Motorola's Newest Flagship Will Cost Four Figures | Screen Rant
Motorola's newest flagship will cost four figures and that’s a dangerously high price for an Android phone that isn’t made by Samsung. Motorola will need to bring a powerful incentive to overcome the brand loyalty that tends to keep most customers returning to Samsung and Apple year after year. The latest Motorola model does look very intriguing and perhaps it is up to the challenge.
The success of a smartphone is rarely determined solely by its technological advancements. If it was as easy as that, Google’s Pixel would be as popular as any other smartphone. Brand strength and loyalty have a huge effect. Owners often identify with their smartphones and changing phones is often seen as a big move, even if only switching from one Android phone to another. Motorola is a well-known brand but isn't associated with flagship phones so that's a hurdle that will need to be surpassed.
Motorola's Edge+ is a high-performance Android phone loaded with 5G, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, and a full-HD+ display with an adaptive (60 to 144-hertz) refresh rate. This immediately makes it interesting for mobile gamers since faster screen updates might give a critical few microseconds advantage. The 4,800mAh battery, 8GB of memory, and 128GB of storage are fairly standard for a flagship, however. The attractive rear camera array has a pleasingly rounded pill-shape and houses two 50 megapixel shooters, which is notable, and a depth camera.
The Motorola Edge+ features a 50-megapixel wide-angle with f/1.8 aperture and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide with f/2.2 aperture. These are both fairly bright lenses, particularly for the ultra-wide. The ultra-wide also has macro capability, allowing photos to be taken as close as one inch from the lens. There is no telephoto option, however, which places it behind the standard set by most flagship phones in this price range. The front-facing has a massive 60-megapixel sensor, but its quad-pixel design will result in a 12.5-megapixel picture. A smart stylus will be available as well, perhaps showing that Motorola is hoping to capture some of Samsung's market.
Build quality is a bit disappointing with Gorilla Glass 5, instead of the newer Victus and Victus+. Also, its IP52 rating is hardly keeping up with the times in 2022, when competitors show up with an IP68. IP stands for ingress protection and the first digit indicates dust might get inside the case but probably won't interfere with operation. The second digit of the IP rating means drips of water should be okay, but sprays, splashes, or even brief dunks could damage the phone. Unfortunately, for every good thing about the Edge+, there is something bad and something ugly. A Samsung Galaxy S22+, Pixel 6 Pro, or iPhone 13 Pro will offer much more than what the Motorola Edge+ offers for under $1,000.
Source: Motorola