After releasing the tank-like $899.99 DuraForce Ultra 5G UW in April 2021, Kyocera is back with a more subtly rugged (and more affordable) phone — the $579.99 DuraSport 5G UW. If you want a sub-$600 rugged phone that works on Verizon’s millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G network, the DuraSport 5G UW is really your only choice. Roughly the size of the Google Pixel 5A with 5G, the DuraSport is small but strong: it’s dust, sand, and waterproof in up to 6.5 ft of water for 30 minutes (IP68), as well as MIL 810H-certified to survive five-foot drops onto concrete. 

Underneath that toughness, the DuraSport is a sub-$300 phone at heart. It shares similar specs as the $239.99 OnePlus Nord N200 5G: they both use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage. But the DuraSport has a smaller 4,500mAh battery and comes with some unique outdoor apps and camera features. This leads to the obvious question: is a budget rugged phone worth the premium, or are you better off getting a cheap 5G phone and adding a very protective case around it?

DuraSport 5G UW Design

At a time when every new budget phone seems to be over 6.5 inches tall, the DuraSport is surprisingly compact. It’s similar to the Google Pixel 5A with 5G but thicker and slightly more narrow (6.09 x 2.78 x 0.39-inch or 154.7 x 70.7 x 9.9mm). They even look alike, with the same rounded corners and fingerprint sensor on the back — handy for unlocking the phone when you’re wearing a mask. This phone fits nicely in my small hands, and I can stuff it into most pockets.

For a phone built to survive the rigorous military-grade tests for dust, sand, water, and drop protection, the DuraSport’s design doesn’t scream rugged. Unlike its more expensive sibling, the DuraSport has normal dimensions and proportions. But it still obviates the need for a separate case: not only is its screen protected by Gorilla Glass 6, but it has reinforced corners, water-tight seams around its buttons, and a Dragontrail Glass over its rear cameras. Despite its extra bits of engineering, the Kyocera weighs about the same as the Pixel 5A. 

While the DuraSport’s hard plastic shell can withstand a lot of abuse, it’s not the most comfortable to hold. Kyocera added some light texture to its back cover and along the sides, but they don’t provide much substantial grip to the device. Not that this phone needs the extra protection, but a case would make the phone easier to hold.

Among the many ways you can customize this phone, the most obvious is the programmable button on the left side. You can set it to open the exact camera mode you need in a hurry (underwater shutter button) or open a particular app if you double-press the button. I kept hitting the programmable button by accident because that’s where my thumb lands when I hold the phone; the actual power button is a bit too low for my liking. 

DuraSport 5G UW Performance

Despite its mid-range price tag, the DuraSport has low-end internal components. Its processor is the budget-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 with 4GB of RAM, which makes the DuraSport just a beat slower to open a webpage or switch between portrait and landscape mode when watching a YouTube video. This was particularly evident when playing a round of Pokémon Unite, where the middle of a battle slowed to such a crawl that I couldn’t move my Pokémon out of the way to dodge an attack. While a sub-$300 phone can get away with just 64GB of storage, it’s mismatched to the DuraSport’s nearly $600 price tag, even if it has a microSD card slot for expansion.

The DuraSport somewhat redeems itself with a 6.1-inch 1080p IPS LCD display that is quite bright (500 nits), making it possible to use the screen at just 60 percent brightness in direct sunlight. When you look at high-res photos like The Verge’s 2021: A Year in Art, the images look smooth and detailed even when you pixel-peep, thanks to this screen’s over 400PPI pixel density. Best of all, the touchscreen is functional when I’m wearing gloves or there is water on the screen, which is a huge help during winter. 

This phone is preloaded with apps for outdoor enthusiasts: an Outdoor Portal, Compass, Barometer, Sun&Moon, Weather, Tide (if you fish or have a boat), and Solunar (if you want to meet or avoid certain animals). In my case, I skate on an outdoor rink in the winter but am extremely picky about when I do so: the temperature needs to be at least 32 degrees or below the night before and throughout the day, with minimal wind, and after sunset so the ice has a chance to harden. I used the Outdoor Portal to monitor my local weather and sunset / sunrise data rather than cycle between multiple apps. While I appreciate the convenience of having these apps on my phone, I was not impressed that I had to give the apps non-stop access to my location, even though they said I could just limit the data collection to when I use the apps. If you don’t care to use these apps at all, you don’t have to worry about the location tracking, but they are a big part of the DuraSport’s selling points.

