THE EMPIRE
We had a couple of the latest offerings from Motorola show up in the mail the other day, so lets see how they perform.
I’ll be focusing on the pro – but there are some redeeming features on the more cost effective model.
Camera
50mp main camera gives very good quality images, I personally don’t love AI or “intelligent” photo rendering but this is subtle and non-invasive unlike Apple and Samsung. A 3x optical lens zoom is great tho, again digital zoom is only so good and even on the top spec phones its very grainy, however the best optical zoom you can have the better your images will look.
Here’s some examples
Gaming
I loaded up one of my favourite mobile games “CarX drift racing 2” which is a nice looking game but also fairly graphically intensive.
Performance on the game was playable but I would say the framerates aren’t as high as some of the more flagship devices, while playable the experience is noticeably less frames per second than my S23 ultra – we will be keeping in mind this Pro model is still less than half the retail price of the Samsung and its certainly more than half the performance so bang for buck if you’re not playing a lot of games it’s acceptable for the odd gaming or simple gaming.
Heat didn’t seem to be an issue at all, the delivered performance did not heat up the phone at all, this is very common with higher end devices that push their hardware further for better performance.
The charger – this is a game changer.
Claimed “all day power in 5 mins” – this is obviously best case scenario, however from 0%-X% in 5 mins is amazingly impressive. So many times we want a quick top up on the go. The 125w charging brick is a bit on the hefty side and you do feel the heat when you pick your phone up from a fast charge. I would hope the battery is replaceable because we know the faster the charging the more likely the battery will have a shorter lifespan. 4500mAh is right up there with the big dogs so I have no doubt this will still be able to get your uber after a bender.
The goods
Super light and slim, coming from the S23 Ultra this feels super light and a smaller / better size in the hand. My thumb can get anywhere on the screen easily – the trade off being smaller screen for entertainment.
Fast Charging – holy heck this is impressive. The phone comes with a 125w charger which got this from dead flat to 100% in about 30 mins and it lasted all day with gaming and testing and still have 40% at the end of the day. Even heavy users will get 2 days out of this
Bang for buck – This phone is selling at JB HiFi for $1099 which is less than half the price of a flagship phone, but not half the phone. I would say that this phone punches well above its weight for performance and capability at a very reasonable price given the competition. Dual sim is also a nice touch for those of us with work and personal phones.
MICRO SD! – Why other brands are going away from this I have no idea, maybe to sell phones with bigger hard drives – Thank you Motorola, this should be standard
The not so goods
Fast charging may kill the battery sooner – typically I’d expect to see a phone battery last at least 3 years, we know super fast charging isn’t as good for batteries but we want that convivence. Time will tell with that one.
UI – The user interface is nice and simple but nothing overly world changing, I would have seen this as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
Overall
If you’re an android lover and are looking for something different or more cost effective, this will pull the same workload of any of the competitors twice the price for most users and will still deliver a good experience with great photos for digital / social use. worth looking at if you’re on a budget too.
Edge 50 Fusion
While testing the 50 pro, the fusion was also delivered to have a little look at.
I’d say a lot of my compliments of the 50 carry over to the Fusion, however at a price of $528 ( at JB hifi at time of review) this is a more cost effective model, even more so than the Pro vs other flagship models from the likes of Samsung.
The Fusion also punches above its weight class, however in some heavier loads like gaming you do start to see fram rates lower than the Pro. But, If you had told me the pro was the same price as a flagship device from other brands, I’d believe you. The fusion does perform and feel like a cost saving but at no point does it feel cheap or incapable.
Price for a device shows in 2 main places, camera and performance. Cameras are what they are, you do need to pay to get the best in class, however this camera takes decent shots and for the end use of most cellphone images it does fine. Multi-tasking basic social apps and light weight games is easy.
Defiantly worth a look if you aren’t in the market to spend 2grand on a phone but want something good.
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