Motorola Edge 50

The Motorola Edge 50 is among the most affordable smartphones with a telephoto lens. The handset boasts a triple rear camera setup, comprising a 50MP OIS Sony LYT 700C primary sensor, a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 3x 10MP telephoto lens. It is the same camera setup found on the more expensive Motorola Edge 50 Pro, except for the selfie camera where the regular Edge 50 sports a 32MP snapper instead of a 50MP. The handset's camera performance is similar to its Pro counterpart offering slightly oversaturated yet detailed photos, particularly in daylight. The sensors are also quick to focus and capture images. The 13MP ultrawide lens also doubles up as a macro shooter to click crisp images from up close. Both primary and telephoto lens come with OIS, which is further assisted by AI to capture stable images and videos.Here are a few camera samples shot from the smartphone, followed by a comparison with its close rivals Realme 13 Pro and Nothing Phone (2a) Plus:DaylightIn daylight, the Motorola Edge 50 produces images with cooler tones from its 50MP primary camera. Its competitors, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus and the Realme 13 Pro, lean towards warmer tones, resulting in brighter and slightly sharper images. The Motorola Edge 50, meanwhile tends to underexpose shadowy areas. Among the three, the Realme 13 Pro excels in dynamic range, but the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus offers more visually pleasing images due to its vibrant colours.UltrawideAll three smartphones maintain consistent colour science between their primary and ultrawide cameras. However, the Motorola Edge 50 and Nothing Phone (2a) Plus deliver superior image quality with their ultrawide cameras. The Motorola Edge 50 captures colours that are more true to life, whereas the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus excels in detail levels.PortraitFor portraits, the Realme 13 Pro delivers superior images. While facial details may not be as crisp as that of the Motorola Edge 50, which features a dedicated telephoto lens with 3x zoom, the Realme excels in edge detection, making portraits more pleasing. Although there is slight warping around the edges of subjects, it is less pronounced than with the Motorola. The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus also offers good edge detection, but it tends to brighten skin tones and smooth out facial details.SelfieThe selfie camera performance is neck and neck between the Motorola Edge 50 and the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus. This is despite the latter's superior 50MP sensor compared to the 32MP camera on the Motorola. While facial details are nearly equal on both, selfies from the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus have a reddish tone that makes them more vibrant. However, if accurate skin tones are your priority, the Motorola Edge 50 is worth considering.Low light (night mode)In low-light conditions with night mode, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus tends to overexpose images, resulting in an artificial look, poor dynamic range, and overly saturated colours. In contrast, the Motorola Edge 50 and Realme 13 Pro handle dimly lit environments better, although their detail quality isn't particularly impressive. The colours on the Motorola smartphone appear more natural and true to life.

When it comes to performance, the Motorola Edge 50 is powered by Qualcomm's mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 AE SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of non-user expandable storage. The SoC comes with a higher 2.5GHz clock speed as opposed to 2.4GHz on the regular Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. This should mean superior processing capabilities, which is evident on the benchmark tests. The handset achieves higher AnTuTu and Geekbench than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC phones within the segment. Additionally, the phone throttles 77 percent from its peak performance on the Burnout CPU throttle test. While this result is impressive, a deeper analysis shows that the phone struggles with GPU performance, with its strong processing power being the primary factor behind its high scores. Be that as it may, the handset is not the most powerful smartphone for the price. It is ideal for regular usage, but if you are into gaming then you might be better off with the POCO F6 and the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus. Both smartphones provide superior thermal management and frame rates than the Motorola Edge 50 while playing games like BGMI, Call of Duty and Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes each.The Motorola Edge 50 compensates for its performance shortcomings with its software, launching with Android 14-based Hello UI right out of the box. While the software isn't as clean as the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, which has only 26 pre-installed apps compared to the Edge 50's 42, it remains intuitive and easy to use. The app drawer is relatively tidy as well, featuring just two pre-installed third-party apps. Additionally, the AI features from the Edge 50 Ultra (review) are also present in the Edge 50 such as Style Sync, which can generate custom wallpapers from gallery photos, Magic Canvas to create images, and Magic Editor to edit photos.Motorola Edge 50 (SD 7 Gen1 AE)Samsung Galaxy F55 (SD 7 Gen1)POCO F6 (SD 8s Gen 3)AnTuTu7,144,2955,22,93115,09,605Geekbench1,117 single-core, 3,048 multi-core953 single-core, 2,391 multi-core1,930 single-core, 5,017 multi-coreBurnout CPU throttle77 percent67.8 percent56.6 percent

The Motorola Edge 50 is equipped with a standard 5,000mAh battery with 68W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging. A compatible wired charger is provided in the box, which can take the smartphone from 20 to 100 percent in around 40 minutes. The full charge should last at least a day between charges unless you are a heavy user. The handset scored 10 hours 59 minutes on the PCMark battery test, which runs a series of tasks until the battery life drops to 20 percent.During our lab test where we streamed a 30-minute video and played games for 90 minutes, the handset battery dropped by 31 percent on aggregate. This is slightly on the higher side in comparison to the competitors, which offer better battery management in similar tests. The Motorola Edge 50 battery is more suited towards users with moderate usage.PhoneCharge time (20-100 percent)Motorola Edge 5040 minutesNothing Phone (2a) Plus51 minutesRealme 13 Pro52 minutes