Ultra slim smartphones are in vogue, just that some efforts are more fancied in terms of the tech world’s collective attention, than others. The latest Motorola’s Edge 70 is exactly on that journey, which at 5.99mm is thinner than a typical pencil you might have used at some point in your educational journey. That makes the Edge70 the only phone in the market at this time with a 50-megapixel camera troika residing within the photography island at the back. And the fact that its what Motorola assures us is an aircraft grade aluminium chassis, lends credence to its robustness aspect too. The phone feels great to hold, and every other phone, unnecessary thicker. And if you thought slimness is its only visual cue, it isn’t so — the troika of Pantone approved Lily Pad, Gadget Grey and Bronze Green make these the most accurate colour representations on a smartphone. Whether you feel the need for it or not. At ₹28,999 for a phone to feel substantially more expensive , is always a good start.
In fact, while phone makers often tend to lean on the competence and expertise of camera makers to optimise their phone’s photography experience (Xiaomi partners with Leica, Oppo trusts Hasselblad), Motorola’s taken a slightly different path. The camera, and in fact the display, are also validated by Pantone. In case you’re wondering why that’s a big deal, the Pantone Colour Institute’s colour expertise has given us standardised, proprietary shades from the Pantone Matching System that’s used across printing, fashion and manufacturing, basically everywhere colour accuracy is worth it’s weight in gold. For the Motorola Edge70’s camera to be able to deliver these accurate colours in photos, should appeal to those who care about the really fine details of life and technology.
Two things to appreciate here. First, the camera partnerships I refer to mostly bear fruit on phones that have higher price tags, though some learnings may trickle down the price ladder in terms of optimisations. Secondly, this makes the Edge 70 a rarity under ₹30,000 to specially have a camera co-partner.
I’ll get to the camera experience in a moment, but, it is important to understand how Motorola is looking at photography with the Edge 70 as something that’s building on a multi-layered foundation — a 50-megapixel Pantone optimised wide primary sensor with a 2 micron pixel size (that’s good news for light accumulation for processing), 50-megapixel ultra-wide and macro combination sensor, instant all-pixel focus for low-light photos, an AI based enhancement engine as part of image processing and something called AI Signature Style as part of Moto AI which gets cues from your image selections to learn what sort of colour tone you prefer (give this time to refine the results). If you’re wondering why I mentioned troika earlier, that’s for the 50-megapixel selfie sensor, a rarity in itself. The Pantone magic crystallises best with skin tones.
Since we are on the topic, let’s agree that this is an impressive camera, and you can see from the results how well the setup has been tuned. The ultra-thin dimensions should’ve limited sensor sizes and everything that follows, but credit to Motorola’s design and engineering teams for overcoming challenges that have stumped many a slim phone in recent months. There is something very likeable about the rich and vibrant photos the Motorola Edge 70 captures. You can tweak how the colours look, but there will be a few instances when reds and greens look a tad more vibrant (computational photography tweaks in future updates could iron this out too) — yet, this is a tonality I feel most users would prefer, since its appeals to the social media post ecosystem. The large sensor also means, alongside the reworked focus mechanism, that low light photos return considerable detail — though it takes a smidgen longer to capture and process (stay still as that happens, is key).
Conventional logic seems to dictate that ultra-slim phones must have somewhat limited battery size and therefore capacity and therefore battery runtimes. That is not the wisdom the Motorola Edge 70 seems to subscribe to. The 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery is much bigger than anything Samsung and Apple managed to stuff into their sleek phones, and the real world experience is a step in the right direction — you’ll be able to eke out around 5 hours of screen time with ease within a typical weekday usage routine, and still have close to 25% battery in reserve as you get to the fag end of the day. That’s more than the Galaxy S25 Edge manages, and it means you can leave the charger and power bank at home. Also, the 68-watt wired charging is speedier in comparison, which means the Edge 70 stays on charge for a much lesser time too.
This is one of the first phones powered by the upper mid-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip, and following up on a substantive contribution to frugality with its generational improvements, it must be said that this chip paired with 12GB of memory, does hold up the overall experience quite effectively. Don’t expect this to be the fastest silicon and how you view that in terms of value will depend on which other phones presently make up your shopping shortlist. A reason why Motorola hasn’t used a more powerful processor in the Edge 70 is possible heat generation, and resulting throttling, which makes for an uneven performance scenario. All I can say is, there is little to complain about, as you’d use this phone every day.
Also Read: Motorola Edge 70 with 50MP triple rear cameras and 5,000mAh battery launched in India
I must say that the Pantone approved Bronze Green colour variant that Motorola shared for review, has quietly grown acceptance — this looks understated and yet stands out in a sea of otherwise black or grey phones. If the build needs any more convincing, here’s some more, underlined by the MIL-STD-810H certification, dual IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance, as well as Gorilla Glass 7i layering on the 6.7-inch pOLED display. The pricing of the Motorola Edge 70 in India adds a certain perception of value, and rightly so. This is a phone that gives us a glimpse of the future of smartphones, and comes very close to negating the compromises most highlighted in ultra-slim phones that arrived before the Edge 70. You could perhaps argue for a more powerful chip in terms of the longevity aspect, but for the physics Motorola’s engineers were working with, I’d not hold anything against the choice. The all-day battery life is a real bonus.
