Motorola Edge 30 Fusion: A Flagship Killer or a Mid-Range Contender?
In a market saturated with premium mid-range smartphones, Motorola has thrown its hat into the ring with the Edge 30 Fusion. Position itself as a "flagship killer," this device promises powerful performance and striking design without breaking the bank. But, with a host of competitors clamoring for dominance in the coveted sub-Rs. 50,000 space, does the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion truly deliver on its promise or fall short? Let’s dive deep and see if this phone is a real deal.
Motorola Edge 30 Fusion Price in India
The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion is available in India in a single 8GB RAM + 128GB storage configuration, priced at Rs. 42,999. While we appreciate the decent storage, the lack of a microSD card slot for expansion is a bit of a bummer, especially considering the phone’s price point. Motorola offers the device in two stylish color options: Cosmic Grey and Solar Gold.
During the Flipkart Big Billion Days Sale, the price drops to a more enticing Rs. 39,999. Furthermore, customers can avail an additional 10 percent discount on purchases made using ICICI Bank and Axis Bank credit cards. These offers definitely sweeten the deal, making the Edge 30 Fusion more competitive in the crowded mid-range market.
Motorola Edge 30 Fusion Design: A Blend of Premium and Comfort
The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion excels in terms of design, showcasing a sophisticated and comfortable feel. The curved display edges and glass back seamlessly blend into the aluminum frame, creating a premium aesthetic. For a phone packing a 4400mAh battery and premium materials, the Edge 30 Fusion is surprisingly lightweight at 179g. It’s also incredibly slim at 7.45mm, making it one of the thinnest premium smartphones in India, offering a comfortable grip.
The Cosmic Grey color option we reviewed looks undeniably premium. For those seeking a bolder statement, the Solar Gold variant is a great option. The matte texture of the rear glass effectively combats fingerprints and smudges, maintaining a clean look. The phone boasts an IP52 rating for basic water and dust resistance.
Despite the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion compensates with a stereo speaker setup. The primary speaker grille sits alongside the USB Type-C port and SIM tray on the bottom, while the earpiece doubles up as a secondary outlet for stereo sound, providing an immersive audio experience. The power and volume buttons on the right side are conveniently positioned and offer satisfactory feedback.
Up front, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion flaunts a tall 6.55-inch pOLED display with a full-HD+ resolution and a responsive 144Hz refresh rate. The vibrant colors and thin bezels make this display an absolute treat for content consumption. The hole-punch cutout at the top houses the front camera, while the peak brightness of up to 1100 nits ensures clear visibility even in outdoor settings.
Motorola Edge 30 Fusion Specifications & Software: Powerful Hardware and a Clean Android Experience
The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion packs powerful hardware, spearheaded by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ SoC, built on a 5nm process. This flagship-level processor is complemented by a generous 4400mAh battery with 68W fast charging support, ensuring you stay connected and productive for extended periods. The phone supports 13 5G bands in India, offering exceptional connectivity. Dual-5G standby, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC further enhance its connectivity prowess.
Running Android 12-based MyUX out of the box, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion offers a near-stock Android experience, prioritizing user experience. This clean interface is enriched by Motorola’s custom features, including a range of Moto gestures, personalized wallpapers, and customization options, enhancing the overall user experience.
The only pre-installed third-party app is Facebook. There are various Motorola and Google apps preloaded as well. Motorola assures owners two major Android updates and three years of security updates, ensuring a long-lasting software experience for the Edge 30 Fusion.
Motorola Edge 30 Fusion Performance and Battery Life: Flagship Power at a Mid-Range Price
Armed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ SoC and 8GB of RAM, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion easily handles any task you throw at it. Benchmarks showcase impressive performance: the phone scored 1160 and 3600 points in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. In AnTuTu, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion scored a whopping 844,978 points, indicating its exceptional capabilities.
The AnTuTu Stress Test, which pushes the CPU to its limits, revealed that even after 15 minutes of intense workload, the SoC maintained 100 percent power, demonstrating no throttling. Only after 45 minutes did performance output drop to 80 percent. While the phone’s temperature did reach 45 degrees Celsius during this rigorous testing, it’s reassuring to know that the Edge 30 Fusion can deliver sustained peak performance for a considerable duration before throttling.
