camera.
Overall, the camera experience is not the best but still very good especially the inclusion of a telephoto camera is a good deal.
Motorola Edge 20 Battery Life:
The Motorola Edge 20 sports a smaller 4000mAh battery which is very much smaller compared to the smartphones like OnePlus Nord 2, Realme GT Master Edition, etc. that have larger 4500mAh batteries. The smartphone easily lasted for a single day with all heavy usage that includes playing games for 3-4 hours continuously, streaming social media, and also rendering videos heavily with the display set at 144Hz.
The battery easily lasted for two days though being a small-sized battery when used the smartphone normally that includes casual web browsing, streaming videos, and also social media. The standard screen on time was around 5-6 hours which is not the best in the segment but considering the optimizations provided by Stock Android, you get great battery life.
Finally, in terms of charging, Motorola has stepped from the 20W fast charger to the 30W fast charger that Motorola likes to call the Turbocharger. Using this dedicated fast charger, the smartphone charges from 0 to 100 percent within 1 hour 15 minutes which is quite good and fast also. However, these speeds are slower than the OnePlus Nord 2 that takes around 40 minutes as it supports 65W fast charging.
So with great battery life, you are getting fast charging also.
Motorola Edge 20 Audio Quality:
The Motorola Edge 20 sports a single speaker setup that sounds good and is adequately loud. The sound does feel muffled at the highest volume settings but it would have been better if Motorola could have provided a stereo speaker setup. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack also.
Verdict:
The Motorola Edge 20 is a good overall smartphone with a few corners cut. The biggest strength of the smartphone is its display as it is a 10-bit panel and has a 144Hz refresh rate with a 576Hz touch sampling rate. And since it is AMOLED, it makes a perfect choice for media consumption. The software experience is the best with no bloatware and Motorola’s own set of customizations are useful.
The Ready For feature is an outstanding feature and you get ThinkShield for protection. In terms of software updates, Motorola has also stepped up the game but still, it is behind Samsung that provides longer years of software updates. The Snapdragon 778G chipset provides great daily performance and also the gaming is very smooth especially with the 144Hz display.
The cameras are quite good for the price and do a good job especially if you want a telephoto camera.
The telephoto camera of the smartphone is the most outstanding feature as it has OIS which is very rare on a smartphone priced in the premium mid-range segment. The ergonomics feel good on the smartphone as it is very thin and also lighter to hold in hand though sporting a larger display.
However, there are certain cost cuttings that Motorola has intentionally done to keep costs low like the back is made of polycarbonate instead of glass, there are no dual speakers which is a big miss considering the great display it has and then the main camera performance is not so good. There is only one variant available so you are limited to a 128GB storage model only and also there is no support for a microSD card.
The battery size could have been larger and more faster-charging solution could have made it a sweet deal. However, despite all these shortcomings, if you are looking for a smartphone having a good display, a powerful chipset, and a clean software experience, then the Motorola Edge 20 is a perfect buy but if you are someone who wants slightly better performance, faster-charging speeds and also stereo speakers, then the OnePlus Nord 2 or POCO F3 GT are better options.