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Motorola Edge 2022 Android Smartphone -- DEMO & REVIEW
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Jun 22, 2024
Motorola has been making mobile telephone devices since the 1970s. No kidding. So it's no surprise that the new Motorola Edge 2022 is a pretty remarkable Android smartphone with solid cameras, great battery life, and a sharp, vivid screen. Tech expert Dave Taylor checks out the Moto Edge 2022 and finds that there's lots to like, and a few quirks too... Check it out at AT&T: https://www.att.com/buy/phones/motorola-edge-2022.html Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ #motorola #edge #motoedge #motoedge2022 #edge2022 #askdavetaylor
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0:00
An Android smartphone from one of the OG smartphone makers
0:03
Let's check it out. Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out this
0:14
This is the Motorola Edge 2022 model Android smartphone. And this is a pretty sweet budget Android smartphone
0:24
And Motorola has been making smartphones since they weren't even smart. In fact, Motorola has been making mobile phones
0:30
That's probably the better way to phrase it for a really long time
0:34
And they got really successful. I remember having a flip phone all those years ago
0:39
I mean, it didn't do much, but it made phone calls. And then Motorola sort of like went off the horizon
0:45
off the radar screen as other companies like Google and Samsung and Apple
0:51
really just took over and were like really super popular. But Motorola is still chugging along
0:57
And this is a very nice smartphone. They've made a lot of really interesting decisions with the design here
1:03
So let me run through some specs and then I have a ton of photo and video demos
1:08
And then I'll tell you what I like and don't like about it. And then blow your mind by telling you the current promo price at AT&T
1:16
So first off, it features a 6.6 inch FHD OLED screen at 2400 by 1800
1:25
So that's pretty high res and it's reasonably fast. It's not the fastest phone, but there's a reason for that when we get to the CPU
1:35
So the screen 144 hertz, it's HDR 10 plus. So it is a full 4K-ish resolution
1:43
It's not exactly 4K, but it gives you some really nice resolution and a ton of colors
1:49
It's a bright, vivid screen. Now, part of the reason for that is because it's not a full IPX7 phone
1:57
So it is not fully waterproof like a lot of the other phones coming out nowadays
2:02
This one is actually IP55. And that means that it's water resistant and it's dust and dirt resistant
2:11
But if you drop it in the pool and you don't notice for half an hour, it was probably a little too long for it to be underwater
2:17
And that's not going to be a good look for it. So the front is glass, as you would hope
2:23
Whoops, I don't know what I just turned on there. And the back, surprisingly, is plastic
2:29
But some people have said that they feel that that makes it cheap
2:34
But I don't agree. I think it's just a very typical budget phone
2:38
And the plastic has a very nice look to it. So it doesn't look, if you will, plasticky
2:43
So you can see that better in this close-up. Also, you can see the three cameras
2:49
But I don't think that this makes it look particularly bad. And I don't have a fundamental problem with it having a plastic back
2:56
versus a lot of modern phones also have a glass back or a metal back
3:01
So running Android 12, as is pretty common in the Android world
3:06
because it's not a Pixel phone, it doesn't have the very latest generation of Android
3:10
Motorola has said Android 13 is on the way. So perhaps by the time you acquired one, it would be running 13
3:17
But right now it's 12. It has 128 or 256 gig of storage
3:23
This particular one has, according to the sticker on the back, 128 gig
3:27
And the sticker on the back, you're like, hmm, what's that? And the answer is, AT&T loaned me this phone for this review
3:34
So this is actually technically not my phone. So that's how I know exactly what all the specs are
3:39
Thanks, AT&T, appreciate that. The CPU, they made a shocking change. Instead of using Qualcomm, like everyone in the entire universe
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Motorola has gone back to MediaTek, and they're running the MediaTek Dimensity 1050
3:55
which is an octa-core CPU alternating between 2.5 gigahertz and 2.0 gigahertz, depending on how much you're pushing it
4:03
I found it to be a smidge slow, but nothing that's really that big a deal
4:08
And given the price point, it's entirely acceptable. I don't feel it's fair to compare the performance of a sub $500 phone
4:17
to one that's $1,000. Yeah, the more expensive, one's faster. That's not really a big surprise
4:23
But you need to spend 500 bucks to get a faster phone
4:27
I would suggest most people, probably not. So Bluetooth 5.2, it is only a single SIM
4:34
It's not a dual SIM. It's a single nano SIM. Under the display screen, if I turn it off, it has..