Beyond these outdoor apps, the DuraSport essentially runs an unmodified version of Android 11. As one of the phones selected for the Android Enterprise Recommended program, Kyocera is already committed to providing quarterly security updates to the DuraSport until November 2023. This, along with the fact Kyocera provides two years of warranty, compared to the industry standard of just one year, means this phone should last you a few years.

The DuraSport’s 4,500mAh battery is actually quite energy-efficient and able to go without a charge after two days of use — and that’s from using mostly 4G LTE. After listening to a couple of hour-long podcasts, taking some photos and videos, posting and scrolling through social media, and reading various articles, I got about 15.5 hours of screen time out of the DuraSport over two days. Using the included charger, I was able to recharge the phone within 2.5 hours, which isn’t particularly fast. Kyocera says the DuraSport supports faster charging, but a fast charger is not included in the box. Like the DuraSport Ultra 5G, the lower tier model also supports wireless charging for more convenient topping up.  

DuraSport 5G UW Camera

Let’s get this out of the way: if you’re serious about photography, then you won’t like the cameras on the DuraSport. 

The phone has two cameras on the back, a 48-megapixel main and a 16-megapixel ultrawide, as well as an 8-megapixel front camera. The cameras take perfectly fine photos in good lighting conditions, but they’re not designed for anything challenging like low-light or action photography. 

Its cameras share the same problems that plague other sub-$300 phones. Not only do the colors differ between the main and ultrawide camera, but the main camera also sometimes has trouble focusing and separating the subject from the background in portrait mode. I’ve also noticed that photos from low-light environments look as if there is vignetting around the edges — whether they were captured with the main, ultrawide, or selfie camera.

The DuraSport tries to make up for its technical deficiencies with some unique video interfaces like the Action Overlay and beauty filters. (I did not have access to ANT Plus compatible fitness sensors, so I could not test the Action Overlay being linked to my fitness data in real-time.) Ultimately, it’s let down by a camera app that is slow at switching between cameras and will randomly close for no reason, which makes it frustrating to take photos with it.

There is no doubt you’re paying a premium for the rugged design of the $579.99 DuraSport 5G UW — despite the fact it has cheap components that are more common in sub-$300 budget phones. It’s a shame it doesn’t use a faster processor or feature better cameras for a phone that is almost $600.

There are plenty of other, better phones in this price range, including Google’s own Pixel 6. But if you’re looking for a rugged phone and want to use Verizon’s faster mmWave 5G network, the DuraSport is really the only budget rugged 5G phone available.

If having excellent cameras on your phone is more important to you, and you are willing to accept a water-resistant (IP67) rather than a waterproof one (IP68), then the $449 Pixel 5A with 5G would be a better choice. After all, they look and feel almost identical to each other, anyway.

The peace of mind of having a phone that can handle serious spills and drops without needing to be replaced within a few years, thanks to Kyocera’s two-year warranty, is worthwhile, but most of us are better off just investing in a durable case for another phone.

Photography by Gloria Sin / The Verge

Correction, 1:30PM ET, January 21st, 2022: An earlier version of this review stated the DuraForce 5G UW does not support wireless charging. That is incorrect, the phone includes support for Qi charging. Also added information about optional wired fast charging. We regret the error.

Timing is everything, and unfortunately for Motorola, any review of the new Moto Edge 5G UW boils down to this one question: how does it compare with the Google Pixel 6? After all, not only did the Verizon variant arrive in stores on October 14th, 2021, just five days before the Google Pixel 6’s launch, it even ended up with near-identical prices as the Google flagship.

The Verizon-locked Moto Edge starts at $549.99 for a 128GB model, and you can double that storage for $599.99, which is $200 cheaper than the unlocked version sold in retail stores. That’s twice as much storage for the same price as an unlocked Pixel 6, plus the Edge supports Verizon’s fast-but-limited millimeter wave (mmWave) network. Given how good a phone the Pixel 6 is, the Moto Edge has its work cut out.

As a midrange phone, the Edge has some impressive specs and features on paper. It has a rare 144Hz refresh rate LCD display, 108-megapixel main camera, 6GB RAM, and the ability to project its screen to a larger display through its Samsung DeX-like “Ready For” mode. In practice, though, the high-megapixel count camera is not as great as it sounds, and its 5,000mAh battery can drain too quickly, but these aren’t even its worse offenses. The Edge’s biggest crime is that it’s just too middling.

