Edge 50 Ultra, Pro and Fusion: to become essential in Europe, Motorola pulls out all the stops

If Motorola is banking heavily on the launch of its Edge 50 Pro, a mid-range model designed to offer an advantageous quality/price ratio, this smartphone does not arrive alone. The brand is unveiling a complete range, and will be marketing it in May 2024.

Motorola’s ambitions are clear, as Camille Castinel, marketing director of the brand in France and Benelux, confirms to us: it is a question of getting 3rd place on the podium of smartphone sellers in three years, that is to say -say “weigh between 12 and 15%”, in France and in each European market. And it’s not just any manufacturer that Motorola, an American brand with a tormented destiny – acquired in 2011 by Google, then sold in 2014 to the Chinese IT giant Lenovo – intends to tease: this place is currently occupied by Xiaomi , which accounts for just under 20% of sales in France, behind the essential Apple and Samsung. Long discreet, and while it only accounted for barely 0.5% of the French market at the start of this decade, the firm hopes, with the help of an extensive catalog, to find a place in a concentrated European market. around a few flagship brands.

The strategy, detailed by Daniela Idi, Marketing Director EMEA at Motorola, consists of “give weight to the brand, to attract a younger audience” relying both on the heritage of the historic Motorola, but also on new partnerships concluded with both Bose (audio) and Pantone (screen and photo calibration, product colors). Still absent from operator catalogs, which to date represents more than half of smartphone sales in France, Motorola is only at the beginning of its renaissance. Its main rivals include Honor, which is banking on rapid upscaling and ultra-premium products.

Motorola is therefore completing its Edge 2024 catalog, already represented by an Edge 50 Pro tested by us, with two products. The Edge 50 Ultra stands out as the flagship of the series, with its sleek design, its refined technical equipment, and a starting price set at €999.

Three smartphones for less than €1000

Quite similar to the Edge 50 Pro in terms of display, because equipped with a 6.67-inch Full HD+ pOled screen, whose brightness should be able to reach 2500 cd/m², the smartphone also offers a design while curved — the manufacturer believes that its customers like curved screens. The design shift taken by the brand translates here into shells with different finishes, in imitation leather for one (with a color by Pantone) or in wood fibers mixed with resin for the other, all benefiting from the same IP68 certification , which is added to a screen protected by Gorilla Glass Victus.

It is at the level of its chip that the Edge 50 Ultra differs from the Pro model, since it is based on the very recent Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, flanked by a maximum of 16 GB of RAM, and one TB of storage. On the photo side, the device offers a triple back module including two sensors of 50 megapixels each (wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle), but also a 64 Mpx sensor accompanied by a 3x telephoto lens. A 4500 mAh battery completes the package, which charges at 125 W.

The range is completed by an Edge 50 Fusion, entry-level smartphone in the series. The device also presents a 6.67-inch pOled Full HD+ screen (144 Hz, 1600 nits), under which this time hides a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chip and 8 to 12 GB of RAM, as well as 128 to 512 GB of storage. The smartphone, also IP68 certified, has a 5000 mAh battery (charging at 68 W), as well as a dual photo module (50 Mpx for wide-angle, 13 Mpx for ultra-wide-angle). For this latest smartphone, Motorola sets an entry price of €399, which makes it an alternative to a certain Samsung Galaxy A35, currently being tested in our laboratories.