Motorola becomes the first manufacturer to launch a smartphone with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. The Motorola Edge X30 was unveiled in China on Thursday last week and is packing some impressive features, including a 144 Hz refresh rate.
As is most cases these days, the Motorola X30 comes in two variants, both of them featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The regular version can be purchased in three different RAM/storage configurations, while the more premium version with the under screen camera comes only in a single 128 GB/ 256 GB variant.
Pricing
The different prices for the regular Moto Edge X30 variants are listed below;
- 8 GB + 128 GB: Kshs 57,000
- 8 GB + 256 GB: Kshs 60,000
- 12 GB + 256 GB: Kshs 64,000
Straight away, the fairly aggressive pricing is noticeable, with only around Kshs 3,000 separating each variant from the other. Shelling out Kshs 3,000 more to double your storage to 256GB seems like a no-brainer, and it gets even better when you add an extra Kshs 4,000 to get the version with 12GB RAM.
The premium version, which is officially called Moto Edge X30 Under-Screen Camera Version, is, on the other hand, available for Kshs 70,000 further suggesting that Motorola wants to compete by aggressively pricing their flagships in comparison to other manufacturers. However, note that these prices are converted from the official listing in China, and therefore we might see slightly different prices when the phone hits our Kenyan shores some time next year.
Camera setup
It makes sense to start with the camera set up since it is the only thing separating the regular version and the premium version. On the regular version, the 60 MP selfie camera is placed within a centred cutout on the display, while on the premium version, it is housed behind the display. The rear cameras, on the other hand, are built the same across the two versions. They consist of three sensors, a 50 MP primary sensor, another 50 MP sensor for ultra-wide shots and a final 2 MP tertiary sensor.
Display
The Motorola Edge X30 has an impressive 6.7-inch full HD+ display with an OLED panel with thin bezels all around. Both versions have support for a peak refresh rate of 144 Hz as already mentioned, while a 576 Hz touch sampling rate will play a huge part in making the phone feel snappy and responsive. The phone also has support for HDR10+ and 10 bit colour, with the ability to reach 1024 nits peak brightness.
Battery, charging and other features
The big display makes it possible for a big battery to be packed in, topping out at 5,000 mAh. To quickly fill it once you run out of juice, the Motorola Edge X30 has support for 68 W fast charging. As was promised by Qualcomm in the Snapdragon rebrand, 5G connectivity is now synonymous with the brand and the Motorola Edge X30 gets to benefit from it.
The device will come with Android 12 out of the box, but with Motorola’s custom software, MYUI 3.0 plastered on top of it.
It is slated for release in China starting 15th Dec, followed by the international market in 2022.
