Moto Edge 20 Pro 5G Review: A Premium Stock Android Phone Experience

A month or so since the launch of standard Edge 20 and Edge 20 Fusion (review), Motorola has finally released the Moto Edge 20 Pro in India. Compared to the other two, it comes with a better build, brighter display, more camera capabilities, bigger battery size, faster and finer processor as well as other internal specs. All that for a buying rate of ₹36,999, which pegs it in a different ballgame altogether.

I know you’d be having questions like whether the overall package is worth the asking price and if you should go buy the Moto Edge 20 Pro. Well, here’s the full Smartprix review of it with the relevant answers.

Let’s begin by opening the box and see what all we get inside the box including the device and its specifications:

Moto Edge 20 Pro Unboxing

Moto Edge 20 Pro box and the unboxing experience is the usual affair. Here’s everything you get inside:

• The handset
• 30W Turbocharger
• USB-C Cable (both end)
• SIM Card Tool
• TPU Case
• Paperwork

Also Read:

• Moto Tab G20 Quick Review
• Vivo X70 Pro+ Review: Makes a statement worth noting
• Asustor Lockerstor 4 AS6604T NAS Review

Contents

• Moto Edge 20 Pro Design
• Moto Edge 20 Pro Audiovisual
• Moto Edge 20 Pro Connectivity
• Moto Edge 20 Pro Performance
• Moto Edge 20 Pro Battery
• Moto Edge 20 Pro Camera
• Moto Edge 20 Pro Review
• Moto Edge 20 Pro FAQ

---

Moto Edge 20 Pro Indian price and specs

Dimensions and Weight: 163 x 76 x 7.99mm; 190g
Screen: 6.7″ AMOLED FHD+ display, 20:9 Max Vision, HDR10+, DCI-P3 color space, 144Hz refresh rate, up to 576Hz touch latency
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 870
GPU: Adreno 650 GPU
RAM: 8 GB LPDDR5
Storage: 128 GB built-in, UFS 3.1
Rear cameras: 108MP+ 8MP 5X Telephoto+ 16MP Ultra-wide angle (119-degree FOV), Macro Vision; : 8K UHD (24fps)
Front camera: 32MP; 4K@30fps
Battery: 4500mAh with 30W fast charging
OS: Android 11
Moto Edge 20 Pro India Price: ₹36,999

---

And here goes our quick Moto Edge 20 Pro review —

Let me say right out of the gate that I love the way Moto Edge 20 Pro feels in hand. The glass sandwich with Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides held together by an aluminum frame looks so sleek and sober. The Midnight Blue color on the frosted glass back with a hint of glisten, the slight curves around the base, and the device’s weight distribution are all contributing factors to this.

Smudges are not that apparent on the matte surface. In any case, slap on the bundled case for a shield against dust, dirt, and level that camera bump.

Besides the cameras, there is just a Moto logo on the back. There is no dimple or fingerprint sensor here. The scanner is embedded inside the screen if you are wondering. It works fast just like the face reader on the front camera. Now, the weird positioning of that reader button (which doubles as the power key) and the volume rockers are something I don’t get. I have to do some finger gymnasium to reach them.

Meanwhile, on the left is the solitary Google Assistant trigger which is also situated way up top. Also, there is no way to remap that button to some other function. If it was, it would have been nice.

The top has a mic hole. Its partner is at the bottom alongside a USB-C 3.1 port, a mono speaker grille, and a card slot. No memory card expansion is supported here. And as you may have noticed, no 3.5mm jack either. The obvious signs of a device stating it is premium.

Edge 20 Pro does get some grace points for the inclusion of IP52 dust and water resistance. I feel like phone of this range should get better ingress protection.

Anyways, let’s read about the multimedia experience now.

Moto Edge 20 Pro houses a 6.7 10-bit AMOLED panel with FHD+ resolution, HDR10+ contrasts, DCI-P3 color coverage, extremely snappy 144Hz refresh rate, up to 576Hz touch latency, and a small central punch-hole cutout. The bezels are also petite. So, the device offers a very palatable screen just like the regular Edge 20. This is not just limited to indoors as out in the open too, it was plenty bright and beautiful.

Now if you dig into the settings, you can configure things like the Dark mode, Night Light, Adaptive Brightness (which works fine), Flicker Prevention (aka DC Dimming), Color profile, Screen Timeout, Peek Display, etc.

Right beneath the Display settings lies the Sound and Vibration section, which has Audio effects, AI noise cancellation for calls, and the usual stuff. Hardware-wise, the mono speaker is just okay and not comparable to a dual speaker setup. The earpiece works alright and the calls also sounded well. Due to the lack of a headphone port, you have to rely on wireless-based solutions. Let’s check out the wireless options.

The Bluetooth version is 5.1; WiFi is dual-band (2.5GHz plus 5GHz) and version 6. It is a 5G phone with support for 11 bands such as n1/n3/n5/n7/n8/n28/n38/n41/n66/n77/n78. There is GPS, NFC, and sensors like Proximity, Ambient light, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer (compass).

The cable socket is USB Type-C v3.1 with DisplayPort 1.4 compatibility.

To make things even more interconnected between your phone and PC, Motorola has its ‘Ready For’ feature. This is a program that works somewhat like Microsoft’s Your Phone and Samsung’s Dex. It can be useful in mirroring the phone screen to an external monitor, open the phone apps, control phone notifications and settings on the big screen, cursor control the on-screen contents with your phone, etc.

Let’s learn more about the software and internal hardware in the following segment.

