Motorola Edge 20 Fusion review

At $499, the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion is the cheapest device in the Edge 20 lineup, which also includes the $699 Edge 20 and $899 Edge 20 Pro. But looking at the spec sheet alone (boasting a mammoth 108MP camera, 90Hz OLED display, fast charging and mid-range Dimensity 800 chipset), you’d never expect its sub-$500 price tag.

The Edge 20 Fusion is currently available at Catch, Officeworks, Amazon, Harvey Norman, Big W, Mobileciti and Lenovo Online. 

When it comes to smartphones, for some people, bigger is better. If that’s you, you’ll be happy to know that the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion is a BIG unit. It’s a Great Dane to the iPhone 13 Mini’s Chihuahua. For those of us with small hands and tiny jean pockets, however, it’s a bit much.

The screen is an expansive 6.7-inch OLED is HDR10+ enabled, boasts a smooth 90Hz refresh rate and is capable of displaying over a billion colours. I really have no complaints about the quality of the display - just its size. Throw in slightly thicker top and bottom bezels than we’d like and it feels even bigger.

Thankfully, the device itself is quite lightweight considering the scale and sports a (mostly) matte-finish backplate (available in Electric Graphite or Cyber Teal) which does attract the odd fingerprint, but looks nice nonetheless. Interestingly, it’s also water-repellant - something that’s nice to have, but won’t do much towards surviving an accidental plunge in the pool.

On the right of the Edge 20 Fusion, you’ll find a side-mounted fingerprint-scanner-slash-power-button and volume rocker, with a dedicated Google Assistant button on the opposite edge. I’m not someone who uses Google Assistant all that often, so it would have been nice to have the option to reprogram it to open a frequently-used app. At the base of the device, you’ll find both a USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can hang on to those wired headphones a little bit longer.

The rear camera bump is pretty chunky, and feels even chunkier with the included case on. Since it houses a hefty 108MP lens (the quality of which we’ll get into next), we’d expect it to be a little on the thicker side, but it still looks and feels a bit peculiar.

On paper, the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion’s camera array sounds pretty damn impressive. There’s a 108MP primary lens, 118-degree 12MP ultrawide lens and 2MP depth sensor. However, more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better quality shots, so I was keen to see how the Fusion’s setup would fare in practice. The results were a bit of a mixed bag.

Taking photos with the Fusion isn’t a particularly fast process. Its camera is slow to focus, and image processing isn’t much faster. Inevitably, that means the image you see in the camera app looks a lot poorer quality than the end result. It’s a shame, because that end result is actually great. Shots are crisp and detailed and colours are true-to-life. The 32MP selfie camera is, again, pretty slow, but, again, produces decent results. You just have to be a little patient.

The Motorola Edge 20 Fusion runs a pretty bloatware-free version of Android 11 on a Mediatek Dimensity 800 processor. It’s the same chip found in the similarly-priced Realme 7 5G and OPPO Reno4 Z 5G, and though it’s not exactly top-of-the-line, it’s more than zippy enough to satisfy most users.

Motorola has chosen to stick with the stock Google apps instead of pre-installing their own, and it makes for a refreshingly clean experience. Really, the only things it comes preloaded with is Facebook (which can be easily deleted) and ThinkShield for Mobile security software.

One thing about the Edge 20 Fusion that really blew me away is Ready For, Motorola’s remote viewing software. Once you’ve downloaded the companion software for your PC (no Mac support, unfortunately), you can control your phone from your computer, either by mirroring it or in a desktop mode, allowing you to control your camera remotely and play games on the big screen. Sure, it’s a little on the slow side, but there’s no denying it’s a pretty awesome innovation.

Given the sheer size of the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it packs a sizable 5,000mAh battery, too. For me, that translated to an easy full day of use, two if I used it conservatively, which is pretty damn impressive.

When it’s finally drained, recharging the battery from zero only takes a little over an hour courtesy of the included 30W charging brick.

For less than $500, the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion represents fantastic value for money, packing some seriously beefy specs into a budget-friendly package - even if that package is a little too unwieldy for the small-handed among us. The camera, while slow, does produce some beautiful shots, and though it’s not the sleekest, most premium feeling phone in the world, it more than does the job.