We’re barely four months into the year, and Motorola has already had a busy 2024. After launching multiple new Moto G phones this year, the company has now announced its new Motorola Edge 50 series.
There are three phones in total, and they look like formidable alternatives to some of the best Android phones available today — including the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24 series. Here’s what you need to know.
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
Let’s start with the most interesting of the trio: the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra. This is Motorola’s main flagship release of 2024, and looking through the spec sheet, there’s a lot to like about it.
We’ll start with the design, as it’s one of the Edge 50 Ultra’s most striking features. The phone comes in three distinct styles, including Forest Gray, Peach Fuzz, and Nordic Wood. The first two styles give the Edge 50 Ultra a vegan leather back. Forest Grey is a deep, dark grayish/green color, while Peach Fuzz wraps the phone in a bright, vibrant orange hue.
As if that wasn’t interesting enough, the Nordic Wood option has a real wood backside — a nice nod to the good old days of wood backs for the Moto X series. All three versions have a sandblasted aluminum frame, IP68 dust/water resistance, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus covering the display. Speaking of the display, it’s a 6.7-inch OLED panel with a 1220p resolution (2712 x 1220 pixels) and HDR10+ support, a 144Hz refresh rate, and 2500 nits of peak brightness.
The camera package is also promising. The Edge 50 Ultra gets a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50MP ultrawide camera (with autofocus), and a 64MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The front camera is also a 50MP sensor.
What about the other specs? You get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB or 16GB of RAM, 512GB of 1TB of storage, a 4500mAh battery, 125-watt wired charging, and up to 50W wireless charging. What more could you ask for in a 2024 flagship?
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra will be available starting at 999 euros ($1,063).
Motorola Edge 50 Pro
Taking a small step down is the Motorola Edge 50 Pro. There’s no wood option for this design, though it does come in a few different vegan leather styles — Black Beauty, Luxe Lavender, and Vanilla Cream. There’s also a special Moonlight Pearl design that’s handcrafted in Italy. Motorola says it makes the Edge 50 Pro “soft and smooth to the touch,” and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.
The Edge 50 Pro has the same 6.7-inch display as the Edge 50 Ultra, though the peak brightness is capped slightly lower at 2000 nits. The 50MP main camera returns, though you’re downgraded to a 13MP ultrawide camera and a 10MP telephoto camera — still with 3x optical zoom.
Inside the phone is the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. The battery and charging specs are identical to the Edge 50 Ultra. You also still get an IP68 rating. For a “value flagship,” this is a pretty impressive package.
The Motorola Edge 50 Pro will be available starting at 699 euros ($744).
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
Finally, we have the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion. This is the lowest tier of the three phones, but for the price, it looks like a very solid budget option.
Like the Ultra and Pro, the Edge 50 Fusion has a 6.7-inch OLED screen. It’s a slightly lower Full HD+ resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. It is not as impressive as the Edge 50 Ultra and Pro, but it’s also not bad by any means. There are just two cameras this time around, including a 50MP main camera and a 13MP ultrawide camera. The selfie camera is a 32MP sensor.
Depending on where you buy the phone, the Edge 50 Fusion comes with either a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 or a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset. The phone also has a 5000mAh battery, an IP68 rating, up to 12GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage. Two of the colors feature a vegan leather back (Hot Pink and Marshmallow Blue), while the Forest Blue color is PMMA — aka polymethyl methacrylate … aka plastic.
The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion will be available starting at 399 euros ($425).
You can’t buy these phones … yet
So, what’s the catch with these Motorola phones? There’s just one problem: They aren’t available in the U.S. quite yet. As of right now, the Edge 50 series is only launching in select European, Latin American, and Asian markets. However, that is set to change.
Motorola says it is “excited to share its commitment to expanding the Edge family in North America this year.” That means we can expect at least some of the Edge 50 phones to make their way to the U.S. — if not all of them. As a refresher, Motorola launched the Edge Plus (2023) and Edge (2023) in the U.S. as rebranded versions of its Edge 40 smartphones. There was a delay between the Edge 40 release and its U.S. counterparts, so don’t be surprised if the Edge 50 series doesn’t find its way to North American shores until later this summer.
While that’s not 100% ideal, it looks like it should be worth the wait — especially for the Edge 50 Ultra and Edge 50 Pro. It’s difficult to stand out in the flagship smartphone space in 2024, but from where I’m standing right now, Motorola may manage to do just that.
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