The Moto Edge is all about the monochromatic look, splashing the same “nebula blue” all over the phone — from the buttons to the plate underneath the camera array. It’s a big phone at 6.65 x 2.97 x 0.35 inches, but it’s skinny and thin enough for one-handed use. That said, it’s just a touch too tall for my fingers to maneuver around the screen and hold the phone in the same hand. Despite its all-plastic body, the phone weighs about as much as an iPhone 13 Pro at 0.44lbs (200g or 7.11oz). Its nicely curved edges and back make this phone a pleasure to hold, but that also means its very glossy back cover is a cesspool of smudges and dust.

The rims around the three rear camera lenses remind me of those on the iPhone 13. While their raised edges protect the lenses from scratches, that extra height means the phone can’t really lie flat on the table when the screen is facing up — it ends up rocking side to side. This, combined with its slick back cover, means the Moto Edge is prone to randomly slide off tables and other surfaces, so you’ll want to protect it with a case.

Like the Pixel 6 and OnePlus 9, the Moto Edge doesn’t have a dedicated Google Assistant button or a 3.5mm audio jack anywhere. Its volume rocker and two-in-one fingerprint sensor and power button are on its right side. For a $500 phone, it only has a mono speaker that blasts from the bottom of the phone. It’s louder than you’d expect and turns up the bass by default, so you can really hear the percussive beats in Succession’s theme song. 

Unlike Motorola’s G series phones, the Edge has NFC for contactless payments, but doesn’t support wireless charging. Out of the box, the Moto Edge runs Android 11 though it’s unclear when it’ll get Android 12. While Motorola has committed to providing two major OS upgrades and two years of bi-monthly security updates to the Moto Edge, it also said it’ll adjust its software support policy based on how long users will keep using a device, so its promise can be rather fluid.

The Moto Edge’s side fingerprint sensor and face unlock features work quickly and provide good haptic feedback when the unlocking is successful. Face unlock has some customization options: you can choose to press the power button to activate the feature or to simply lift the phone and face the front camera to unlock the phone. 

The highlight of the Moto Edge has to be its 144Hz display, even though it’s just a 1080p, 6.8-inch LCD panel. The high refresh rate makes it a breeze to scroll through Twitter and move my pokémon around in Pokémon Unite. It’s too bad the screen is relatively dim, so I have to set its screen brightness to about 90 to 100 percent for indoor and outdoor use — any dimmer than that and I’d have trouble reading text in direct sunlight.

I’ve been testing the $549.99 model with 128GB of internal storage, which is otherwise identical to the $599.99 256GB version. The Moto Edge uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor, a midrange chipset, with 6GB RAM as support. Unsurprisingly, it’s the Pixel 6’s flagship-level components that outperform the midrange Moto Edge.

I played one round of Pokémon Unite on the Moto Edge, which started out snappy and easy to navigate my Charmander. However, the game became so laggy that it was hard to move my pokémon to avoid attacks or to score a goal in the last minute. I played the same game on the Tensor-equipped Pixel 6 to compare. While I couldn’t move my pokémon as easily with the Pixel 6’s slower 90Hz screen refresh rate, the speed of the game stayed more consistent, making it possible for me to score a last-minute goal.

Motorola’s “Ready For” mode is supposed to be able to turn the phone’s 32-megapixel front camera into a webcam for a compatible smart TV or computer, but I couldn’t make it work with my Surface Pro 4 at all. The font on the Ready For PC’s interface was way too tiny to be legible on my 12.3-inch screen. Worst of all, there was so much lag between my mouse clicks and what was happening on-screen that this whole feature was a flop for me.

While its 5,000mAh battery lasts about two days with average use, the Moto Edge’s battery can drain very quickly if you’re doing something intensive. On days where I’m primarily on Wi-Fi and doing lightweight tasks like online shopping, social media doomscrolling, and

listening to a couple of podcasts, I could squeeze almost 11 hours of screen time out of this phone. However, when I was gaming and testing its video features, I managed to drain a whopping 29 percent of the battery within just a couple of hours.

