I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t paid much attention to Motorola outside of its Razr foldable phones. That’s because I’m still bitter about how its previous flagship phones — the Moto X and Moto Z — failed to keep pace with its rivals. But with rumors heating up around the Motorola Edge Plus (2024), it has me thinking about how it could be the dark horse that shakes up the flagship phone space.
You could argue that its Razr line has reinjected life into the company, but it has leaned on budget and mid-range phones to carry the company. What’s been lacking is a worthy flagship phone model. Motorola has tried to reinsert itself in the flagship space with models like the 2020 release of the Motorola Edge Plus and its successors, but they were never direct rivals to the best phones around.
Yet, that could all very well change with the release of the Motorola Edge Plus (2024). It could finally be a flagship model that could fall in the same class as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Pixel 8 Pro, and Galaxy S24 Ultra. Here are the ways it could beat all other flagships this year.
Long range telephoto camera
Based on its previous so-called flagships, the Motorola Edge Plus (2024) stands to benefit most with a proper telephoto camera to get closer to subjects. Last year’s Motorola Edge Plus (2023) technically featured a portrait camera that effectively delivered a 2x optical zoom, but a rumor paints a brighter picture.
A leaked render shows a triple camera arrangement, complete with a telephoto lens capable of a 6x zoom. If this turns out to be true, it’ll have a leg up against the 5x optical zoom cameras found in rivals like the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Pixel 8 Pro. Even though we’ve seen longer ranged cameras, like the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom camera, this would be enough for the Motorola Edge Plus (2024) to put its direct competitors on notice.
All-day battery to beat the OnePlus 12
Presumably we’ll find the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 under the hood of the Motorola Edge Plus (2024), which would make sense given last year’s model was powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. We’ve already been witness to the incredible processing power of this silicon, but it makes more of an impression with its power efficiency.
The OnePlus 12 shattered a record for a flagship, easily landing in our best battery phone life list — which inherently spells good news for Motorola’s upcoming flagship because last year’s model reached a time of 15 hours and 47 minutes on Tom’s Guide’s battery benchmark test.
However, it’s tipped that the Motorola Edge Plus (2024) will come with a smaller 4,500 mAh battery. That’s a huge dip from the former 5,100 mAh battery used by last year’s Edge Plus, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s promising efficiency could be enough to help it reach a new record for flagship phones.
Brighter screen for outdoor visibility
Phone makers today are focusing more on delivering brighter displays with each subsequent flagship they release, so that’s exactly what I expect to see from the Motorola Edge Plus (2024) as well. The specs alone are to die for, with it rumored to feature a 6.7-inch display with a blazing fast 165Hz refresh rate.
It certainly has the ingredients on paper to reel in gamers and binge watchers, but one surefire way to ensure that is to blast past its rivals in the brightness department. The top dog in the flagship space is the iPhone 15 Pro Max with its blinding 1,550 nits of brightness, followed by the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra. The Motorola Edge Plus (2024) would need to eclipse those brightness levels if it intends on playing in the big leagues.
Original AI features
By now, I’ve had my fill of AI-assisted features in today’s best Android phones. For example, the Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 offer similar AI-features, like how they make it a breeze to edit photos with help from their respective generative AI models. With the Motorola Edge Plus (2024), I’d like to see something more original.
The Motorola Edge Plus is already rumored to gain its own set of AI-assisted features to remain competitive, but one area it could stay ahead of the curve is to offer an on-device generative AI image creator. There are already plenty of apps I could download, but it’d be nice to have one natively on the phone — and one that doesn’t require cloud connectivity or a paid subscription model. For example, I’d love to get an AI headshot generator that could create headshots from selfies or portrait photos I take with the camera, but with that professional look.
Undercutting the competition on price
And finally, the Motorola Edge Plus (2024) would need to be mindful about its price if it has any hopes of beating the competition. Only the OnePlus 12 stands in its way in offering the best bang for the buck value in a flagship model, so Motorola can’t afford to increase the price of its flagship.
In fact, it should remain at the same $799 cost as last year’s model, which would really put the pressure on its rivals. Another reason why Motorola has to keep the cost extremely low is because it has to earn and build up the recognition to really justify it’s in the same league as Apple and Samsung, as well as Google. It would also help to attract consumers who aren’t as comfortable about using a Motorola.
