"550,000 Won" Lighter and Longer-Lasting Than the iPhone Air at One-Third the Price [Tried It Myself]

Motorola’s New Edge 70
Light 159 g Weight and Slim 5.99 mm Thickness You Can Feel
Outstanding Battery Life with New Technology
Factory Price of 550,000 Won... Strong Price Competitiveness

As soon as the phone powers on, the phrase "Hello Moto" pops up on the screen. It is the same line that appeared in the commercials for the Motorola RAZR series, which was hugely popular in Korea more than 20 years ago. Back when bulky phones dominated the market, Motorola's RAZR flip phone gained popularity thanks to its slim profile and unique colors, selling more than 130 million units worldwide. Although Motorola's popularity faded as the smartphone era took off in earnest, the Edge 70 still clearly conveys the identity of that era.

Motorola has released a new device in the Korean market for the first time in a while. The star of the show is the Edge 70, which was launched through KT on January 22. The Edge 70 is a smartphone that emphasizes ultra-light weight, ultra-slim design, and long battery life. You could say it inherits the ultra-slim identity of the RAZR almost as it was. Motorola failed to respond properly when the smartphone market began to bloom, ceding ground to Apple and Samsung Electronics and even withdrawing from the Korean handset business for a time. During that period, the company changed hands twice. After Motorola’s U.S. headquarters decided to spin off and sell the handset division, it was first acquired by Google and is now owned by Lenovo of China.

Hands-on with the Motorola Edge 70. By Lee Myeonghwan

Light, thin, long-lasting... and reasonably priced

Inside the box you will find the Edge 70, a user manual, a USB Type-C cable, and more. Unlike many recently launched smartphones that have cut back on in-box accessories, a transparent case is also included as standard. The Edge 70 is being released in Korea in two colors, Lily Pad and Gadget Gray, through a collaboration with global color company Pantone. The Lily Pad color used by this reporter features a light green body with orange camera rings and buttons.

The first thing that stood out when picking up the device was how light it felt. The Edge 70 weighs 159 g. Compared with major flagship smartphones that easily exceed 200 g, the difference in lightness was immediately apparent. Its thickness of 5.99 mm is also noticeably slimmer than that of conventional smartphones.

It holds up well even when compared with Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge or the iPhone Air, which are likewise positioned as ultra-slim and ultra-light models. The Edge 70 is about 0.3 to 0.4 mm thicker than these models, but it is actually the lightest in weight. Having personally used the competing devices, this reporter found the thinness and weight to be at a very similar level.

Side of the Motorola Edge 70 device. Photo by Lee Myunghwan

One of the most impressive aspects was the battery.

Despite its slim profile, the Edge 70 is equipped with a large 4,800 mAh battery, providing ample usage time. With a full charge, it was possible to use the phone for about two days without recharging, and according to Motorola, it can continuously play video for up to 29 hours. Instead of the conventional lithium-ion type, the Edge 70 uses a silicon-carbon battery to reduce volume and weight. Considering that the biggest drawback of competing ultra-slim models has been limited battery capacity due to their thin design, this is a clearly noticeable advantage.

Charging speed was also the fastest among competing models. The Edge 70 supports fast charging of up to 68 W. In an actual test, starting from a fully drained battery and connecting a 65 W fast charger, the battery reached 50% in 25 minutes and about 80% in just over 40 minutes. It also supports 15 W wireless charging.

The Edge 70 features three 50-megapixel-class cameras: two on the rear and one on the front. Both the rear wide-angle and ultra-wide cameras are equipped with optical image stabilization (OIS). In real-world shooting, photos came out clear even at night in low-light conditions.

Photos taken with the Apple iPhone 16 Pro (left) and the Motorola Edge 70 (right). Photo by Lee Myunghwan

The application processor (AP), effectively the brain of the smartphone, is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which is generally regarded as a mid-range chip. When tested with a benchmark app that measures and scores device performance, it scored lower than the Galaxy S23 series released three years ago. However, in everyday app usage scenarios excluding high-end gaming, it delivered smooth, lag-free performance. The device also comes with 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, the same level as competing models. A larger RAM capacity improves multitasking performance by allowing more tasks to be handled simultaneously.

The display is a 6.7-inch plastic OLED (POLED) panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It also supports on-screen fingerprint recognition with the sensor integrated into the display, as well as IP69/IP68-rated water and dust resistance. The operating system (OS) is Google’s Android 16.

Another major strength of the Edge 70 is its reasonable price. The factory price of the device is set at 550,000 won, which is only about one-third that of competing ultra-slim models. On KT’s official online store, customers who subscribe to a plan in the 60,000-won range for two years can have the full device cost covered. Considering that the price of RAM, a key smartphone component, has recently surged, the pricing can be seen as reasonable. Motorola is selling the same model in the European market for 799 euros (approximately 1.37 million won).

No eSIM support... and the built-in AI does not support Korean

There were also some disappointing aspects during use. The Edge 70 does not support eSIM and can only use a single physical SIM card. This means you cannot use two numbers on one phone via eSIM, nor can you conveniently buy and use a local data eSIM while traveling overseas.

Korean language support on the phone is also lacking. The Edge 70 comes with Motorola’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) service, "Moto AI," but it does not support Korean, making it difficult to take full advantage of it. Instead, you can use the capabilities of Gemini, which is supported by Android. It was also noticeable that Korean is not supported in areas such as the Settings app or Help, resulting in English-only labels or awkwardly translated menu names.

Because the Edge 70 is an Exclusive release through KT, there are also limitations in choosing a mobile carrier. Since it is not available as an unlocked device, the Edge 70 can only be purchased through KT’s official online store or its retail outlets. If your current carrier is not KT, you would need to port your number over to KT.

Unlike competing models that support Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, the phone itself does not support any built-in mobile payment service. While it does support call recording, some users may find it inconvenient that, when the record button is pressed, a voice message or tone is sent to the other party to indicate that the call is being recorded.

Overall verdict: A light smartphone you can enjoy lightly

Although ultra-slim and ultra-light designs were among the major trends in the smartphone market last year, they ultimately failed to make a big splash in the market. Both the Galaxy S25 Edge and the iPhone Air ranked in the lower tier of sales in the Korean smartphone market, and there are even forecasts that the two companies will not release successor models.

Consumers want thin and light smartphones. As smartphone performance has advanced, size and weight have increased proportionally, to the point where devices have become cumbersome to carry around. The problem was the price. Even though manufacturers sacrificed elements such as battery capacity and camera performance to achieve ultra-slim and ultra-light designs, prices still easily exceeded 1 million won. The advantage of being thin and light was simply not worth paying a price approaching 1.5 million won.

The Edge 70 delivers both ultra-slim and ultra-light design while lowering the price significantly by making compromises on performance. It also greatly improves the battery, which was the key weakness of previous models. In a domestic smartphone market dominated by Samsung and Apple, the Edge 70 is a rare foreign-made smartphone and a model that feels genuinely "unfamiliar." For consumers who do not play high-end games but want a light and reasonably priced smartphone, it could be an appealing option.