Budget 30-40k Moto Edge 30 Ultra @~35k a good choice?

BullettuPaandi

Disciple
Hey, guys. Looking to upgrade from my 4yo K20 Pro. I considered smartphones at three different prices - Poco F5, Moto Edge 30 Ultra & Samsung S23. Of these, moto seems to be a sweet spot to me. Wanted to check here, before purchasing.

Poco F5 is honestly all I need, but I'm willing to pay the extra for the Edge 30 Ultra just for the better build; better cameras & DP1.4 are things I'm hoping to make use of. S23 is less appealing to me as the moto covers most of what I want for so much less - ~Rs.35k with exchange & bank offers. I am concerned about a few things though -

Service center availability is much less; only one in my district that I can't find even on GMaps; only three in Chennai. Also, since it doesn't look like most people are buying this phone, I'm concerned about the availability of spare parts years down the line; same goes for custom ROM support.

Kindly share your thoughts/suggestions,
Thanks.



Questions:-
1. Budget?
A: INR 25k-40k

2. Preferred display size, type and resolution?
A: OLED only; FHD is fine; LTPO & compact size would be a nice-to-have.

3. Preferred operating system? (Android (with version), iOS, etc).
A: Android 12+

4. Preferred connectivity options? (4G, 3G, 2G etc).
A: 4G is fine; 5G would be nice.

5. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: No preference. Should have good service network & parts availability (like battery, display, etc years down the line).

6. What is your intended use for this phone (internet, camera, multimedia, mails etc.)?
A: Casual usage + gaming. DeX-like experience would be nice.

7. Single SIM/ Dual SIM?
A: Single is fine.

8. New or Used? Online or Offline?
A: New. Don’t mind buying online

9. Any other requirements?
A: 12GB RAM, Unlock-ability & community support for custom ROMs.

10. If you have already considered a phone, then please mention the model
A: Have considered 3 phones in different budgets - Poco F5, Moto Edge 30 Ultra, Samsung S23.
 
Forget custom ROM support for most devices these days. OP still might have it, check for OP 11R custom ROM support, if not 11R, at least 11 might have decent support (as it's available worldwide).

How much of an exchange value are you getting to bring the Moto Edge 30 ultra from 55k to 35k? This phone is not popular because of its price. I will recommend OP 11R or NP2 to most over this because those 2 are cheaper. OP11 is 57k & a better buy.

S23 is 75k, not sure what your budget is. S23 is a good compact flagship. Samsung provides 4 OS updates vs 2 for Moto, that too very slow (3 for OP11). The only issue with the S23 lineup is price IMO, else good flagship phones. Parts availability & service centres will be good for Samsung, parts are relatively cheap as well vs its competing flagships (check spare part price for OP11 display vs S23 & S23+).
 
If you have budget to get Sammy flagship, would suggest to go for it.
  1. The major differentiator is Samsung Pay. I used to use Samsung Pay when I had S7 and I miss that a lot. I wish Apple Pay comes to India. The convenience is unmatched. The only downside is that the moment you unlock boot loader, you can never ever use Samsung Pay again. It trips Knox and even if you put back OneUI factory ROM, you cannot use Samsung Pay.
  2. Even last year, parts were available for my S7 and K20 Pro parts are nowhere to be seen. Same would be the case for any phones that come low shelf life (Mi, Realme, Moto etc).
  3. Premium materials and that display is just gorgeous to use.
  4. Samsung eco-system is the only one that comes anywhere near Apple's ecosystem. Unlocks lot of features as you expand into Sammy devices (appliances, watch, tablet, laptop, TV etc).
 
Forget custom ROM support for most devices these days. OP still might have it, check for OP 11R custom ROM support, if not 11R, at least 11 might have decent support (as it's available worldwide).

How much of an exchange value are you getting to bring the Moto Edge 30 ultra from 55k to 35k? This phone is not popular because of its price. I will recommend OP 11R or NP2 to most over this because those 2 are cheaper. OP11 is 57k & a better buy.

S23 is 75k, not sure what your budget is. S23 is a good compact flagship. Samsung provides 4 OS updates vs 2 for Moto, that too very slow (3 for OP11). The only issue with the S23 lineup is price IMO, else good flagship phones. Parts availability & service centres will be good for Samsung, parts are relatively cheap as well vs its competing flagships (check spare part price for OP11 display vs S23 & S23+).
Don't like 11R for its plastic frame. I like S23 better than OP11. I checked almost a month ago, the S23 8/256GB was available for about 60k with exchange and bank offers. I chose to wait till S24 launch. Additional to offers that are available now, there was "Buy more; Save more" offer of 5k.

