Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus Review: It checks nearly every box, but not without imperfections (HT Tech)

On the surface, the Edge 70 Pro Plus does stand out as a complete package. But as with any smartphone, there has to be a catch. So I spent a month daily driving the Edge 70 Pro Plus to see whether it delivers on its promise or merely creates the illusion of an all-rounder smartphone. Here’s what I found:

Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus Specifications:

However, Motorola has rehashed its signature camera layout and faux-leather rear design so extensively that I have grown weary of the Edge 70 Pro Plus’s appearance. It nearly looks identical to the rest of the company’s lineup.

It’s not the smartphone’s look, but the attention to in-hand ergonomics that truly sets Motorola apart from its counterparts, and the Edge 70 Pro Plus exemplifies this perfectly. With a 7.19-mm thickness and curved edges, the phone fits snugly in hand, making it comfortable to hold without causing any sharp pain. At 190 grams, it also feels light for its size and never becomes too tiring to carry around for hours. Further enhancing the phone’s in-hand appeal is the rear panel’s texture, which feels soft to the touch.

Beyond the design and in-hand feel, Motorola has also paid equal attention to the Edge 70 Pro Plus’s build quality. For starters, the phone is military-grade certified, so its chassis can withstand most accidental drops.

With IP68 and IP69 ratings, it is also built to endure unintentional water exposure, including submersion up to 1.5 metres in fresh water for 30 minutes. That said, deliberately dumping the Edge 70 Pro Plus in the pool will likely result in substantial financial loss, as most brands don’t honour warranties against water damage.

With curved edges on all four sides and bezels as thin as a 0.7-mm lead in a mechanical pencil, the viewing experience feels significantly more immersive.

That said, durability takes a hit despite the presence of a much tougher protective layer, as a single misfall is all it takes to crack the curved glass. Even if someone wants to shield the display panel of the Edge 70 Pro Plus using an aftermarket tempered glass, they are still out of luck. These protectors require a special UV-cured glue to bond with the curved screen. Every brand advises against using it because it can damage the underlying system.

Returning to the Edge 70 Pro Plus’s display, its picture quality further enhances the viewing experience. I met all my entertainment needs with this phone throughout the month, and I was fully satisfied every time. During those sessions, I noticed that whether I watched anime series, particularly One Piece, or live-action films, colours popped, and details were rendered clearly. Every visual element, irrespective of the scene’s complexity, stood out.

When used outdoors, the Edge 70 Pro Plus’s display still performed exceptionally well, with content staying legible even in direct sunlight. As a bonus, the high-refresh-rate panel kept daily interaction with the interface smooth and snappy.

Moreover, despite having a thin chassis, the phone can effortlessly produce loud audio, and that too without much distortion. In terms of audio quality, the stereo speakers handle mid and high tones exceptionally well, and even low tones to some extent, allowing every piece of music to come off richer and fuller.

In contrast, the haptic feedback is slightly lacklustre. By no means is it bad; the vibration feels satisfactory when setting alarms, typing, or swiping back. The only caveat is that Motorola should have added a bit more punch to the feedback and broadened its implementation across the UI.

A glance at the stress test results indicates that Motorola has integrated a safety mechanism into the Edge 70 Pro Plus that throttles performance when the system detects potential overheating.

But I must say, I am thoroughly impressed by how the Edge 70 Pro Plus handles thermal stress in everyday use. Whether I was browsing memes on social media, reading articles, or playing a quick game, I never once noticed any stutters or a drop in performance, particularly when the ambient temperature was high. Moreover, the phone barely felt warm to the touch during those moments.

Speaking of games, here’s how the Edge 70 Pro Plus measures up against the Redmi Turbo 5 in Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, two of the most graphically intensive games:

To put things into perspective, I played Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves for 20 minutes each on the Edge 70 Pro Plus and the Redmi Turbo 5. As a rule of thumb, the smaller the gap between the average FPS and the 5% low FPS, the smoother the gameplay feels. The table shows that the Edge 70 Pro Plus held a slight lead in Genshin Impact. Moreover, it held a much wider lead in Wuthering Waves, where gameplay remained noticeably smoother during intense battles.

Even under heavy load, the phone tended to deliver sufficient screen-on time. We ran the PCMark battery test to determine this figure, and the Edge 70 Pro Plus lasted 14 hours and 7 minutes, a respectable result for its battery capacity. For those unfamiliar, the benchmark runs a series of real-world tasks, including video and photo editing, web browsing, and more, on a smartphone, with the brightness set to 70% and WiFi enabled. The test only ends when the battery drops to 20%.

Completing the excellent battery package on the Edge 70 Pro Plus is its impressive charging speed. With its 90W charger, the phone reaches 100% from 0% in just 53 minutes. On a side note, I always hold Motorola in high regard for bundling a super-fast PD charger with most of its phones. These chargers can charge most USB Type-C devices at their fastest supported charging speed.

For instance, during an event, I used the “Take notes for me” feature to record a speaker’s remarks. The transcript contained several inaccuracies, and in my experience, Moto AI still struggles to consistently understand Indian accents. As a result, those errors carried over into the generated summary.

The “Update me” feature also falls short. Instead of summarising all the notifications I received throughout the day, it occasionally omits some, leaving an incomplete overview.

Beyond AI, Hello UI lacks the polish of rival interfaces. It generally feels smooth, but the animations can be clunky, particularly when returning to the home screen after closing an app. It is a minor yet noticeable issue in daily use. ColorOS and One UI handle these animations more gracefully.

As if that were not enough, the Edge 70 Pro Plus now comes with suspicious pre-installed apps right out of the box. While they can be easily removed, their presence is unjustifiable at the smartphone’s asking price.

The primary camera captures plenty of detail in daylight. However, it tends to apply a cooler white balance, so colours often drift from the actual scene. HDR processing is a mixed bag, too.

Most of the time, it balances highlights and shadows well. Occasionally, though, it lifts the shadows too much to fetch details in darker parts. This, in turn, strips away the dramatic mood that gives the photo its visual appeal. At other times, it pushes the highlights too far, wiping out detail in brighter areas.

The telephoto camera is more consistent. It captures detailed zoom shots and handles HDR better. Colours are closer to reality, though they appear slightly less saturated.

Portraits look good at first glance. However, the background blur often appears artificial. Edge detection feathers around the subject too much, and the blur is not evenly distributed across the frame.

The ultra-wide camera impressed me most. It captures detailed photos with colours that remain close to natural. The only drawback is the pronounced fisheye effect around the edges of the frame.

In low light, the primary camera continues to favour a faster shutter speed. As a result, it captures images quickly and keeps motion blur in check. The trade-off is that fine details are often smoothed out, leaving textures softer than they should be. The telephoto camera behaves similarly.

Under better lighting, however, both cameras produce noticeably sharper images. Colours also remain closer to natural. That said, the white balance can still be inconsistent at times, occasionally giving photos a warmer or cooler tone than the scene actually had.

That said, the phone is not without flaws. Hello UI still lacks the polish of rival interfaces, and Moto AI needs further refinement before its features are truly dependable. The cameras, while capable, often struggle with HDR processing and white balance, preventing them from matching the competition’s consistency. Even so, these shortcomings are not significant enough to overshadow an otherwise well-rounded experience.