Motorola Edge 70 Review: Thin Phone with No Battery Woes

In 2025, we saw big-name brands attempt to revive the super-thin phones and failed miserably in terms of sales figures. I thought that was the end of it, but it looks like Motorola wants to take another crack at another thin phone before the year's end with the newly launched Edge 70. So, I decided to get my hands on the phone as my last review of the year, and it seems like the best slim phone of 2025. Why do I think that way, and whether you should buy it or not? Find out in this Motorola Edge 70 review. 

Motorola Edge 70 Unboxing 

The Motorola Edge 70 comes with all the essentials inside the box. However, there is no case or pre-applied screen protector included this time. Here are all the box contents: 

Motorola Edge 70: Build and Design 

"There is no way this is a Rs 30,000 phone" is what I said when I held the Motorola Edge 70 for the first time. It looks extremely premium and sophisticated, unlike the Galaxy S25 Edge, which had a pretty bland design. I have the Bronze Green variant, and the textured back goes really well with the aluminium sides. The camera bump is metallic this time, which gives a nice contrast to the silicone back.

The designers have tastefully added olive green accents to the camera lenses and the AI button, which adds to the premium appeal of the phone. The in-hand feel is amazing, despite the fact that it is a big phone. And the credit goes to its thickness, as it measures almost the same as the iPhone Air, which is 4x more expensive. 

The slim aesthetics fit nicely in my palm, and the textured back offered a secure grip. All the buttons are easily accessible, but the fingerprint sensor is placed quite low to be reachable with one hand. The design may give off the impression that the Edge 70 is a fragile device, but it's completely the opposite.

It is MIL-STD-810H compliant and comes with an IP 68/69 rating. So whether you drop it or dunk it in water, the Edge 70 will survive it all without any issues. So overall, the Edge 70 gets a 100 out of 100 for design, build, and durability from me. 

Motorola Edge 70: Display Quality 

Coming to the display, Motorola has ditched the curved panel for a flat one on the Edge 70. I am typically on the fence about flat screen phones, but I don't mind it here, just because it's so slim. So there are no issues handling the device during my Motorola Edge 70 review period, despite its large footprint. 

It's a Pantone validated screen, which means the colours feel true to life in the Natural mode settings. I have had my share of watching YouTube videos and TV shows on this screen, and everything looks very crisp and clean. None of the colours pop out as much as they need to, and the HDR videos look great too (Netflix does not support HDR). 

Moto has one-upped Apple by including a stereo setup, which definitely sounds louder than the iPhone Air. This makes it perfect for listening to songs and consuming media. That's why I would say that the Edge 70 is one of the best display mobile phones under Rs 30,000. 

Motorola Edge 70: Performance Tested

Display and design are one thing, but what about the performance? Well, Motorola hasn't skimped out on that either, as the Edge 70 comes with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset. This is a solid midrange processor that delivers stability over raw performance. But for those interested, here are the benchmarks. 

Surprisingly, this midrange chipset holds pretty well in day-to-day usage and gaming. During my Motorola Edge 70 review period, I rarely encountered any major performance issues. I also tried out BGMI, which supports 120 FPS at Smooth graphics, and Call of Duty: Mobile, which ran at 90 FPS at the lowest graphics.

The good thing was that the performance remained quite stable, and there were no abrupt heating problems to speak of. It can also handle demanding games like Genshin Impact, which ran at a respectable 45 FPS. But if you want the best gaming mobile phone, then you might want to skip this one. 

Motorola Edge 70: Software and Updates

The Motorola Edge 70 comes with Hello UI based on Android 16, and it packs a ton of features and customisations. However, the new skin also brings bloatware apps and Glance ads on the lock screen. I counted a total of nine apps pre-installed on the phone. 

Hello UI also includes some useful AI features, like Remember this, that can be accessed by pressing the AI key on the left. You can use it to add something you want to remember for later. You can also ask about anything on screen, use Image Studio to generate images, and Playlist Studio to create an entire playlist curated to your preferences. So the AI feature selection is good here. 

However, the UI is also finicky. During my Moto Edge 70 review period, I encountered some stutters, animation drops, and lags in Hello UI, which are definitely not a result of the performance but rather caused by poorly optimized software. This was not the case with the Moto Edge 60 Pro, which was also running on Android 16 update. So, Moto can fix these issues to offer a more consistent experience. 

Motorola Edge 70 Camera Review

The Motorola Edge 70 outshines the iPhone Air in the camera department as well, since it features a proper 50MP ultrawide lens along with a 50MP main sensor. But can we say the same about the image quality? 

Well, the main sensor takes balanced photos in daytime scenarios with enough details and good dynamic range. The colours look accurate to the actual scene, and the photos overall appear natural. However, if you zoom in a little, you will notice the details start to get soft, and there is visible noise in the darker areas of the image. This is true when you use 2x zoom, where this issue is more visibly present. 

The ultrawide lens captures good shots with plenty of sharpness and clarity. It also doubles as a macro lens, taking some crisp close-up shots like the ones I have clicked for this Motorola Edge 70 review. But the colour science between the two lenses is consistent. 

Talking about the selfie camera, it can take decent photos. However, it tends to over-soften faces.  As you can see in the group selfie, the camera has softened the face of the guy at the back. It also whitens the skin tones for some reason, reminding me of the old Oppo and Vivo smartphones. 

You can record 4K 60 FPS from all the 3 lenses. So overall, if taking good pictures is your priority, then better look into other devices like the Xiaomi 14 Civi or the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. 

Motorola Edge 70: Battery Life and Charging 

Battery life is the biggest issue with super-thin phones, but Motorola addressed this problem by featuring a 5,000 mAh cell in this phone. In comparison, the Galaxy S25 Edge comes with a 3,900 mAh battery, and the iPhone Air has an even smaller 3,149 mAh capacity.

Thanks to the bigger battery, I got an average of 6.5 hours of screen-on time during my Motorola Edge 70 review period. And it takes less than 45 minutes to charge the phone from 0–100% with the provided 68W charger. So for once, the battery life won't be an issue with this slim phone. 

Motorola Edge 70 review: Should you buy it?

The Motorola Edge 70 does prove that you don't need to make a lot of compromises or pay a premium for an ultra-thin smartphone. It clears the ballpark with its design, features a fantastic display for the price, offers decent performance, and its battery life does not disappoint in everyday use. The compromises that do come are Moto's own faults, like the under-optimized software and camera processing. 

Motorola can fix these issues with later updates, but I will report on what is, not what will be. So for now, if a super slim phone is all you are looking for, then there is no better option right now than the Motorola Edge 70. But if you want an overall better package for the price, then I would suggest you go with the Moto Edge 60 Pro or the iQOO Neo 10R.