Forget the iPhone Air — this is the best thin phone around right now

Motorola Edge 70 display — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

It's safe to say that the slim phone has not captured the smartphone-buying public in the way that phone makers might have hoped. The iPhone Air, despite being a brand new, attractive and surprisingly tough handset, has barely made a dent in the sales of new iPhones. And the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, which launched earlier, and offers an extra camera and a more reasonable battery capacity, has seemingly performed so poorly that Samsung has given up on making new models.

As much as I've enjoyed trying them, I've always returned to the full-size version of these phones in my pockets. But recently I've been trying the Motorola Edge 70, a slim phone that launched at the tail end of last year. And it's perhaps the best attempt yet by any manufacturer at making a slim phone.

Before we get any further, I may have to break your heart. I'm sorry to say that this model isn't sold in the U.S. The closest equivalent over on the west of the Atlantic is the Edge 2025, which is cheaper, but lower-specced and not as thin. But that doesn't stop any American wannabe slim phone owner from appreciating what Moto's done here, and maybe applying some pressure to get a version made for your market.

A delicate balance

The benefits of the Moto Edge 70 start right away with its price. At £700, it's still not cheap, but it's still £300 less than the iPhone Air or £400 less than the Galaxy S25 Edge. You can still get more specs for less money, but the tradeoffs compared to regular-thickness flagship phones is nowhere near as painful as it is with the iPhone or Galaxy.

Motorola Edge 70 and iPhone Air held together — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

At 6mm thick, the Moto is right on the boundary of what we'd class as a thin phone. The other two phones are thinner, but the Moto gets points by being the lightest of the three, since it doesn't use a glass back. The Edge 70 is also the tallest and skinniest of the bunch, with the joint-largest display along with the Galaxy S25 Edge, which could be either good or bad depending on how you like to handle your phones.

Motorola Edge 70 next to iPhone Air — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

While it can feel weird to handle a phone with a plastic back, the Moto uses an interesting texture to help with grip, and give the phone an additional unique touch in a world full of glossy or matte-backed glass slabs.

Motorola Edge 70 Pantone logo

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Motorola’s long-standing partnership with Pantone has resulted in another batch of interesting colors for the Edge 70. There’s the sensible Gadget Gray (the option shown in these photos), but also the bright Lily Pad green, and the darker Bronze Green with its metallic orange camera surrounds. Finally, there’s Cloud Dancer, which makes the phone look like an expensive leather couch with its cushion-like back pattern and its embedded Swarovski crystals. Not to my taste, but an option you won’t find outside of Motorola’s stable of phones.

Punching above its weight

The screen itself is a 6.7-inch pOLED unit, with a lower pixel count than the Galaxy S25 Edge. It's also protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, a decent toughened glass for a cheaper phone but one that's not on a par with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 or Ceramic Shield 2 for scratch resistance. But at least the Moto comes out ahead on water resistance — its IP68/69 rating means it should survive an attack by pressurized water jets, while the other two slim phones max out at IP68, signifying protection against immersion in water.

Motorola Edge 70 cameras — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Moto didn't cheap out on the cameras, with the Edge 70 using a trio of 50MP sensors covering the roles of main, ultrawide and selfie shooters. That’s the same number of cameras as the Galaxy S25 Edge, but Samsung only gave its slim phone 12MP front and ultra wide cameras (albeit a hi-res 200MP main one). The iPhone Air makes do with a single 48MP rear camera and an 18MP selfie camera.

I took a few photos with the Moto Edge 70 against the iPhone Air to see how things compared, and the Moto comes off quite well in this face-off.

Looking across a park, the iPhone has produced the darker, more naturalistic image when compared to the brighter Moto photo. That's come at the expense of some detail in the Edge 70's rendition of this scene, but both shots are still of comparable quality.

At night, with the "Little Ben" clock near London's Victoria station, I love how the Motorola's night shot actually looks like it was taken at night, with minimal processing compared to the iPhone. That said, maybe the iPhone's boosting of color and detail helps the viewer actually appreciate the intricacies of this miniature clock tower properly.

This selfie comparison shows the Edge 70 produces a rather dark, moody-looking shot, with the iPhone playing up the warmth in my skin tone and boosting the brightness of the background foliage. The iPhone's bokeh is stronger too, perhaps making it the better "selfie" even if I do still like the Moto's shot.

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Motorola Edge 70 ultrawide — Motorola Edge 70(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Then there's the matter of the ultrawide camera. The Motorola has one, and the iPhone doesn't. It makes for a big difference in what you can capture in a single shot, as we see above.

Perhaps the area least compromised by the slimming process is the Edge 70’s battery. At 4,800 mAh, it’s still on a par for a phone of its size. The S25 Edge has to make do with 3,900 milliamp-hours of capacity, while the iPhone Air has a mere 3,149 mAh battery.

When the Edge 70's battery is depleted, you can refill it with up to 68W of wired power, the fastest of the three phones. There’s 15W wireless charging available too.

Slim pickings

The most obvious area where the Edge 70 is lacking is its chipset. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 silicon that Motorola elected to use here means it's lacking in power compared to the flagship-grade A19 Pro and Snadragon 8 Elite chips in the iPhone Air and Galaxy S25 Edge respectively. Though at least Moto does offer 12GB RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, on a par with or better than the other two phones.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Row 0 - Cell 0	Motorola Edge 70	iPhone Air	Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Chipset	Snapdragon 7 Gen 4	A19 Pro	Snapdragon 8 Elite
Geekbench 6 score (single-core / multi-core)	1,241 / 4,161	3,723 / 9,665	3,129 / 9,916
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited (score / fps)	2,040 / 12.22	3,696 / 22.13	5,715 / 34.22

The numbers above do not show the Edge 70 in a good light. But Motorola's choice will have helped to keep the of the price low. Plus, hopefully the simultaneous demand for power and thinness is not a common one among phone buyers. And for those who do want this, there’s always the RedMagic 11 Air.

A weakness that's perhaps less defensible is Moto's lack of promised updates. The Edge 70 is slated to receive four years of Android update and six years of security updates, which is well below the typical five or six years of support that iPhones receive, or the seven years that the best Android phones get.

Motorola Edge 70 and iPhone Air — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

This is a problem with all of Moto’s phones, and perhaps one that won’t matter to you depending on how regularly you like to update your handset. But it’s worth keeping in mind that the effective “shelf life” of this phone is likely a year or two shorter than the iPhone Air, and three or four years shorter than the Galaxy S25 Edge.

The Moto Edge has the edge

I'm still not sure if these slim phones - as impressive as they are - will stick around for much longer. It seems like flagship phone buyers still expect all their battery life and camera needs to be met by a thin-bodied device, which physics ultimately makes impossible. But while they’re here, it’s still important to test what’s on offer, and figure out which phones in this new category do things the best.

If you prioritize slimness at all costs, then the iPhone Air remains the top pick. If you couldn’t possibly leave Android behind, or want your slim phone to have some premium touches like a top-tier chipset, the Galaxy S25 Edge is a reasonable pick too. But ultimately, I still think the Moto Edge 70 is the way to go for most people.

It's cheaper than the other two main skinny phone offerings, and its deprioritizing of the chipset and focus on battery life seems like a better match for what users expect from this kind of phone. If this slim smartphone niche is to survive, then I think Motorola's example is the one other brands need to learn from. Consumers may want an easily-pocketable phone, but they're not stupid. Sacrifices in the name of thinness must be made carefully, and without great literal or figurative expense for the user. And that's exactly what Moto's done.

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Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.

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