Motorola Edge 70 review: Is slim the new thing?

Motorola made a surprise entrance into the ultra-slim phone category, looking to take the fight to the big players – Samsung and Apple.

But there's a feeling that the Edge 70 is a lot more, well, 'normal'. For starters, it doesn't have a showy name like Galaxy Edge or iPhone Air – it's just the Edge 70, stepping into place as the first new device before more Edge 70 models appear later in the year.

The Edge 70 also has a much more 'normal' price than its rivals, which makes its compromises a lot more palatable – not that there are many. The headline figure you'll be searching for is 5.99mm, as that's the thickness of the phone, compared to 5.8mm from Samsung and 5.6mm from Apple.

So is this a bona fide case of Motorola making smart choices to present a thin phone that's better than those big-name rivals? In many ways yes – but it's not defining enough to make slim phones the de facto choice for most people just yet. Here's why:

Price & Availability

The Motorola Edge 70 is widely available in the UK and Europe, following an early November launch last year. It costs £699.98 / €799.99 – and that's for 512GB storage, the only option available.

At the time of writing, there are offers for free Moto Buds, a 68W charger, Moto Tag and Moto Watch Fit, as well as a 10% discount direct from Motorola – which really adds to the appeal.

The price makes it good value compared to other high-profile slim phones, but it's expensive compared to mid-range rivals. It's expected to launch in Australia later this year (price TBC), but will not launch in the USA.

Moto Edge 70 vs Moto Edge 60: What's new?

• Fewer cameras
  • Camera drops the telephoto
• Smaller battery
  • 4800mAh silicon-carbon battery
• Slimmer and lighter
  • 5.99mm and 159g compared to 7.99mm and 179g
• More powerful
  • Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 over Dimensity 7300

The logical comparison to start this review of the Edge 70 is against the Edge 60. Sequentially, it looks like the Edge 70 replaces the Edge 60 in the line-up. It's a higher-positioned and a more expensive device, though, so in terms of pure value for money the Edge 70 faces a challenge.

It drops the telephoto camera of the Edge 60, too, while the battery is a smaller capacity – features inevitably lost in pursuit of the lighter build and slimmer design.

Visually, both look very similar – unlike the iPhone Air and S25 Edge, which look like "special" variants – so the Moto Edge 70 looks like a Motorola phone.

The 70 is more powerful than the Edge 60, however, and that's what it does, in part, to justify the price difference.

I suspect that there will be cheaper Motorola models below the Edge 70 – an Edge 70 Fusion and Neo, perhaps? – while the Pro and Moto Signature will likely sit above it.

Design & Display

• 6.67-inch OLED display
  • 2712 x 1220 pixels (446ppi)
  • 120Hz refresh rate
  • 20:9 aspect ratio

The Edge 70 follows the design we've seen from Motorola over the past few generations of devices. That sees a Pantone-coloured rear – in a "Nylon-inspired" finish – sitting on an aluminium frame. It's well protected, with IP68/69 ingress proofing, as well as military-grade protection (MIL-STD 810H) for added robustness.

The phone measures 159 x 74 x 5.99mm and weighs 159g, which is where it tries to sell itself as something a little different. It's certainly slimmer in the hand than previous devices – and even with a case on (there's one included in the box) it's only as thick as a regular phone.

What difference does going slim make? It's a little more manageable in the hand, there's less thickness to reach around when using it one-handed, while the lighter weight helps too. It sits better in a pocket, while being a little more elegant to look at when out on display.

At the same time, from any sort of distance, it just looks like any other Motorola phone. It comes in muted colours – whether you drink the Pantone message or not, what you've effectively got is grey or green – although the new (controversial) Pantone Colour of the Year – Cloud Dancer (um, white) – has also been added.

It's worth noting that the design looks the same as other Moto Edge devices, because there are still four roundels on the camera bump. While two are lenses and one is the flash, the third is now filled with a "3-in-1 light sensor". Make of that what you will.