4:43
And then wake it up. It has an underscreen fingerprint scanner, which of course doesn't work because that's not the correct finger
4:50
And you can see it has a nice off display. You can actually turn on an always-on display if you want
4:57
And while we're looking at this, I will tell you that it also supports Qi wireless charging
5:03
So I have this OtterBox Qi charger. And if I put the phone on here, then it will actually start charging
5:11
You can see here, just barely, let's see, you can see that. So it's now charging off the wireless charge pad
5:17
which is a great transition because it's a 5,000 milliamp hour battery
5:21
So it gives you about a day and a half of charge, which is pretty sweet
5:25
And if you plug it into a big enough charger, it can take 30 watts and it does what's called a turbo charge
5:32
which means you get a lot of charge in a really small amount of time
5:36
So if you just need a little boost, I actually was plugging it in and charging it off the charger for my MacBook Pro
5:44
And that's a lot more than 30 watts. And this thing was just like, cool, give me the juice, baby
5:50
And I got a lot of charge in a short amount of time. Like I said, it's IP55 water resistant
5:57
And let me give you a quick port tour on the edges, starting with the top, there's nothing
6:02
On the right hand side is volume up and down and power. On the bottom is the micro SIM slot and USB-C and a cutout for the speaker
6:12
It is a stereo speaker, one on each side, although only one of them gets that graceful cutout
6:18
And then on the left side, there's nothing. The front has a small hole punch, as you can see in this close up
6:27
And that's pretty common nowadays for Android phones. That's where your selfie camera is hidden
6:32
And then on the back, you see there's those three big cameras
6:36
and the Motorola logo and really not much else. So let's talk about those cameras
6:43
So the biggest of the cameras is a 50 megapixel f1.8 wide
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And then there's a 13 megapixel f1.5 ultra wide with 120 degree field of view
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And then finally, interestingly, the third one is a two megapixel f2.4 depth camera
7:03
So the camera system, the software on board the phone is doing a lot of processing
7:09
and that depth helps it understand for things like macro or a forced short focus
7:15
And then the front camera is a 32 megapixel f2.5. So that's a pretty big front facing camera
7:23
So all of that's well and good, but I know what you want
7:27
You want some demos. So let's look at some demos. First off, here are some photos
7:33
So wide angle, 1x and 3x. And the detail is pretty solid
7:42
Then we can switch to macro. And I was very surprised. It did a really nice job with this macro shot
7:48
And night view, night view was a little iffy. But this shot in particular came out really well
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I found it worked well. Other people have said they didn't find night view that great
7:59
People's experiences vary. And then finally, here's a selfie of myself. That's pretty good
8:05
There's some good nuance on the skin tone on my face, but it's also a little contrasty
8:11
But video is obviously much more fun. So let's check out video at 1x zoom
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3x zoom. And 5x zoom. And here's a selfie video
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I'm using the front-facing camera, and it's doing a pretty good job. But if I move forward or backward, then you can see the auto exposure is definitely being
8:40
challenged with the sky. And it's an interesting effect, but I'm not sure it's one that I necessarily want
8:46
This can be something that can be adjusted with lighting, of course. And I'd really like to share the slow-mo video that I recorded
8:52
But interestingly, it saved it in a weird format that I couldn't get to work in my photo
8:58
editor or on my Mac. So I can't include it in this review
9:04
And that makes me wonder what exactly Motorola was doing with that format
9:08
And that makes me wonder what exactly Motorola was doing with that processing that the slow-mo
9:13
basically would be frame, full green, frame, full blue, frame, full green
9:19
And it just flickers. And it's really not a good look. And it's not something that is going to work really well
9:25
However, on the phone, it looks fine. So I'm not exactly sure what's happening
9:30
That might be something if you really, really need slow-motion video. I'm not sure who does
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But if you really, really do, then you might want to experiment with that and make sure
9:39
it'll work for your particular use case if that's an issue. Otherwise, I thought it did a pretty nice job, actually
9:46
There's a lot I like about this phone. And I really like the price point
9:50
Now, super quick, in the box, this is the AT&T packaging, obviously
9:55
In the box is remarkably little, really. It's the phone. It is a quick start guide
10:01
It is some legalese. It is a USB-C charging cable and a SIM removal tool
10:14
And that's it. That's everything in the box. So they definitely did not go overboard filling this box with too much
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But honestly, nowadays, that's probably all you really need. You really just are getting the phone itself
10:28
And you will need your own wall charger or something. But at least you have that cable to get you started
10:32
