Motorola’s iPhone Air rival brings a bigger battery, faster charging, and a much better price to the ultra-thin table

It’s well and truly the Year of the Thin Phone, as following the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in May and the Apple iPhone Air in September, Motorola has entered the fray with the Motorola Edge 70 (known, hilariously, as the Motorola X70 Air in China).

Now, first things first: this is a mid-range handset, not a flagship, so it doesn’t go toe-to-toe with its premium rivals for raw performance (the current best Motorola phone is the Motorola Edge 60 Pro). But the Edge 70 might just be the best-value handset in its design category.

For starters, at 5.9mm, the Edge 70 is just a hair thicker than the 5.8mm Galaxy S25 Edge, but it’s a few grams lighter than both Samsung’s phone and the iPhone Air. Up front is a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and you’ll get a 4,500-nit peak brightness from this 1.5K screen.

The phone itself is made from aircraft-grade aluminium, it’s fronted by Gorilla Glass 7i, and it’s IP68 and IP69-rated against dust ingress and water immersion, so it’s among the most durable handsets on the market right now (neither the Galaxy S25 Edge nor iPhone Air benefits from an IP69 certification).

It may look like the Edge 70 has three rear cameras, but there are actually only two: a 50MP wide and a 50MP ultra-wide, both of which are joined by a similar-looking light sensor and the flash. There’s also a 50MP selfie camera on the front.

Under the hood, the Edge 70 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset and 12GB of RAM, so while it’s no performance slouch, those specs do put it in the mid-range category rather than alongside the flagship Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air.

Where Motorola’s phone does win back points is in its battery capacity, which, at 4,800mAh, is noticeably larger than what you’ll find in any other super-slim phone. That battery also uses silicon-carbon technology, which allows the Edge 70 to charge at 68W through a wired connection, and 15W wirelessly.

The phone is visually interesting, too, and available in three nylon-inspired finishes: Pantone Gadget Grey, Pantone Lily Pad, and Pantone Bronze Green.

The most impressive thing about the Motorola Edge 70, though, is its price. In the UK, this phone retails for just £700 in a single 512GB storage capacity, and if you pick it up within the first two weeks of launch, Motorola will knock a massive £250 off that price, making it significantly cheaper than those ultra-thin phones from Apple and Samsung (for reference, the Air starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,799, while the Edge starts at $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849).

But that’s not all! If you pick up the Edge 70 within that two-week launch window, you'll also get a Moto Watch Fit smartwatch, a pair of Moto Buds Loop wireless earbuds, and a Moto Tag for no extra cost. That’s £995 worth of gear for £450, which is pretty much the best tech deal you’ll find this side of Black Friday.

We’re still waiting on confirmation of the Edge 70’s availability (or lack thereof) in the US, but if you’re keen to board the thin phone hype train and don’t want to pay a flagship price to do so, then Motorola’s latest smartphone could be the answer to your prayers.

Stay tuned for our full review of the device, which is coming soon.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.