Motorola is finally bringing a real flagship contender to the US


We asked, and we received: Motorola is bringing its newest slab-style flagship to the US as the Motorola Edge Plus (2023). It’s priced at $799 for a base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, undercutting the $899 Google Pixel 7 Pro and $999 Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus by a significant margin, and it’s equipped with plenty of things you might expect from a flagship Android phone in 2023: a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, a big, smooth 165Hz screen, a stabilized main camera, a robust IP68 weather resistance rating, and wireless charging.
Weirdly, though, none of the three major US wireless carriers will sell the device — Motorola’s carrier partners for the Edge Plus include Boost Infinite (yep, that one) and Consumer Cellular. It’ll be sold unlocked by Amazon and Best Buy, but given that people in the US tend to get their phones from their carrier, the Edge Plus will be at a disadvantage.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Edge Plus looks really promising: there’s that Dolby Vision-certified 6.7-inch OLED with a top refresh rate of 165Hz (though just 1080p, if we’re being nitpicky), a big 5,100mAh battery, 68W fast wired charging (charger included!), and 15W wireless charging. Its 8 Gen 2 chipset is paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of built-in storage. There’s support for lots of 5G, naturally, and both Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7.
It’s built with an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus on both the front and back panel, with an IP68 rating for protection against dust and full water immersion. It also comes with a promise of three years of OS updates and four years of security updates, which is an extra year in both categories compared to Motorola’s previous flagship phones.
There’s a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with optical stabilization and a 12-megapixel f/2.2 2x telephoto “portrait” camera. The 50-megapixel ultrawide camera with autofocus doubles as a macro camera. If you’re keeping score at home, this means that Motorola is three for three on putting useful cameras on this phone — nary a low-res macro or depth sensor (see also: last year’s Edge Plus) in sight. There’s a video portrait mode new to this year’s model, too, and standard video recording tops out at a generous 8K / 30p. Around front, there’s a 60-megapixel selfie camera.
Motorola is also announcing a couple of budget-friendly devices: a new 4G-only Moto G Stylus and Moto G 5G. The 2023 G Stylus comes with a MediaTek Helio G85 processor, a 6.5-inch LCD with 90Hz refresh rate, and a low $199 price (along with, you know, a stylus). The 2023 G 5G offers a Snapdragon 480 chipset, a 6.5-inch LCD with 120Hz refresh rate, and a slightly higher $249 price tag.
The 2023 Motorola Edge Plus goes on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Motorola on May 25th with availability at Boost “in the coming weeks.” The Motorola G 5G will also go on sale unlocked on May 25th, with availability at T-Mobile and AT&T sometime after that. The Moto G Stylus arrives on May 5th unlocked and will be sold at Cricket, Straight Talk, and Walmart “in the coming months.”
The Edge Plus may not be launching for a few more weeks, but in the meantime, you can take a dive into the detailed specs below to see just what’s in store.
We asked, and we received: Motorola is bringing its newest slab-style flagship to the US as the Motorola Edge Plus (2023). It’s priced at $799 for a base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, undercutting the $899 Google Pixel 7 Pro and $999 Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus…
Recent Posts
- How Claude’s 3.7’s new ‘extended’ thinking compares to ChatGPT o1’s reasoning
- ‘We’re nowhere near done with Framework Laptop 16’ says Framework CEO
- Razer’s new Blade 18 offers Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs and a dual mode display
- I tried adding audio to videos in Dream Machine, and Sora’s silence sounds deafening in comparison
- Sandisk quietly introduced an 8TB version of its popular portable SSD, and I just hope they solved its previous big data corruption issue
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010