Motorola's slimmest ever phone might show the future of ultra-thin phones in one key way

Sometimes, despite the best efforts of even really sizeable brands, product rollouts just don't go quite the way they're intended – a great case in point being the newly-announced Motorola Edge 70, which was meant to be officially unveiled today. Except, for some reason, Motorola's store put the phone's info live last week, spoiling the surprise more than a little.

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Still, nothing lost, nothing gained: we can talk about the Edge 70 now, which I've had in my hands for a few days to get a look at it. The headline here from Motorola's point of view is that this is the thinnest phone it's ever made, aiming to compete visually and in marketing terms with the likes of the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.

There's one huge difference, though, that marks the Motorola Edge 70 as quite different, and I'm hoping it might showcase what's next for the ultra-thin phone market. That difference? Price.

The iPhone Air launched at £1,199 / $1199, making it a chunk more expensive than the base iPhone 17. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, meanwhile, mirrored that approach with a price of £1,099 in the UK and $1,099 in the USA. Motorola's gone in a very different direction, though.

The Edge 70 is priced at £700 in the UK and €799.99 in the EU (with a US launch not yet confirmed or massively likely). That means it clearly undercuts the phones that Apple and Samsung have released, albeit when you look at the specs sheet, it doesn't take long to see why.

From a design standpoint, I really like the Edge 70, though. At just 5.99mm thin, it's about 0.3mm thicker than the iPhone Air and just 0.1mm thicker than the Galaxy S25 Edge. In practice, that means it really feels like it belongs in the same bracket as those phones in terms of hand-feel.

In an era of glass-backed phones that shatter from a light drop, though, it has a soft-touch plastic back that instantly marks it out as a less premium option. A small Pantone panel at the bottom points towards a partnership that sees some fun colour options, including the muted "lilypad" green I've got to test.

The other big hint that this is a less expensive phone is under the hood: it uses the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, a cut below the top-line chips available, no matter how Motorola justifies it in marketing. It could well not matter to most people while using the phone, of course, but it helps to explain the lower price that's been applied.

You also get the full range of Motorola's various AI features, for what that's worth, many of them accessed by a shortcut button on the left of the phone. Whether these are time-savers or just part of a wasted button will be down to how much you use AI tools, of course.

I haven't had time to really get settled into the phone at all, so I can't comment on its performance, or that of its three 50MP cameras (including an ultrawide, one of my favourite mobile shooting tools). Still, if you're in the market for a super-thin phone that won't break the bank, the design I've got my hands on suggests this is a contender to consider.