Europe is rarely first in line for upcoming smartphones any more, with many brands launching in Asia or the Middle East before going westwards. That’s exactly what Motorola has done for the Edge 50 Pro: the firm’s non-folding flagship for 2024 may be more of a mid-ranger in the grand scheme of things, but it’s the first of its kind to get a Pantone-certified camera and display combo. It has only been revealed for India so far – but based on previous generations, a wider release surely can’t be far behind.
The Edge 50 Pro lands in three Pantone-inspired shades – Black Beauty, Luxe Lavender, and Moonlight Pearl. The latter has a handmade acetate finish, unique to each individual handset, made by Italian design house Mazzucchelli 1849. The other two get grippy vegan leather rear panels instead. All three are IP68 dust and water resistant.
A trio of rear cameras aim to give the Samsung Galaxy S24 a run for its money. There’s a 50MP main snapper with wide f/1.4 aperture and optical image stabilisation, a 13MP ultrawide with 120-degree field of view and macro-friendly autofocus, and a 10MP telephoto with OIS and 3x optical magnification. There’s also a 50MP punch-hole selfie cam up front.
Motorola is promising several AI additions, including generative wallpapers and device themes based on photos you snap. Apparently it’ll be perfect for matching your phone to your outfit.
Other hardware niceties include an under-display fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers and spatial audio support.
Moto has gone against the grain with a curved-edge display, at a time when almost every rival has gone back to flat glass. Underneath is a 6.7in pOLED panel, with a 2712×1220 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate and 2000 nit peak brightness (for HDR video at least). Pantone has also given its Validated True Color Display seal of approval, which means skin tones of all kinds should all stay true to life.
Power takes a back seat to the outgoing Motorola Edge 40 Pro, with a mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset and either 8 or 12GB of RAM. Expect either 128GB or 256GB of storage, and a 4500mAh battery good for 125W wired charging, 50W wireless top-ups and 10W reverse charging. In India only the 12GB/256GB variant gets a 125W power brick in the box; the 8GB/128GB model makes do with a 68W adapter. Right now it’s unknown which variants will be sold in other territories.
The Edge 50 Pro ships with Android 14, and Motorola’s new Hello UX sat on top. Three years of Android version upgrades and four years of quarterly security updates is a fairly average software commitment, even for a mid-ranger.
Motorola India has set the Edge 50 Pro at ₹31,999 (about $380/£300) for the entry-level variant; the higher-spec version will cost ₹35,999 (roughly $430/£350). That would land it firmly in affordable territory here in Europe, but I’m expecting it to cost a fair bit more once taxes and import duty come into play.
The Edge 40 Pro never made it to the US, and I don’t imagine that’ll change for this new handset – but Europeans will probably be getting their hands on at least one version in the next month or so.