Unlike Samsung and Apple, the Moto Edge 70 doesn't feel or look that different, it's just a slimmer and lighter version of a phone that's very much Motorola – and that will probably divide opinion. Some will like that it's 'normal', some will think it's not distinctive enough.

The display is impressive though. It's a big OLED panel with nice slim bezels, a 120Hz refresh rate, plenty of detail and nice vibrant colours – plus Pantone Validated certification to ensure accuracy. It's also bright, with up to 4500 nits of output, so visibility remains great.

Performance & Battery

• Snapdragon 7 Gen 4
• 12GB RAM; 512GB storage
• 4800mAh battery
  • 68W wired charging
  • 15W wireless

The performance of the Moto Edge 70 is governed by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 that sits at this phone's core. That makes it a mid-range device, sitting below the Snapdragon 8 series hardware that's in flagship and sub-flagship devices.

That poses a slight problem for the Edge 70's pricing: the OnePlus 15R with Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (a full tier above and generation ahead) is only a mite more expensive, while offering better performance.

However, what really matters here is the practical application of the hardware and how the phone performs. In day-to-day use, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is snappy enough. Unless you're really looking for it, it's hard to see much of a difference compared to flagship devices when browsing, crunching emails, or switching between apps. It's all perfectly smooth.

That also explains why I moved into the Moto Edge in early December, planning a quick review, but found myself still in it a month later – there has been no performance reason to move out of this phone. The only things I've seen are the occasional stammer in Call of Duty Mobile, while characters would seem to jump, suggesting a slight connectivity issue under load. I was still MVP in most matches, so I wasn't too bothered about that.

Then there's battery life. The 4800mAh cell isn't too different to some flagship devices. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is only 5000mAh (and is much bigger) and the endurance of this Moto handset doesn't let it down.

Sure, there have been a number of days when I've found that there's only 25% battery left as I sit down for my evening of gaming, but one of Motorola's best features comes to the rescue: it has fast-charging.

With 68W charging onboard, the battery is back to full power in no time at all – and there's even 15W wireless charging too. While there's no charger in the box (as per European regs), I'm sure most households now have a fast-charger to take advantage of the speeds on offer.

So, from both a power and battery standpoint, the Edge 70 doesn't feel compromised. Yes, it's not going to match those devices that are now pushing over 7000mAh for pure staying power – hi there Oppo Find X9 Pro and OnePlus 15 – but thanks to the silicon-carbon battery tech, there's still enough life here. Consider that Samsung's slim phone only has a 3900mAh battery and that puts it in context.

Software

• Android 16 with Moto AI
  • 5 years security updates

One of the biggest selling points of Motorola phones over the past decade has been the close-to-stock Google Android software experience.

I've recommended Motorola as a cheaper alternative to Pixel devices for that very reason, but things are changing. The introduction of Moto AI – as the brand looks to bring more artificial intelligence features to its devices – comes with it more bloat, more intrusion, and more of a pivot away from Android.

During setup there are a couple of steps trying to push additional app installs, for example. Phone manufacturers can often earn money from developers for including such apps – and it feels like that's what Motorola is doing. Seasoned phone-users will be able to sidestep this, of course, but those with less experience are likely to find that they end up with a phone full of junk and spammy recommendations.

The integration of Moto AI doesn't help: the apps tray has been diverted from just being apps to having integrated AI included in the search, as well as a "newsfeed". No one needs a news feed, because Android has Google Discover built-in – and it's far better than this secondary feed that Motorola has shoehorned into the apps tray. You can avoid it – and my advice would be to never open it.

There's also a persistent nagging to use the "live lock screen", which equally seems to drop spam onto the lock screen as well.

On the side of the phone is an AI button, which is designed to launch into Moto AI (it can be customised, but only for Moto AI functions). You'll need a Moto account to get this to work, but then you'll get options like being able to use Copilot Vision to identify things on screen, or take voice notes and have them transcribed. Moto AI also has the option to "update" you on messages – which works cross-platform with more scope than Google's Gemini.

