Motorola Moto Edge 50 Fusion review: A premium design at an affordable price

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There’s not a lot of visual difference between Motorola’s Edge 50 smartphone this year, and that’s all the better for the Fusion.

Where I felt that the Motorola Edge 50 Pro was a device without any real standout selling points (that came together nicely as a whole), the Moto Edge 50 Fusion sells itself thanks to its sub-$600 price.

For that starting $599 RRP, you get a really, really nice phone. From the outside, it’s almost impossible to see the features that have been dialled back to help it attain that lower price.

It’s not the quickest phone you can buy at the price, but if you like style over performance in your great value smartphones, it’s definitely worth consideration.

What is the Moto Edge 50 Fusion offering?

The “Edge” in the 50 Edge Fusion’s name refers to the curved sides of the phone’s screen. While I don’t love the feel of the rounded sides – I think it makes the phone feel a bit slippery in the hand – I have to admit it makes it look good.

I can’t understate that enough. The Fusion is a good-looking phone that appears worthy of a price tag double what it is. The stunning 6.7-inch pOLED screen, the curved edges, and the vegan leather back all combine to create a device you might confuse for a $1000+ flagship.

Of course, Motorola has had to put the squeeze on several features to keep the Fusion’s price down. The balance of price versus performance is a difficult one in the mid-range, but I think Motorola has nailed the formula here.

The things you really use on your phone, like the screen and the camera and the battery, all perform really well, even if there are some minor cuts compared to the Edge 50 Pro.

There’s a slower Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor, and the phone lacks wireless charging. But not many phones at this price offer wireless charging, so it’s hardly a dealbreaker. And Motorola has included 68W fast charging with the charger in the box, which kind of makes up for it anyway.

What does the Moto Edge 50 Fusion do well?

The combination of the 5,000mAh battery and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor means that the Fusion sips at the battery rather than chugs it down.

You can happily get through a full workday with the phone, and depending on how much you use it, maybe even sneak into a second day.

And even if you do manage to spend the entire day playing Call of Duty Mobile and drain the battery a bit faster, the fast charger in the box lets you fill it up a bit faster.

Because it’s not as fast as the 125W charger in the Edge 50 Pro, it doesn’t make the Fusion heat up as much either, which made me feel better about the whole thing.

Happy snaps

In good lighting, the Moto Edge 50 Fusion is a fine camera. You get plenty of detail, though it doesn’t handle wide dynamic range shots as well as the Pro does.

The combination of a 50MP primary lens and a 13MP ultra-wide offers plenty of range as well.

Performance

I know benchmarks never tell the full story, but it still offers a good insight into where this phone sits from a performance standpoint.

I will say that I was never really disappointed while using the phone. It could handle games like Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile easily enough, though it wasn’t quite as smooth as playing on the iPhone 15 Pro.

For the most part, I was just scrolling through social media and taking photos, and for that usage the phone was great, regardless of the benchmark scores.

As you can see, the Edge 50 Fusion is one of the top-performing phones I’ve tested in the $300-$600 price bracket. It offered the best CPU Multi-core score at that price I’ve seen in my testing, too.

What could the Moto Edge 50 Fusion improve?

This is a difficult section to fill because while there’s a huge number of things I’d ask for to improve this phone, but it would fundamentally change the value proposition of the product.

I’d love wireless charging, or a faster processor. I’d love a telephoto lens on the camera array.

But adding any of these features will invariably push up the price tag, which entirely changes what makes this phone so worthwhile.

I guess one minor change would be adding in a MicroSD card slot for some expandable memory. 256 GB is a solid base amount, but it might be nice to expand it.

Verdict

Until I tested the Edge 50 Fusion, I would have argued that the Nothing Phone (2a) was the best value phone at the price.

And in some ways that is still true.

But the Nothing Phone (2a) does not exude the same premium design as the Motorola. In fact, its plastic back and gimmicky glyphs are almost anti-premium.

While the 2a might edge out the Edge 50 Fusion on performance, I think the Motorola is probably better value based on its design alone.

Buy the Motorola Moto Edge 50 Fusion online

Motorola Moto Edge 50 Fusion

Combining a gorgeous screen, strong battery and respectable power at a price under $600, the Edge 50 Fusion is an ideal mid-range device.

Check Price @ Amazon