In day-to-day usage, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion provides a smooth and seamless experience. Casual and popular battle royale games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9 Legends ran flawlessly on Medium to High settings. While the phone did warm up after around 30 minutes of gameplay, it remained more manageable than some other Snapdragon 888+ phones.
The Edge 30 Fusion lives up to the Dolby Atmos branding with rich, distortion-free audio at full volume. This makes it ideal for enjoying immersive gaming and multimedia experiences.
Battery life, a critical aspect for smartphone users, varies depending on your usage patterns. With heavy AAA gaming sessions at around 80 percent brightness, the phone lasted for around five hours and a few minutes before needing a recharge. Lighter usage, including browsing, social media, etc., extended screen-on time (SoT) to over six hours. In our battery loop test, the phone sustained for about 13 hours and 40 minutes, slightly below average. The bundled 68W fast charger brings the phone from zero to 100 percent in about an hour, minimizing downtime.
For security, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion offers AI face unlock and an in-display fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader, while responsive and fast, is located lower in the display than ideal for comfortable accessibility.
Motorola Edge 30 Fusion Cameras: Good Hardware Needs a Little Tweaking
The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion boasts impressive camera hardware for this price range, promising a near-versatile photography experience. The setup includes:
- 50-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture and optical stabilization (OIS)
- 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera with autofocus, capable of shooting macros.
- 2-megapixel depth sensor
- 32-megapixel front camera for selfies
The main camera delivers excellent daylight performance, with sharp stills and impressive details. HDR capabilities are commendable, effectively balancing highlights and shadows without overexposure. While color accuracy is generally good, skin tones are inconsistent, sometimes appearing overly fair or with a reddish hue. We hope Motorola addresses this issue in future updates.
Low-light photography is also impressive, preserving details in shadows while achieving accurate exposure. The algorithm cleverly prevents the night sky from appearing artificially blue, a common issue with other smartphones. While noise does appear in extreme low-light conditions, it manages to maintain good exposure in the shadows.
The ultra-wide camera performs adequately, though noticeable distortion occurs around the edges of the frame. Color temperature is slightly cooler compared to the main camera. Macro photos captured with this camera are surprisingly good, and when the focus is spot-on, they outperform dedicated 2-megapixel macro cameras.
Selfies captured with the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion are detailed and aesthetically pleasing, but the software sometimes struggles with accurate skin tone reproduction. Portrait mode captures deliver impressive edge detection and good photo quality.
Video recording on the rear main camera goes up to 8K 30fps. The camera produces vibrant colors and commendable dynamic range performance. The ultra-wide camera supports recording up to 4K 30fps with good color accuracy, though dynamic range falls short of the main camera. The front camera also records video up to 4K 30fps, offering decent quality with above-average dynamic range.
Verdict: A Solid Contender with Room for Improvement
The Motorola Edge 30 Fusion is a compelling offering with a stylish design, good features, and premium hardware that delivers an impressive user experience. While design is subjective, the phone’s sleek build and comfortable feel are likely to appeal to a wide audience. The camera delivers solid performance but could benefit from software optimization to fully unlock the potential of its hardware.
The phone’s high price tag of Rs. 42,999, compared to other devices featuring a Snapdragon 888+ SoC, might raise concerns for some buyers. Its premium sibling, the Motorola Edge 30 Pro, is currently available at a discounted price of Rs. 44,999 (Rs. 44,999 otherwise). The Edge 30 Pro boasts a more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, wireless charging, and superior cameras, making it a more enticing deal currently. However, if a slim and lightweight design and a robust aluminum frame are priorities, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion is the better choice.
The Edge 30 Fusion faces stiff competition from other solid offerings in the segment, including the iQOO 9 5G, Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G, OnePlus 10R, and Realme GT Neo 3. These devices also offer exceptional hardware for their respective price points, but the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion stands out with its feature-rich and clean user experience.
Ultimately, the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion is a solid mid-range smartphone with undeniable strengths, but it needs to address a few drawbacks, particularly regarding camera performance and pricing, to truly become a "flagship killer" in the competitive market.