Mentioning Gemini, this is where things get complicated, because there are multiple options being presented: Gemini is here as standard, but exists separately to Moto AI. Copilot Vision is a duplication of what Gemini Live or Google Lens offers. And that's the feeling across the software experience: it feels like Motorola is duplicating and pouring in "stuff" without it coherently coming together into a clean overall experience.

Ultimately, I tried and then turned off a lot of the Moto options, removed a lot of the bloat, and I suspect that's what people will do. AI is already complicated enough without encountering different AI experiences at every turn.

In terms of updates, Motorola has improved its position, now offering four OS updates and five years of security updates. This is still some way off the seven years that Google, Samsung and now Honor offer, though.

Cameras

• Double rear camera:
  • Main (24mm): 50-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture, 1/1.56in (Samsung GNJ sensor), Autofocus (AF), optical stabilisation (OIS)
  • Ultrawide (12mm): 50MP, f/2.0, 1.28µm, AF
  • 3-in-1 light sensor
• Single front selfie camera:
  • 21mm: 50MP, f/2.0

The big compromise on the Edge 70's cameras is the loss of the dedicated telephoto camera. Motorola isn't in bad company here, though, as both Samsung and Apple ditched their telephoto offering too (Apple has a single camera, so not even ultrawide).

Instead, the Edge 70 has moved to improve the performance of the remaining cameras over the Edge 60, although that's not quite achieved: I still found a tonal difference between the ultrawide and main camera, for example.

With no dedicated zoom, users are left with sensor cropping for the 2x zoom function, with digital zoom out to 20x. That digital zoom is lossy, with processing attempting to keep some of the detail in place and keep it usable, but straying beyond 2x quickly shows this loss of quality.

Low-light performance can look a little cloudy, with inconsistent colours and bright points often appearing a little 'misty'. Although most will find it passable, I'd pick the Pixel 9a for low-light performance over the Moto Edge 70 any day of the week.

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There's another little detail that isn't working in Motorola's favour: it doesn’t take advantage of Google's Ultra HDR, which emphasises high dynamic range to make photos look much more contrasty and ranged when viewing.

Although the data is gathered at capture, opening an image in Google Photos doesn't show Ultra HDR; open the same image on a Pixel phone (where Ultra HDR is displayed) and the images look much more vibrant.

I have no complaints about the performance of the main camera in good lighting, however, as I've found it to take some great photos. Still, it struggles to compete at this price point. Ultimately, it's going to be a question of what matters most to you – a slimmer design, or better camera performance?

One area that is boosted is video capture, with the 4K 60fps now offered, thanks to the Snapdragon hardware. The front camera, equally, I found to be pretty good, able to pick out edges for distinct bokeh portraits easily.

Moto Edge 70 review: Verdict

The Motorola Edge 70 is an interesting phone. Of all slim devices I've seen, it has a distinct advantage in that it's cheaper and feels more like a 'normal' phone – in a good way.

The downside compared to irs more expensive competitors is that it's clearly a mid-range phone rather than offering flagship power. Motorola's software experience and camera can't compete at this price level either.

However, there's a great display, flagship-grade protection, and a nice design. The smaller battery isn't much of a compromise either, as it still lasts through the day with nice fast-charging for top-ups, while the performance will be good enough for all but the most demanding.

Ultimately, the Moto Edge 70 achieves slimness at a lower cost than Apple's and Samsung's equivalents, making it a good step for slim phones – but not one defining enough to make them the de facto choice for everyone just yet.

Also consider

While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air might be the obvious alternatives to the Edge 70, they only really compare in terms of slim design. In that situation, both Samsung and Apple are more powerful, but the compromises are more keenly felt due to the price.

Instead, the Edge 70 really competes against mid-range and sub-flagship devices on price. That includes the more powerful OnePlus 15R, the likes of the Honor 400 Pro – which is cheaper with a better camera and more power, but worse software – or the Google Pixel 9a, which has a better camera, is cheaper and offers a cleaner software experience.