Motorola Edge S is a budget flagship 5G phone with the Snapdragon 870

Motorola today launched the Motorola Edge S, an affordable flagship smartphone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870 chipset. At a starting price of just CNY 1999 (~ $ 309), the Edge S is one of the best-value smartphones around. When it launches internationally, it will probably be priced a bit higher due to import / export costs, GMS licenses, IP rating certification etc., but it will still be the one of the cheapest flagship products on the market. We’ll of course be covering the device’s launch when it releases outside of China, but for now, here’s a rundown of what to expect.

Under the hood, the Motorola Edge S is the first phone to feature the Snapdragon 870. Announced earlier this month, the Snapdragon 870 is essentially a Snapdragon 865 ++. It has a faster 3.2 GHz ‘Prime’ core and presumably the same GPU speed improvements as the Snapdragon 865+, but in all other aspects the same chipset powers the majority. Android flagships of 2020. Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 is definitely superior to the Snapdragon 865 and, by extension, it probably outperforms the Snapdragon 870, but you won’t be missing out much by choosing a phone with the Snapdragon 870 over it. one with the Snapdragon 888.

The Snapdragon 870 will be paired with 6 or 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128 or 256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage, the latter being expandable with a microSDXC card up to 1 TB. More importantly, the Snapdragon 870 is paired with a Snapdragon modem. Discreet X55, which allows the Motorola Edge S to connect to 5G networks below 6 GHz.

What else do you get with the Motorola Edge S? It has a 6.7 inch LCD panel at 2520 × 1080 resolution which makes it quite large. Unlike the other two Motorola Edge series devices, the Edge S does not have a curved screen, but it does offer a higher than normal refresh rate at 90Hz. A 90Hz Full HD + LCD display is certainly a step up from the 120Hz Quad HD + OLEDs found in a few 2020 and 2021 Galaxy S21 Ultra flagships, but it will likely satisfy most users. .

Powering the whole device is a large 5000mAh battery that can be recharged using a 20W wired charger. No wired or even wireless fast charging is certainly one. big tradeoffs here, but that’s what we expected given the low price. Fortunately, the 3.5mm headphone jack was not cut from the device. Plus, for those of you who love physical fingerprint scanners, you’ll be happy to know that there is a side scanner.

Triple cameras are also pretty standard: a 64MP main image sensor is joined by an 8MP ultra wide-angle sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. Under the double-punched cutouts on the front are two cameras: a 16MP main sensor and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle image sensor.

The software experience is where things get interesting. The Motorola Edge S runs Android 11 out of the box and is Motorola’s first phone to support the company’s new desktop mode software, which we exclusively detailed earlier last month. Motorola sells a docking station that you can use to connect your phone to an external display like a TV or monitor. Considering Motorola’s track record, we wouldn’t expect this device to get an OS update beyond Android 12.

The Motorola Edge S is on presale in China, but it will most likely make its international debut in the near future as the Moto G100, according to Evan Blass. Blass also reports that the Moto G10 and Moto G30 could also arrive alongside the Moto G100. This will undoubtedly make Motorola’s Moto G lineup even more confusing, but it’s hard to argue with the value on offer.