Motorola’s long-rumoured Edge X30 finally materialised at a 9 December launch event in China, and in doing so, swiped the title for the first phone with Qualcomm’s new top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 silicon out from underneath the likes of Realme and Xiaomi.

The Edge X30 was leaked and teased numerous times leading up to its formal unveiling, having previously been spotted producing an unprecedented AnTuTu benchmarking score of over 1M, identified by name when the General Manager of Lenovo China posted to Weibo using the phone (the social network states what device you’re posting from) and by way of a host of official and unofficial imagery that emerged before the phone’s formal reveal.

When does the Motorola Edge X30 launch?

Following on from Qualcomm’s announcement of its latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile chip at the end of November, Motorola was among a shortlist of manufacturers that committed to bringing a phone running on this hot new silicon to market in the near future.

Just how near, though, was the real surprise, with the Lenovo-owned company officially naming the device and promising a dedicated Chinese launch would take place little more than a week later.

On 9 December, Motorola hosted a live stream (available to rewatch via its Weibo page) formally unveiling the Edge X30 and showcasing the full spec sheet it brings to the table.

As well as a handful of other Lenovo products – including a smart projector – the event also saw the unveiling of the Motorola Edge S30 – a (relatively speaking) more modest device, powered by a powerful Snapdragon 888+ chipset.

The Edge X30 was also made available to pre-order in China on launch day, with the phone going on sale locally on 15 December; the Edge S30 was scheduled to go on sale a few days later on 21 December.

While the Motorola Edge X30 looks to be a China-exclusive, rumours point to a global variant of the phone coming in the near future, going by the name the ‘Motorola Edge 30 Ultra‘.

How much does the Motorola Edge X30 cost?

Considering this is the first phone to rock some of the latest and greatest mobile silicon on the market – and going by the spec sheet, which paints it as one of the most powerful and feature-packed Motorola phones to date – the company was also aggressive when it came to pricing.

Motorola prepped the audience at the launch event by pricing up the Xiaomi Mix 4 (CNY¥4,999), Iqoo 8 Pro (CNY¥4,999) and Honor Magic 3 Pro (CNY¥5,999) – all of which leverage Qualcomm’s existing Snapdragon 888+ chipset – before swiftly undercutting them with the Edge X30’s pricing.

The phone comes in two colours (machine translated to ‘Shadow’ or ‘Snow’), split into three SKUs, priced as such:

• 8GB RAM + 128GB storage – CNY¥2,999 (approximately £355/€415/US$470/INR₹35,565/AUD$660)
• 8GB RAM + 256GB storage – CNY¥3,199 (approximately £380/€445/US$500/INR₹38,000/AUD$705)
• 12GB RAM + 256GB storage – CNY¥3,399 (approximately £405/€470/US$535/INR₹40,325/AUD$745)

Beyond additional memory and storage, the top-spec model also serves as a special edition that – while rocking a practically identical spec sheet to the ‘vanilla’ models – also gives us our first example of a Motorola phone with an under-display camera (UDC). The verdict is still out on how Moto’s UDC compares to the likes of the ZTE Axon 30 5G‘s implementation but we’re intrigued to see how well the company’s debut attempt handles real-world use.

As and when the Edge X30 materialises in other markets as the Edge 30 Ultra, expect it to cost significantly more though, due to import fees and the like.

What features does the Motorola Edge X30 offer?

While the design is in keeping with the last batch of Edge-branded Motos, after the original Motorola Edge, the company promptly left curved-edge displays behind and that’s still true with the X30.

As for the rest of the aesthetics, the only real standout difference is the rounded form of the camera bump, which differs from the majority of the company’s other recent Edge phones, which opt for more squared forms, otherwise, the phone appears decidedly familiar.

While this Edge X30 doesn’t look or feel quite as bombastic as the likes of Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra or the Honor Magic 3 Pro+, it’s still packed to the gills with cutting-edge hardware, relative to Motorola’s existing portfolio.

Here’s the full spec sheet for the Motorola Edge X30:

• 6.67in 20:9 Full HD+ 144Hz OLED display
  • 10-bit colour depth
  • HDR10+ support
  • 576Hz touch response rate
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC
• 8GB or 12GB RAM (“Turbo” LPDDR5)
• 128GB or 256GB storage (“Turbo” UFS 3.1)
• Main cameras:
  • 50Mp OmniVision OV50A wide w/ OIS
  • 50Mp ISOCELL S5KGM1 114˚ ultrawide
  • 2Mp depth
• 60Mp hole punch (or UDC on special edition) front-facing camera
• Gorilla Glass 5.0 (back)
• Android 12 w/ MYUI 3.0
• Ready For 3.0 desktop experience
• Moto Actions (gesture shortcuts)
• Stereo speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
• Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
• Water-repellant design
• Bluetooth 5.2
• NFC
• 5G (Snapdragon X65 modem)
• USB-C
• 5000mAh battery
• 68W fast charging (quoted 100% in 35 min)
• 163.6mm x 76mm x 8.5mm
• 194 grams
• Colours: Shadow, Snow

The cameras look to be particularly promising, with dual 50Mp sensors leading the charge on the phone’s back; an OmniVision OV50A 1/1.55in main sensor, with 2μm pixels and OIS (optical image stabilisation), alongside a 50Mp ISOCELL S5KGM1 ultrawide snapper. The added grunt from the 8 Gen 1 also facilitates 8K video capture, and there’s a 2Mp depth sensor present as well.

On the front is a centrally-positioned 60Mp 1/2.8in hole punch snapper with 1.2μm pixels, which remains unchanged, despite being pushed beneath the display’s pixels on the UDC-toting special edition.

Being one of the first phones outside of Google’s own Pixel family to run Android 12, the X30 also ushers in MYUI 3.0 (the Chinese alternative to the company’s My UX skin, found in international markets) and with it, the gesture shortcuts (for things like turning on the phone’s flashlight) now synonymous with Motorola phones, as well as version 3.0 of the company’s ReadyFor desktop-like experience (which we first tested on the Moto G100).

Motorola Edge S30

Launching alongside the X30, was its more modest sibling, the Edge S30; although “modest” is relative, in this situation, swapping out OLED for LCD tech on the front and moving from the bleeding-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, back to the cutting-edge Snapdragon 888+.

Here’s what the Motorola Edge S30’s spec sheet looks like:

• 6.8in 19.5:9 Full HD+ 144Hz IPS LCD
  • HDR10 support
  • 576Hz touch response rate
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ SoC
• 6GB, 8GB or 12GB RAM (“Turbo” LPDDR5)
• 128GB or 256GB storage (“Turbo” UFS 3.1)
• Main cameras:
  • 108Mp 1/1.52in f/1.9 wide w/ 1.2μm pixels
  • 13Mp 121˚ f/2.2 ultrawide w/ 1.12μm pixels
  • 2Mp f/2.4 depth w/ 1.75μm pixels
• 16Mp f/2.2 hole punch front-facing camera w/ 1μm pixels
• Plastic build
• Android 11 w/ MYUI 2.0
• Ready For desktop experience
• Moto Actions (gesture shortcuts)
• Dolby Atmos
• Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
• Water-repellant design
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 5G (Snapdragon X60 modem)
• USB-C
• 5000mAh battery
• 33W fast charging
• 168.1mm x 75.5mm x 8.9mm
• 202 grams
• Colours: Phantom Black, Glacier Blue

While the cameras are a little more modest, it doesn’t charge as quickly and it arrives on Android 11 (with MYUX 2.0), rather than Android 12, as on the X30, the Edge S30 still looks like an incredibly capable piece of kit; not least because it too arrives at an aggressively affordable CNY¥1,799 (approximately £215/€250/US$280/INR₹21,370/AUD$395), for the base 6GB RAM, 128GB storage model.

We dove deeper into the launch of the Motorola Edge X30 (and S30) in episode 95 of our weekly podcast Fast Charge, too: