Motorola Edge 20 review

This is the Motorola edge 20. it's a

mid-ranger which is quite different from

last year's model the original moto edge

both looks wise and feature-wise so what

does the new model offer and is it

enough to stand out from the mid-range

the crowd I'm will for gsm marina and let's

find out in our full review

the original moto edge was named for its

curved display but the new moto wedge 20

has a different design altogether it's

flat and thin but it's razor-like

appearance also fits the name quite well

our moto edge 20 is in the subtle

frosted gray matte finish the back panel

is made from plastic but the frame is

aluminum its flat squared-off edges

offers some nice grip and the phone is

overall super light and easy to handle

the triple camera setup has a tri-step

design and is quite thick this

is one of the more wobbly phones we've

used lately if you're aiming to operate

on a table or desk

Motorola claims that the edge 20 is

splash-proof which we've also seen on

some of their other phones there's no

official IP rating though so dunking

this in water isn't recommended

the moto edge 20's display is a 6.7 inch

OLED with a 1080p resolution gorilla

glass 3 protection and a super-fast

144hz refresh rate that's more like what

you'd get on your average gaming phone

and in addition to that the moto edge 20

claims a crazy fast 576-hertz touch

sampling rate altogether you get an

incredibly smooth and responsive

experience when interacting with this

screen

if you want an adaptive refresh rate you

can switch over in settings but this

the mode only goes up to 120hz maximum not

144. sure since it adjusts the refresh

rate based on your content you'll save

energy but this could have been done

better

and while high frame rate gaming is

supported it maxes out at 120 fps as

well even in the 144hz mode

the quality of this OLED screen is

nice though it has hdr 10 plus

support as well as 10-bit color and of

course blacks are super deep here colors

can be accurate depending on the color

setting you to choose and while brightness

isn't class-leading it's good and you

shouldn't have problems with legibility

outdoors we measured around 470 nits

maximum with the brightness slider which

boosts up to 650 nits when in auto mode

and bright conditions

for audio, the Motorola edge 20 has a

single bottom-firing speaker whereas the

The first moto edge had a stereo setup this

isn't the loudest speaker around scoring

just average on our charts but at the

same time the sound quality is quite

good there's a noticeable base and

well-presented highs

another change from last year's model is

that you don't get a headphone jack here

you'll need to use an adapter if you

want to plugin

to wake up and unlock the moto wedge 20

there's a side-mounted fingerprint

the reader that doubles as the power button

is quite fast and reliable there's also

a dedicated button on the other side

which summons the google assistant it's

a bit high up to be convenient though

and you get 128 or 256 gigs of storage

here which isn't expandable

the interface of the moto edge 20 is a

pretty clean and stock android 11 with

some moto customizations on top of these

can for the most part all be found in

one place the moto app they include

personalizations which allow you to

customize the looks of the UI

there's also a panel with instructions

for a wide array of shortcut gestures

and from here you can enable or disable

them

then you get the options for attentive

display which will keep the screen on if

you're looking at it and you have the

peak display which acts as an always-on

display but only when you tap or move

the phone

you also get gaming options that can

appear through an in-game overlay as

well as media control shortcuts and

audio profiles you can set up for your

connected devices

Motorola Edge 20 review

the final feature I'll mention here is

support for moto's relatively new ready

for the platform this allows you to connect

the phone to a monitor or even a pc for

all sorts of things like casting media

video calling and gaming on a big screen

behind all of these features is a new

chipset the snapdragon 778g built on a 6

nanometer process and it offers both

solid performance and 5g connectivity in

CPU tests the moto edge 20 posts some

good numbers and the GPU performance is

respectable too everyday tasks and games

run smoothly and the thermal management

is great with almost no thermal

throttling overall while it isn't on par

with those flagship killers that pack

the top tier silicon the edge 20's

performance is great for a mid-range

phone

battery life on the other hand is just

okay

the moto edge 20 has a relatively small

4 000 milliamp-hour battery and with it

scored an endurance rating of 86 hours

in our proprietary tests mediocre for

the class

charging speed is respectable though

with the bundled 30 watt adapter we were

able to charge the phone from zero to 68

percent in half an hour

the moto edge 20's camera setup is an

upgrade over last year's there's now a

108-megapixel main camera together with

the 8 megapixels three times telephoto

cam and 16 megapixels ultrawide

the main cam saves 12-megapixel photos

because of nine to one pixel binning and

these are excellent for the class

there's plenty of resolved detail with

good looking foliage and there's low

noise and dynamic range which is wide

but not over the top

still, we aren't fans of the heavy-handed

sharpening you get in auto mode if you

shoot a photo in the 108-megapixel mode

and downsize it to 12 yourself you'll

get more balance sharpening and more

detail too but it's extra hassle

portraits from the main cam are nice

with good detail and exposure subject

separation is good if the background

isn't too complex

for some reason the photos from the 8

megapixel telephoto cam are upscaled to

12 megapixels by default to match the

resolution of the main camera this

results in a loss in detail but the

The detail level is still ok and these shots

have good colors contrast and dynamic

range

in a similar fashion the ultrawide

photos come out in 12 megapixels too

these photos are just alright the

distortion correction does a good job

and there's high contrast and dynamic

range but the resolved detail is

mediocre and the colors aren't that

accurate

since the ultrawide cam has to autofocus it

can shoot macro close-ups these come out

in the full 16 megapixels but it appears

that they were first cropped and then

upscaled back to 16. this means the

detail level isn't what you'd expect

from this resolution at least you get

great contrast and punchy colors

in low light shots from the main cam are

great there's enough detail and low

noise as well as good contrast and

likable colors the exposure is balanced

and because of her, there are fewer blown

highlights than you'd expect

night vision mode is only available on

the main cam it's quite fast to process

and provides an even brighter exposure

and any blown highlights are restored

it does introduce more noise to some

scenes though

the telephoto cam is a reliable shooter

at night its photos are sharp enough and

have a decent amount of detail the

colors are lively too the images are

darker and noisier than the main cams

but they're solid for this sort of

camera

low light photos from the ultra-wide cam

aren't very usable they're quite soft

and they all are out of focus it's too

bad because otherwise there's good

exposure nice colors and low noise the

moto edge 20 has a 32-megapixel quad

Bayer front-facing cam and it's 8

megapixel selfies are great if there's

plenty of light they come out sharp and

detailed with accurate colors and good

In contrast, the dynamic range is decent too

thanks to hdr

Motorola Edge 20 review

videos can be captured with the main

camera and up to 4k resolution at 30fps

the quality is solid for the class with

plenty of detail low noise great

contrast and praiseworthy dynamic range

the colors are a bit off though and the

sharpening is a little too much and

electronic stabilization isn't supported

in 4k

the telephoto cam can only shoot videos

in 1080p resolution these are likable

with natural colors and balanced

processing dynamic range is good as well

the ultrawide also shoots 1080p videos

these have enough detail for this type

of camera low noise and wide dynamic

range

so that's the Motorola edge 20. you get

a flagship-grade OLED display with both

a super-fast refresh rate and touch

sampling rate the design is edgy and

unique and the triple cameras are quite

versatile there's a clean android UI and

fast charging and while the chipset

isn't top of the line it's powerful

enough even for heavy gaming

the downsides here are that you don't

get stereo speakers or a headphone jack

which the original moto edge did have

and battery life is mediocre for the

class by today's standards