I tested the Motorola Edge 70 Max for 10 days as a gaming phone: Here’s my full review

This isn’t the first high-performance Motorola phone we have seen this year; the Motorola Signature was the brand’s return to making a feature-rich premium smartphone at a similar price segment, and the Razr Edge was a flagship-class foldable device. The Edge 70 Max, though, is different from the Signature, as it doesn’t want to pamper you with vegan leather surfaces or an exquisite curved display. Going up against the likes of OnePlus 15R and iQOO 15R, the Edge 70 Max means business – it wants to impress mobile gamers.

It caught my eye, and since I spend parts of my day beating virtually crafted challenges, I decided to give it a go as my pocket gaming device. 

Design and build: Very unlike a gaming phone

Most value-seeking gaming phones feel like compromises, something which the Edge 70 Max avoids. It’s a rectangular slab with sharp edges and a flat display – none of Motorola’s curvy and “leather-y” shenanigans. At 221 grams and 8.29mm thick, it is undeniably a hefty phone. Not an easy thing to grip on the move.

Motorola also skipped those aggressive “gamer” aesthetics like glowing RGB lights or harsh geometric lines, opting instead for a classy matte glass back wrapped in an aluminium frame.

With Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection on both sides, IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance, and MIL-STD-810H military-grade drop resistance, this phone can take a beating. 

Note that on the left, Motorola added a dedicated hardware AI button. While it defaults to launching the digital assistant, you can rebind it to open your favourite app or game launcher. Neat.

Display: Nothing to complain about

Motorola went for an expansive 6.8-inch ‘Extreme’ 10-bit LTPO AMOLED display, where ‘Extreme’ bit is reserved for the QHD+ resolution (1440 × 3168p resolution), 144Hz peak refresh rate, and an eyeball-grabbing 7,000 nits peak brightness.

While those numbers look impressive, the real-world user experience is good, although with a few caveats. While reading articles, scrolling social media feeds, or playing video games, the display is absolutely fine to look at, rendering everything in bright colours, punchy contrasts and well-controlled refresh rates. I observed the phone restricting itself to 120Hz for most generic uses, and it only resorts to 144Hz in supported games (Alto’s Odyssey, for example). 

While some of my fellow reviewers complained about outdoor legibility issues owing to a relatively low high brightness mode, I found the display easily legible. Note that the peak brightness comes in handy only in supported HDR content in compatible apps.

Complementing the media consumption experience are Dolby Atmos-tuned stereo speakers, which sound decent with higher volume levels, but lack the kind of depth and bass you see on iPhones.

Performance: Can handle Android games easily

Under the hood lies Qualcomm’s flagship-level Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, which we have seen previously on the Signature, OnePlus 15R and iQOO 15R. This isn’t as capable on paper as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, but when paired with fast LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage, it should offer top-notch performance.

Hence, in everyday multitasking, app-switching, and continuous scrolling, the Edge 70 Max flies without a single stutter. Dealing with workflow tasks on the Edge 70 Max is a breeze, as the phone manages its limited 8GB RAM with ease. I gave it some AI tasks (like math calculations and image deciphering) on Google’s Gemma-2b models and the phone managed to hold on to itself. 

Since gaming is what it’s built for, I played various indie titles like Arrows, #DRIVE, Pizza Ready, Lumber Inc, etc, as well as demanding titles like CarX Street, CarX Drift Racing 3, and Call of Duty: Mobile – none of these games posed a challenge for the Edge 70 Max. I didn’t see the phone dropping frames either, after an hour of gaming, which could be attributed to the 5,500 square mm vapour chamber cooling system. It did warm up near the back panel, but I didn’t find anything worrying.

Software: Smooth yet bloat-filled

Out of the box, the Edge 70 Max runs Hello UI on top of Android 16. As part of the good bits, it retains the smooth animations, clean typography, and stock Android-like layout Motorola fans love. However, the irritants from the cheaper Edge devices return too – third-party adware, pre-installed games, the Taboola Newsfeed tab on the app menu, and the Glance AI ad widget on the lockscreen. While you can choose to turn some of these off, their presence on a phone of this category is irksome.

Moreover, Motorola commits to 3 major Android OS updates and 5 years of security support – a notch below what the competition is offering. I also didn’t see the much-advertised Qira AI suite, since my review sample had 8GB RAM, and Motorola is limiting its AI suite to phones with 12GB models only.

Camera: Good enough for casual photography

The standard gaming phone curse returns to this phone – the Edge 70 Max has, at best, decent cameras. You get a 50MP Sony LYT-710 primary sensor with OIS and an 8MP ultrawide lens. On the front, it has a 32MP camera for selfies and video calls.

For most generic use cases, the Edge 70 Max offers a decent photography experience. The main camera does a decent job with daylight scenarios, although the classic Motorola ‘red tone’ returns – skin tones look reddish and there’s a general warm cast on photos. As light levels drop, the phone tries to compensate with enhanced sharpness and aggressive suppression of grains, which manages to give decent photos. The portrait mode photos are hit-and-miss, with the background separation not working as intended in tricky lighting. The ultrawide camera offers consistent colour science with the main sensor but the lower resolution leaves it suitable for daytime landscapes. I have a similar opinion for the videography performance, which is decent in daylight.

The front camera works well for selfies, and does a decent job for video calls.

Battery: More than you need

As is the trend these days, the Edge 70 Max is backed by a colossal 7,100mAh battery, which in layman’s English translates to approximately 2 days of stamina. I didn’t show this phone any mercy while gaming or watching my YouTube content quota, and the phone still managed to last over 1.5 days. 

What’s even better is that you get a 90W fast charger in the box, which takes close to an hour to fill up the battery. There’s also support for Qi2 magnetic wireless charging, which allowed me to use it with my iPhone MagSafe accessories. Kudos to Motorola for setting a new norm (no gaming phone at this price offers wireless charging).

Comparison with competition

The Edge 70 Max competes directly with the likes of the OnePlus 15R and the iQOO 15R – two phones that we have reviewed earlier in the year. Compared to these phones, the Motorola Edge 70 Max offers a cleaner OS and a higher-resolution display. You also get wireless charging, a feature that’s missing from the other two. However, the rest of the package ends up being no different from these two. The OnePlus 15R is pricier than the Motorola and hence struggles to make sense, but the iQOO 15R undercuts it by almost Rs 5,000. 

Our verdict

Motorola has given us banger devices in the midrange segment this year, and the Edge 70 Max is another example. Despite its value-centric gaming ambitions, the Edge 70 Max is well-built, has a nice display, top-notch performance and exemplary battery life. The software niggles and the camera performance, however, remain a weak point for this phone, and may push buyers to other options in this category, including the Edge 70 Pro Plus from Motorola’s stable.

That said, gaming phones only need to be good at gaming and be decent in other aspects, which is where the Motorola Edge 70 Max shines. If you are seeking a high-performance Android phone for less than Rs 60,000 today, the Edge 70 Max is worth taking a look at.