Motorola Edge For USA Undercuts "Plus" By $500
The North American release of the unlocked Motorola Edge was revealed this week for $500 less than its predecessor. The Motorola Edge and Motorola Edge+ both have the same display panel – the most impressive part of the phone. It's just the cameras and the processor that you're going to have to look at when deciding whether you'd like to pay $499 or $999 for a new mobile smartphone.
We just reviewed the Motorola Edge+ here on SlashGear, giving it a relatively high rating which holds just so long as you've purchased the smartphone with a protective case. The Motorola Edge and Edge+ both look exceedingly similar, and indeed likely act very similar, if judged by the average user.
The differences will be small for a user that's only interested in the curved display. The display is just as curved on one as it is on the other – they're the same panel size. The Motorola Edge and Edge+ both have OLED capacitive touchscreen tech with 6.7-inches of high definition panel.
Both panels have 1080 x 2340 pixels, both have 95.9% screen-to-body ratios. Both roll with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to protect said panels, too. The only real difference in the panels is the Edge has HDR10 and the Plus has HDR10+ – the difference between the two in that arena is likely negligible.
The Edge has a Qualcomm SDM765 Snapdragon 765G (7 nm) chipset, while the Plus has a Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865 (7 nm+) chipset. The higher-end chipset allows the Plus to work with a 108MP f/1.8 aperture wide-angle lens main camera with OIS. The standard Edge works with a 64MP wide-angle lens main camera with the same aperture, but no OIS.
The Edge maxes out at 4K video with 30fps or 1080p with 60fps, while the Plus has the ability to capture 6K video at 30fps and 1080p at 120fps. The Plus also works with gyro-EIS for video, making it capture a much more instantly-stabilized product.
The Edge has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, while the Plus has all of that PLUS Wi-Fi 802.11 6. The one place where the Edge has a specification that's better than the Plus is in its microSDXC card slot. This slot is shared with a SIM card slot, which isn't always ideal, but the Plus has no storage expansion at all – so there!
The Edge in its least expensive configuration has 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage (with storage expansion) and UFS 2.1. There's also a configuration with 128GB internal storage and 6GB RAM. The Edge+ has a single iteration with 256GB internal storage with 12GB RAM and UFS 3.0.
Both versions of the phone have USB-C, but the Edge is 2.0, while the Plus is 3.1. The Edge has an accelerometer, gyroscope, and proximity sensor – the Plus has all of those plus a built-in compass and barometer.
The Edge has a 4500mah battery and fast charging 18W. The Edge+ has a 5000mAh battery with fast charging 18W as well as fast WIRELESS charging 18W and reverse wireless charging capabilities (at 5W).
While we'd really need to have both phones in-hand at the same time to truly judge the differences between the two, it's clear there are some major reasons why you'd want to choose one over the other. Are the differences between the Edge and the Edge+ worth TWICE the full price of the phone? That'll be a tough nut to crack.