Motorola Edge 20 Lite review: not the best Moto phone choice

Two-minute assessment

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite is the most inexpensive member of the Edge household, which sits above Motorola’s G-series telephones. So whereas the Edge 20 Lite could seem a price range Android to some, it is not a part of a full-on price range line-up.

This solely actually reveals in a method in the phone itself. The Motorola Edge 20 Lite has an OLED display, not the LCD sort utilized in many higher entry-level Androids like this.

There’s lots of competitors from Xiaomi and Realme on this space, and some of their telephones are higher worth. You may even argue the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is fairly comparable in a number of methods, and it is a bunch cheaper.

An above common display is the foremost Motorola Edge 20 Lite draw, then, however we’d wish to see larger peak brightness to make this a real killer show.

Battery life is the actual shock right here. A 5,000mAh cell seems like the proper dimension for the Motorola Edge 20 Lite, however on all check days it has struggled. It could be straightforward in charge the MediaTek Dimensity 720 5G chipset, however the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has the similar processor and lasts a very long time between prices.

It’s a little bit of a thriller.

Ultimately, the Motorola Edge 20 Lite is an honest inexpensive 5G phone with honest cameras and a giant, handsome display. However, it doesn’t maintain up properly sufficient towards the best of the extra inexpensive competitors to earn a full advice.

Motorola Edge 20 Lite worth and availability

Out now
Costs $415.99 / £299.99 / AU$565

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite is a part of the first wave of the expanded Edge vary. It’s the most cost-effective in a trio, costing $415.99 / £299.99 / AU$565.

What do you lose out on? There aren't any glass backs or metallic sides, no zoom cameras or high-end processors right here.

The intention is to get you good-quality fundamentals, and 5G cellular web, with out an enormous outlay.

A Motorola Edge 20 Lite from the back on an orange background

(Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Design

Slimmer than Moto G-series telephones
Plastic shell design
Basic IP52 water resistance

The Edge series’s job is to class-up the Motorola model a bit. We have advisable lots of its Moto G telephones for nearly a decade now, and these Edge ones are a step above.

This isn’t massively obvious on this lower-end Motorola Edge 20 Lite, although. It has a plastic again and plastic sides. You can inform instantly it’s not a flagship phone. And contemplating the value, that is in all probability okay.

The solely factor we are able to determine that separates it from the no-nonsense Moto G-series telephones is thickness. At 8.25mm the Motorola Edge 20 Lite is barely thinner than most of the cheaper Motos.

Motorola has additionally executed a superb job of constructing the plastic again appear to be glass. It has a textured high floor and a shimmery gentle reactive layer that has an impact much like some matte end glass telephones.

You get to shrug off the barely chunky really feel of a Moto G30, though the Motorola Edge 20 Lite comes with an honest silicone case and we’d assume you must use it if you wish to preserve the bodywork pristine.

There’s no manufacturing facility utilized display protector right here, although, and we’d advocate one. While the costlier Motorola Edge 20 and Motorola Edge 20 Pro telephones have Corning Gorilla Glass display safety, this one makes use of one other unspecified sort of glass. And it’s probably not as arduous or robust.

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s outer components carry no actual surprises or stand-out options. It has a fairly loud speaker, nevertheless it makes use of a single driver on the backside of the phone quite than a stereo array. It can sound barely brash at excessive volumes.

A Motorola Edge 20 Lite from the side against a red background

(Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Motorola makes use of a side-mounted fingerprint scanner quite than an under-screen one. It’s fractionally slower than the quickest round, however we bedded into its rhythm inside about 24 hours. The Motorola Edge 20 Lite additionally has a 3.5mm headphone jack, in contrast to the higher-end Motorola Edge 20 Pro.

There’s additionally a Google Assistant button on the left aspect of the phone. We’ve pressed this by chance a number of instances as a result of - once more in contrast to the Edge 20 Pro - it doesn’t have a intentionally harder-to-press mechanism. We didn’t discover it goes off commonly in a pocket, although, and that’s the foremost factor.

Water resistance is rated at IP52, about as little as you'll be able to go whereas nonetheless having an IP ranking. It means the Motorola Edge 20 Lite ought to be capable to deal with gentle rain, however that’s about it.

Display

Large display, good for video and gaming
OLED distinction
Unremarkable peak brightness

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite has a big 6.7-inch OLED show with a 1080 x 2400 decision and a 90Hz refresh fee. It is a step above the many barely cheaper LCD options when it comes to distinction and coloration.

OLED screens have self-lit pixels, so the black areas of a picture can keep completely black even when different components of the image are very brilliant. You received’t discover this all the time, solely when in a darker room, however OLED distinction is at all times useful.

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite additionally has deep coloration saturation, one other typical OLED trait. Motorola says it’s supposed to fulfil the DCI-P3 coloration gamut, however to our eyes the ‘Saturated’ show mode appears to overshoot a bit. This is probably going as a result of Saturated makes use of the OLED panel’s native coloration gamut, the widest vary of colours it might show.

A close-up of the Motorola Edge 20 Lite's screen

(Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Many of it's possible you'll like this ultra-saturated look, however there’s additionally a Natural mode. This appears to trace nearer to the sRGB commonplace, which renders Google app icons in pastel-like tones. It’s the mode we selected to make use of.

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s OLED display isn’t almost as brilliant as a few of the high OLED telephones. Peak brightness of properly over 1000 nits is sort of frequent as of late however this phone goes as much as 427 nits in keeping with our colorimeter.

This is nearly sufficient to make the show appear fairly clear outside, however larger brightness would make capturing images outdoors on a sunny day a bit extra comfy. Considering the display is a key draw right here, just a little further display energy would have been good.

Camera

HDR falls behind the competitors
Night Vision mode is simply okay
Acceptable digital camera efficiency, however little greater than that

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite has three rear cameras. Its main one has a 108MP Samsung HM2 sensor, the similar utilized in the higher-end Edge 20 Pro. That’s a reasonably good begin.

Its different cameras are an 8MP ultra-wide with a Samsung sensor and a fundamental little 2MP OmniVision sensor for depth mapping. This is utilized in the Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s portrait mode, the place the background is intentionally blurred out.

The foremost digital camera can take very nice images, with largely natural-looking greens in nature photographs and a good quantity of element. However, we have to calibrate your expectations. Don’t count on miracles simply because the megapixel rely is so excessive.

The Samsung HM2 sensor was mainly designed to make the most of those 108MP expectations. It’s a lower-spec sensor than the Samsung HMX, HM1 and HM3 sensors we’ve seen in telephones since 2019. Its sensor space is smaller, leading to lesser gentle sensitivity, and we don’t assume Motorola has completely nailed its dealing with of the {hardware} both.

Dynamic vary is the recurring difficulty, and the similar downside impacts the Motorola Edge 20 Pro, maybe to a lesser extent. Its HDR processing is a bit too lax, leading to blown highlights in scenes of excessive gentle distinction. And, extra usually, a dull-looking foreground.

The annoying half is the element is commonly there. We took a bunch of the extra drab-looking Motorola Edge 20 Lite photographs into Photoshop, lifted up the shadows, and located loads of clean-looking element and coloration info that the phone’s processing profile does not carry out.

This isn’t the case for all scenes, removed from it. In the extra even-looking exposures, lifting the shadows simply leads to precisely the kind of flattened look you’d count on from ‘too much’ HDR. But it’s as if the Motorola Edge 20 Lite offers up when HDR is required most, for sunrises, sunsets, and any time you shoot instantly into the solar.

Detail can also be not appreciably higher than that of a strong 12MP or 48MP digital camera, and sometimes worse as a result of the effective element processing typically has a painted-on look down at pixel stage. This is sort of frequent in entry-level and mid-range telephones that use lots of pixel binning, the place a number of sensor pixels are mixed to create a single pixel in the closing picture.

A Motorola Edge 20 Lite from the back against an orange background

(Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

There are different predictable picture high quality points in indoors lighting and low gentle. Photos begin to lose distinction, readability and element extra rapidly than, for instance, the Google Pixel 4a. And whereas there's a Night Vision low-light mode that brings a few of the power again to the coloration and improves edge distinction noticeably, it doesn’t have the miraculous sort of impact you get with killer low-light processing.

Once once more the Motorola Edge 20 Lite performs at an identical stage to first rate performers in the $200-250 bracket. But we want its method to HDR was extra dependable and constant. As is, the prevalence of dangerous or unusable images is just a little too excessive.

The secondary digital camera, an 8MP ultra-wide, is not notably spectacular. There’s an unmistakable drop in coloration saturation, and geometric distortion is sort of apparent in huge chunks of the outer components of the body. Contrast additionally drops and the lens’s restricted optics don’t deal with stark gentle distinction - like leaves towards a brilliant sky – too properly.

All these items is fairly typical of the extensive cameras of entry-level 5G telephones, however loads of these are a minimum of a bit cheaper than the Motorola Edge 20 Lite.

The ultra-wide digital camera does have one neat characteristic, although. It can deal with objects only a centimeter or two away from the lens. This is why the digital camera is used for the Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s macro mode.

Few price range telephones allow you to get this near your topic, and the outcomes are higher than the dreadful 2MP macro cameras put into lots of inexpensive triple and quad-lens rear digital camera arrays. However, we don’t discover macro capturing notably enjoyable right here. The ultra-wide’s autofocus is gradual, so truly getting flowers, berries and bees to look sharp is a little bit of a ache.

Xiaomi in all probability does best on this space, with telephones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro. It has a devoted 5MP macro digital camera with a extra ‘zoomed in’ view. It’s enjoyable to make use of and is ready to seize way more ultra-close element than the Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s strategy of cropping into an 8MP ultra-wide lens.

Finally, there’s the Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s 2MP depth cam. The sensor and lens on this little factor are in all probability junk, nevertheless it’s nonetheless helpful. A devoted depth digital camera enables you to take background-blurred images of any topic, not simply folks.

Want to shoot movies? The Motorola Edge 20 Lite can deal with 4K decision at 30 frames per second, and as much as 60fps at 1080p. This is a typical ceiling for a price range 5G phone, however its stabilization could possibly be higher. While it does crop into the view to make use of digital/software program stabilization, footage nonetheless finally ends up wanting a bit juddery whenever you use the phone handheld.

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite has a 32MP OmniVision selfie digital camera up entrance. And in spite of everything the complaints levelled at the different cameras, this one comes throughout fairly properly.

It does not have autofocus however the depth of subject is so extensive it doesn’t appear a giant difficulty. Detail in good lighting is strong, if not class-leading, and you may even get first rate leads to dangerous gentle so long as you utilize the Night Vision mode. It corporations up element properly, and it isn’t instantly apparent Night Vision is even an possibility for the entrance digital camera.

Camera samples

Image 1 of 9

A photo of a bridge taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — No main points with overexposure or element right here, however the picture would have a larger affect if the shadows/mids have been raised just a little. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Image 2 of 9

An ultra-wide photo of a graveyard taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — This is considered one of the better-looking images we took with the ultra-wide, nevertheless it exhibits off the typical distortion of the wide-angle lens. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Image 3 of 9

A photo of a lake taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — No huge complaints right here, however zoom into the water and much timber and also you’ll see the barely painterly character of the picture processing. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Image 4 of 9

A macro shot of a plant taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — The macro mode isn’t a celebrity, however can produce higher outcomes than lots of devoted price range macro cameras. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Image 5 of 9

A macro shot of a raspberry taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — This isn’t a bunch of berries, It’s a down-on-its-luck raspberry. You can get extremely near your topic with the macro mode. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Image 6 of 9

A photo of a railway line taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — Detail and most features of coloration are effective sufficient, however this shot would come to life for those who lifted the shadows a bit. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

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A photo of the sky taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — With scenes like this you actually miss the superior dynamic vary of a real top-end digital camera. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

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A photo of a tree taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — Feed the Edge 20 lite a reasonably evenly lit scene and it does a superbly effective job. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

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An ultra-wide photo of some trees taken by the Motorola Edge 20 Lite — The ultra-wide’s digital camera lens suffers from gentle bleeding and purple fringing, though that is nothing out of the bizarre for a large digital camera in a less expensive 5G phone. (Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Software and efficiency

Clean Android interface
So-so chipset
Good common efficiency

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite is a textbook instance of how we’d like producers to method Android. It’s so clear you would mistake it for an unadulterated model of the software program, nevertheless it does have a number of tweaks that give it a personality of its personal.

For instance, there’s Motorola’s long-standing Glance lock display, which seems whenever you transfer the phone or a brand new notification is available in. There are elective movement gestures to fireplace up the torch or bounce to the digital camera app. And for those who dig just a little deeper you’ll discover the Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s Styles space. This enables you to change system fonts and icon shapes.

There aren't any third-party app shops, no Motorola health apps. The one piece of app bloat is Motorola Notifications, which is mainly simply there to get you to join Motorola push notifications.

Motorola additionally says the Edge 20 Lite will get a minimum of two main Android updates, in order that's two years’ value, much like an Android One phone.

No complaints about the software program, then, however the {hardware} that powers it's arguably lower than perfect. The Motorola Edge 20 Lite has a MediaTek Dimensity 720 5G chipset, the similar seen in the cheaper Samsung Galaxy A32 5G.

It’s roughly a match for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 performance-wise, with barely higher GPU efficiency in some conditions, and that processor is utilized in Motorola’s lower-end Moto G50. We weren’t in a position to do a few of the testing we normally put Android telephones by way of, as a result of Epic Games at present received’t let the Motorola Edge 20 Lite play Fortnite in any respect.

The app drawer on a Motorola Edge 20 Lite

(Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

It merely refuses to load, displaying a ‘device not supported’ error message. This is considered one of the key causes to purchase a Qualcomm Snapdragon phone as an alternative of a MediaTek one. You’re extra more likely to run into points like this with MediaTek, though we count on the Motorola Edge 20 Lite ought to be capable to deal with the recreation okay at medium graphics.

This is an space the place value-led manufacturers like Xiaomi and Realme pull forward. The Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro is much better for gaming, and for those who can afford to spend just a little extra the Realme GT is even higher, because it has a flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset.

The Motorola Edge 20 Lite is a bit nearer to the Pixel 4a in efficiency, nevertheless it additionally has 5G. It’s a superb step beneath the Pixel 4a 5G, as that model of the phone has a greater processor. Motorola pulls some focus away from the processor by giving us 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, each good, nevertheless it additionally wants a barely higher chipset to face out.

Time for some context. The foremost difficulty we’ve run into right here is that Fortnite is not supported (but). Asphalt 9 runs properly with some micro-stutters we frequently see in telephones at this stage, brought on by the recreation’s dense environments and exuberant use of particle and harm results.

There’s no apparent lag in Android, and whereas ARK: Survival Evolved is lower than completely easy for those who crank up the graphics to their most settings, that’s fairly regular at this stage.

Our beef with the Motorola Edge 20 Lite isn’t that we’ve come throughout main efficiency points, simply that fairly a number of telephones as much as $100/£50 much less get you very comparable outcomes.

(*20*) A Motorola Edge 20 Lite from the front against a cream background

(Image credit score: SociallyTrend)

Battery life

30W charging will get you to 47% in half-hour
Shorter real-world battery life than the cheaper Motos
5,000mAh battery capability

We have not had fun with the Motorola Edge 20 Lite’s battery, and this was a shock.

Like most of the Moto G-series telephones, the Motorola Edge 20 Lite has a 5,000mAh battery, which normally ensures a strong day of fairly heavy use. Or even as much as two days for many who don’t use their phone an excessive amount of.

Our outcomes right here have been lots worse. Take the Sunday earlier than we revealed this assessment for instance. By 14:30 the Motorola Edge 20 Lite had simply 39% battery left. We’d used it to stream a podcast throughout a run, to observe a YouTube video or two in mattress in the morning, and for a WhatsApp video name. Other than that, we’d simply streamed some audio through Google Podcasts. And but it was on the highway to a flat battery by early afternoon.

This is a very totally different expertise to that of the very long-lasting Moto G30 and G50. On different days it has fared higher, making it to bedtime, however nonetheless solely with single figures of battery cost left. This doesn’t match up with our expectations of a 5,000mAh battery in any respect.

So what’s occurring? The apparent distinction is the Motorola Edge 20 Lite has a MediaTek processor, whereas most different Motorolas have Qualcomm chipsets. However, the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has the similar chipset and completely first rate battery life, pointing the finger at Motorola’s energy administration quite than the chipset itself.

The excellent news is that if it is a software program difficulty, it could enhance with an replace. However, we've to assessment telephones primarily based on what they're, not what they could be in future.

Charging velocity is notably higher than that of a few of the cheaper Motos, although. The Motorola Edge 20 Lite comes with a 30W charger. This takes you from completely flat to 23% in quarter-hour, and to 47% in half-hour.

You’ll truly see barely higher outcomes for those who don’t let the phone die utterly. We hooked it as much as an influence meter and, as normal, the charger feeds it energy at a decrease fee till it has sufficient juice as well up totally.