If you’re looking for a flagship class smartphone that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, you might want to stick around. When I first started out with tech reviews, flagship smartphones topped out at Php35K and still somehow felt within reach. These days, the story is quite different. The most drool worthy mainstream flagships cost upward of Php100K. Kind of ridiculous that you can sometimes be faced with the choice between a mode of transportation and staying connected. How connected do you really need to be?

So when the Motorola Moto Edge 30 Pro got sent to me for review, I was hopeful. Can you still get a flagship experience in the Php30K range? Find out in my full review.

Motorola Moto Edge 30 Pro Specs

• 6.7 inch Full HD+ OLED display
  • 1080 x 2400 resolution
  • 393ppi
  • 144Hz refresh rate
  • Gorilla GLass 3 protection
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC
• Adreno 730 GPU
• Android 12
• 12GB LPDDR5 RAM
• 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage
• Triple rear cameras
  • 50MP primary camera
  • 50MP ultrawide camera
  • 2MP depth sensor
  • Dual tone LED flash
• 60MP selfie camera
• Up to 5G
• WiFi 6
• Bluetooth 5.2
• NFC
• GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and GALILEO
• Type-C port
• Frosted Gorilla Glass 5 back
• Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
• IP52 water resistance
• Dimensions: 163 x 75.9 x 8.79 mm
• Weight: 196g
• Price: Php34,995

What’s in the Box?

First up, let’s check inside the box. The Moto Edge 30 Pro comes with your typical set of accessories, so there aren’t any surprises. Aside from the handset, you’ll find a clear soft case, a quick start guide along with other documentation, and a SIM ejector tool. You’ll also find a charger, Type-C charging cable, and Type-C headset, which also comes with two extra pairs of replacement tips in different sizes to ensure the perfect fit.

I do appreciate that they included in-ear headsets and not those earpod style buds that don’t offer much in the way of bass. However, there are some people such as my wife who can’t seem to get a great fit with in-ears, even when you use them with smaller tips.

The charger is rated up to 68W, which matches the phone’s fast-charging capability. Given reliable fast chargers with that kind of output can be relatively expensive, you’ll want to keep this one.

As I said, no surprises. Though the free clear case is a bonus I’ll always appreciate, given how some brands have started to do away with some essential accessories, despite their price.

Software and UI

The Edge 30 Pro runs on Android 12 with an overhauled UI that’s been consistent across their last few phones, including their entry level 5G offering, the g50 5G. The UI feels familiar though refined and there are a lot of appreciated features, particularly with theme personalization.  

However, the initial setup tries to get you to sign up for a Motorola account a little too aggressively for my liking, but certainly not worse than some of the other big smartphone brands. Also, the UI elements might be smaller than you’re accustomed to. The Edge 30 Pro also has some interesting features I wasn’t able to test out as much as I would have liked. One of the most alluring if you’re focused on productivity is the ability to connect the phone to a larger display for a desktop-like experience. Think Samsung Dex if you’re itching for a comparison.

There’s also Dolby Atmos, which on a smartphone is basically optimized sound processing that you can enjoy both highs and lows at optimized loudness without speaker distortion or rattling. Overall, the modifications are subtle, yet polished. And there are additional flagship-class features if you need them.

Design

The Moto Edge 30 Pro is a tall phone thanks in large to its 6.7 inch display. The front is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 with a punch hole for the selfie camera. 

Flip it on its back to appreciate the Cosmos Blue color scheme protected by frosted Gorilla Glass 5.

While you’re appreciating its rear, the triple rear cameras are featured prominently in a column so as not to trigger your trypophobia.

A peek at the left edge won’t reveal much save for the exposed glossy finish where the frosted Gorilla Glass doesn’t reach.

On the right, you’ll find the power/lock button, which also doubles as the fingerprint scanner. Right above it is the volume rocker, which I find to be a little too high on this tall phone.

Up top, there’s a secondary noise-canceling mic.

On the bottom, you’ll find the dual SIM tray, Type-C port, main microphone, and the loudspeaker. 

Now, I can’t help but think of all the entry level smartphones with their glossy hologram finishes that don’t look too far off from the Edge 30 Pro. Granted, those feel like cheap plastic, but that’s kind of the thing with a visual comparison. The Moto Edge 30 Pro doesn’t look visually different from the low-end to midrange phones it’s trying to separate itself from. Still, it’s a beautiful phone that you need to touch to appreciate, especially the premium yet understated frosted Gorilla Glass.

Camera

If you’re looking for a smartphone that’ll aid your content creation, the Moto Edge 30 Pro sports a versatile triple rear camera setup. You have a 50MP main shooter, as well as another 50MP wide angle camera. The third camera is a supplementary depth sensor, which is  ideal for portraits and other scenarios where you need subject separation. 

