Motorola is back in the flagship smartphone game! The company hasn’t launched a legitimate contender in this market in years (2016!) and it honestly feels good to have them back. The question, of course, is whether or not Motorola has any steam left in the tank to actually go up against the likes of Samsung, OnePlus, and, yes, even Apple. Can the Motorola Edge+ help Motorola regain some of its Android clout in 2020 and beyond?
That feels like a somewhat difficult question to answer.
Technically speaking, the Edge+ is a flagship, high-end smartphone. It has a big screen, a fast processor, a pretty high refresh rate for that display, and plenty of RAM and built-in storage. It even has a multi-camera system on the back of the phone, with the primary option being a 108-megapixel beast. The processor is powerful and should be more than enough to keep the phone going for the daily grind.
And yet, even with all of that, it feels like I should include asterisks by each feature.
Why? Well, let’s take a quick look. That big display? It’s only an FHD+ OLED, so you won’t be getting the same crisp imagery as you would from, say, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra or the OnePlus 8 Pro. And that refresh rate? Same deal. Motorola’s capped its new flagship phone at 90Hz —which isn’t a bad thing at all!— but it’s not quite the 120Hz refresh rate that some people believe is basically the must-have feature for displays in a high-end, flagship phone these days. And finally, the camera system in the Motorola Edge+ is untested at this point, so we’re still waiting to see if it can come close to the photo capture that Samsung and other companies can attain.
I can’t knock the available RAM and built-in storage options, though. Those are solid. And Motorola did include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, probably the most important element of a high-end flagship these days. A 5000mAh battery is nothing to sneeze at, either. And they included a 3.5mm headphone jack!
But, you get where I’m going here, right? Sure, the Edge+ has a lot of great features and the specs are probably worthwhile to a lot of people, but, specs vs specs, the Edge+ doesn’t actually compete with the supposedly competitive devices from Samsung and OnePlus.
But maybe none of this actually matters. Just because the Edge+ doesn’t match the specs that some folks demand from a flagship, doesn’t mean it won’t be able to compete. But then again, the phone starts at $999 — so why would someone pay that much if they’re already lacking against the competition that’s priced in the same region?
Let me know what you think. Do you believe Motorola has a chance at the title in 2020 with its Edge+ flagship smartphone? Or will Samsung and/or OnePlus continue to dominate the market? Let me know!