When is the release date for the Motorola Edge 20?
Motorola unveiled the new Edge 20 family at a global launch event on 29 July, which played host to the arrival of the Edge 20, 20 Lite and 20 Pro.
In markets including Europe and the UK, all three models are expected to go on sale on 19 August.There’s a chance that the phones will arrive in China under a different name too.
The first Motorola Edge was announced in April 2020, then made available at the end of May. Obviously, since then the world has seen massive disruption through COVID-19, so shuffling the release schedule back a few months makes sense.
How much does the Motorola Edge 20 cost?
In the UK, the Motorola Edge 20 Lite costs £299.99, the vanilla Edge 20 is priced at £429.99 and the top-tier Edge 20 Pro clocks in at £649.99 SIM-free.
Availability in Blighty – outside of buying from Motorola directly – varies by device, with all three models on sale from Amazon, Carphone Warehouse and John Lewis & Partners. Carrier-wise, the Edge 20 Lite is also ranging on Vodafone and EE, the standard Edge 20 can be picked up from Tesco Mobile and the Edge 20 Pro is on Vodafone’s and O2’s books.
For reference, the previous-generation Motorola Edge came in at £549 (approx US$755) for the standard model and £725/$999 for the Edge+ variant.
Edge 20 Pro purchases include a free Lenovo M10 Plus tablet worth £109 – find out more in our guide: Where to buy the Motorola Edge 20 phones in the UK.
What specs does the Motorola Edge 20 offer?
While the Edge line is where you’ll find Motorola’s most premium devices right now, not all of the Edge 20 series should be considered ‘flagship’; in the same way Oppo‘s Find X3 series spans the mid-range and high-end spaces.
There are also some constants across the lineup, like the use of 6.7in, high refresh rate, HDR10+, OLED displays; all supporting the full DCI-P3 colour space with 10-bit colour support. All three phones also pack in 5G, 30W fast charging (with the charger included in-box), Motorola’s ‘Ready For’ desktop-like experience and lead with a 108Mp camera, leveraging nonabinning tech and 2.1μm pixels.
Motorola Edge 20 Lite
The ‘baby’ of this new series of Edge devices pulls back primarily on performance, through its use of a MediaTek Dimensity 720 chipset, but also boasts the largest capacity battery of the trio, at 5000mAh.
- 6.7in 20:0 Full HD+ OLED display
- 90Hz high refresh rate
- HDR10+
- Full DCI-P3 support
- 10-bit colour
- 2.5D glass
- MediaTek Dimensity 720 5G-B processor
- 6GB or 8GB RAM (market dependant)
- 128GB storage
- microSD expandable up to 512GB
- PMMA rear inlay back
- Rear cameras:
- 108Mp main
- 8Mp 118° ultrawide/macro (down to 2cm)
- 2Mp depth sensor
- 32Mp front-facing hole-punch camera (w/ low light AI selfie)
- Android 11
- ‘Ready for’ support (wired/PC)
- Power key-cum-fingerprint sensor
- Double-tap key for recent apps
- IP52-certified
- NFC
- 5G
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Dual-SIM
- USB-C
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- FM radio
- 5000mAh battery
- 30W fast charging (50% in 26 minutes)
- 165.89 x 75.95 x 8.25mm
- 185 grams
- Colours: Laguna Green, Electric Graphite
Motorola Edge 20
The biggest upgrades from the Lite model fall to the chipset and the display’s impressively smooth 144Hz refresh rate, but this also happens to be Motorola’s thinnest 5G phone to date, at 6.99mm.
Motorola also traded the Lite’s depth sensor for an optically stabilised 3x telephoto sensor and while the company’s ‘Ready For’ tech is present here too, it’s now wireless, rather than wired.
- 6.7in 20:9 Full HD+ OLED display
- 144Hz high refresh rate
- 576Hz touch response rate
- HDR10+
- Full DCI-P3 support
- 10-bit colour
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor
- 6GB or 8GB RAM
- 128GB or 256GB storage
- Glass front & back
- Rear cameras:
- 108Mp main
- 16Mp Ultrawide/macro
- 8Mp 3x optical telephoto w/ OIS
- 32Mp front-facing hole-punch camera (w/ low light AI selfie)
- Android 11
- ‘Ready for’ support (wireless/PC)
- Power key-cum-fingerprint sensor
- Double-tap key for recent apps
- IP52 certified
- NFC
- WiFi 6
- 5G
- Dual-SIM
- Bluetooth 5.2
- USB-C
- 4000mAh battery
- 30W fast charging
- 163 x 76 x 6.99mm
- 163 grams
- Colours: Frosted Black, Frosted Emerald, Frosted White
Motorola Edge 20 Pro
The main shift from the standard Edge 20 to the Pro model comes with the introduction of Motorola’s first periscopic camera system, granting the Pro up to 5x optical zoom and 50x ‘Super Zoom’.
The Pro can also capture up to 8K resolution, thanks in part to a beefier Snapdragon 870 chipset and is the only member of the Edge 20 family to boast a vegan leather finish, alongside some glass-backed colourways.
- 6.7in 20:9 Full HD+ OLED display
- 144Hz high refresh rate
- 576Hz touch response rate
- HDR10+
- Full DCI-P3 support
- 10-bit colour
- 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor
- 12GB RAM
- 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
- Glass front & back
- Rear cameras:
- 108Mp main
- 16Mp Ultrawide/macro
- 8Mp 5x optical periscopic telephoto w/ OIS
- 32Mp front-facing hole punch camera (w/ low light AI selfie)
- Android 11
- ‘Ready for’ support (wired/wireless/PC)
- Power key-cum-fingerprint sensor
- Double-tap key for recent apps
- IP52 certified
- NFC
- WiFi 6
- 5G
- Dual-SIM
- Bluetooth 5.1
- USB-C
- 4500mAh battery
- 30W fast charging
- 163 x 76 x 7.99mm
- 190 grams (glass back), 185 grams (vegan leather back)
- Colours: Midnight Blue, Irridescent White, Blue vegan leather
One strange omission for this series of devices is the move away from displays with curved edges. It was thought that the original Motorola Edge and Edge+ got their name from their curved-edge displays, a feature that wasn’t present on the Edge S (the Chinese name for the Moto G100), while the Edge 20, Lite and Pro all appear to sport flat displays.
As for software, while these phones enjoy the latest Motorola experiences – including wireless ‘Ready For’ support – Motorola confirmed that all three phones are currently only on track to receive only two major OS updates and two years of Android security updates in their lifetime; a notably weaker outlook to longevity, compared to Samsung and OnePlus’ recent promises.
We discuss how the Motorola Edge 20 line slots into the wider smartphone scene as part of our weekly podcast, Fast Charge:
Motorola Edge 20 Fusion
While the global launch event on 29 July confirmed the presence of three Edge 20 devices, leaks in the lead-up to their unveiling also made reference to a fourth entry, according to Deals N Tech, called to ‘Edge 20 Fusion’.
Paired with prior spec leaks from Evan Blass (@Evleaks on Twitter), it’s thought that at least one iteration of the Fusion will be a variation on the vanilla Edge 20 that’ll be exclusive to Verizon in the US.
While the specs for this device are mostly identical, the North American unit reportedly sports a larger display and battery, as well as a tweaked camera setup, closer to that of the Edge 20 Lite.
Here are the leaked specs that differ from the standard Motorola Edge 20:
- 6.78in Full HD+ (2460×1080) 120Hz OLED display
- 108Mp + 8Mp (ultrawide w/ macro mode) + 2Mp (depth) rear cameras
- 5000mAh battery
Separately, Motorola India has announced that a different phone going by the same name (the ‘Motorola Edge 20 Fusion’, if that wasn’t clear), is set to make its debut on 17 August at 12pm local time (that’s 7:30am BST/8:30am CEST), exclusively via online retailer Flipkart.
This flavour of Fusion runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset and will reportedly be India’s thinnest 5G phone to date, measuring in at 6.99mm thick. Specs mentioned, like the display and cameras, match that of the existing Motorola Edge 20 Lite but we’ll have to wait to see if we’re presented with more hardware details before the phone’s launch.
To see what the Motorola Edge 20 family is up against, be sure to take a look at our best budget smartphone, best mid-range smartphone and best smartphone guides.