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Huge new leak corroborates the insane specs of the curvy Motorola Frontier 22 flagship

By Adrian Diaconescu

Updated: Jan 25, 2022, 9:05 AM

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Motorola Android

Huge new leak corroborates the insane specs of the curvy Motorola Frontier 22 flagship

By no means the world's most successful (or prolific) high-end smartphone vendor, Motorola is looking to finally give Apple's iPhones and Samsung's most advanced Galaxy handsets a run for their money after years of largely competing in the mid-range segment only.

Interestingly, the Lenovo-owned company is reportedly already hard at work on a crazy new flagship powered by Qualcomm's next state-of-the-art chipset just a little over a month after unveiling the world's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 device.

The China-exclusive Edge X30 has yet to officially receive a global counterpart expected to be dubbed Edge 30 Pro, but that's not stopping a second reputable German publication from corroborating pretty much everything TechnikNews revealed about Motorola's more distant "Frontier" earlier this month.

Curves are back in style

By far the juiciest thing leaked by WinFuture today is a high-quality depiction of both the front and back of the (not so) mysterious phone known by its Frontier or Frontier 22 codename.

While it's definitely a little bit early to be 100 percent certain that this design will indeed commercially materialize in July 2022, you can probably take the dual-edged display rendered here for granted.

This may or may not be the final design of Motorola' next flagship.

That would represent a return to the curvy roots of the aptly named Motorola Edge and Edge+ from 2020 after an inexplicable switch to flat screens for multiple 2021 additions to the same family, ultra-high-end Edge X30 included.

The 6.67-inch curved P-OLED display will still feature razor-thin top and bottom bezels, as well as the same centered hole punch as the aforementioned Edge X30 housing an identical-sounding 60MP selfie shooter.

For the time being, there are no words on a special edition of the "Frontier 22" with an under-display camera, but the fingerprint scanner will undoubtedly be embedded into the large screen sporting a 20:9 aspect ratio.

Around the back, the absolutely massive 200MP primary sensor brings Sony's obscenely priced Xperia Pro-I to mind, with significantly smaller 50 and 12MP snappers below that forming an almost surprisingly compact triple lens setup that doesn't seem to protrude much. Then again, it's really not clear how seriously all these aesthetical details should be treated.

An Android beast of epic proportions

Because we've already touched on several key pieces of information above and there are now two trustworthy sources anticipating all the same things, here's a quick summary of the Motorola Frontier 22 specs expected right now:

6.67-inch P-OLED screen with FHD+ resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ technology
Snapdragon SM8475 processor
8/12GB RAM options
128 and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
200MP OIS + 50MP ultra-wide-angle + 12MP 2X telephoto rear camera system
60MP front-facing shooter
4,500mAh battery with 125 wired and 50W wireless charging capabilities
Android 12
Stereo speakers
Dual SIM
USB Type-C port with DisplayPort 1.4 support
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS

No, it's probably no coincidence that the good old fashioned 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot are left out of this rumored spec sheet, which is definitely a little disappointing to hear, especially on the latter note as far as the entry-level 128GB storage variant is concerned.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 could get a sequel sooner rather than later.

But at least there's a decent chance said configuration will not end up costing a small fortune, which would certainly be a remarkable achievement for what we assume could break cover this summer as one the world's first smartphones packing a Snapdragon SM8475 SoC.

Like "Frontier 22", that's unlikely to be the final and official name of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 sequel that some insiders instead expect to carry an unnecessarily convoluted Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus marketing label and (try to) solve its predecessor's purported overheating issues.

While we obviously can't know just how fast this next-gen processor will prove out in the real world, we can definitely imagine how quickly that 4,500mAh cell will fill up both with and without a wire. The camera specifications are of course equally dreamy, and if Motorola can pull off a global release in July, Samsung's Galaxy S22 series may well be in danger in its quest for the 2022 Android heavyweight title.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.