Le Parisien tested: the Motorola Edge 30 Pro, a real threat for premium manufacturers?

The premium experience… without the price.

This is essentially Motorola's (Lenovo) commercial promise with the Edge 30 Pro.

Released in March, its flagship smartphone is trading at around 800 euros, while its very high-end competitors are asking for at least 200 more.

A good deal ?

Answer in this test.

We liked

Top performance.

The flagship of Motorola logically integrates the best Android chip of the moment: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from Qualcomm.

To support it, Motorola offers 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage (not expandable).

Unsurprisingly, this setup works wonders: games like Fortnite run smoothly, apps launch quickly, and multitasking is handled effortlessly.

A neat look.

The back of the smartphone in blue-green hues is splendid and very pleasant to the touch.

This coating mixing plastic and fiberglass also catches little fingerprints.

And it gives the device a certain lightness (less than 200 g).

We also appreciate the island of the photo sensor, sober and all in roundness.

Above all, it protrudes little from the body of the phone.

Note that the device is IP52 certified, that is to say that it is resistant to dust and splashes but that it is not waterproof.

The back of the phone is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

A wonderful screen.

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro has a very nice 6.7-inch Oled panel, in Full HD +.

The color rendering is customizable (natural or saturated).

And the brightness can go up quite high, which guarantees good reading comfort in direct sunlight.

Another strong point of this screen: the adaptive refresh rate up to 144 Hz (the number of images per second).

Ideal for gamers and for "scrolling" without a hitch.

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro's Oled screen spans 6.7 inches (more than 15 cm).

A clean interface

.

As usual, Motorola offers a software interface very close to the original Android experience, as Google imagined it.

It's sober and it's fluid.

And no third-party apps have been pre-installed except for Motorola's.

This one is quite interesting because it reveals some very practical everyday tips (shake the phone to turn on the flashlight, three-finger screenshot, split the screen in two, etc.).

Efficient fast charging.

The phone lasts a good day, even a day and a half, in mixed use (social networks, gaming, music streaming, YouTube, etc.).

It's quite correct, without being incredible either.

The Motorola stands out thanks to its fast charge (called TurboPower) of 68 W, which allows you to go from 0 to 90% in just thirty minutes.

A good quarter of an hour is even enough to regain half of the energy.

The phone is also compatible with wireless charging (up to 15 W) and reverse charging (5 W).

And, good point: the charger is included in the box while more and more manufacturers no longer provide it.

We liked less

Not ideal for small hands.

Although light, the Edge 30 Pro is rather tall and wide.

Dimensions that will not suit small hands.

Beyond these generous proportions, the layout of the physical keys is not ideal: the fingerprint sensor – very fast moreover – is placed too high on the right edge, which requires a rather perilous gymnastics to unlock the 'device.

It's even worse for the volume keys, positioned even higher... An annoying defect that we had already observed last year on the Motorola Edge 20.

Read alsoLe Parisien tested: the Edge 20 or the (great) return of Motorola

Concessions on the photo part.

The smartphone has three sensors: a main module of 50 Megapixels (MP), an ultra wide-angle, also 50 MP and a dedicated to the calculation of the depth of field of 2 MP.

No telephoto and optical zoom, therefore, which is disappointing for a boxing phone in the high-end category.

The smartphone has three modules: a wide-angle, an ultra-wide-angle of 50 megapixels and one to manage the depth.

In broad daylight, the rendering of the main sensor is good: the sharpness is satisfactory and the photos are well contrasted even if the artificial intelligence, activated by default, tends to illuminate the shots more than necessary.

Areas in the shade, for example, will often be too exposed.

Nothing too shocking, that said.

And when the option is deactivated, this phenomenon is less clear.

The ultra wide-angle, on the other hand, lacks precision, especially on the sides of the image, which are a little blurry.

And the rendering is a bit dull.

We feel that Motorola has taken less care with this sensor, but it will do the trick for a few shares on social networks.

Ultra wide angle.

Wide angle (main sensor).

The X2 digital zoom does a good job, but beyond that, the quality deteriorates quickly, digital noise invades the shots.

Zoom X2 (digital).

The phone can zoom up to X10 but the rendering is not usable.

At night, the photos are quite average.

If the colors remain vibrant, the shots are quite blurry, the sharpness takes a hit, the details are less present.

This is especially true in very dark environments.

Overall, the result remains less flattering than with the Pixel 6 for example or the Oppo X5 Pro.

Night mode off.

Night mode activated.

The selfie camera stands out from the competition by offering no less than 60 Megapixels.

It is clear that the details are numerous… provided these shots are taken in broad daylight, and outdoors if possible.

As soon as the light runs out, the digital noise is quickly felt.

Verdict

Powerful, classy, ​​equipped with an efficient fast charge and a beautiful Oled screen, the Edge 30 Pro compiles the assets.

It's a good smartphone.

But its less than optimal ergonomics and its fairly nondescript photo performance, especially at night, prevent it from wobbling the real flagships.

More generally, this Edge 30 Pro does not have that extra thing that makes it stand out.

A serious and diligent student who perhaps lacks personality.

Alternatives at the same price or almost: the Google Pixel 6 Pro, the Samsung S22, the Vivo X60 Pro.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro,