🌲 Motorola Edge 2025 Review: Striking Design, Premium Screen, But Mind the Engine
The Motorola Edge 2025 enters the fiercely competitive mid-to-high range smartphone market with a clear mission: to offer a premium experience without the flagship price tag. Featuring a stunning design, a luxurious finish, and a vastly improved camera system, it certainly turns heads. However, under the hood, the choice of chipset creates a noticeable friction point that potential buyers must seriously consider.
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| Motorola Edge 2025 Review: Striking Design, Premium Screen, But Mind the Engine |
✨ Design and Aesthetics: A Touch of Class
Motorola has truly excelled in the design department this year. The phone boasts a thin, sleek profile and a highly tactile finish that makes it feel instantly premium.
The PANTONE Deep Forest: The star of the show is undoubtedly the rear panel, covered in a PANTONE-certified vegan leather in a rich 'Deep Forest' green. This material is not only stylish and unique but also provides a comfortable, anti-slip grip that resists fingerprints—making it one of the few phones you might consider using without a case.
Durability and Build: Motorola has also significantly ramped up the durability. The Edge 2025 features an impressive IP68/IP69 rating for high-pressure dust and water resistance, along with MIL-STD-810H compliance for drop protection and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on the display. This means the phone is built to withstand more than its fair share of everyday abuse.
Form Factor: The device is relatively thin and light (8mm and 181g), enhancing one-handed use, despite the large screen.
🖼️ Display: A Brilliant Visual Feast
The display is, without question, one of the Edge 2025's strongest assets.
Key Specs: It features a spacious 6.7-inch pOLED panel with a sharp Super HD (1220p) resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It also supports HDR10+ and 1 Billion colors.
Brightness: The panel is exceptionally bright, with a claimed peak brightness of up to 4500 nits, making it incredibly easy to read outdoors, even in direct sunlight—a feature that rivals some more expensive flagships.
The Catch: Some reviewers have noted that the pronounced curved edges of the 'Endless Edge' display, while aesthetically pleasing, can introduce noticeable light reflections from nearby sources, which may be distracting to some.
📸 Camera System: Finally a Mid-Range Contender
The Edge series has historically lagged in the camera department, but the 2025 model sees a substantial upgrade.
Triple Rear Setup:
50MP Main Sensor (Sony LYTIA 700C): With OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and a wide $f/1.8$ aperture, this main shooter captures detailed photos with good dynamic range, especially in favorable lighting.
50MP Ultra-wide: This versatile lens also doubles as a macro camera, offering a wide 122-degree field of view.
10MP Telephoto: A welcome addition, offering 3x optical zoom (up to 30x digital Super Zoom) and OIS, significantly improving zoom versatility over previous models.
50MP Selfie Camera: The front-facing camera is also a high-resolution 50MP sensor with PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), capable of sharp selfies and 4K/30fps video.
Moto AI Integration: New Moto AI features are integrated to assist with image processing and creative controls, often resulting in vivid, well-tuned colors, partially thanks to the PANTONE color science tuning.
⚙️ Performance: The Mid-Range Bottleneck
This is where the premium experience hits a snag. The phone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultra chipset coupled with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.
The Contradiction: While the Dimensity 7400 is a highly competent mid-range chip, it struggles to keep up with the high demands of the 1220p display and the overall performance expected at the Edge's price point (around $500-$550).
Daily Use: For basic tasks like browsing, email, and social media, the phone operates smoothly. However, opening multiple apps, using picture-in-picture, or navigating the OS can sometimes introduce noticeable hesitation or sluggishness.
Gaming: Demanding games will likely require lower graphics settings to run smoothly, and the device may heat up faster than comparable competitors.
🔋 Battery and Charging: Excellent Endurance
The battery is another strong selling point for the Edge 2025.
Capacity and Life: The robust 5,200mAh battery provides outstanding endurance. In most tests, it comfortably lasts a full day of heavy use and can often be stretched to nearly two full days for moderate users.
Fast Charging: It supports 68W TurboPower wired charging, capable of delivering many hours of use from just a 6-minute charge (charger sold separately), and also includes 15W wireless charging.
📝 The Verdict
The Motorola Edge 2025 is a study in contradictions. It offers a design that feels like a $1000 flagship, thanks to the luxurious PANTONE Deep Forest finish and military-grade durability. The display is gorgeous—bright, sharp, and vibrant—and the camera system, complete with a dedicated telephoto lens, is a significant leap forward.
However, the Dimensity 7400 Ultra chipset holds the overall user experience back. If you are a casual user who prioritizes design, battery life, and display quality over raw, sustained performance and heavy gaming, the Edge 2025—especially when purchased at a discount—is an exceptionally attractive phone.
If top-tier performance and rapid responsiveness for intense multitasking or gaming are your primary concerns, you may want to look at competitors in the same price bracket (like the Google Pixel A-series or offerings from OnePlus) which may have a less striking design but offer a more powerful engine.
Pros:
⭐ Absolutely stunning and premium design with vegan leather back.
⭐ Durable build with IP68/IP69 and MIL-STD-810H ratings.
⭐ Excellent, bright 6.7-inch 120Hz Super HD pOLED display.
⭐ Robust 5,200mAh battery life and 68W fast charging.
⭐ Versatile camera system with 3x optical telephoto zoom.
Cons:
🔻 Performance can be sluggish under pressure due to the mid-range chipset.
🔻 Curved screen can cause noticeable reflections.
🔻 Storage is UFS 2.2, which is slower than UFS 3.1 found in competitors.
🔻 Software update commitment is often less consistent than rivals.