Lenovo teases high-end Motorola phone with Snapdragon 800-series chip
The original Motorola Edge
It should be called Motorola Edge S in China
The General Manager of Lenovo China, Chen Jin, took to social media network Weibo (via TechRadar) this morning to announce the brand’s plans to release a high-end Motorola smartphone in the near future.
Considering this product doesn’t exist at the moment, it may well be the phone Chen Jin was talking about. Outside of China, however, there’s a good chance it could be available under a different name.
Outside of China the Edge S could debut as part of the Moto G line
The fact Lenovo is calling this the ‘Edge S’ rather than the ‘Edge 2’ would suggest that it’s an upgraded version of the original Motorola Edge rather than an entirely new second-gen model.
In that case, in order to keep costs down and position the Edge S as a budget flagship, it’d make sense to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 rather than the new Snapdragon 888.
The original Motorola Edge
And this is where things get interesting. Motorola is working on a Snapdragon 865-powered smartphone at the moment that’s codenamed ‘Nio’ and expected to debut as part of the Moto G line.
The Moto G series is known for its value, so using an expensive chip like the Snapdragon 865 seems like an odd decision at first. But perhaps Motorola is keeping R&D costs down by simply upgrading and rebranding the original Motorola Edge.
This is all an educated guess, but the ‘Motorola Edge S’ branding in China could be explained by the fact that Motorola’s existing Moto G series has failed to gain the same level of traction in China as it has done internationally.
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