Motorola Edge Plus review: A good try, but not enough to recommend against Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus phones

• Motorola's $1,000 Edge Plus smartphone is good, but it's not good enough to steal your eyes from Apple, Samsung, or OnePlus phones.
• The main things going for it are its powerful specs, which are albeit common in high-end phones. The phone also has very effective cameras.
• Its screen is too curved, however, and its design doesn't have the final polish that's expected on such an expensive smartphone. And, if you're not a Verizon customer, you might as well click away — this phone is a Verizon exclusive, and it's not worth switching for.
• You're better off with the OnePlus 8 Pro if you need to buy a new phone in 2020.
• The Motorola Edge Plus goes on sale on May 14.

Motorola is back to making high-end smartphones, which I thoroughly appreciate.

The high-end smartphone category is in dire need of competition — it's primarily populated by only two companies in the US: Apple and Samsung. For those "in-the-know," the phone of choice is anything from OnePlus. The only other company that was competing at all in the US was LG, but those phones have lost almost all of their appeal.

And, that's when Motorola and the $1,000 Edge Plus comes in, hopeful to become a real, viable competitor for your hands and pockets. One day, I hope Motorola can make a phone that makes Samsung and Apple sweat a little bit. Unfortunately, Motorola's first try with the Edge Plus isn't it.

Check out what's great and not so great about the Motorola Edge Plus:

Moto Edge Plus specs

• Display: 6.7-inch 1080p (2,340 x 1,080) 90Hz AMOLED
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 System on a Chip (SoC)
• Memory & storage: 12GB LPDDR5 RAM & 256GB UFS 3.0 storage
• Rear cameras: 108-megapixel wide, 16-megapixel ultra-wide, 8-megapixel 3x optical zoomed lens
• Selfie camera: 25-megapixel
• Battery: 5,000mAh

Design and display

The Moto Edge Plus is a nice phone, but it's lacking the final polish that's expected on high-end flagships, like the OnePlus 8 series or the Galaxy S20 phones. It's only really noticeable when you're inspecting the phone, but none of the pieces (glass front panel, frame, back glass panel) look like they fit with each other very well, and the glossy metal frame looks cheap.

What really makes the Edge Plus pop is its screen. The 90-degree curved edges are very steep, and it gives off a waterfall effect that looks great on a smartphone. Then again, curved screen edges, especially those as steep as the Edge Plus, actually have a negative effect on the phone, which I'll get to later.

Eagle-eye spec-watchers will notice that the Edge Plus' screen is "only" 1080p resolution, and "only" has a 90Hz refresh rate, which doesn't match the 1440p and 120Hz screens that OnePlus and Samsung have normalized in 2020. Trust me, 1080p resolution and 90Hz still looks sharp and smooth— the key is that it's at least over 60Hz, which is what phone screens used to be before 2019. I use both the OnePlus 8 Pro and the Edge Plus several times a day, and I never wish to myself that the Edge Plus had a sharper resolution or a faster refresh rate.

Performance and battery life

The Edge Plus, nor other Android flagships of 2020, are going to surprise us here. It runs on the same specs as other top Android flagships, which means its as powerful and fast. It opens and runs your apps just as well as more expensive phones, like the $1,200 Galaxy S20 Plus.

That's also to say that benchmark numbers are going to be about the same as other phones. For the Edge Plus, a standard Geekbench test returned with 911 single core performance, and 3,330 multi-core performance. This test measures the capabilities of the processor's single-core and multi-core speeds in several simulated tasks.

Worthy of note: The Edge Plus is a new and very welcomed addition to the "near-stock Android" club, where the company didn't mess around too much with the "stock" version of Android. That's to say the Android operating system that you use every day is clean and intuitive, and it doesn't have too many extra features that bog down performance.

With that said, there's some noticeable stuttering when you flick through your open apps. It's a nit-pick and inconsequential, but it's something you should know if you're looking to buy this phone. Other phones don't do that, and it doesn't instill much confidence.

Seeing as this is Motorola's re-entry into the fancy flagship world, the company's ability to deliver timely Android updates still needs to be tested. However, since this is a Verizon exclusive phone, I fear that Edge Plus users will be on Verizon's schedule for updates. That's to say updates could be months late, if they ever roll out.

