Following months of rumours and leaks about a new 200Mp smartphone, Motorola has officially unveiled the Motorola X30 Pro alongside the latest foldable Razr and a surprisingly well-specced mid-ranger dubbed the Motorola S30 Pro at an event in China.
Despite flagship specs including a 6.67in pOLED 144Hz display, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+Gen 1 and a whopping 200Mp main camera, the Motorola X30 Pro could undercut just about every other flagship in 2022.
It might be a China-only launch for now, but confirmation of an Edge-themed event in September gives us hope that the X30 Pro could still make it to western markets.
In the meantime, here’s everything there is to know about the Motorola X30 Pro.
When will the Motorola X30 Pro be released?
Motorola officially unveiled the X30 Pro at an event in Taiwan on 11 August 2022. This follows a delay from the original 2 August planned launch, which was mysteriously postponed at the last minute with no real explanation from Motorola itself.
But while the phone is official in China, it’s unsure when – or even if – we’ll see the Motorola X30 Pro released in the West.
The good news is that Motorola has since teased an Edge-themed event on Twitter, due to take place on 8 September 2022.
While the release is yet to be confirmed, the teaser video showcases up to three new smartphone releases at the event. It’s widely speculated that the Motorola X30 Pro could appear as a re-branded Edge smartphone for release in Western markets, and a reveal at this event makes sense.
We’ll update this section as soon as we know more.
How much will the Motorola X30 Pro cost?
Despite the premium features and specs on offer, the Motorola X30 Pro is priced very competitively – in China at least – starting at 3,699 Yuan (around $549) for an 8GB+128GB combo, coming in much cheaper than 2022 flagships from Samsung, Oppo and co. Here’s a breakdown of Chinese pricing:
Motorola X30 Pro (8GB/128GB): ¥3,699 (around $549)Motorola X30 Pro (12GB/256GB): ¥4,199 (around $623)Motorola X30 Pro (12GB/512GB): ¥4,499 (around $668)
While US and UK availability is yet to be confirmed, it won’t be a straight price conversion – so don’t get too used to those tempting Chinese prices.
We’d estimate it will probably supersede the Motorola Edge 20 Pro that costs £649/$699 and heads up the Motorola range, though we’ll update this section once we learn more.
Motorola
What’s new with the Motorola X30 Pro?
The Motorola X30 Pro is official, and it looks like it’s here to take on flagships from Apple, Samsung and Oppo with a premium, yet stylish, smartphone.
The Motorola X30 Pro sports a 6.7in pOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, support for HDR10+ and a peak brightness of 1250nits – all very premium. The Full HD+ resolution is plenty for the size of the screen, with curved edges that should help the phone sit nicely in hand, and there’s a fingerprint scanner built in too.
The main detail that will impress most is the fact the Motorola X30 Pro ships with a 200Mp camera – in fact, it’s one of the first in the world to do so.
The sensor itself is the Samsung ISOCELL HP1, which was announced recently by the Korean giant. This has quite a few cool features, with the 1/1.22in sensor gulping in light and the 200Mp resolution utilising 16-in-1 pixel binning to improve detail in shots. The pixel-binning tech is dubbed Chameleon Cell technology, and gives you the choice of whether to use two-by-two, four-by-four or full-pixel layouts depending on the shot you take.
Samsung says that the sensor uses a 0.64μm pixel size, and has a Double Super PD auto-focus to capture images quickly. Motorola decided to enhance that with OIS stabilisation to keep things nice and smooth, whether you’re shooting during the day or night. That’s paired with a 50Mp 117-degree ultrawide lens and a 12Mp 2x telephoto shooter on the rear, and a whopping 60Mp selfie camera on the front.
The phone supports full RAW domain primary colour vision and native support across all three lenses on the rear, as well as being able to record videos at an impressive 8K@30fps.
Moving away from the optics, the Motorola X30 Pro sports a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, which places it comfortably in flagship territory. That’s paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage depending on the variant you opt for. To help keep things cool as you ramp up performance playing AAA mobile games, Motorola has included a vapour chamber and copper blocks to help dissipate heat.
Powering that hardware is a 4,500mAh battery with support for impressive 125W fast charging. Motorola claims that the fast charging tech can provide a 50% charge in just 7 minutes, and a full charge in just 19 minutes. There’s also 50W wireless fast charging for those that like the wireless lifestyle.
While you wait to see whether the Motorola X30 Pro is due for release in the west, why not check out our guides to the best phones and best phones coming in 2022 to see what other options are competing for your money.
