Motorola Edge (2024) Goes on Sale for $550 with an Upgraded Battery

Moto's Edge phone for 2024 goes on sale. Thursday, after its June 4 debut, with changes over last year's Edge, including a bigger battery, an IP68 grade for water and dust resistance, and a new Quick Button for customizing shortcuts. Motorola is offering it in the United States for $550, which is $50 less than last year's Edge.

On the exterior, the phone retains a 6.6-inch curved edge display similar to the 2023 Edge, with a 144Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution. It will also have the vegan leather material that Motorola introduced to both last year's Edge and this year's Moto G range, in the Midnight Blue hue.

There is a new Quick Button on the upper-left side, which Motorola claims may be used to start apps or perform particular operations within an app. It sounds quite similar to the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro and the configurable side button on Samsung Galaxy phones. Android phones have a long history of using physical buttons as shortcuts.

I appreciated how light last year's Edge phone felt at 168 grams (5.9 ounces), and this year's Edge is somewhat heavier at 174 grams (6.1 ounces). This will still be substantially lighter than Google's comparable priced Pixel 8A, which weighs 193 grams.At the same time, the Edge will gain a 5,000-mAh battery, up from 4,400-mAh last year. It will also retain last year's 68-watt charging speed and support 15W wireless charging.

The Edge will use a midrange Qualcomm Snapdragon 7S Gen 2 CPU, 256GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. The phone will also have the same camera setup as last year, with a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 32-megapixel front-facing camera.

Many of these specifications are reasonable for the $550 pricing, but with Motorola only promising two years of major software upgrades and three years of security patches, the Edge phone lags behind Google and OnePlus' $500 phones. The Pixel 8A receives seven years of software and security upgrades, but the OnePlus 12R will receive three years of software and four years of security updates. On the other hand, Motorola has a habit of severely reducing their smartphones after introduction, so the value proposition may vary when this occurs.

This US model is quite similar to Motorola's worldwide Edge 50 Fusion, which has many of the same specifications but a slightly lower 120Hz refresh rate. Unfortunately, the Motorola Edge (2024) will lack some of the more advanced features and materials (such as wood) seen on the Edge 50 Pro and Edge 50 Ultra. However, Motorola has historically released a higher-end Edge Plus model, and if one does return to the US, perhaps it will have a faster CPU or a wood finish.