Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Review: Minor Yet Meaningful Upgrades

Last year, Motorola did not have the Stylus, but it did have the Edge 50, and given its attractive starting price of Rs. 27,999, it made a lot of sense to stretch your budget by a little and get a smartphone with a lot of upgrades, given that the Edge 50 Fusion (from Rs. 22,999) was mainly a case of “all show and no go”. This year, Motorola has priced its offerings smartly. Its Edge 60 Pro is priced competitively at Rs. 29,999 (instead of being priced at Rs. 31,999), and there’s enough of a price gap between Motorola’s low-end mid-range product and high-end mid-range product (Rs. 7,000 to be precise). There’s no meddling (or cannibalising) Edge 60 in the mix either (for now), and so buyers can simply pick one over the other depending on their budget and requirements.

That said, the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion comes with some minor upgrades. It appears very familiar compared to the previous model, but Motorola seems to have worked on the issues we faced in our review of the Edge 50 Fusion last year. So, let’s take a closer look at these minor changes and how they impact the overall usability and value of the phone.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Design: Still slick and slim

• Dimensions – 161.2 x 73.08 x 8.25 mm
• Weight – 180 grams
• Durability – IP68 + IP69 + MIL-STD-810H compliant

The Motorola Edge 60 Fusion appears and feels very similar to the Edge 50 Fusion it aims to replace. This year, Motorola has gone all out when it comes to design, offering the phone in vegan leather-clad options made from silicon. This is interesting because the phone’s IP rating has also been bumped up to IP69, meaning it can withstand high-pressure jets of water and hot steam as well. However, do keep in mind that any damage due to water ingress will not be covered under warranty.

After using our review unit for a couple of weeks, the bright colour of the Pantone Amazonite finish has gotten a bit dull, but the soft and cushy layer is intact and has no scratch marks or visible tears

 

Motorola continues to go with its older design philosophy with a curved edge display (aggressively curves on the left and right sides), but the protective Gorilla Victus 7i screen also curves a bit at the top and bottom edges. There are also uniform and skinny borders all around, which is a stark contrast to the Samsung Galaxy A26 I reviewed earlier and is priced similarly. Its mid-frame is made from polycarbonate, is flat and has a matte finish.

The phone’s aggressively curved front and rear panels make it comfortable to hold and lend it a premium appearance.

 

Although it may appear slightly different, the camera unit remains unchanged in terms of hardware. Instead of two camera cutouts, there are now four, one of which holds the LED flash. Apart from the two user accessible cameras (primary and ultrawide), there is also now a third camera that functions as an ambient light sensor, flicker sensor and an RGB sensor.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Display: Looks good and works great!

• Display size – 6.67-inch, 2,712 x 1,220 pixels, 1.5K, (446 PPI)
• Display type – pOLED, 120Hz
• Display protection – Gorilla Glass Victus 7i

Upgrades are always good to have, and the Edge 60 Fusion gets a better display than the previous model. There’s now a 1.5K display with a higher pixel density compared to the last full-HD+ screen. It’s plenty sharp and shows natural colours with the Natural screen colour mode enabled. This display has a high brightness mode of 1,400 nits and offers a peak brightness of 4,500 nits. It was able to tackle the bright outdoors whenever the situation presented itself, given the monsoons in Mumbai.

One noticeable downgrade is the drop from 144Hz to 120Hz. While the jump from using a 60Hz display to a 120Hz display is a big difference, the jump from 120Hz to 144Hz isn’t a big deal, especially on a mid-range smartphone with mid-range hardware.

 

That said, when set to Auto mode, the screen’s refresh rate remains capped at 90Hz only. Things remain this way when browsing through the interface and operating apps but drops to 60Hz when playing games. The maximum 120Hz screen refresh rate only goes into effect when you enable it manually in Settings. But again, this setting only sticks to 120Hz when using the software interface and browsing through apps and not for games. The touch sampling rate is set to 300Hz, and it felt sufficient when playing fast-paced FPS titles.

The phone does have an HDR certification, but I could not stream or find supported HDR content when using OTT apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. However, YouTube did seem to support it, and it looked really good with contrasted blacks and vibrant colours. The overall picture quality in general is great, and you get Widevine L1 support for streaming content in full-HD playback resolution.

