Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus Review: No More Asterisks

There was a time, not so long ago, when recommending a Motorola phone came with a ‘but’. The conversation usually went along the lines of, “It is a good phone, but…”

You got clean software, the design also looked slick, the curved displays on the Moto phones were my favourite, but if cameras were your priority, or gaming performance, or flagship-level features, there were other smartphones that made more sense. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus is here to change that.

At Rs 47,999, the Edge 70 Pro Plus offers a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens, a flagship chipset, wireless charging, IP68 and IP69 protection, a 6,500 mAh battery, and one of the best-looking designs in the segment.

From the looks of it, this one feels like the most complete Moto phone ever. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now, trying to answer just one question: do these upgrades justify the price, especially when Motorola itself has a much cheaper alternative right below it?

Beauty And A Beast Too!

If there’s one thing that Motorola gets consistently right, it is the design. Whether you pick up its budget phones or a premium one, they look and feel more expensive than they actually are. The Edge 70 Pro Plus follows the same trend.

At just 7.19mm thick, weighing around 190 grams, this is a pretty sleek phone. The weight distribution is also balanced, so you can comfortably use it for longer periods, despite it having a large display.

Like I mentioned earlier, Motorola’s curved panels look beautiful, and this one also has a quad-curved panel. It not only looks premium but also makes the grip and in-hand feel better, whether you are walking for a longer period or simply fidgeting with the phone.

This time, Motorola has also added a new finish to the phone, which it calls a silk-inspired design. While marketing terms usually mean very little, this one genuinely has a soft, velvet-like texture that feels different from the typical glass-back smartphones. Let me also point out that at this price, you’re still getting plastic frames and a plastic back.

On the durability front, you get MIL-STD-810H certification along with both IP68 and IP69 ratings. On the front, there is Gorilla Glass 7i protection too. This means that the Edge 70 Pro Plus is decently protected as per the price you’re paying.

Edge 70 Pro Plus Has A Beautiful Display

The Edge 70 Pro Plus features a 6.8-inch AMOLED display that supports a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+, with a claimed peak brightness of 5200 nits. However, in our testing, we recorded a peak brightness of 1998 nits on auto mode. This score translates well in the real world when you’re using the phone under harsh sunlight.

Coming to the display quality, I think it produces vibrant colours, contrast levels are great, and the bright display makes the colour pop. Whether you are watching Netflix, scrolling through Instagram, editing photos, or simply reading articles outdoors, the display is comfortable and easy to view.

On top of that, the 120Hz refresh rate also makes sure that everything feels smooth. When you scroll through the smartphone, animations feel fluid, touches feel responsive, and the higher refresh rate is a positive addition to the entire user experience.

The display tuning, however, is not for everyone. If you love punchier colours over accurate colours, you would enjoy the display more. I don’t mind it while watching videos and consuming content because it makes everything look more lively, but users who prefer natural-looking colours might find it slightly exaggerated.

Even then, this feels like one of the best displays that you are getting under Rs 50,000.

Not A Gamer’s Paradise, But Does The Job!

If you look back, performance hasn’t really been Motorola’s biggest strength. It is usually brands like iQOO, POCO, OnePlus, and Realme that take the spotlight when it comes to performance. This year, though, Motorola has changed things for the better, and it earned it place among the performance-focused smartphones.

The Edge 70 Pro Plus is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 5 chipset, which is paired with UFS 4.1 storage and LPDDR5X RAM. Interestingly, the brand isn’t confusing you with storage variants; it comes with only one configuration: 12GB RAM + 256GB storage.

In the AnTuTu benchmark test, the phone comfortably crossed the 2.2 million mark. While that does not make it the most powerful phone in the segment, it still outperforms several competitors and competes with some dedicated performance-focused devices like the OnePlus Nord 6.

More importantly, it performs well under real-world scenarios. Apps launch instantly, multitasking feels effortless, and demanding workloads don’t cause any major slowdowns. Whether it is video editing, gaming, or simply juggling multiple apps throughout the day, the phone remained consistently responsive.

Even its thermal performance is respectable. During our 15-minute stress test, the phone maintained around 84 per cent of its peak performance, which is a solid result for a device this slim.

Now, while it does support 120 FPS gaming, the gameplay is not always perfectly smooth. In our testing, we recorded an average of 116 FPS while playing BGMI. More importantly, the phone scored 99 FPS in our 5% lows test. In simple terms, the closer the average FPS and 5% lows are, the more consistent and smoother the gameplay feels. Now, if you’re a casual gamer, this won’t be a major issue. But if you game for long hours, you’ll notice occasional frame drops, and there are competing devices that deliver more stable gaming performance.

On the software front, Moto’s HelloUI is one of my favourite Android skins out there, mainly because of how close it comes to stock Android and is pretty clean. Navigation is smooth, animations are polished, and the overall experience is pleasant. But Motorola still needs to work on software optimisation. While Hello UI looks great, long-term users have occasionally reported bugs and inconsistencies affecting both system behaviour and third-party apps.

Is This Motorola’s Best Camera Phone Under 50k?

Motorola’s camera performance has improved significantly over the past few years, and the Edge 70 Pro Plus is arguably the company’s strongest mid-range camera phone yet. The phone features a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary shooter, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera with 3.5x optical zoom, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide lens.

Photos look vibrant, detailed, and Instagrammable. The pictures are pretty saturated. While some users prefer a more natural approach, a large majority actually enjoys this style of photography, which is why many brands go for vivid colours. The overall image quality is pretty solid, though.

The standout feature for me was the telephoto sensor. The portrait shots benefit the most from it. The focal length naturally creates better subject separation, background blur looks natural, and the overall images have a more professional look compared to portraits from standard wide-angle cameras.

Although I did notice that sometimes the highlights can get slightly overexposed, especially under bright sunlight, overall, the telephoto camera consistently produces some of the phone’s best images.

Unlike many smartphone brands that give us an ultrawide lens just because, Motorola is offering good colour consistency between sensors. The ultrawide shots are also pretty usable and of good quality.

But It Could’ve Lasted Longer!

The Edge 70 Pro Plus packs a 6,500mAh battery, and you would expect its battery results to be at the top as well. However, the real-world results aren’t as crazy as we were expecting them to be.

In our PCMark battery test, the phone lasted under 17 hours. Don’t get me wrong, that is still a respectable result, but several competing devices with similar or even smaller batteries have lasted longer.

The charging speed, however, is excellent. The 90W wired charging support can take the phone from 20 to 100% in around 40 minutes. You also get wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

Verdict

As I said when I started, the Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus is one of the most complete phones that Motorola has ever made. You get a beautiful design, an excellent display, strong performance, good cameras, and premium features such as wireless charging and a periscope telephoto camera.

But (yes, again, there’s a but) the problem here is not the phone itself; it is what the company is offering currently. The Edge 70 Pro costs Rs 38,999 and offers a pretty similar experience. If you remove the periscope telephoto camera, wireless charging, and the IP68/IP69 ratings, it is the same smartphone as the Edge 70 Pro Plus.

So, you have to decide if you want to pay Rs 9,000 extra for these features. If the periscope camera matters to you, and personally, it would matter to me, the Edge 70 Pro Plus becomes far easier to recommend. The telephoto camera adds versatility that you simply do not get on most phones in this segment.

But for the rest of you, the Edge 70 Pro is a smarter choice.