Motorola has reintroduced the Ultra smartphone in its Edge series lineup after a two-year hiatus in India. Dubbed the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, the handset is priced the same as the Edge 30 Ultra, which was launched back in 2022. While the design remains largely the same, the OEM has upgraded the internals and the camera setup, which now includes a 50MP primary sensor instead of the 200MP on the previous model. Additionally, the Edge 50 Ultra incorporates several AI features aimed at enhancing the user experience.
Do these enhancements and features make the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra worth considering for its asking price of Rs 59,999? Keep reading this review to find out.
Verdict
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra proves to be a highly capable device for its price. The handset stands out with its sleek design and excellent display. This is complemented by reliable performance, a versatile camera setup, optimised battery life, rapid charging speeds, and a clean OS with AI features.
Design and display
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra follows the same premium design language as the mid-range model in the series, the Edge 50 Pro (review). The handset features curved edges on both the front and back, creating a sleek and slim profile. It is available in three colours: Peach Fuzz, Nordic Wood, and Forest Grey. The Peach Fuzz and Forest Grey models have a vegan leather finish, while the Nordic Wood version features a wood-like finish. Although it isn’t real wood, it feels convincingly similar when touched. Motorola has also added a wooden texture to enhance its premium look. Additionally, the company claims that scratching the surface releases a wooden aroma.
| Motorola Edge 50 Ultra | iQOO 12 | Pixel 8a | |
| Thickness | 8.59mm | 8.1/ 8.35mm | 8.9mm |
| Weight | 197g | 198.5/ 203.7g | 189g |
| IP rating | IP68 | IP67 | IP64 |
The handset is IP68 water- and dust-resistant, which means it can survive underwater to a maximum depth of 1.5m for up to 30 minutes. Besides this, the Edge 50 Ultra flaunts a sandblasted aluminium frame, which feels quite smooth and provides a comfortable grip. The phone weighs 197 grams and measures 8.59mm in thickness, making it easy to hold for prolonged usage. The handset’s rear camera module blends seamlessly with the rear panel in a slope. This also provides a relatively easy typing experience while the phone is lying flat on a desk or table.
The device features an in-display fingerprint scanner, which works fast without any hiccups. There is stereo sound output with Dolby Atmos support for an immersive experience, along with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port for fast charging and data transfer. While the phone supports dual SIM slots, there is no option to convert one of them into a microSD card slot for expandable storage.
| Motorola Edge 50 Ultra | iQOO 12 | Pixel 8a | |
| Size | 6.7-inch | 6.78-inch | 6.1-inch |
| Peak brightness | 2,500 nits | 3,000 nits | 2,000 nits |
For viewing, Motorola has included a 6.7-inch pOLED display with super HD (1,220p) resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, DCI-P3 colour gamut, and 10-bit colour. The only difference between the Edge 50 Ultra and Pro is the higher peak brightness of the former. The Ultra model offers 2,500 nits brightness levels as opposed to 2,000 nits of peak brightness support on the Pro. This ensures slightly better visibility outdoors under direct sunlight in theory, but other than that, the experience remains practically the same.
The display is Pantone-validated, ensuring colour accuracy. However, to achieve this, you will need to change the display colour profile from Vivid to Natural in the settings menu. Additionally, there is a Radiant mode that makes the colours appear more vibrant and brighter. Overall, the display looks great for content consumption and provides excellent viewing angles.
Cameras
In terms of optics, the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra boasts a versatile triple-rear camera setup. This includes a 50MP primary sensor with an f/1.6 aperture and OIS support, a 50MP ultrawide sensor with a 122-degree field of view and macro capabilities, and a 64MP telephoto lens with OIS and 3x optical zoom. Like the Edge 50 Pro, the Ultra’s cameras are Pantone colour-validated and are complemented by a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor, an LED flash, and autofocus. For selfies and video calls, the phone offers a 50MP front sensor with autofocus.
Daylight
Pixel smartphones are renowned for their best-in-class camera performance. Naturally, we compared the camera capabilities of the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra with the Pixel 8a, which features a 64MP primary sensor. The Pixel 8a produces more natural-looking images with excellent dynamic range and decent detail. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra also delivers impressive detail, but its dynamic range is somewhat lacking, and the colours appear overly saturated. Consequently, you might get overexposed shots with crushed shadows.
Nevertheless, you will find the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra daylight camera performance better than the iQOO 12, which outputs overprocessed images with extensive shadows for dramatic effect. For a relatively Pixel-level image quality, the OnePlus 12 (review) should be your go-to choice if performance is also your priority. However, the OnePlus smartphone is roughly Rs 5,000 more expensive than the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra smartphone.
Ultrawide
Even though the Pixel 8a continues to achieve superior dynamic range and colour accuracy, the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra manages to outperform the competition with relatively sharper images. The iQOO 12’s ultrawide images appear unnatural, while the Pixel 8a’s images exhibit graininess around the edges of the frame. In contrast, the Motorola smartphone excels by maintaining low noise levels and offering a wider field of view than its counterpart. Similar to the primary camera, the colours appear boosted.
Telephoto
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra and iQOO 12 both ship with a similar telephoto lens, which provides 3x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. Images from the Motorola smartphone appear more natural, despite favouring warmer tones and overexposing shadowy areas. The iQOO 12, meanwhile, makes the shadows more prominent than they should be, with colours that are over-saturated.
Portraits
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra delivers more attractive portraits in daylight than the iQOO 12. Despite some overexposure, the bokeh effect, edge detection, skin tones, and facial details are superior on the Motorola smartphone. However, it is worth noting that the handset’s portraits can get buggy at times. It seems to be a software-related issue, which can possibly be fixed with an update.
Selfies
Selfies taken with the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra exhibit much more prominent details compared to those from the iQOO 12. The iQOO 12 smoothens out facial features, and its skin tones are not very accurate. In contrast, the Motorola smartphone captures images with better contrast and a respectable level of detail. Although the colours are boosted, they appear appealing. For best-in-class selfies, the Pixel 8a is the device to choose.
Performance and software
| Motorola Edge 50 Ultra (SD 8s Gen 3) | Xiaomi 14 Civi (SD 8s Gen 3) | POCO F6 (SD 8s Gen 3) | |
| AnTuTu | 14,44,591 | 14,43,011 | 15,09,605 |
| Geekbench single-core | 1,944 | 1,913 | 1,930 |
| Geekbench multi-core | 5,070 | 5,087 | 5,017 |
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra banks on the processing capabilities of the flagship-grade Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 to handle performance. The chipset has already made its way to a handful of devices, including the POCO F6, Xiaomi 14 Civi, and Realme GT 6. These phones are priced significantly lower than the Motorola smartphone, and yet, offer similar levels of performance as indicated by the benchmark figures listed in the table above. The asking price of the smartphone makes it even more expensive than the iQOO 12, which comes with the most powerful mobile processing platform to date, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This is evident in both synthetic benchmark numbers and real-world performance.
The iQOO 12 achieves over 21 lakh on AnTuTu, whereas on Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests, it nailed 2,245 and 7,124 respectively. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, in contrast, returned with a modest score of around 14.4 lakh on AnTuTu and 5,070 on the Geekbench multi-core test. The handset also throttles up to 56.6 per cent of its peak performance on the Burnout CPU throttle test.
Nevertheless, the Edge 50 Ultra’s gaming performance remains on par with its competitors. The handset registered a similar level of thermal increase while playing Call of Duty and Real Racing 3, maintaining an average frame rate of around 60. It is only during BGMI that the phone struggles. The Edge 50 Ultra’s temperature increased by roughly 9 degrees after 30 minutes of gameplay. In comparison, the iQOO 12 saw just a 5-degree increase in its thermals. This should not be a concern if you are a casual gamer. The Edge 50 Ultra handles other activities, such as browsing, social media scrolling, and multitasking, without any issues. During our testing, we did not experience any app crashes or freezes.
