A wave of nostalgia swept over me as I was unboxing the Motorola Edge 20 Pro.
Allow me to reminisce a bit, but my memories of Motorola dates way back to my childhood. Living in what we used to joke about in the family as the "bundoks of Paranaque", we didn't have any landline phone and for years, we relied on a payphone that was about a 20-minute walk from our house. One day, my dad surprised us with a chunky brick phone that he bought from one of his flights abroad. It was the Motorola Dynatec phone - the very first handheld mobile phone I got my hands on. Considered as "for emergency use" only, the next phone we had was a Motorola Microtac phone, a semi-clamshell analog phone that really looked so cool back then. As I got a bit older, I got myself the "fashionably sexy" Motorola Razr V3 (2004) that I personally saved for and fell in love with.
Undoubtedly, I had good memories of Motorola phones that is probably why I was thrilled about the idea of reviewing the Motorola Edge 20 Pro. Motorola has a penchant for beauty, function and what truly matters, and this is what the review is about.
Beauty
Before all else, the Motorola Edge 20 Pro is a looker. Notice the massive 6.7-inch Gorilla Glass 5 display with a matte finish back. Beneath its matte finish is a burst of colors that seem to illuminate and change when viewed from different angles. Looks stunning especially when a glimmer of light strikes on it.
Still with reference to the back side, sitting comfortably at the top left corner are the 3 cameras: 108MP main sensor, 8MP periscope telephoto lens and a 16MP ultra-wide angle shooter.
Physical buttons do exist on the right side with the power button that houses the sensitive and accurate fingerprint sensor as well. Immediately above it rests the volume rocker and there is a dedicated Google Assistant button on the left side. The dual nano SIM slot is found at the bottom of the device.
Interestingly unlike its predecessor, this year's model sports a flat screen. It's massive 6.7-inch OLED display with thin bezels illuminates vivid, vibrant playful colors thanks to its 10-bit panel that can display over a billion possible colors. In addition, with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, images appear with great clarity and detail. At the top center of the screen amid the sea of colors is a tiny punch hole for the 32MP selfie camera.
With dimensions of 163 x 76 x 8mm and weighing at only 190g, this beautifully designed device is easy, light and comfortable to carry around.
Function
The Moto Edge 20 Pro is more than just a pretty face. One of the things I admired about this device is its being minimalist, simple and straightforward. It didn’t come with frills that are oftentimes useless. It comes with stock Android 11 and very little bloatware. Bloatware are pre-installed software apps that are most often useless for an average consumer like me. Most often, manufacturers, networks or vendors install them with the hope that users will use them someday. Sad to say, most of the pre-installed apps that come with a smartphone are no use for me and so I find no reason for it to be there. Furthermore, these apps do take up space, affect phone’s performance and battery life giving me more reason to get rid of them. Gladly, I don’t have to deal much with bloatware when it comes to the Moto Edge 20 Pro.
As mentioned above, the Moto Edge 5 Pro is more than just a pretty face. It has the brains too. More than being a head turner, the crux of the matter is its processor. Processors are considered the brain of the smartphone. The overall performance of a smartphone relies on it.
The Moto Edge 20 Pro is powered by Qualcomm SM8250-AC Snapdragon 870 5G Octa-core processor giving you a smoother, lag-free experience when doing functions like opening apps, playing games, watching movies or browsing the internet. Oh, and speaking of playing games and watching movies; in addition let me mention its lightning speed 144Hz refresh rate; again for a smoother, more fluid and lag-free experience.
What really matters
The pandemic has taught us a lot of things. It made us realize that the things that really matter are the ones that have given us purpose in life. For the Moto Edge 5 Pro, here are its notable features that matter to me:
Camera: As mentioned, the Moto Edge 20 Pro has 3 cameras at the back. The 108MP ultra high-res camera features Ultra Pixel technology. This main camera can capture incredibly sharp images even in low light. The second camera is an 8MP with 5x periscope telephoto lens so users can focus on subjects even at far distances. At 5x zoom, images still appear clear. Users can focus and still get detailed images even farther with its 50x Super Zoom. The third camera is the ultra-wide angle 16MP camera. There is a 32MP selfie camera on the display with Low Light AI so selfies appear better and brighter even in low light.
The camera also has a Dual Capture feature. What it does is that it can record two cameras at the same time so both user and its subject are captured.
“Ready for” connectivity: The Moto Edge 20 Pro features Motorola’s “Ready for” technology. What it does is project whatever it is on your phone’s display to a PC, desktop or even on a big screen TV. Basically, users are up to an immersive experience with this feature. Users can play games or even make video calls and meetings on a desktop or a big screen TV using the phone’s high-res cameras.
Gestures: The Moto Edge 20 Pro has its signature gestures. Although just like any other smartphones that have their own gesture functions, it requires some learning and getting used to. For its signature gestures, I found the lift to unlock, power touch, peek display and attentive display very useful for my lifestyle.
Overall, I was impressed with the features of the Moto Edge 20 Pro. It functioned way more than what I expected from a midrange phone. What I personally like about it is that it didn’t stop or restricted me from doing what I usually do. An example would be if I was reading an article, the screen was big enough to read almost everything in the article and with a 144Hz refresh rate, scrolling through pages was smooth and fluid. Playing games while other apps are open was nice too. And even with the size of the screen, split screen function worked well, seamless and without any lag. This device further enhanced the things that I usually do on my phone and just like what they say, “sometimes, all it takes are the simplest and fewest elements to create the maximum effect.”
The Motorola Edge 20 Pro SRP is 29,995. Pre-order from October 21-28 and get freebies and a discount of P2,000 off. Freebies include a YOGA ANC HEADSET worth P9,995 and Lenovo USB C TRAVEL ADAPTER worth P2,995.