Artsy Motorola Edge 50 Ultra lands with top specs, Pantone colors, and wood
Motorola has unveiled another well-rounded premium phone that could very well be the value-for-money champ in its category when it lands stateside. The phone has all the modern flagship specs bells and whistles, save for the trendy and expensive as a component periscope zoom camera, which has helped keep its price under a grand.
The Edge 50 Ultra continues in the great tradition of everyone copying everyone's grand naming schemes, with only Apple holding the Pro moniker fort. Motorola's "hello smARTphone" tagline, however, indicates that the beloved phone maker has envisioned the Edge 50 Ultra as an artistic addition to your daily life rather than some piece of modern technology, which it undoubtedly is as well.
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Motorola Moto Edge 50 Ultra design and display
With the three phones in its Edge 50 series - the Edge 50 ultra, Edge 50 pro, and Edge 50 fusion - Motorola is gunning for a design steeped in "overall sense of harmony" to be pleasing both for the eye and to the touch.
The touchy feely part is ensured by the use of naterials like wood and suede for the finish, as well as "a special edition pearl polymer finish handcrafted in Italy," and that should be a sight to behold.
Edge 50 Ultra colors
To celebrate the fact that the Edge 50 series carries the world’s first phones with Pantone Validated camera and screen "developed in conjunction with Pantone color scientists," the Edge 50 Ultra comes in Pantone's Color of the Year.
In 2024, that is the jolly Peach Fuzz that you see its vegan leather painted in from the phone images here, in addition to the other Edge 50 Ultra colors like Forest Grey (again in vegan leather), or Nordic Wood with, well, real wood, just as Moto promises in its "hello smARTphone" tagline. A brushed aluminum frame and rounded curves finish the pleasant to see and hold offering.
Display
Motorola has cut some specs corners when it comes to the Edge 50 Ultra display and camera, at least compared to the other "Ultras" out there. The 6.7-inch panel, for instance, comes with 1220p resolution instead of their typical 1440p Quad HD screens.
Motorola calls this Super HD, but the screen comes with its record 144Hz refresh rate, as well as 360Hz touch sampling rate, which is important for reaction when gaming. To top it all off, "every Pantone Validated device has met Pantone’s evaluation and grading criteria by authentically simulating the full range of real-world Pantone Colors," tips Moto. Moreover, a Pantone SkinTone Validated feature ensures that images taken with the camera and seen on the display can "truly represent the vast authentic spectrum of human skin tones."
AI camera
When we talk about specs compromise to hit the 699 EUR starting price, the Edge 50 Ultra does it in a rather elegant way. Lowering the display pixel density by a tad, on one hand, and eschewing the periscope zoom camera trend, on the other, have allowed it to keep costs in check, and transfer those savings to its buying public.
Moto didn't skimp on the main camera of the Edge 50 Ultra, as it is a 50MP Sony affair with 2.4µm ultra pixel size in binning mode, and optical image stabilization. The ultrawide angle cam also carries a big 50Mp sensor, while the 64MP telephoto camera offers 3x optical and up to 100x hybrid crop zoom.
Even the front-facing camera carries a large 50MP sensor as well, and even offers autofocus, for a truly well-rounded camera kit on the Edge 50 Ultra without braking the piggybank. Needless to say, a number of on-device camera features aided by artificial intelligence calculations are present, too, such as:
- Adaptive Stabilization: Uses AI to determine the speed of movement while filming, and dynamically adjusts the stabilization level for the best results.
- Auto Focus Tracking: Provides sharp, clear videos by using AI to keep the subject in focus even as it moves through the frame.
- Action Shot: Automatically increases and adjusts your shutter speed based on different lighting conditions. Using AI, the camera improves the details when light
- levels are poor and noise is high.
- Long Exposure: Get artistic light trails or smooth waterfalls. Long exposure allows users to capture creative motion with a single tap with no professional equipment needed.
Edge 50 Ultra specs and software
Processor and memory
Where Motorola didn't make any compromise compared to all the other flagship Ultras out there, is the processing power and memory amounts. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra carries tha latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset that the Galaxy s24 Ultra is also powered by.
Its starting storage and memory amounts, however, are so generous, that they surpass those of Samsung's pride and joy for 2024. The Moto Edge 50 Ultra comes with 512 GB or even 1TB of storage, coupled with 12GB or the whopping 16GB of RAM. Truly a remarkable feat at its price point.
Battery and charging speeds
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra comes with a large enough 4,500 mAh battery that should be enough to get you through a heavy day of smartphone-ing, and then some considering the display's pixel density.
Where it outshines plenty of the competition in the Ultra category, however, are its charging speeds. A 125W charger comes with the phone to pump the battery full of capacity in 20 minutes or so (Motorola says it can charge for the day in less than 5 minutes), while a record 50W wireless charging speeds put it on equal footing with the likes of Oppo or Xiaomi.
Hello UX, AI, and Android 14
A new Motorola software overlay tops the stock Android 14 on the Moto Edge 50 Ultra. It is called Hello UX, piggybacking on the famous Hello Moto tagline, and offers a number of enhanced AI features.
Moto says that the newly designed interface "provides an intuitive and personalized user experience with customizable options, intuitive gestures, a safe environment for kids with Family Space, versatile connectivity, and comprehensive security settings via Moto Secure."
On the AI-assisted side of the interface called... surprise, surprise... Moto AI, the Hello UX learns from your usage habits and adapts. One can swipe up from the app tray screen to search for apps, contacts, or setting, for instance, with more features coming soon.
Overall, however, Moto hasn't strayed away from its tradition to keep Android 14 and all the Google AI features stock and only provide a gentle and unobtrusive overlay branding with Hello UX.
Price and availability
Motorola will be putting the Edge 50 Ultra on sale in the next few weeks in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Oceania with a starting price of 999 euros for the 12GB/512GB variant. It remains to be heard if and when this Peach Fuzz-ed puppy will make its way stateside.
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