Weirdly, the 12/256GB model of Edge 30 Ultra is cheaper @50k. It seems they're also willing to take my Mom's old Mi A1 that's collecting dust for 12k; I can find someone from friends/family with an SBI card for the 5k off (see attachment).

I was quite sure I'd either go for S23 for the reasons you've mentioned, or save the money and choose to live with F5. Moto was just an interesting middle option. But now @35k, even if the S23 was available for, say 50k in a couple of months, I can wait but not entirely convinced to pay the 15k more.

If you have budget to get Sammy flagship, would suggest to go for it.
  1. The major differentiator is Samsung Pay. I used to use Samsung Pay when I had S7 and I miss that a lot. I wish Apple Pay comes to India. The convenience is unmatched. The only downside is that the moment you unlock boot loader, you can never ever use Samsung Pay again. It trips Knox and even if you put back OneUI factory ROM, you cannot use Samsung Pay.
  2. Even last year, parts were available for my S7 and K20 Pro parts are nowhere to be seen. Same would be the case for any phones that come low shelf life (Mi, Realme, Moto etc).
  3. Premium materials and that display is just gorgeous to use.
  4. Samsung eco-system is the only one that comes anywhere near Apple's ecosystem. Unlocks lot of features as you expand into Sammy devices (appliances, watch, tablet, laptop, TV etc).
I'm fine with GPay. Things I like in S23 are - solid build, closest to compact these days, OS support. I'm kinda avert to this eco-system thing. I mean, I don't want to be in an eco-system.
K20 Pro parts are available just fine - both original from authorized service centers & multiple 2nd copy providers.

S23's camera quality is superior. I've seen samples from all these 3 devices among my friends and family, S23 is superior. But battery wise S23 comes last in the list.
Choose according to your priority.
Camera is not a huge requirement for me. I'll list my priorities below -

Processor - 7+ Gen 1 or better; sustained performance is a concern; no less than 80%
Build - No plastic frame; plastic back is less than ideal, but fine.
DeX-like experience - I don't use it now, but think this will be helpful for me.
 

Attachments

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I'll say OP can get Moto Edge 30 ultra, at 35k. Not so great camera or fast OS updates, but still good for the price. Doubt other phones will offer 12k for Mi A1, might be a specific offer.
 
Have you considered iQOO Z7 Pro 5G?
Currently 8GB/256GB available at 25K less additional 2k card discount. Net 23K on Amazon
Display looks good, but 7200 is not upgrade-worthy from 855.

I'll say OP can get Moto Edge 30 ultra, at 35k. Not so great camera or fast OS updates, but still good for the price. Doubt other phones will offer 12k for Mi A1, might be a specific offer.
They're technically not offering 12k for Mi A1. 2k is for A1 & 10k is the promotional offer. I don't understand why they do this instead of just reducing the price; I guess to get the profit from people who don't exchange. This was 9k the last time I checked (a month ago), 12k now. For S23 it is 8k off for Mi A1 now.
 
Display looks good, but 7200 is not upgrade-worthy from 855.


They're technically not offering 12k for Mi A1. 2k is for A1 & 10k is the promotional offer. I don't understand why they do this instead of just reducing the price; I guess to get the profit from people who don't exchange. This was 9k the last time I checked (a month ago), 12k now. For S23 it is 8k off for Mi A1 now.
Consider it an exchange bonus, a big one, that's all.
 
Forget custom ROM support for most devices these days. OP still might have it, check for OP 11R custom ROM support, if not 11R, at least 11 might have decent support (as it's available worldwide).

How much of an exchange value are you getting to bring the Moto Edge 30 ultra from 55k to 35k? This phone is not popular because of its price. I will recommend OP 11R or NP2 to most over this because those 2 are cheaper. OP11 is 57k & a better buy.

S23 is 75k, not sure what your budget is. S23 is a good compact flagship. Samsung provides 4 OS updates vs 2 for Moto, that too very slow (3 for OP11). The only issue with the S23 lineup is price IMO, else good flagship phones. Parts availability & service centres will be good for Samsung, parts are relatively cheap as well vs its competing flagships (check spare part price for OP11 display vs S23 & S23+).
OnePlus has been boycotted by developers after the 9 series since Oppo took over, switched to ColorOS and stopped providing developer support and recovery tools.

Pixel are the best devices for developer support with Xiaomi having good hacked support, considering poor kernel and driver support. Moto phones are very poor in software support and lose Widevine L1 support on unlocking the bootloader.
Mods can close the thread, I guess :neutral:
It was 45k through May and June. Will fall in price again for the festival sale.
 
It's back to 50k now. But can't apply bank offer with the exchange offer. This is from the bank offer's T&C -
The discount will be applied to the Net Cart Value (“NCV”). NCV shall mean the total value of only the eligible product/s in the cart after all applicable discounts and exchange offer redemption
 
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