But that's pretty much everything. Now, dimensions-wise, it is 6.3 inches by 3 inches by 3 tenths of an inch thick
10:43
And it's 6 ounces. It's a pretty light phone as phones go
10:47
I would say, particularly given the materials that they've used and such
10:51
I would put a case on this pretty quickly. And if you go to somewhere like eBay or Amazon, you can just search for Motorola Edge 2022
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case and find tons of inexpensive options. So lots to like here
11:05
Now, I really was frustrated that it doesn't have a headphone jack
11:08
But I'm not sure it's a fair criticism because no modern phones include headphone jacks
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And I really wish they did because I don't want to endlessly be trapped using Bluetooth
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So hey, Apple, Google, Samsung, put that darn 3.5 millimeter jack back on your phone
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We actually like it. At least I actually like it. OK, so other than that, there's really a lot going for this
11:34
You know, it comes with some Motorola-specific apps that give you additional functionality
11:40
that are worth playing with. I didn't find any of them to be super important
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But I also appreciate that it's a thinner layer. It's less customized than like what Samsung does with its own entire UI
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which I'm not a huge fan of. If I'm running something like Android, I just want to run Android
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So that's where at least if you're running on a Google Pixel, you're getting just stock Android for, you know, with some additional pixel features
12:06
But Android 12 with the Moto tools, it's like 95% just regular Android 12
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And that's a good thing. So really, lots to like here, lots to experiment with
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If you're looking for a phone and you don't want to drop $800, $900, $1,000
12:25
or more on your smartphone, this is definitely one worth checking out
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And especially once you put a case on it, your friends are going to have no idea who made it
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So it can look like one of those $800 phones if that's something that's important to you
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So we do need to talk about the price and the price is pretty darn interesting
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But before we get to the price, I'm going to request, I'm going to ask if you could subscribe to my channel
12:48
Click or tap on subscribe, click or tap on that bell notification icon
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And we're connected, really appreciate that. If you found this review really helpful and useful
12:58
then go ahead and give me a thumbs up or a like. Definitely appreciate that too
13:02
Oh, and in terms of phone calls, honestly, every single phone that I've used over the last couple of years sounds the same
13:09
And my voice sounds the same on the other end. So that's why I don't talk about them
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Because I feel like all these companies have long since figured out
13:17
the nuts and bolts of getting a phone call to work. So it's not necessarily something I talk about
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Anyway, let's talk about price. So this comes in exactly one color, mineral gray
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That's what this is. And it is $499.99 or at att.com, it's normally $1,389 a month
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But they're running a promo right now at the killer rate of $5 a month for 36 months
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If you do the math, that means it's $180 for this phone
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And I double checked with AT&T support and I said, is there like some payment at the end to get me back to that $499
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And they're like, no, this is just a promo. But the promo pricing is only if you do it monthly
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So if you're willing to drop in $5 a month for 36 months
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you can score this really solid budget Android phone with lots of good features for a remarkable $180
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That is a pretty good deal. That is something definitely worth considering
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If you have, for example, a teen in the house or you have someone who just isn't a very heavy phone user
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or is susceptible to breaking things, all of those good use cases
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it's a solid option. That's all I got. I hope you found this of value
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You can learn more at att.com or of course at Motorola.com. And this is the Motorola Edge 2022 Android smartphone
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And you can pick it up for as low as $180. That's pretty screaming
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That's all I got. I'll catch you in my next video
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