Motorola has recently been very busy when it comes to launching new smartphones with epic camera specifications. As well as launching the company's flagship foldable – the Motorola Razr 2022 last week – Motorola’s huge event in China also saw the launch of the mid-range Moto S30 Pro and the eagerly awaited Moto X30 Pro — the world's first handset with a 200MP camera.
Could the new Moto X30 Pro be worthy of a place in our guide to the best camera phones? Let's take a look.
Let’s start with the camera system in the Moto X30 Pro – certainly its pièce de resistance boasting the world’s first 200MP primary camera, which Motorola announced last year. The new phone boasts Samsung’s ISOCELL HP1, which is a 1/1.22″ sensor with f/1.95 aperture, OIS and 16-in-1 pixel binning courtesy of a new technology called ChameleonCell.
ChameleonCell enables switching between two-by-two, four-by-four, and full pixel layouts depending on the scene. So, in low light, the Moto X30 Pro can bin its pixels to 2.56µm in size to shoot photos at 12.5MP resolution, as well as shooting 50MP photos with 1.28μm pixels or at the full 200MP with 0.64μm pixels. This main camera can also capture up to 8K video at 30fps.
The other two cameras making up the Moto X30 Pro ‘s triple camera system are a 50MP ultra-wide shooter and a 12MP Sony IMX663 telephoto unit. Lastly, up front there is a 60MP Omnivision OV60a sensor for selfies and video chats.
Moto X30 Pro: Specifications
The super high end specs for the Moto X30 Pro certainly don’t stop at the record beating camera system. High-end hardware includes Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC and up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
Screen-wise, the X30 Pro features a 6.67-inch FHD+ 144Hz OLED display with HDR10+ and 1,200 nits of peak brightness. It also boasts an integrated, under-display fingerprint scanner for unlocking the device.
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There’s a 4,610 mAh battery, which offers support for 125W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging. The Moto X30 Pro runs Android 12 with MyUI 4.0 on top.
Moto X30 Pro: Price and availability
The Moto X30 Pro, available in black and white color options, has currently only been launched in China. It’s rumored that the phone will launch globally later this year as the Moto Edge 30 Ultra. The local price for the Moto X30 Pro is 3,699 yuan (around $548) for the base 8GB+128GB model, 4,199 yuan (around $623) for the 12GB+256GB and the biggest 12GB+512GB variant costs 4,499 yuan (around $668).
Rachael is a British journalist with 18 years experience in the publishing industry. Since working on www.digitalcameraworld.com, she’s been freelancing, and contributing to some of the world’s best-loved websites and magazines including T3.com and TechRadar.com and has also had a book, iPad for Photographers, published. She's currently acting as editor of 5GRadar.com - a website specializing in the latest cellular technology.