Motorola is jumping headfirst into the ultra-slim smartphone stakes with the Edge 70, an ultra-thin and über-light handset that takes aim squarely at Apple’s iPhone Air without dropping features purchasers typically have to surrender when phones go razor-thin. On paper it has a big battery, multiple cameras and modern amenities without the flagship cost — exactly what thin phones have always failed to be.
The Edge 70 matches a 6.67-inch P-OLED display with a dual 50MP rear camera system and a 50MP selfie camera, powered by a 4,800mAh battery that Motorola says is good for up to 38 hours of mixed use. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, so it falls into the premium midrange category rather than at the top end.
Ultra-thin design without compromising battery or power
At 5.99mm thick, the Edge 70 is one of the slimmest mainstream phones currently on sale, coming within reach of iPhone Air’s 5.6mm at its thinnest point. The shock is that the Edge 70 still packs a 4,800mAh cell — figures that would’ve sounded fanciful only a few years ago when slimming down a phone often meant shaving off battery size and thermal overhead.
The industry has been here, and it wasn’t always pretty. Ultra-thin classics like the Oppo R5 and Vivo X5 Max chased millimeters at all costs, resulting in poor stamina and heat dissipation. The Moto’s balance seems better: a 4,800mAh battery, fast (up to 68W) wired charging, and 15W wireless charging, along with water resistance that Motorola lists as up to IP68/IP69. A lot of it is the differentiation: will it stay cool and consistent under continuous full load?
Cameras and AI that punch above the price
Don’t be fooled by the rear housing: on top of two main 50MP cameras, one wide and the other ultrawide (not to mention a 50MP front camera), it presents itself as a triple camera. The absence of a dedicated telephoto is the most obvious compromise, cost- and space-wise. Of course, high-resolution sensors can make some pretty good lossless-quality crops at typical zoom levels now, and modern image processing does an awful lot of heavy lifting.
Motorola is taking advantage of AI for image improvement, visual search and generative options, following a larger trend that has computational photography replacing the traditional spec race. It’s a pragmatic bet, of course: Counterpoint Research and IDC have both observed that buyers are increasingly judging phones on software experience as much or more than raw hardware, particularly in the midrange when spec sheets from rivals start to look very similar.
Midrange silicon smartly chosen for balance and value
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 won’t blow away flagship chipsets, but for most people it’s a smart pick, allowing the phone to balance performance and efficiency without adding significantly to Motorola’s price. Combined with P-OLED tech, you get the deep, inky blacks and punchy contrast buyers crave, while the Edge 70 also offers hefty RAM and storage options that stand a chance of not bottlenecking many mid-tier phones over time.
Thermals are still the wild card for any machine this thin. Playing games, recording 4K or navigating extensively — that’s where it will get its real test. Assuming Motorola’s cooling solution can keep clocks relatively high without needing to aggressively throttle, the Edge 70’s per‑mm performance story could end up being its killer feature.
Price pressures on thin flagships create room for Edge 70
The Edge 70 begins at €799 in Europe, comfortably undercutting the iPhone Air at around €1,199 and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge by about €1,369 — low launch promos ought to help push Motorola even further down the price scale in some markets. That delta matters. Research firms have been tracking continual movement toward premium devices, but here’s the thing: value-conscious consumers haven’t gone away — they’re just expecting more polish for less money.
Motorola’s not going to let the concept that thinness needs to be married with painful trade-offs go down without a fight, and by delivering a genuinely slim design without gutting battery life or basic camera capability, you can forgive it for feeling this way. For others, the loss of a dedicated telephoto might reasonably be seen as a trade-off for the battery peace of mind and fast charging that I experienced every day.
What to watch next as Motorola’s thin phone hits markets
There are really three elements that will define whether the Edge 70 model is a category doorbuster or just great specs on paper:
- Consistent performance in a ~6mm shell
- Real-world camera output versus peers
- Software longevity and timely updates
Purchasing decisions are increasingly driven by update commitments and getting patches to devices in a timely manner, so there will be a lot of scrutiny on how well Motorola sticks its landing here.
If those pieces land, Motorola may have cracked the thin-phone blueprint so many consumers actually want: attractive design, long battery life, serviceable cameras and a price not in four figures. In a category where “thin” has often been synonymous with “less,” the Edge 70 makes the case for “thin without compromise” — and that could make it the most compelling iPhone Air challenger yet.
