Motorola's Edge (2021) redesign offers a mixed bag of upgrades and downgrades but at a sharp US$500 price point for a limited time

After launching its Motorola Edge 20 series in select global markets, Motorola has launched the 2021 sequel of the regular version of its Edge series for the North American market. Last year we saw Motorola launch two models, the Snapdragon 765G-powered Edge model and the Snapdragon 865-powered Edge Plus. This time around, Motorola has just launched a single Edge (2021) model and it is a little bit of a mixed bag with improvements in most areas and a step backwards in others.

The new Edge (2021) model takes obvious design cues from the Edge 20 series. This is probably its greatest step backwards as it also inherits the relatively large ‘chin’ from those models whereas the preceding 2020 model had much premium design with a curved OLED and much thinner bezels all round. In other areas including key specifications, the new Edge (2021) is clearly a step up, although not quite to flagship levels.

Motorola has fitted the Edge (2021) with its new mid-range Snapdragon 778G SoC which is a decent chip. It features four Cortex-A78 high-performance cores but misses out on the more powerful Cortex-X1 core found in the Snapdragon 888. It’s display features a 144 Hz 6.7-inch LCD panel that is edge-to-edge, but drops the waterfall edge from last year’s model along with the switch from OLED back to LCD. The cameras get a solid boost with a 108 MP wide lens that is joined by an 8 MP ultra-wide lens and a 2 MP depth sensing camera.

Interested customers can register on the Motorola USA website to pick up the Motorola Edge (2021) at the limited time discounted starting price of US$500 for the 6 GB/128 GB model. After the unspecified limited time offer expires, the price will return to US$700.

Buy the Motorola Edge 6 GB/256 GB (2020) for US $699 from Amazon.