I’m talking, of course, about the just-released Motorola Edge 50 which is official with a super-premium, ultra-thin, and surprisingly robust design.
What’s so special about it?
Image credit – Motorola
Shortly prior to its release, a leak claimed that Motorola was to launch the “world’s slimmest military grade phone”, being just 8.1mm thick. Motorola promotes it having passed “testing against the U.S. Department of Defense’s MIL-STD-810H standard”. This is supposed to mean “rugged”, right?Well, all that glitters is not gold… and one should take advertising information with a grain of salt. As we’ve pointed out, even though the phone is said to have passed “testing against the U.S. Department of Defense’s MIL-STD-810H standard”, there are guarantees of the phone’s “future performance under these test conditions”.
Essentially, if you damage the Edge 50 in any of the extreme usage scenarios mentioned, Motorola’s warranty will not cover the repair. Therefore, it’s wise to buy a protective case and handle the device with the same care as a non-“military-grade” product.
But, hey, it’s a looker:
Image credit – Motorola
Wait, there’s a phone that looks this good, is also durable and… all you can think of saying is that you’re not impressed?
Looking good and being tough is not enough
Slab phones are cool and all, but they’ve kind of plateaued, don’t you think?
Rarely do real, true upgrades come along. It’s just not possible for 12 months to come up with a device that sweeps the floor with its predecessor.
But every year, phone manufacturers try to convince us exactly the opposite.
This year’s phone is so much better than last year’s, so, give me your money, bro! I swear, bro! It’s totally different, so get rid of that old phone we sold you last year with the same arguments! Buy, buy, buy!
– Phone manufacturers, every 12 months.
To those who’d say that a group’s progress starts with the individual’s triumphs and progress: yes, you’re completely right. The Motorola Edge 50 could be seen as a remarkable device on its own. However, when it’s put in the context of the phone industry as a whole – and especially put next to the fragile foldables – it’s a totally different picture.
See, the Motorola Edge 50 didn’t decide on its own to become rugged to the point it could be cast in the 1987 state-of-the-art Predator hit flick alongside Schwarzenegger. No. It was created that way.
This isn’t so funny…
The people who made it tough have decided to do so. They deliberately said: “Hey, let’s release another foldable with no dust protection! Instead, we could focus on how to make slab mid-rangers and flagships way sturdier!”
And so it went.
Weak foldables are sending you an SOS
The Moto Razr Plus (2024) is great, but… | Image credit – PhoneArena
While the price is obviously one of the reasons we’re not going through a major Fold/Flip pandemic right now, there’s more to it.
People – at least, those who care to inform themselves before throwing several hundred $$$ (or more) for a foldable – are reluctant to get a bending handset because of their fragility.
Sure, handling gadgets carefully helps a lot, but there’s not much that you can do about your brand-new Motorola Razr Plus (2024) that lacks dust protection of any kind. Its IPX8 rating means that there’s some water protection certification, but nothing (hence the “X”) to counter those pesky dust particles.
Big screens, big silicon brains, big problems
As much as I love what modern day phones and their silicon brains can do, I can’t deny that there’s a part of me that will always long for the dumb phone Nokia era.
Nokia’s iconic 6310i model (from the year 2002) could not provide you with dubious TikTok videos, but then again, this could result in you not being a part of the current youth mental health crisis.
Instead, dumb phones gave us peace of mind. Of course, I’m glorifying things a bit – we were also worried about damaging our phones. It’s just that you didn’t get apoplectic and foaming at the mouth when you dropped your phone to the ground.
There’s no point in looking back to that particular era, though: we’ve learned to live with these fragile rectangular screens, and there’s no going back now. We’re almost through with rectangular slab phones, as well, and we’re on the verge of riding the foldables wave (the next big thing).
However, a little bit of dust protection will be greatly appreciated.
