Motorola's new flagship could have something in common with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G

After years of producing well-received budget phones like the Moto G7 Power, Motorola last year returned to the mid-range arena. This year, it is going to offer a true flagship handset for the first time in years. It's not like Motorola didn't have success in that space, after all, it delivered the very first iPhone killer with the Motorola DROID; this is the phone that kicked off Androidmania as it was the first to have Android 2.0 pre-installed. The last flagship phone from Motorola was 2017's Moto Z2 Force.

This year, the Motorola Edge+ 5G has all of the flagship specs that Motorola fans have been missing for a few years. And according to a tweet from TechDroider, the handset will carry a 108MP camera sensor made by Samsung. Whether it is the Tetracell version that was made for Xiaomi or the Nonacell version found on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G is unknown. We'd expect the sensor to use 9:1 pixel binning to deliver sharper 12MP images with less noise.

Based on rumored specs, the 108MP camera will be joined by an 8MP telephoto camera (with 3x optical zoom) and a 16MP ultra-wide-angle camera. A render of the phone shows what could be a dual-LED flash or possibly a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor for an improved bokeh blur on portrait shots. The device sports a 25MP front-facing punch-hole camera. We could see the Motorola Edge+ 5G carry a 6.67-inch waterfall display with a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling and video game animation. A 90Hz screen displays images 90 times per minute.

The Motorola Edge+ 5G will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform and the included Snapdragon X55 5G modem chip supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave signals. Since the phone will most likely be a Verizon exclusive in the states, it will be compatible with the carrier's zippy mmWave 5G network. The handset might be available with 8GB of memory with 128GB of storage, although a higher-priced 12GB/256GB configuration is also possible. Battery life, even with the 90Hz refresh rate enabled, might not be too much of an issue thanks to the 5170mAh battery included with the device. A "stock-like" version of Android 10 will be pre-installed and the phone will feature a 3.5mm headphone jack. The company's iconic batwing icon on the back of the phone could double as a notification light.

Originally scheduled to be introduced last month at MWC, Motorola fans will have to wait, probably until April, to see the company's new flagship phone. MWC was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides 2009's Motorola DROID, Motorola was one of the first phone manufacturers to fully embrace the Android operating system. The DROID X was a popular flagship that included what many thought was the size-ceiling for a smartphone screen at 4.3-inches. The Motorola Atrix 4G, launched in 2011, was the first smartphone equipped with a fingerprint scanner( which was placed on the top of the handset). The Atrix also was compatible with a "Webtop" dock that allowed the phone to power a laptop. Priced at $500, this was an idea that did not go over so well with consumers.

In  2011, Google paid $12.5 billion to purchase Motorola Mobility in a deal that was made to improve Google's inventory of patents. While some had hoped that the deal would produce a line of flagship Android phones with exclusive Android-based features, this never happened. Instead, less than three years later, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo purchased Motorola from Google (sans patents) for $2.91 billion. Last year, Motorola was the fourth best-selling smartphone brand in the U.S. replacing China's ZTE; the latter had been banned for a time from its U.S. supply chain in 2018 which negatively impacted sales of its phones in the states.

From all appearances, it looks like Motorola has crafted a fine-looking and very capable Android flagship with the Edge+ 5G and depending on pricing, Verizon customers could have a tough choice to make when purchasing a high-end 5G phone later this year.