With its large 5,000mAh, battery life is meant to be of the Edge Plus' main attractions. Battery life is great! But, it's not perceivably better than most other high-end smartphones in similar sizes. You might get an extra hour or so of battery life, but you'll still have to charge it every day or two, depending on how much you use it.

Cameras

The Edge Plus has surprisingly good cameras. It doesn't oversaturate colors, nor does it try too hard to make your photos look good with overly aggressive processing and HDR (brightening darker areas and dimming bright areas) or making colors (especially greens) look neon, which are unfortunate traits on Samsung's Galaxy S20 and the OnePlus 8 Pro.

In essence, the pictures below are closer to what I actually see at the time and are more grounded in reality than other phones, which often try too hard to make photos look good, often resulting in photos that look overly processed. So far, only the iPhone 11 series and Pixel 4 phones manage to take good, simple photos, and the Moto Edge Plus joins those ranks.

Here's a photo from the Edge Plus' main shooter:

Here's a photo taken with the ultra-wide camera:

And here's a photo from the 3x zoomed lens:

I should emphasize how good and accurate the colors are on the Edge Plus.

Problems with the Moto Edge Plus

The Moto Edge Plus' biggest problem is that it's a Verizon exclusive. That means it's not available on other carriers and their customers. And no, the Edge Plus isn't good enough for AT&T or T-Mobile users to switch to Verizon.

The Moto Edge Plus also comes with a crazy amount of bloatware, including Verizon's own awful apps, as well as apps like Facebook and Yahoo Finance, and games like "Candy Crush Soda" and "Raid." This is likely a result of being a Verizon exclusive, and an example of how carriers often have negative influences on hardware. Bloatware isn't the worst thing in the world, as you can uninstall it manually. But, it does cheapen the phone's appearance and taints impressions.

The Moto Edge Plus' other biggest problem is the very thing that makes it pop. The screen edges are so aggressively curved that parts of videos, photos, and websites are not visible. There are also light reflections at the curves, which further makes things along the edges harder to see, not to mention being distracting.

On top of that, the curves mean it's impossible to hold and use the Edge Plus without your palms or fingers touching the screen, causing frequent accidental taps and swipes. A case might help with the accidental edge taps, but it won't return the parts of the screen that are effectively hidden from view.

Should you buy this phone?

Despite its shortcomings, everything about the Edge Plus is "fine," and most people will like its performance, cameras, and design. Most will delete the bloatware and forget about it, and they might not even notice the accidental screen taps on the screen's edges because most people will use a case. And, while the screen's curves are so intense that they crop the screen, it's not necessarily a deal-breaker — the Edge Plus is still usable. Everything else about it, like its in-display fingerprint sensor and even the relatively slow 18W included charger, is fine.

But, there are two obstacles between you and the Motorola Edge Plus. Those obstacles are smartphones from OnePlus, and the other is 5G.

The OnePlus 8 Pro is overall a better phone. The design is nicer, the screen is better and less curved, it performs better, and it's $100 less. With that said, the camera is better on the Edge Plus. Still, the OnePlus is undoubtedly the best all-around Android phone you can buy.

As for 5G, it's an expensive feature that makes phones pricier than they've ever been. And, at the time of writing, Verizon's 5G network is pretty sparse, so you won't be getting your money's worth. Unless you live in a Verizon 5G coverage area, you're unlikely to run into Verizon's 5G network very often. Essentially, you're paying for 5G support with the Moto Edge Plus, but there's barely any 5G to connect to.

In fact, you're paying extra for 5G support with every new high-end Android phone in 2020 so far, and the fast 5G networks on other carriers doesn't reach any further than Verizon's.

I'd recommend that you wait to upgrade when 5G networks have significantly wider coverage before buying a new high-end phone in 2020 that forces you to buy into 5G support. That could mean waiting until 2021, maybe even longer. If you absolutely need a new phone, I'd first see whether you're comfortable with buying a slightly older phone — specifically the $500 OnePlus 7T. If not, I'd check out the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, if you can ever find it in stock. And, if that still doesn't tempt you away, the Moto Edge Plus is a fine phone you'll be happy with.