Motorola’s long-rumoured Edge X30 finally materialised at a 9 December 2021 launch event in China, and in doing so, swiped the title for the first phone with Qualcomm’s newest top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 silicon out from underneath the likes of Realme and Xiaomi.
The Edge X30 was leaked and teased numerous times leading up to its formal unveiling, and now, almost three months later, its international doppelgänger – the Motorola Edge 30 Pro – is finally here.
When does the Motorola Edge 30 Pro launch?
Following on from Qualcomm’s announcement of its latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile chip at the end of November 2021, Motorola was one of the first manufacturers to promise a phone using the silicon.
The company delivered not long after, revealing the Edge X30 in China on 9 December, before it went on sale a few days later, on 15 December 2021. It launched alongside the more modest Edge S30 – powered by the Snapdragon 888+ chipset.
While the Motorola Edge X30 looked to be a China-exclusive at launch, rumours pointed to a global variant of the phone coming in the near future, going by the name ‘Motorola Edge 30 Ultra’.
Fast-forward to 24 February 2022 and the Motorola Edge 30 Pro offers up a decidedly familiar spec sheet to the X30 for international audiences, with a few minor tweaks that set it apart.
In terms of the Edge 30 Pro’s road to release, on 7 January 2022 91Mobiles had spotted that the Edge X30 seemingly appeared on the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), under the model number XT2201-1 and, timing-wise, this suggested that the phone was only a few weeks out from making a formal debut in the region.
The same model was then spotted again (by MySmartPrice), having received certification by Thailand’s NBTC (National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Committee) under the same model number (China’s Edge X30 uses ‘XT2201-2’, with the last number denoting release region) but paired with the name ‘Motorola Edge 30 Pro’, rather than the previous ‘Ultra’ suffix.
91Mobiles again dropped yet more new information in early February, suggesting that, while the phone was likely to go by ‘Edge 30 Pro’ in other international markets, it would likely use a different name in India – adding credence to the ‘Ultra’ suffix as one possible alternative.
The site also cited tipster Mukul Sharma as stating that the phone’s release was likely to take place later that same month, across both India and in other markets, internationally.
Are you ready?!? 02.24 #findyouredge #hellomoto pic.twitter.com/kM0kvFFxSQ— Motorola (@Moto) February 7, 2022
Motorola’s main Twitter feed then posted a teaser tweet with the hashtag “#findyouredge,” promising a launch on 24 February 2022, however, no specific markets were alluded to in the tweet.
The Bluetooth SIG organisation also confirmed the ‘Edge 30 Pro’ name and its XT2201-1 model number, alongside the Edge X30, reinforcing that the Pro was simply an international variant of the existing Chinese flagship.
How much does the Motorola Edge 30 Pro cost?
Considering this is the first phone to rock some of the latest and greatest mobile silicon on the market – and going by the spec sheet, which paints it as one of the most powerful and feature-packed Motorola phones to date – the company was also aggressive when it came to pricing the Chinese Edge X30.
Motorola prepped the audience at the launch event by pricing up the Xiaomi Mix 4 (CNY¥4,999), iQoo 8 Pro (¥4,999) and Honor Magic 3 Pro (¥5,999) – all of which leverage Qualcomm’s existing Snapdragon 888+ chipset – before swiftly undercutting them with the Edge X30’s pricing.
The phone arrived in two colours (machine translated to ‘Shadow’ or ‘Snow’), split into three SKUs, priced as such:
- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage – ¥2,999 (approximately £355/€415/$470/₹35,565)
- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage – ¥3,199 (approximately £380/€445/$500/₹38,000)
- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage – ¥3,399 (approximately £405/€470/$535/₹40,325)
Beyond additional memory and storage, the top-spec model also serves as a special edition that – while rocking a practically identical spec sheet to the ‘vanilla’ models – also gives us our first example of a Motorola phone with an under-display camera (UDC). The verdict is still out on how Moto’s UDC compares to the likes of the ZTE Axon 30 5G‘s implementation but we’re intrigued to see how well the company’s debut attempt handles real-world use.
As for the Edge 30 Pro’s international arrival, the 12GB RAM/256GB storage SKU is priced at €799 in Europe and ₹44,999 in India (where it’s set to go on sale on 4 March from multiple retailers, including Flipkart). The US-only Edge Plus 2022, meanwhile, is priced at $999.
What features does the Motorola Edge 30 Pro offer?
While the design is in keeping with the last batch of Edge-branded Motos, after the original Motorola Edge, the company promptly left curved-edge displays behind and that’s still true with the X30 and Edge 30 Pro.
As for the rest of the aesthetics, the only real standout difference is the rounded form of the camera bump, which differs from the majority of the company’s other recent Edge phones, which opt for more squared forms, otherwise, the phone appears decidedly familiar.
While the Edge X30 and Edge 30 Pro don’t look or feel quite as bombastic as the likes of Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra or the Honor Magic 3 Pro+, they’re still packed to the gills with cutting-edge hardware, relative to Motorola’s existing portfolio.
Here’s the full spec sheet for the Motorola Edge X30:
- 6.67in 20:9 Full HD+ 144Hz OLED display
- 10-bit colour depth
- HDR10+ support
- 576Hz touch response rate
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC
- 8GB or 12GB RAM (“Turbo” LPDDR5)
- 128GB or 256GB storage (“Turbo” UFS 3.1)
- Main cameras:
- 50Mp OmniVision OV50A wide w/ OIS
- 50Mp ISOCELL S5KGM1 114˚ ultrawide
- 2Mp depth
- 60Mp hole punch (or UDC on special edition) front-facing camera
- Gorilla Glass 5.0 (back)
- Android 12 w/ MYUI 3.0
- Ready For 3.0 desktop experience
- Moto Actions (gesture shortcuts)
- Stereo speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
- Water-repellant design
- Bluetooth 5.2
- NFC
- 5G (Snapdragon X65 modem)
- USB-C
- 5000mAh battery
- 68W fast charging (quoted 100% in 35 min)
- 163.6mm x 76mm x 8.5mm
- 194 grams
- Colours: Shadow, Snow
The cameras look to be particularly promising, with dual 50Mp sensors leading the charge on the phone’s back; an OmniVision OV50A 1/1.55in main sensor, with 2μm pixels and OIS (optical image stabilisation), alongside a 50Mp ISOCELL S5KGM1 ultrawide snapper. The added grunt from the 8 Gen 1 also facilitates 8K video capture, and there’s a 2Mp depth sensor present as well.
On the front is a centrally-positioned 60Mp 1/2.8in hole punch snapper with 1.2μm pixels, which remains unchanged, despite being pushed beneath the display’s pixels on the UDC-toting special edition.
Being one of the first phones outside of Google’s own Pixel family to run Android 12, the X30 also ushers in MYUI 3.0 (the Chinese alternative to the company’s My UX skin, found in international markets) and with it, the gesture shortcuts (for things like turning on the phone’s flashlight) now synonymous with Motorola phones, as well as version 3.0 of the company’s ReadyFor desktop-like experience (which we first tested on the Moto G100).
The Motorola Edge 30 Pro sports marginally different dimensions and a fractionally smaller 4800mAh battery compared to the X30, while the US-only Motorola Edge Plus 2022 is essentially a localised version of the same phone that opts for slower 30W charging, instead. Both run on Android 12 with the company’s MYUX overlay, rather than MYUI, as in China.
Both the 30 Pro and Edge Plus 2022 reportedly come in two colours: Cosmos Blue or Stardust White, with the company also introducing a folio cover that houses a stylus that offers Samsung S Pen-like functionality (the phone’s touch sampling rate reportedly drops from 360Hz down to 240Hz when using the stylus).
Motorola Edge S30
Launching alongside the X30 was its more modest sibling, the Edge S30. Although “modest” is relative, in this situation, swapping out OLED for LCD tech on the front and moving from the bleeding-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 back to the merely cutting-edge Snapdragon 888+.
Here’s what the Motorola Edge S30’s spec sheet looks like:
- 6.8in 19.5:9 Full HD+ 144Hz IPS LCD
- HDR10 support
- 576Hz touch response rate
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ SoC
- 6GB, 8GB or 12GB RAM (“Turbo” LPDDR5)
- 128GB or 256GB storage (“Turbo” UFS 3.1)
- Main cameras:
- 108Mp 1/1.52in f/1.9 wide w/ 1.2μm pixels
- 13Mp 121˚ f/2.2 ultrawide w/ 1.12μm pixels
- 2Mp f/2.4 depth w/ 1.75μm pixels
- 16Mp f/2.2 hole punch front-facing camera w/ 1μm pixels
- Plastic build
- Android 11 w/ MYUI 2.0
- Ready For desktop experience
- Moto Actions (gesture shortcuts)
- Dolby Atmos
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
- Water-repellant design
- Bluetooth 5.2
- 5G (Snapdragon X60 modem)
- USB-C
- 5000mAh battery
- 33W fast charging
- 168.1mm x 75.5mm x 8.9mm
- 202 grams
- Colours: Phantom Black, Glacier Blue
While the cameras are a little more modest, it doesn’t charge as quickly, and it arrives on Android 11 (with MYUX 2.0) rather than Android 12, the Edge S30 still looks like an incredibly capable piece of kit; not least because it too arrives at an aggressively affordable ¥1,799 (approximately £215/€250/$280/₹21,370), for the base 6GB RAM, 128GB storage model.
We dove deeper into the launch of the Motorola Edge X30 (and S30) in episode 95 of our weekly podcast Fast Charge, too: