Motorola Edge 70 Pro+ first impressions: a rare all-rounder at its price
The newly launched Motorola Edge 70 Pro+ seems to complete the brand’s Edge 70 lineup for this year, unless of course the brand decides otherwise. The latest Edge 70 Pro+ is priced at Rs 47,999 for the single 12GB + 256GB variant and, from the looks of it, is a pretty well-balanced device across all major aspects.
Due to the ongoing global memory shortage, brands have been limiting hardware upgrades like telephoto sensors and powerful processors to keep costs in check. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro+ addresses many of those concerns and brings a complete premium package at its price. I’ve been using this device for a couple of days now, and it has definitely left a strong impression so far. Here are my thoughts.
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Lovely design, great multimedia output
The moment I laid my eyes on the Motorola Edge 70 Pro+, I was immediately in love with it. The Satin-Luxe finish is smooth to the touch, and the deep red colour is very appealing if you enjoy more flamboyant designs. The device is also impossibly thin at just 7.19mm, despite its rather large 6,500mAh battery.
For context, the Motorola Edge 70 (review) was the brand’s slimmest smartphone yet, measuring just 5.99mm thick with a 5,000mAh battery, which makes the Pro+ even more impressive in my eyes. The quad-curved display, extremely thin body, and beautiful colourway all make the design one of the strongest aspects of the Edge 70 Pro+.
The Motorola Edge 70 Pro+ features a 6.8-inch quad-curved AMOLED panel with a high 5200 nits peak brightness level, 144Hz refresh rate, and 1.5K resolution. I didn’t notice much of a gap between the panels when compared against the Edge 70 Pro (review), which is fine. It did become a bit more apparent under direct sunlight, where the higher peak brightness helps keep things more legible.
The display itself is something you’ll enjoy. It’s big, vibrant, and the curved sides add a slight elegance to it, even though I personally prefer flat displays. The content looks rich and detailed and is very enjoyable. The paired stereo speakers are also capable and can get pretty loud, with a good level of vocal clarity and soundstage. Although at max volume, the audio does feel slightly muffled when I compare it against a similar competitor. In isolation, however, you won’t notice much of a difference.
All in all, the multimedia experience on this device is quite enjoyable, and you won’t really face any problems here. I didn’t encounter any issues with mistouches during my limited experience so far, but I’ll be able to share a more detailed opinion in the full review.
Impressively specced, but does it perform just as well?
The Motorola Edge 70 Pro+ is loaded in terms of hardware. It carries a capable MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Extreme, paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.1 storage. That alone should ensure that you’ll be able to run almost anything you want at impressive speeds, whether that’s gaming, heavy video renders, or juggling multiple apps.
While we have yet to run it through our regular gauntlet of benchmarks and tests, the hardware does suggest the phone will be a capable performer in most aspects. Once we’ve got concrete numbers, we’ll share how the device performs, both in comparison to its competitors and in day-to-day usage, in the detailed review.
The phone’s cameras look similarly impressive on paper. You get a quadruple 50MP camera setup, including a 50MP periscope lens with 3.5x optical zoom and a 50MP selfie camera with autofocus. Both of these features are pretty rare, considering how brands seem to be optimising either for performance or camera quality at this price bracket.
It remains to be seen how the camera actually performs in real-world usage, and that’s something we will evaluate in detail very soon.
Among other things, another notable change is the UI. The phone’s interface has undergone slight refinements based on the Material 3 Expressive design language. The notification panel now looks entirely different, with rectangular pill-shaped toggles for features that can also be resized.
There are also additions like Live Updates, which are essentially the same as One UI’s Now Bar alerts when you play music, open Maps, turn on the torch, and so on. I like these additions a lot, as they harmonise well with the stock Android interface and add a bit of character to it. The overall OS is also very snappy and smooth to use throughout.
Finally, the phone is powered by a massive 6,500mAh cell paired with 90W fast charging support. While I haven’t used it enough to gauge how the battery performs, the standby time is very impressive.
Final thoughts
The Motorola Edge 70 Pro+ is shaping up to be a very competitive, well-rounded device at Rs 48,000. That becomes even more apparent when you consider that much of the original competition in this price range has moved up due to multiple price hikes, like the OnePlus 15R (review) or the iQOO 15R (review), which currently sits here. Other competitors include the Vivo V70 (review) and Nothing Phone (4a) Pro (review), though both are more specialised devices.
All these phones either excel in performance or focus heavily on camera quality. Motorola seems to be offering a good all-around deal at a reasonable price, considering the current market scenario.
Stay tuned for our full review of the device, where we’ll go in-depth on real-world performance, detailed camera impressions, battery life, and any other relevant details that will help you form an informed opinion about the Edge 70 Pro+ and if it’s worth your money.
