Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: A Perfect Mix of Premiumness and Performance

The Moto Edge 30 Fusion brings drastic changes to its design language and form factor. How well does it slot in its segment with competition from its rivals? Find out in this review.

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Moto Edge 30 Fusion — the company’s latest offering is said to be a fusion of premium and performance at an interesting price. This device falls between the recently launched Moto Edge 30 and the Moto Edge 30 Pro, making it a middle child of the edge series. The Moto Edge 30 Fusion harks back to the era of curved-edged smartphones. A few recent devices have also rocked the curved display — such as the OnePlus 10 Pro, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and more. This is a thing for high-end smartphones. While some companies are going green by excluding the chargers in the box, Motorola has chosen a different route. They have also used recycled materials for the box and the wrapping paper, which is a good approach.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion

₹42999
8.2

DESIGN & BUILD

8.5/10

DISPLAY

8.0/10

PERFORMANCE

8.0/10

BATTERY

8.0/10

CAMERA QUALITY

8.0/10

SOFTWARE

9.0/10

AUDIO

8.0/10

DAY-TO-DAY USE

8.5/10

VALUE FOR MONEY

8.0/10

What Is Good?

  • Stunning design and ergonomics
  • Great display
  • Good speakers
  • Snappy performance
  • Clean UI
  • ‘Ready For’ feature is handy

What Is Bad?

  • Runs hot at times
  • Average low-light camera performance
  • Poor palm rejection on display

At Rs 42,999, the Moto Edge 30 Fusion offers many features. It sports a pOLED display which was seen on the Moto G82 as well. In addition, the device boasts a triple-rear camera setup and a 68W charging with a 4400mAh battery. Everything about the device screams premium, from the touch and feel to the daily experience, but can the Moto Edge 30 Fusion strike the perfect balance between performance and premium? Let’s find out in our review.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: A thing of beauty

After having followed the same design language for what feels like an eternity, Motorola seems to have finally changed things around in this department. The Moto Edge 30 Fusion is arguably one of the most stunning devices we have used in a while. It is available in two colour variants: Solar Gold and Cosmic Grey. We have the latter for this review, which looks very subtle, while the former will turn some heads in public. The device has a premium look and feel. The back panel is made of glass with a matte finish to it. It does not pick up any smudges or fingerprint marks — in fact, scratch marks on it can be wiped off easily. The rear panel consists of the two usual Motorola logos and a camera island which houses a triple camera setup. The camera module protrudes a little, causing the device to wobble when kept on a flat surface.

Ergonomics-wise, it is a delight to hold in hand. At 175 grams, the device does not feel heavy at all, and the weight seems to be distributed evenly. The frames are quite thin, and the display seamlessly merges into them. The frames are made of aluminium with a 3D glass inlay, making it look like a unibody design. The right side of the device houses the volume rockers and a power button. The power button has a bit of a coarse texture, reminding us of the OnePlus’ iconic alert slider. It also happens to be one of our favourite fidget toys. The left side is devoid of any buttons, while the top portion sees the secondary microphone and a logo for Dolby Atmos. The SIM tray, USB Type-C port, primary microphone, and speaker grille can be found on the bottom.

The front of the Moto Edge 30 Fusion sports a 6.5-inch pOLED display which refreshes at 144Hz. As mentioned earlier, it is a curved display, so the screen-to-body ratio is immaculate. The top of the display houses a hole-punch camera with a rather conspicuous outer ring. It’s not really distracting, but it’s there. It also has an earpiece at the top, which acts as a secondary speaker for stereo output.

Motorola has been following the same old design language with almost all of its devices. The same colour schemes, the same oval camera module, and other things. Frankly, it was getting a bit monotonous. But with the Edge 30 Fusion, Motorola has hit it out of the park. The in-hand feel is excellent, and the materials used give it a premium look and feel that a lot of people will appreciate. This is a perfect example of subtle beauty. The build quality of the device is also good. However, an accidental drop on the top frame of the Edge 30 Fusion caused it to chip off a piece of paint — this can be avoided by using a case that comes bundled with the box.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: The pizzazz of curved displays

We’ve always been fans of curved displays. The front of the Moto Edge 30 instantly reminded us of the OnePlus 7T Pro. The sole purpose of the curved display is to provide an immersive experience and to pretty much cut down on the bezels. The Edge 30 Fusion is able to achieve that. It sports a 6.5-inch pOLED display at the front. It’s a 10-bit panel that supports HDR10+ and refreshes at 144Hz. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection, and despite dropping it face first from a sofa once, the display was not harmed. Scrolling through the UI and social media apps on the 144Hz panel was a fantastic experience. We did not notice a single stutter throughout our time with the device.

As mentioned earlier, the display supports HDR10+ — its video viewing experience was very good. We chose the Moto Edge 30 Fusion over a tablet several times to watch movies and TV shows. The colours looked stunning, and the image had good contrast and vibrancy. The display gets bright enough outdoors with a peak brightness of 1100 nits. Motorola also introduces ‘Edge Lights’, which act as a notifier when you place your phone face down. The edges lit up to indicate that there’s a message waiting for you. Colours and other tweaks can be made in the settings.

Watching cinematic masterpieces such as Better Call Saul was a delight. Adding to the experience, the stereo speaker setup was also pretty good. As a result, the sound had good clarity and depth even at higher volumes. However, the placement of the speakers makes it tough to use the device while gaming as the sound gets muffled — anyways, we would always suggest using headphones or earphones while playing, so this should not be a deal breaker. Besides this, we also felt the back panel of the device reverberating when audio was played at maximum volume.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion has support for Dolby Atmos, and any required tweaks to the audio can be done using the app. Motorola has worked closely with Snapdragon Sound for a better calling and music listening experience.

In our experience, the display does not do very well with rejecting accidental presses with our palms. This is a known issue with curved displays. We recently used the Vivo V25 Pro, which also happens to be a device with a curved display, and it managed to reject unnecessary touches. It was slightly annoying as we managed to hit the seek bar while watching a TV show unintentionally. We could unlock the phone using the in-display fingerprint scanner, which is fast and accurate.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: A good performer

Another big upgrade from the Moto Edge 30 — besides the elephant in the room — is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ 5G SoC paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage in a lone variant. The aforementioned processor is known to be a workhorse that tends to heat up when performing heavy tasks. For this, Motorola has used a vapour-chamber cooling system for heat dissipation. The device didn’t heat up while capturing photos and scrolling through social media. Watching Netflix or YouTube did a number on it, and within 25 minutes of use, the Edge 30 Fusion’s rear panel and the top frame started becoming toasty. This was unusual. After a restart and 15 minutes of a break later, we tried the same thing, and nothing changed.

Moving on, there’s support for as many as 13 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.2. The Moto Edge 30 Fusion is also compatible with “Ready For”, which essentially allows the device to connect to wireless displays. This is quite a brilliant addition. You can literally use the smartphone on a PC/Laptop; besides that, you can use the smartphone as a webcam to attend meetings. It also allows you to share files seamlessly. We observed little to no latency lag, but you can make the experience even better with a cable.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ 5G processor is a tried and tested performance with taxing games. We played Apex Legends Mobile on the Moto Edge 30 Fusion with the graphics set to “Ultra HD” and frame rates set to “High”. It was able to achieve 40fps, but we noticed some throttling issues, with the performance plummeting to 20 or 23 fps during the second game. The back panel was warm to the touch, and so was the top frame. It wasn’t very alarming or piping hot, but we could feel it slowly getting warm. Switching things to Call of Duty: Mobile didn’t cause any issues to the Moto Edge 30 Fusion. We were able to finish off two deathmatch games without lags or stutters. As for benchmarks, the Moto Edge 30 Fusion registered a score of 798038 on AnTuTu. Geekbench 5 got a score of 1157 and 3545 in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.

The Moto Edge 30 Fusion runs Android 12 based on MyUX. Our unit was equipped with the latest August security patch. Motorola is known for their software commitments, and that is followed here too. The company promises 2 years of software upgrades — which means you can install Android 13 and Android 14 whenever it is made available. It also assures 3 years of security patches.

There’s not a single hint of bloatware on the Moto Edge 30 Fusion, and we prefer it that way. The software experience was smooth, and we did not face any issues in our day-to-day usage. We ran our usual stress test with Google Maps running on PiP mode and music running in the background using YouTube Premium. The device didn’t break a sweat. The Moto Edge 30 Fusion is IP52 rated for dust and water resistance, although we wouldn’t recommend taking the device near a swimming pool; light showers are the limit.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: Decent battery, fast charging makes it a good combo

The Moto Edge 30 Fusion packs in a 4400mAh battery. It’s not a huge number on paper, but considering Motorola visioned a thin form factor for the smartphone, corners had to be cut. A 68W Turbocharger accompanies it with a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable. We were able to get around 5 hours of screen time when using the device. Our usage typically consists of WhatsApp messaging, doom scrolling on Instagram, a bit of gaming, watching TV shows, and camera testing. With light usage, you should be able to get it past 6 hours. As for charging, the company claims it can give you an entire day’s battery with just 10 minutes of charge. However, 30 minutes after plugging the Moto Edge 30 Fusion, it reached 53%, and it hit 100 per cent, just short of the hour mark. It is not really in line with the competition, with the likes of Realme providing a 150W charger with the GT Neo 3. We also saw it heating up quite often after the 30-minute mark.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: Capable cameras

The Moto Edge 30 Fusion sports a triple rear camera setup, with a 50-megapixel camera leading the line. A 13-megapixel camera for ultra-wide duties — which can also be used for macro shots. And finally, a 2MP depth sensor. The front of the device holds in place a 32-megapixel camera for selfies. The camera app is pretty straightforward, with a bunch of modes placed on the bottom. Other settings, such as HDR and aspect ratio, can be tweaked around using the upper column. It also has a bunch of nifty features such as ‘Auto Smile Capture’, which, as the name suggests, clicks a photo as soon as everyone in the frame is smiling.

In daylight, the cameras managed to click good and detailed photos. Images showcased the colours well, and the dynamic range was also excellent. We found the colour science not to be very consistent every time. In certain situations, the phone tends to click images with warmer tones. Switching things to the ultra-wide angle camera, details take a hit, but the colours are pretty consistent with the primary camera, which is good. It tends to click more contrasty pictures at times. Photos also have visible distortions at the edges. The ultra-wide angle camera also takes macro shots.

Thanks to the higher megapixel shooter, images have a good amount of detail, and photos look amazing. The portrait mode allows you to take pictures with the standard 50mm mode and a 35mm mode — the latter gives a wider perspective. The camera was quick to focus, images had good colours, and edge detection was on point. Overall, pictures clicked with the Moto Edge 30 Fusion look good, and the colours look true to life. As for the inconsistency part, this can surely be fixed with an update.

Low-light images were average. Clicking photos with a street light in the background caused the output to exhibit a purple flare. However, the photos had decent details and very minimal noise. The colours were also accurate for the most part. Ultra-wide angle photos at night were also usable, although they lacked adequate details in very low-light conditions.

Selfies clicked with the front shooter were detailed, but we felt like the images lacked contrast. This gets somewhat fixed in the portrait mode. Edge detection in portrait shots is good.

The Moto Edge 30 Fusion can capture videos up to 8K at 30fps. Competition in this price range maxes out at 4K 30fps. Footages shot in 1080p during a low light scene were stabilised, but we noticed shimmers when walking around with the device. Videos shot in daylight were also stabilised and had good details and colours.

Moto Edge 30 Fusion Review: Verdict

Motorola’s aim with the Edge 30 Fusion was to offer a device that could perform well while also looking premium. The unique selling point of the Edge 30 Fusion is its gorgeous screen. For a gamer and a person who consumes a lot of content, the Moto Edge 30 Fusion with the pOLED panel and 144Hz refresh rate should be a delight. In addition, the curved display sets the device apart in this price segment The company has nailed it with the design of the Moto Edge 30 Fusion, and the in-hand feel is immaculate. Battery life on the Moto Edge 30 Fusion is average with the 4400mAh battery. The implementation of “Ready For” is a neat addition, and we think it can come in handy for many people.

The triple-camera setup at the rear manages to click decent photos if provided an ample amount of light. Fast autofocus means the ultra-wide angle can also click macro shots, which come out quite detailed. The Snapdragon 888+ 5G SoC was a good choice of chip in this price segment to give the Edge 30 Fusion a slight edge. However, the shortcomings in the thermal department, despite the integration of vapour chamber cooling, might sometimes let the device down.

At Rs 42,999, the Moto Edge 30 Fusion is quite a deal and it competes against the Pixel 6a which is priced at Rs 43,999. However, the upcoming Flipkart sale will see prices plummet to somewhere around the Rs 30,000 price range for the Pixel 6A. That leaves the Realme GT Neo 3 as the next contender. Apart from these options, the OnePlus 10R and the iQOO 9 are also some of the devices that can be looked upon.