Moto chose to power its Pro phone with Snapdragon 870 chip. It’s based on a 7nm architecture with a tri-cluster design including a Cortex-A77 prime core at up to 3.2GHz, three Cortex-A77 CPU cores running at up to 2.4GHz, and four Cortex-A55 efficiency cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz frequency. These CPUs are clubbed with an Adreno 650 GPU for graphics. The rest of the internals include 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage. Note that’s the only space you get; no further expansion.

Here are some synthetic test results:

Now, this total setup is very robust and you could expect a performance close to the big league. And that performance is likely to sustain longer than the 888 series of chips due to better thermal handling. In my time with the device, the UI was fluid and fun with no concerning heat or bleat. A big role in this is of course the software’s.

You probably knew that and perhaps the reason why you are here. The software is stock Android 11 with no unnecessary apps or ads. If you don’t want even the built-in Google ones, you can disable them.

There is Google Discover on swipe from the left side of the homescreen, some theming options, some handy gestures (like the karate chop to enable flashlight and a simple twist to turn on cameras), Peek Display, Gametime, etc. Speaking of games, BGMI is maxed out at Ultra Gfx and FPS while COD Mobile can be played at up to Very High graphics and Max frames per second. I played Asphalt 9 for half an hour and the battery dipped by 9% while the temp rose by 12.3 degrees celcius.

On to the battery now.

Possibly to keep the slim form factor, Motorola has used a modest 4500mAh cell. This clocked 10 Hr 26 Mins in the PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery Life test, which is a good runtime in our books. Note the device was set to run at an Auto screen refresh rate (60-120Hz), and auto-brightness. Anyhoo, it is bolstered by a USB-C to USB-C 30W Turbocharger which takes more than an hour to fill up the tank.

In the battery settings, you get to activate an adaptive battery (which puts a ceiling in the lesser-used apps), a dynamic optimized charging, and an overcharge protection option.

Scrolling ahead…

Moto Edge 20 Pro uses seemingly a similar camera system as the regular model. The leader of the rear pack is a 108-megapixel one with pixel binned results. You can shoot at the full-res too, if you fancy it. There is a 16-megapixel ultrawide sensor with a 119-degree field of view and an 8MP periscope telephoto lens with 5X optical zoom. And as for the front, there is a 32-megapixel cam for selfies and video calls.

You can shoot up to 8K at 24 FPS from the back and 4K at 30 FPS from the front. The clips were shaky and had some frame drops.

The camera app consists of features like Portrait, Slo-Mo, Time-Lapse, Pro, Panorama, and Ultra Res 108MP mode, Night Vision, Doc Scanner, Dual Capture, and more. Some are meant for frequent use while others are for occasional fun.

You can get well-composed shots in proper lighting from the primary Moto camera. Colors look close to reality. Things like exposure handling and dynamic range representation are done better here than the Edge Fusion I had reviewed earlier.

Switching to the broader perspective diminishes the colors and quality of the image. The 5X telephoto zoom works but the viewfinder get all jiggly while you try to frame a shot. Hence saving a stable shot can be laborious.

The 2X macro results out of the ultrawide snapper are okay. At least Moto didn’t throw in a 2MP token sensor, which I respect.

I am not very happy with the portrait edge detection, especially on the ones from the front camera. The back one only falters in areas like objects in the corners of the frame or hair follicles, but largely it is usable.

As for night mode shots, the metering and sharpness are better, but the dynamic range isn’t up to the mark. There is visible digital noise too.

And finally an overview of what I think —

Motorola Edge 20 Pro stands out from the rest of the sub-40 thoroughbreds in its software treatment. But that’s a given for any Moto phone, innit? So, besides the pure Android experience, to make it a Pro phone, Motorola has equipped the device with a 10-bit 144Hz AMOLED screen up front, Snapdragon 870 processor, 11 5G bands, sufficient cum speedy LPDDR5 RAM plus ROM configuration, and 108MP quad-camera setup at the back. Now, while the phone has such exciting things on offer, there are shortcomings too such as its speaker output, the absent 3.5mm jack, and microSD card expansion. The low-light and portrait camera processing need work. But since those, I believe can be fixed by software updates, the real clincher is its ₹36,999 tag. You can get comparably-specced phones at similar or lower prices but none of them boast a software experience like this one. So, make your decision accordingly.

Moto Edge 20 Pro FAQ

Q. Does Moto Edge 20 Pro has a dedicated microSD slot?

A. No, Moto Edge 20 Pro doesn’t have an expandable micro-SD card slot.

Q. What is the SAR value of Moto Edge 20 Pro?

A. Moto Edge 20 Pro SAR values are 1.17 W/Kg (Head); 1.20 W/Kg (Body)

Q. Does Moto Edge 20 Pro support dual-band WiFi?

A, Yes, Moto Edge 20 Pro supports dual-band WiFi 6 (2.4GHz + 5GHz).

Q. Does Moto Edge 20 Pro support VoWiFi or WiFi calling?

A. Yes, Moto Edge 20 Pro does feature VoWiFi.

Q. How many microphones are on the Moto Edge 20 Pro?

A. Moto Edge 20 Pro comes with one microphone at the top and the other one at the bottom.

Q. Which is the Android update on Moto Edge 20 Pro?

A. Moto Edge 20 Pro ships with September 01 security patch and August 1 Google Play System Update. The company has promised two years of software updates for this device.

Q. Does Moto Edge 20 Pro support GCam or Camera2API?

A. Moto Edge 20 Pro comes with Level 3Camera2API support for GCam.

Q. Does Moto Edge 20 Pro comes with Gorilla Glass Protection?

A. Yes, Moto Edge 20 Pro comes with Gorilla Glass 5 protection both on the front and the back.

Q. Does Moto Edge 20 Pro comes with Widevine DRM L1 certification? Does it support HD streaming on Netflix and Prime Video?

A. Yes, it does.