Recharging the Moto Edge is also unnecessarily annoying, thanks to the lack of a charger inside the box — all you get is a double-ended USB-C cable. I had to plug the Edge into my Pixel 5’s 18W charger for a recharge, which took almost two hours. If you don’t have a compatible charger handy, you’ll need to budget $20–$30 for a new cable or charger.

The Moto Edge has three cameras on the back cover: a 108-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide-angle with Macro Vision (119-degree), as well as a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It also has a 32-megapixel front-facing camera that sits in the middle of the screen, though you don’t really notice that black dot after a while.

As impressive as the Moto Edge’s 108-megapixel main camera sensor sounds, its results are surprisingly unpredictable. On one hand, its f/1.9 aperture and larger pixel size means each pixel can capture more light, even in low-light conditions. I was surprised how well some photos from an indoor interactive art exhibit turned out, even though some shots were not as crisp as others and looked a bit noisy

Photo samples from the Moto Edge 5G UW and the Pixel 6.

On the flip side, the Edge’s cameras have trouble finding and focusing on subjects, whether I’m taking outdoor photos of Christmas decorations or well-lit photos in portrait mode. It often takes several shots and several processing seconds before the camera figures out which part of the image is the subject and which is the background that should be blurred.

I used the Pixel 6 to take photos of the same scenes, and the ones from the Google flagship are consistently sharper, with colors that are more true to life. Photos from the Moto Edge tend to look flat, skew blue, or are overexposed.

The Moto Edge 5G UW (2021) may be a decent phone: its unusually high 144Hz refresh rate on the LCD screen works great; and it has two days of battery life, with a camera that can handle low-light photography if you can get it to focus. But that’s no longer enough to be competitive in the midrange phone race. Unless Verizon or Motorola further drop its price, I find it hard to recommend the Moto Edge over others that offer a better value.

For the price of the 256GB Moto Edge, you might as well get the unlocked Google Pixel 6 instead. It features a faster processor, faster and sharper cameras, and a more energy-efficient battery. While the $599.99 Moto Edge offers double the onboard storage as the base Pixel 6, its flagship-class components and early access to Android software and security updates make it the better investment in the long run.

If you’re a Verizon customer, the Moto Edge might seem like a better deal than the $699.99 mmWave-equipped Pixel 6, but don’t be fooled by the Edge’s lower price tag. The flagship Google phone is worth the extra $100.

If the $549.99 Moto Edge is slightly beyond your budget, the $499.99 Samsung Galaxy A52 5G is an even more affordable 5G phone alternative. The A52 features a 120Hz OLED display and a headphone jack but doesn’t support Verizon’s mmWave network. That’s not something that matters to most people, but the Edge does have it if you want to use Verizon’s 5G network. Plus, you’ll be guaranteed four years of software support from Samsung for the A52 — who knows if Motorola will even follow through on its two-year promise.

Photography by Gloria Sin / The Verge

The Moto G Pure is the rare $160 phone that works well enough that you forget you’re using a sub-$200 device. Yes, Motorola made some compromises to deliver a phone at this low price point, but it still nails all the basics that you should care about: good build quality, good battery life, and good cameras for the price. 

That is not to say the Moto phone is perfect. Its processor is just a second slower in most tasks, it only works on 4G networks, and its paltry 32GB of internal storage is just not enough space to use for long. But for its price, it’s hard to argue against the Moto G Pure — it gets a lot right.

Design 

For a big phone with a 6.5-inch screen, the Moto G Pure feels relatively compact, measuring 0.34-inch thick and weighing 0.41lbs. Thanks to its rounded corners and sloped edges, the G Pure is comfortable to hold for long stretches, though it’s a bit tall (the screen has a 20:9 aspect ratio) to use single-handed for my small hands. 

Available in deep indigo, the G Pure has a subtle sheen to its textured, matte back cover. Its plastic material is very hard and slippery, despite that texture. In fact, I’ve lost count of the number of times the phone has magically slipped off an ottoman or table and still works. Yes, this $160 Moto phone is quite durable, but I wouldn’t test the smartphone gods — you’ll still be better off with a case. 

It has a snappy fingerprint sensor under the Motorola logo, as well as Face Unlock to give you a hands-free option to unlock your phone. I like that the Moto software gives you more control over how this works. You can use your face to unlock the phone (no need to press the power button first), and ask the phone to bring you to the last app or webpage that was opened (rather than the lockscreen). With good lighting, Face Unlock works well enough, but the fingerprint sensor is faster and more consistent.

