Watch out Samsung and Apple, Motorola is coming for your ultrathin crown

Motorola has had a storming few years, not only offering strong competition in the flip phone race with the Razr Ultra, but also with several compelling mid-range devices. They offer good value, while escaping the worst of the bloatware that some manufacturers pile in. And it seems that the best is yet to come

While the company continues to tease it's "thinnest phone yet", which is due to be unveiled on 5 November, the company has gone and announced the Moto X70 Air in China.

That perhaps spoils the surprise a touch, as this appears to be Motorola's rival to the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge that it's been teasing.

We're expecting it to be rebranded the Edge 70 when it launches globally, and we're not sure exactly what that means for the rest of the Moto Edge models. However, the naming has been a little fast and loose over the years, so you never quite know what you're going to get in which region.

Back to the Moto X70 Air and we have a 5.3mm thick phone, which means it's thinner than the iPhone Air and Galaxy S25 Edge, although there's a pretty big bump that fills out the camera section where it expands to 5.99mm.

It's also equipped with a full set of cameras, with three 50-megapixel cams on the rear and one on the front, with the sensors coming from Samsung. That's quite a slap to Apple and its solitary camera on the iPhone Air.

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The Moto X70 Air weighs 159g, which is pretty light, and also offers IP68 and IP69 protection. There's a range of colour options too, that continues Motorola's partnership with Pantone.

They look great – the official Pantone names aren't clear, but there's a grey with blue lens rings and a couple of green options – they all look good.

While the metal frame is stated, it's not clear what the rear material is and what the rear texture will be like.

Powering the phone is a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, making this very much a mid-range device. There's a 4,800mAh battery which isn't too small considering the slim frame, while there's 68W wired charging, which is pretty common for Motorola devices. There's also 15W wireless charging.

The options that are being offered in China include 12GB RAM and either 128 or 256GB, which suggests that unlike some rivals, this slim phone is actually going to be affordable.

We're perhaps going to see a situation where Motorola casts shade on rivals Samsung and Apple with their expensive and slightly under-featured skinny phones. It looks like you're going to be able to get a superthin device with a more complete feature set for less money.

While this leak perhaps spoils the surprise that Motorola is building towards for 5 November, I can't help but feel excited for the big reveal – this could be a really exciting phone.