The Motorola Edge 30 is about as thin as 5G phones get

When it comes to skinny smartphones, Motorola thinks it has the edge – quite literally – with its latest mid-range effort.

The Edge 30 is a pencil-thin 6.79mm at its slimmest, but doesn’t make cut-backs elsewhere to achieve it. You’re still getting an OLED display and triple-lens rear camera, as well as Dolby Atmos sound and a fast-charging battery. Oh, and it looks the business, too, thanks to some sleek curves and a welcome splash of colour.

Motorola’s latest camera setup sees the main and ultrawide snappers both using 50MP sensors. They’re joined by a 2MP sensor dedicated to depth sensing, and up front there’s a 32MP selfie cam.

The main camera gets optical image stabilisation, and what Motorola calls “Instant All Pixel Focus”. This uses 100% of the pixels available to quickly focus on your subject, rather than just a small percentage. It’s something we’ve seen in premium and flagship phones, but is still a luxury in the Motorola Edge 30’s price range. HDR video recording is also supported.

The 6.5in display is a highlight, with a super-high 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support, for silky smooth scrolling and the brightness to do the latest streaming sensations justice while on the move. Given the stereo speakers are Dolby certified, sound should also pack a punch.

Mid-range performance, wallet-friendly price

Power comes from a Snapdragon 778G+ chipset, paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of on-board storage. That should put it on par with most affordable mid-range rivals. The 4020mAh battery doesn’t look the beefiest, but Motorola’s TurboPower 30 fast charging support should give enough juice for a day’s use in under half an hour.

The Motorola Edge 30 will launch in the UK from early May, with pre-orders opening from the 28th of April. Prices start from £380 direct from Motorola. It will then head to select European markets, along with Australia, India, Latin America and the Middle East.

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A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews. When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.