I took it out on a couple of occasions to test its performance, starting off with a walk around my favorite park in Marikina. 

The primary 50MP camera exhibited great dynamic range thanks to HDR and while there’s still the typical artificial sharpening of most smartphones, this isn’t too bad. I realize this can be a bit subjective, but I like it when I’m able to see details in the shadows rather than it being obliterated by artificial sharpening.

The primary camera is able to go as far up as 10x zoom though personally I’d only consider 5x to be usable.

However, the 10x shots I was able to capture aren’t actually that bad if only viewed from a smartphone, though I’d only post those to Facebook, not Instagram.

Here are a couple of samples of zooming in all the way from 1x to 10x zoom. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below.

The wide angle camera is thankfully not compromised as it too has a 50MP sensor. Because of this, transitioning from the primary camera to wide angle is seamless and there’s no drop off in quality or drastic change in color balance.

The selfie camera is also to be appreciated given you get 60MP of resolution. Here you can see every bit of my haggardness after walking around in the sun for half an hour.

Video capabilities are also to be appreciated as the Moto Edge 30 Pro is able to record up to 8K video at 24fps and 4K at up to 60fps. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to really test out the video as much as I would have wanted, though I’m happy there are multiple framerate options, giving you flexibility in editing.

As if the raw camera capabilities weren’t enough, there are also a few creative modes. There’s the spot color mode, that allows you to pick a single color to be rendered, resulting in some interesting photos.  

However, image stabilization is probably the single best thing I love about the Edge 30 Pro’s cameras. The smaller your camera, the more shakiness can be introduced. This can result in blurry shots or shaky videos. However, the stabilization is really impressive here, allowing you to take steadier shots and videos even when zoomed in all the way at 10x. 

Display

The Moto Edge 30 Pro sports a 6.7 inch OLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400. This results in a PPI of 393. For a phone positioning itself as a flagship, this is one of the few chinks in its armor as there are flagships with 1440p screens going all the way up to 4K. 

I don’t consider this to be too much of a concern since most folks will barely be able to appreciate the additional resolution on a small form factor. In fact, at first glance, I thought the screen resolution was much better than it was because it was still able to render smaller UI elements while still remaining sharp enough to make out.

I definitely appreciate the punchiness of the OLED display, which is able to render true black and has a wider color range than even IPS displays. That it’s capable of up to 144Hz refresh rate is frosting on top of the cake. If anything, any images you take with the Edge 30 Pro’s cameras might appear to be better than they really are when you view them on your computer or other non-OLED screen.

Audio

The Edge 30 Pro allows you to enjoy audio through an included Type-C in-ear headset, which should be good enough for most folks. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a 3.5mm headset jack, nor an adapter that would at least allow you to use your 3.5mm wired headset. Unfortunately, this is becoming the norm now as smartphone makers try to maximize space.

The single loudspeaker has great loudness without distortion or cracking. Certainly, it’s one of the better loudspeakers I’ve experienced in a while. Add to that the Dolby Atmos sound processing, which optimizes the audio output for smartphones so you can enjoy both the low and high end of the audio spectrum.

Gaming

In my limited time with the Edge 30 Pro, I was able to play one game and one game only, which was Call of Duty Mobile. As my most recent smartphone reviews have been with budget phones, I typically play CODM on the lowest quality setting to maximize performance and minimize latency. 

However, on the Edge 30 Pro, I intentionally downloaded the higher quality textures and cranked the settings to their highest and was still able to enjoy several rounds of Ranked multiplayer and battle royale while staying competitive. Forgive the skills, I play on and off, but am nowhere near as good as those gameplay highlights you might see elsewhere on YouTube.

If it can handle Call of Duty Mobile on the highest settings and still stay smooth, I can’t imagine any other game that might give this handset problems. And if you need benchmarks, there’s already a ton of tests you can find out there that you can check out.

Conclusion

If you think spending upwards of Php100K on a flagship smartphone is ridiculous, the Motorola Moto Edge 30 Pro is something you should seriously consider at just Php34,995. Whether you’re looking for raw power for gaming or productivity, the Moto Edge 30 Pro has it and more. 

And if you’re a content creator, this can be a great alternative to a dedicated mirrorless camera or DSLR given the high resolution of both photo and video, as well as the all important stabilization. Smooth stabilization can be the difference between a cinematic travel vlog or an amateurish family video, and I’m glad to see it on the Edge 30 Pro.

So what do you guys think? Would this be your smartphone of choice if you wanted to start your own YouTube or Tiktok career? Does it have enough gaming performance for you? Let me know if you’d get the Motorola Edge 30 Pro in the comments below or if you have other smartphones in mind. I’d love to know your thoughts.