Motorola may have just updated its Moto G series of phones and released the $399 Motorola One 5G Ace. But the company has bigger targets in its sights, with all signs pointing to a new flagship device that Motorola hopes can measure up against the best Android phones.
That would be another edition to the Motorola Edge lineup, which Motorola launched last year with the Motorola Edge Plus. That phone didn’t exactly knock Samsung’s Galaxy flagships off their roost, but it sounds like Motorola may be read to try again with a new model.
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A launch announcement found on Chinese social media platform Weibo that appears to be from Motorola itself states that a new phone is set to debut as early as next week. The post lists a Jan. 26 launch date and touts the arrival of the Motorola Edge S.
We can glean a few other details from this post: The Motorola Edge S will be a 5G-compatible device and powered by a Snapdragon 870G chipset. That’s the system-on-chip announced by Qualcomm earlier this week that’s a follow-up to last year’s Snapdragon 865 Plus. While not as powerful as the Snapdragon 888 mobile platform found inside the new Galaxy S21 lineup, the 870G should deliver faster performance than last year’s Android flagship phones.
What we don’t know is if the Motorola Edge S teased in this image is intended just for China or whether it will be a global product. If it’s a successor to the Motorola Edge Plus that means its part of the phone maker’s flagship family, which looks to match some of the high-end features found in the premium Android market. The Edge Plus debuted priced $999, what you’d expect to pay for a Galaxy S or Galaxy Note device from Samsung.
Earlier this month, PhoneArena showed off leaked photos of something code-named the Motorola Edge Nio, a codename that could cover the device that will be sold as the Motorola Edge S in China. That same report claims the phone will be marketed as a Moto G device elsewhere, though Moto G phones sold in the U.S. typically feature processors from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 series.
The photos in the Motorola Edge Nio report depict a glossy phone with a pearlescent finish. There's a triple-camera array with three sensors, each with metal rings. It will likely present a 64-megapixel main sensor with a 16-megapixel ultra-wide shooter and 2-megapixel depth sensor.
The phone itself comes would offer a 6.7-inch screen with two selfie punch hole cameras and a refresh rate of 90Hz. From the photos we've seen, it appears the bezels are quite slim, though it's hard to say for sure from the few glimpses on the internet thus far.
