Moto Edge X30, first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone likely to launch on December 9

By Abdul Q December 1, 2021

Motorola has been very active lately with launches in the mobile segment ranging from entry-level to high-end devices. Now it looks like the race for the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphone is heating up and Motorola is trying to get the upper hand by being the first to launch a smartphone with the new chipset. The Lenovo-owned smartphone maker has confirmed that it will be announcing an Edge smartphone with Qualcomm’s latest flagship chip on December 9. This is likely to be the Moto Edge X30 (or just Motorola Edge), but there’s also a possibility of the Motorola G200 launching at the same time.

The teaser doesn’t reveal much more about the device, and a lot is still under wraps, but there are some tidbits that we can gather from the phone’s certification. For starters, its battery certification shows a 5,000mAh cell with a charging capacity of 68.2W, which is one of the highest in Motorola phones. Consumers in China are likely to have many choices in terms of storage as there are reportedly 6GB/8GB/12GB/16GB RAM and 128GB/256GB/512GB storage options. Chen Jin, Lenovo China’s head of mobile division, also revealed that the phone has Gorilla Glass protection on both sides as well as the latest My UX 3.0 software.

Motorola Edge X30 teaser — Image used with permission by copyright holder

A bunch of unofficial information such as leaks and renders shows the Moto Edge X30 isn’t a boring phone. Renders that came recently show the familiar hole-punch design with a pretty bezel-less, albeit flat, AMOLED screen that is said to measure 6.67 inches and has support for HDR10+. On the back, there’s a standard triple camera setup said to consist of two 50-megapixel main shooters and a 2MP depth sensor. The front camera is rumored to house a whopping 60MP sensor.

Recommended Videos

There are also talks about a Moto Edge X30 Ultra, however, which could be an even more premium version of the X30, and it could launch on the same day. Motorola seems to be in a haste to launch its flagships this year, which means we could see the same handset in Europe and the U.S. pretty soon, although there are no official dates as of yet.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Abdul can be tagged as a true blue smartphone enthusiast. As part of his professional career, he has contributed to a number…

Mobile

Meet the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Qualcomm’s flagship mobile chip for 2022

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor..

At the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm officially unveiled the newly renamed Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, its new flagship-grade mobile system on a chip (SoC). The new mobile chip is expected to power a large number of premium-tier Android devices next year and succeeds the Snapdragon 888 from 2020. Through 2022, it will compete against Samsung’s soon-to-be-announced Exynos 2200, MediaTek’s recently announced Dimensity 9000, and Apple's A15 Bionic chips that power the current crop of iPhones.
What's new?
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the second mobile processor after the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 to use a 4nm manufacturing process. It is claimed to be the first mobile chipset to incorporate a 10-Gigabit modem-RF combo, as well as the world’s first 18-bit Image Signal Processor (ISP) -- a claim MediaTek would certainly contest given that the Dimensity 9000 also boasts of an 18-bit ISP. Interestingly, Qualcomm also seems to have missed the bus as far as LPDDR5X DRAM is concerned since the spec sheet only mentions support for LPDDR5.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 uses ARM’s Cortex X2 core -- which at first glance sounds like an incremental upgrade over the existing Arm Cortex X1 core used in the Snapdragon 888 series. What makes it radically different, however, is that the Cortex X2 core is based on an entirely new chip architecture called the ARMv9. The move to ARMv9 chips marks a significant change in ARM’s chip architecture strategy as it is the company’s first chip architecture change in a decade. All ARM-based mobile processors since 2011 -- including the Snapdragon 888 series from last year -- used the older ARMv8 architecture.

Mobile

Here’s what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform means for future smartphone cameras

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 reference device.

When people think of a digital camera, whether on its own or integrated into a smartphone, they generally focus on the lens and the sensor. They ask how many megapixels it has, how sharp is the lens, or how high can its lowlight sensitivity go. What many people neglect to take into serious consideration is the processor, which is a bit like evaluating your eyes while discounting your brain. The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform is the new “brain” that’s going to power many next-gen smartphone cameras, and it’s worth taking a closer look at what that means for photography.
18-bit ISP and better lowlight
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform introduces a suite of camera features that Qualcomm is calling "Snapdragon Sight Technology", and many of its most impressive capabilities are enabled by its 18-bit Image Signal Processor (ISP), which delivers speeds of up to 3.2 gigapixels per second from up to three different cameras simultaneously. It can capture 8K High Dynamic Range (HDR) video, and record over a billion shades of color.

This new ISP means big things in terms of lowlight capability as well. Beyond the physical limitations of your camera’s sensor and the lens, it’s the processor that determines how well the camera handles lowlight situations. The Snapdragon 8 chipset overcomes limitations in dark situations by capturing 30 images in the span of a second and then combining them together to create a clean and attractive final image in dimly lit situations. This is known as Multi-frame Noise Reduction, or MFNR, and less advanced versions of it have been an increasingly common feature of cameras for years now.

Mobile

iOS 18.2 just took another step toward its official release

Yet another iOS update is ready, and this one is important. The iOS 18.2 beta 2 update is live, and it's a big deal for a couple of reasons. It's available to more people than the previous beta, and it indicates another step toward iOS 18.2's public launch.

The first version of this beta was only available to people whose phones supported Apple Intelligence, but this latest version works with any phone that can update to iOS 18. Addditionally, iOS 18.2 beta 2 is only available to developer beta testers. There isn't a public beta at the moment, and we have no word on when one might release. Still, it's good to see that more people are included this time around.