Additionally, the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra gains an edge over its competitors when it comes to software. The device runs Hello UI layered atop Android 14 out of the box. If you are not aware of Hello UI, it is one of the cleanest custom Android skins out there. The handset comes with just 33 pre-installed apps, significantly fewer than what you find on other smartphones. Notably, Facebook is the only third-party app included, and even that is removable.
The handset offers a bunch of features, including Moto Unplugged, Ready For, gestures, Smart connect, custom fonts, colours, icons, and Family space. Some of them are available out of the box, while a few like Smart Connect which lets you share apps across phones will be rolled out via a software update soon. The Smart Connect features provide seamless continuity between your laptop and smartphone. Currently, the features are only limited to Windows laptops/ PCs.
The company has also introduced several AI features. While they are not as extensive and exclusive as those found on more expensive smartphones, these features include creating custom wallpapers from photos taken with the camera or in the gallery using Style Sync, generating images with AI through Magic Canvas, and editing images via Google Photos app with the Magic Editor tool. These are not on-device AI features and will require an active internet connection.
Additionally, the AI is designed to enhance the device’s performance, battery life, and memory management. It also improves photography with adaptive stabilisation, shot optimisation, and a Photo Booth feature, which allows you to capture multiple photos from different angles and arrange them in a frame.
| Phone | Pre-installed apps | OS updates |
| Motorola Edge 50 Ultra | 33 | 3 years OS, 4 years security |
| iQOO 12 | 50 | 3 years OS, 4 years security |
| Google Pixel 8a | 32 | 7 years OS, 7 years security |
Battery and charging
While the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra’s 4,500mAh battery may not be the beefiest, it appears well-optimised. In our video streaming and gaming tests, the handset consumed a similar battery percentage as other smartphones in its segment. Notably, it used just 6 percent battery life while playing BGMI for 30 minutes, compared to 9 percent on the iQOO 12, which has a larger 5,000mAh battery. In our PCMark battery test, the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra lasted 13 hours and 27 minutes, which is roughly 30 minutes lower than the iQOO 12 score.
The Motorola smartphone supports 125W fast wired charging and 50W wireless charging. A compatible charger for the former is included in the box, providing rapid charging speeds. With its charge boost feature, which needs to be enabled manually from the settings menu, the Edge 50 Ultra can recharge from 20 to 100 percent in just 15 minutes.
| Phone | Charge time (20-100 percent) |
| Motorola Edge 50 Ultra (125W) | 15 minutes |
| iQOO 12 (120W) | 26 minutes |
| Pixel 8a (18W) | 94 minutes |
Final verdict
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra can be a good buy for anyone with a sub-Rs 60,000 budget looking for an all-rounder. While it may not match the processing power of the iQOO 12 or the camera capabilities of the Pixel 8, it stands out with its premium design, excellent display quality, and versatile cameras. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 ensures snappy performance, though not at flagship levels. Battery life is decent, and charging speeds are impressively fast.
The AI features, while not revolutionary, keep the phone current. The software experience rivals that of the Pixels, though support could be more robust. The OnePlus 12, starting at Rs 64,999, offers four years of major OS upgrades instead of three.
Nevertheless, the Edge 50 Ultra remains a compelling option, and if you can get it for Rs 54,999 with an early bird bank discount, it could be the icing on the cake.
Editor’s rating: 8 / 10
Reasons to buy
- Premium design with a unique finish, vegan leather and wood-like.
- Provides reliable performance, whether it is for gaming or multitasking.
- Triple camera setup, with a dedicated telephoto lens, which comes good in daylight.
- Battery seems to be well-optimised, with support for quick charging speeds.
Reasons not to buy
- Camera dynamic range could be better, with some overexposure issues.
- Not as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in some competitors.
Nguồn: 91mobiles.com