Hardware & Performance

As part of the cost cutting to hit the G Pure’s low price, Motorola decided to use a weak processor and minimal RAM, and it shows. At the heart of the Moto phone is the MediaTek Helio G25 processor, which is comparable to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 but actually lags behind that 2018 Snapdragon chipset. Everything from opening a website, switching between apps, to opening the camera app to take a photo just takes an extra second on the Moto phone. While this doesn’t sound like much, those extra seconds really add up over the course of a day and can make you question your sanity.

It has just 3GB of RAM to support its under-powered processor and a meager 32GB of internal storage. At this point, 32GB is simply not enough capacity for a phone, especially when most people are hanging onto their phones for longer. After just two weeks of light use — installing updates and a few apps, plus taking some photos — I’ve already burned through 18.04GB (56 percent of storage) on the G Pure. With Motorola promising one OS update and two years of security updates, you’ll likely run out of space before you run out of software support. Good thing it has a microSD card slot, where you can expand its limited capacity with up to a 512GB card.

The G Pure’s 6.5-inch LCD screen may look vibrant with its brightness set to 100 percent, but it is only a 720p display, with a low 269 pixel density. At 1600 x 720p resolution, The Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer looks more pixelated and dim on the Moto than on the OnePlus 9’s 2K display. Day to day, you probably wouldn’t notice just how low-res the display is, but if you have any higher-quality screens in your life, it will stand out and not in a good way.

I played some Pokemon Unite to stress test it, and performance was better than I expected, at least once I was able to launch the game fully. It took three tries and multiple force quits on it before I could actually play. Once the game finally loaded, I was able to move my pokemon around the battlefield without lag, with the battle music blaring from the lone speaker. 

Using only 4G service to test the G Pure’s 4,000mAh battery, I spent the day toggling between two email accounts, sharing content on Twitter and Hangouts, and playing some Pokemon Unite. The G Pure stayed cool to the touch no matter how much I was stressing it. Although the battery didn’t quite live up to the two days of use claim from Motorola, I got about 16 hours out of it (or about seven hours of screentime) before needing to hit the charger. Don’t expect a fast charge, though: It took me about two hours to recharge this battery with the included 10W charging brick. In all, the battery should last you a full day at minimum, or maybe as long as two days for a light user. 

Camera

For a $160 phone, the cameras on the Moto G Pure are better than expected, especially for photos that you’ll likely only share online. Rather than squeeze another lackluster ultrawide or macro camera onto the back, Motorola made a smart decision to keep it simple with just a rear dual-camera system — a 13-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor — plus a 5-megapixel front-facing camera (f/2.4) for selfies.

The 13-megapixel main camera with f/2.2 aperture was surprisingly capable at capturing details in low-light situations. At a recent indoor event with tricky lighting, it had no problems focusing with various light sources in dark rooms, and it managed to photograph small details in the art installations. 

Like other smartphone cameras in this class, color accuracy seems to be an issue with the G Pure. Most photos look fine, but there are a few issues, like the pumpkins that look too red with stems that look too blue to be realistic. Likewise, the yellow door should look more orange, and the blue door should look more teal (with more green) than blue.

My biggest gripe with the G Pure’s camera is its slider interface for zooming. Unlike other camera apps where you can tap to select the most optimal digital zoom presets, Moto’s zoom slider doesn’t automatically appear in the app. In addition, your hand will probably block your screen as you try to frame your shot and navigate the slider bar at the same time.  

Sample photos from the Moto Pure G.

At $160 — or less if you catch a sale or carrier deal, as this phone works on many 4G networks in America — it’s hard to deny that the Moto G Pure will be good enough for most people looking for a basic budget phone for under $200. After all, it has an all-day battery, a versatile main camera, all in a well-designed, durable package. 

It’s a shame it doesn’t have a faster processor, more RAM, or more onboard storage, which would make it a clear winner. I’d rather Motorola charge a slightly higher price like the $190 TCL 20SE, which offers 128GB of internal storage, has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor, and is supported by 4GB of RAM. At least you wouldn’t have to constantly worry about backing up the files from your phone.

But these issues might not be deal-breakers for more casual users or those with a strict budget. Not many great phones are available at this price point, and the Moto G Pure is quite the catch.

Photography by Gloria Sin / The Verge