The display curves aggressively on the left and right sides, but only the protective glass gently curves at the top and bottom

 

It’s nice to see Motorola retain the Edge 50 Fusion’s stereo speakers on the new model. The speakers support Dolby Atmos sound and can get really loud, but sound clear even at high volume. I was pretty impressed by the Dolby Atmos integration, which does a fine job of delivering immersive audio when viewing supported content in OTT apps.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Software: Now with budding AI features

• Software version – Android 15
• Software – Hello UI
• Software commitment – 3 years OS + 4 Years SMR

Motorola’s software experience over the years has gradually moved from what used to be a clean and near-stock interface to offering moderate bloatware. It’s nowhere close to Samsung in the bloatware business, but it’s sort of on the path to getting there eventually. One reason behind these additional Moto-branded apps that keep growing with every passing year is the growing Motorola ecosystem. Today, it includes not only smartphones but also laptops, tablets, TVs, and smart appliances. Bloatware aside, there are also three preinstalled apps and four games, but all of these could be uninstalled. On the plus side, I did not receive any random or spammy notifications on the phone during the review period.

Motorola’s Hello UI keeps its appearance near-stock but provides plenty of customisation in its Personalised menu

 

Motorola’s Hello UI, despite the growing number of apps, has managed to maintain its near-stock appearance. You still get the ability to change fonts (there’s plenty to pick from, unlike other brands) and change icon shapes (a feature that will be making a comeback with the next version of Android). What I did find annoying was seeing ads in the default weather app, a newsfeed built right into the app drawer (like Google’s Discover Feed wasn’t enough) and the need to choose between the two AI interfaces (Moto AI and Gemini AI).

Moto AI, in general, is good, but you have to tap the play button after recording your request to process it. It is also a lot slower in terms of response time compared to Gemini.

 

Remember, this lets you snap or take a screenshot and add a voice note for recall, but unlike Nothing’s take, it cannot set any to-do’s or reminders, which makes it half as useful. Accessing your Memory (where the Remember this stores these notes) is also quite a few menus deep (Home Screen> App Drawer> Moto AI app> Settings icon> Memory). While you can manually search for memory and expand to check the tagged photo, you cannot edit but only delete existing memories.

There’s another Moto AI feature called Update me, which basically glances through your notifications and creates a concise summary, which is spoken out by Moto AI. This is handy in case you haven’t checked your phone for a while and still have your hands full.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Performance: Typically mid-range

• Processor – MediaTek Dimensity 7400, 2.5GHz, 4nm
• RAM – 8/12GB (LPDDR4X)
• Storage – 256GB (UFS 2.2) + 1TB Micro(SD) (Hybrid)

We faced no performance issues with the Edge 50 Fusion last year, and Motorola’s choice of processor for its Edge 60 Fusion provides a similar experience this year. You will experience no hiccups or lag when operating the phone’s software or apps, but I did not notice the device getting hot when using the camera app (which slows down the app a bit). The phone does not have a cooling mechanism in place and, so the heat from the processor can be felt on the display instead of the (silicon) vegan leather-clad rear panel.

Benchmark results, as expected, were as it should be for a mid-range device.

 

Gaming performance is quite good, and the phone manages sustained and smooth gameplay when playing Asphalt Legends Unite at the highest possible settings (60 fps mode only). When playing Call of Duty: Mobile, the phone manages smooth performance both when playing at Very High graphics and Very High frame rate and when playing at Low graphics and Ultra frame rate. Given the underlying hardware (we were given the 12GB RAM variant), the Ultra setting manages around 60 fps and not 90 or 120 fps like on premium devices. Also, a majority of the graphics effects in this game are greyed out.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Cameras: A capable shooter

• Primary camera – 50-megapixel, f/1.8, OIS, AF
• Ultrawide camera – 13-megapixel, f/2.2, PDAF
• Selfie camera – 32-megapixel, f/2.2, FF

Since the camera setup seems unchanged, I was curious to see if the new processor (its ISP) and other imaging optimisations have made a difference. To my surprise, things have changed for the better, at least for the primary camera. And most of the improvements seem to be due to the use of the third additional camera or sensor.

