Video explains how Motorola built its new competitive 5G flagship, the Edge+
Yesterday we told you that Motorola had introduced a new flagship phone, its first in years. And the Motorola Edge+ checks all of the flagship buttons including the 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate, 21:9 aspect ratio, and a 1080 x 2340 resolution. It also is powered by the Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform, the 7nm chip you'll find in most Android flagships this year. The Edge+ is equipped with a quad-camera setup (including a 108MP primary and a Time of Flight depth sensor), a huge battery, 12GB of memory (LPDDR5 RAM for you enthusiasts) and 256GB of storage.
Motorola has released a two-minute video that discusses some of the decisions it made during the development of the phone. The company says that the Edge+ can handle 5G download data speeds as fast as 4Gbps but that is more than quadruple the current data speeds available to consumers in the U.S. at the moment. Motorola also packed the phone with Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.0 allowing apps to open and close faster while data transfers will be zippier.
Motorola pulled out all of the stops in developing the Edge+
The video shows how much thought Motorola put into deciding the battery capacity of the phone. "We knew we had to get the battery life right," said Motorola's Global Consumer Experience Research Lead Amy Ricketts. "It is the key consumer pain point," she stated. So Edge+ users have a 5000mAh capacity battery in the handset that will deliver up to two days of 5G usage. The video also mentions the "Endless Edge Display" which drops off the side of the screen at a 90-degree angle, and discusses what Motorola calls "industry-leading loudspeakers." The quad-camera setup (ok, it's really three cameras and a Time of Flight sensor) can replace your DSLR on vacations according to Matt Biggerstaff. He's Motorola's Director, Engineering-Camera design. Which leads us to wonder how all of the Motorola employees seen in the video can fit their job titles on a business card.
Here's the thing about the Edge+. Judging from the specs alone, it appears to be the best smartphone that Motorola has produced in years and yours truly has owned the DROID, DROID 3, DROID 4, DROID Turbo, and the Moto Z Force Droid. Motorola probably went with the FHD+ display instead of QHD+ to keep the price down. At $999, this is also Motorola's most expensive smartphone ever, and there is an ongoing debate over whether consumers can tell the difference between a 1080p and a 1440p display. So don't let that stop you from buying the phone if you're considering it.
Motorola is on the rise. After releasing a number of budget and mid-range phones, it now is turning its attention back to the flagship niche and is applying what it has learned over the last few years in those markets. The manufacturer has taken advantage of the 2018 export ban that prevented Chinese manufacturer ZTE from accessing its U.S. supply chain. At the time, ZTE was the fourth most popular smartphone brand in the U.S. When ZTE had to temporarily adjust its production due to the ban, Motorola took over the fourth spot. During the fourth quarter of 2019, Motorola/Lenovo had 8% of the U.S. smartphone market trailing Apple, Samsung, and LG.
And as we told you earlier today, Motorola seems committed to the flagship sector with a new high-end phone reportedly under development. This could be a high-end foldable replacing the Razr with specs closer to those found on Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip.
The Motorola Edge+ is a Verizon exclusive in the U.S. and will go on sale starting May 14th. Color options are Thunder Grey and Smoky Sangria.
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