Content
- Video review
- Equipment and design
- Software
- Camera
- Performance and Benchmarks
- findings
In early 2022, we reviewed the world's firstsmartphone powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a nice and inexpensive Motorola Edge 30 Pro, aka Edge X30 in China. However, shortly after its announcement, it became known that it was not a flagship at all - but the flagship will be in the summer and Motorola is preparing it under the code name Frontier. The no-compromise device with 125W charging, a 144Hz screen and a 200MP camera was released in August as the Moto X30 Pro in China and a bit later as the Edge 30 Ultra in the rest of the world. But were Lenovo engineers really able to make an uncompromising flagship? Or did something go wrong?
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Specifications Motorola Moto X30 Pro | ||
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| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G | ||
| Firmware | MYUI 4.0 on Android 12 | ||
| Screen | 6.67″, 20:9, 2400 x 1080 pixels, 144 Hz, touch up to 1500 Hz, 1000/1250nits, HDR10+, pOLED | ||
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 CPU: 8 cores, 4 nm, 1 x Cortex-X2 up to 3.2 GHz, 3 x Cortex-A710 up to 2.5 GHz, 4 x Cortex-A510 up to 1.8 GHz GPU: Adreno 730 |
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| Ram | 8 GB LPDDR5 |
12 GB LPDDR5 |
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| ROM | 128 GB UVS 3.1 |
256 GB UVS 3.1 |
512 GB UVS 3.1 |
| SIM and memory card | Two nano SIM cards | ||
| Camera | TripleAI, HDR, video recording 8K@30fps Primary:200 MP, Samsung HP1, 1/1.22″, 2.56 micron (16-in-1 binning), OIS Wide Angle:50 MP, Samsung JN1, 1.28 µm (4-in-1 binning), autofocus (2.5 cm macro), 117 degree capture angle Portrait12 MP, Sony IMX663, f/1.6, 1.22 µm, 2x optical zoom |
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| Selfie | Hole in the center, 60MP, 1.22µm (4-in-1 binning) | ||
| Battery | 4610 mAh | ||
| Charging | USB-C, 125W, 50W wireless charging, 10W reverse wireless charging | ||
| Wireless interfaces | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (6E), 2.4/5/6 GHz Bluetooth 5.2 GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou |
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| NFC | there is | ||
| Biometrics | Fingerprint scanner Face recognition |
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| Sound | Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, LDAC | ||
| Water protection | Not declared | ||
| Dimensions and weight | 161.7 x 73.5 x 8.39mm 198.5 g |
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| Price | 3699 yuan (33,230 rubles) |
4199 yuan (38,015 rubles) |
4499 yuan (40 350 rubles) |
Video review
Equipment and design
The black cardboard box of the Moto X30 Pro does not looktoo premium, but they put all the necessary accessories in it: a SIM needle, a USB cable, a 125-W charger and a silicone case. Plus trash, of course. But I would like to dwell separately not on waste paper, but on a case, because Motorola did not stint on a piece of black matte silicone. It does not protect the smartphone much, but it gives pleasant tactile sensations. True, that's bad luck, the ends of it are so dense that the power button is pressed through it with difficulty.
However, all the time I tested, I carriedMoto X30 Pro in this case. And not at all for reasons of safety, but because it is unpleasant to use the Motorola flagship without a case. I didn't like the tactile feel of its frosted glass, especially with the viscous glossy inserts of the Motorola logo and name. And it is also quite slippery, so you have to squeeze harder into the metal ends - and they are very narrow here due to the rounded screen and the same rounded back. Moreover, if ZTE in Axon 40 Ultra was able to make an ergonomic rounded end, then Motorola did not succeed.
The arrangement of elements is standard.Microphone on top, buttons on the right, SIM tray plus USB-C plus a second microphone plus speaker on the bottom. Nothing superfluous, and the memory card slot, the audio jack, the infrared port, and even the third microphone for windscreen and audio zoom fell into the “superfluous” category. The Legion Y70 gaming phone has it (however, it is implemented crookedly and harms rather than helps, but it exists), but not here. A fingerprint scanner is hidden in the display, which does not differ in stable operation - it either recognizes it in 10/10 cases, then it gives out five misses in a row and forces you to enter a password. The taptik is pleasant, the stereo is good, and sometimes it even seemed to me that the conversational speaker plays more interestingly than the multimedia one.
The screen of the Moto X30 Pro is 6.7″ AMOLED panelwith a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels, a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz and a peak brightness of up to 1250 nits. There are three Hertz modes (60, 144, auto), and in auto the refresh rate never exceeds 120 Hz; so set yourself to 144 and don’t worry, this frequency will be absolutely everywhere (although in games you need to turn it on separately). Touch – 240 Hz, in games you can enable 360 Hz. There is a DC Dimming function with which the PWM becomes very low; It has virtually no effect on color rendition. In terms of brightness and color rendition, I have no complaints about the screen; The only drawback of the panel for me is the curved edges. But at least you don’t have to worry about gluing the protective film at first - Motorola applied it at the factory.
Software
Moto X30 Pro runs on Android 12 with proprietaryfirmware MyUI 4.0. It is not like other Chinese shells and in some places resembles pure Android (here even the Material You personalization works), but still it is an independent Chinese firmware with many of its lotions. Among them are Motorola's signature gestures (turning on the flashlight with two chopping movements, splitting the screen with a swipe back and forth, and so on), they personally suit me very much. Together with other moto features, they are collected in one Moto application, and not scattered all over the interface, which is welcome. Well, in general, MyUI is a very convenient and lightweight interface, which many will surely like. I took more screenshots so you can get a detailed impression:
Since the Moto X30 Pro is a smartphone for China,then the question arises about its usability in Russia. We answer: everything is in order. Yes, there is no Russian language (only Chinese and English), but Google services are turned on with a checkmark in the settings, then Google Play is installed simply with an apk or from a branded application store. In addition, it is possible to upgrade Moto X30 Pro to Edge 30 Ultra: then you will get almost pure Android (but still with moto features) and full-fledged Russian localization.
Cameras
Moto X30 Pro received three useful cameras:200MP primary (Samsung HP1) with OIS, 50MP wide (Samsung JN1) and 12MP dual telephoto (IMX663). All three cameras have autofocus, which in the case of a wide lens allows you to take cool macro photos. Why do you need a 12-megapixel telephoto camera if the main camera at 2x zoom crops up to 50 megapixels? Well, because HP1 is a sensor with 16-in-1 binning, and the color resolution there is 12.5 megapixels. And after 2 crop - 3.1 megapixels. Against 12 megapixels in a telephoto. Okay, let's look at examples of photos:
I will say right away: the camera is good.In most cases, it gives a good result. Beauty at night, nice photos during the day. But there is one problem. Before us is a full-fledged flagship, which means that the demand from it should be like from the flagship. And this is where the subtleties begin. For example, detail - even in 200-megapixel mode, it is not the highest. Night photos are corny overexposed - when I photographed, it was darker than the photos from the X30 Pro show (this is especially obvious from the photo of the sky). There is a fairly noticeable sharpening, artifacts of the noise reduction are visible in the sky. Autofocus often messes up - both on the main camera, and on the wide (I didn’t really check it on the telephoto). Shirik constantly fails to guess with color reproduction, and once he even took a picture in 50-megapixel mode, although I did not turn it on. Excuse me, how is this?
The video camera is also good.You can record on the main camera at 4320p@30fps / 2160p@60fps and on the others at 2160p@30fps, and in 1080p@30fps you can even switch between cameras during shooting. In addition, there is a macro mode in which you can shoot with a wide crop at 2160p@60fps. “Macro mode” doesn't mean you can't shoot long shots - you can, because autofocus works as usual. The question is different - why can I shoot wide at 60 fps only with crop? This nonsense was already on the Moto X30, announced a year ago, and it still hasn’t been fixed. Does anyone even work on camera software at Motorola?
There are a lot of complaints about the camera app in general.For example, a disgusting pinch-to-zoom - it does not work so twitchy on any phone. Or a masterpiece button to turn off the microphone in video mode. I understand that this can be a useful feature, but rarely; you hid in the depths of the settings switching between 30 and 60 fps, but you allow you to turn off the microphone with one click. What kind of nonsense?
Well, there is a suspicion that the reasons why the 60-megapixel front camera shoots so drearily is that they are also soft ones. I do not believe that one of the top OmniVision sensors is so useless in practice.
Performance and tests
The hardware foundation of the Moto X30 Pro is the most successfulQualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. Benchmarks show rather poor performance after a few minutes after the start, but this is partly due to the phone's scheduler, which drops CPU performance in the absence of screen touches. So let's see how the situation in the games.
The game situation is good.About 50 fps in Genshin Impact (in game mode), 120/144 fps in those games that support this hertz. 360Hz touch is good; the declared instant touch of 1500 Hz could not be seen through getevent, but I don’t understand why it is needed. What will these 2 ms decide for you (at best!)? Despite the high performance, the smartphone does not heat up much, it is quite comfortable to hold it in your hands even during long gaming sessions. Stereo and taptic are two more bonuses to the gaming experience.
Moto X30 Pro battery capacity isa rather modest 4610 mAh - the space in the case had to be sacrificed for the sake of 125 W fast charging and a 50 W wireless coil. However, you should not worry about autonomy. The discharge in our tests will be as follows: 7% for an hour of showing a video, 15% for an hour of browsing, 18% for an hour of playing. Total - 40% for three hours of mixed use, which allows you to count on about seven hours of screen during the day. Or two if you don't use your phone more often than you do. I note that the tests were carried out with autohertz, but with a constant brightness turned to the maximum.
Also, if you forget to charge your phoneat night, and in the morning decide that the charge you will not have enough for the day - 125-W fast charging will quickly correct your oversight. The phone charges from zero to 50% in just seven minutes, but after that, the charge rate drops (for battery safety reasons), and a full charge takes 22 minutes. It's very, very fast and very, very cool. There's also wireless charging!
Another fast and cool note mobilethe Internet. For a long time I did not have phones on which everything would be downloaded so quickly. I don’t know what the secret is, but Moto X30 Pro connects to Yota networks in Tomsk stronger than its competitors.
Conclusions
Moto X30 showed what Motorola can createvery pleasant to use inexpensive smartphone with powerful hardware; but can she create a full-fledged ultimate flagship? Probably not. Such jambs in ergonomics and camera software, in my opinion, are unforgivable in this league. However, it is impossible not to mention a cool screen with DC Dimming, a rich kit, fast charging, a good implementation of 8+ Gen 1 and an excellent MyUI shell - perhaps this will be enough for you to give your hand and heart to the guys from Lenovo. Well, Motorola can be wished not to stop trying: despite the problems, the device is interesting, and judging by the company's progress in recent years, everything can work out soon.
© Oleg Lazarev.