To give our readers a better idea about the phone’s camera performance, I have inserted identical camera samples from the Nothing Phone 3a in between for comparison.

The Nothing Phone 3a (bottom) shoots photos that are brighter and with higher saturation and more contrast. Motorola takes the more natural route with sharper pictures and more accurate colours. (tap images to expand)

 

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion primary camera samples (tap images to expand)

 

The primary camera, which uses the same Sony LYTIA 700C sensor as before, now manages better results than last year’s model. The photos have good detail and sharpness, and the colours, too, are more accurate. These are better than what the Nothing Phone 3a can manage.

Photos from the primary camera come out equally well in low light with good detail and dynamic range compared to the Nothing Phone 3a (bottom), which again goes for a more contrasted and saturated look but falls short on dynamic range. (tap images to expand)

 

Motorola’s Edge 60 Fusion (top) manages slightly better image quality when using the ultrawide camera  (tap images to expand)

 

The ultrawide camera, too, has improved in terms of overall polish. The photos have a colour tone that’s finally closer to the primary camera, compared to the odd-looking ones we have seen with the previous model.

The phone’s 2X zoom capability is where one sees the Edge 60 Fusion (top) struggle when compared to the Nothing 3a’s (bottom) optical telephoto zoom (tap images to expand)

 

Selfies appear perfectly fine in daylight with accurate edge detection but suffer in low light, showing low detail (tap image to expand)

 

Given the slightly laggy camera app operation (which could be due to the processor overheating), the viewfinder stutters, especially when recording video. However, the recorded footage appears fine in playback on both the phone and a PC.

Video recordings come out sharp and have good detail along with good stabilisation. They come out a bit bright, so you might notice some highlight clipping in the background. 4K recordings at 30 fps hit the sweet spot as it manages the best overall quality. In low light, 1080p video recordings appear well-stabilised but a bit soft. 4K recordings appear a bit shimmery when walking and are a bit low on dynamic range (appears contrasty). Overall, the results are probably the best you can get at this price point.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Battery: Meets expectations

• Battery capacity – 5,500mAh
• Wired charging – 68W
• Charger in the box – Yes

One of the few upgrades that this phone has received includes a higher-capacity battery. It does not cross the 6,000mAh mark, nor the new 7,300mAh mark like the Vivo T4, but Motorola has managed to squeeze the most out of it.

Despite its slim appearance, the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion easily lasts a whole day with heavy usage

 

In our HD video loop battery test, the Edge 60 Fusion managed an average of 22 hours and 21 minutes. PC Mark’s Work Battery Life test also managed a commendable 13 hours, which is pretty impressive for such a slim device. With continuous or heavy use, the phone, as per our own battery usage tests, can easily last a little over a day. So, casual users will easily be able to get 1.5 days of usage from the Edge 60 Fusion. Indeed, these figures are an improvement over the previous model, even though the Edge 50 Fusion managed around 2 hours more in our video loop test last year.

Charging speeds are pretty good, keeping the increased battery capacity in mind. The phone charged to 36 per cent in 15 minutes and 61 per cent in 30 minutes, completing the charge in 53 minutes in normal mode. It managed to charge about 10 minutes faster when using Charge Boost mode, which heats up the phone and is not switched on by default.

Motorola Edge 60 Fusion Verdict

Motorola’s Edge 60 Fusion is a classic example of how companies can make a big difference by adding smaller but meaningful upgrades in the right places. By accomplishing this, Motorola has managed to deliver a great mid-range smartphone at a very competitive price point by adding very little to the mix.

When it comes to mid-range smartphones, Nothing’s Phone 3a sure stands out. Going by the above camera samples, it is pretty clear that Motorola has a clear “edge” in the areas that matter. Of course, the Phone 3a is still special and offers one of the best software experiences in this segment, but its camera still needs a lot of work, as mentioned in my review. If you are looking for better battery life, then Vivo’s T4 is not a bad deal either.

Just like the Edge 50 Fusion and Edge 50, there is a good chance that those with more cash to spare will be drawn by the Edge 60 Pro, which is a solid package given its Rs. 29,999 starting price. But under Rs. 25,000, it’s very hard to go wrong with the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion.