Various reports are doing the rounds about an imminent device from Motorola that could feature a revolutionary camera module.
Here’s all the news and rumours about the Motorola Frontier.
When will the Motorola Frontier be released?
In May, Chen Jin, Lenovo’s general manager of the Chinese mobile phone business department, posted on his Weibo page the following message, ‘A new benchmark for image experience that is not limited to parameters, opening the era of 200 million pixel mobile photography. See you in July.’ [Translation by Google].
As Lenovo is the parent company of Motorola, this seems to confirm that the long-rumoured Motorola Frontier, with its huge camera sensor, will be arriving (at least in China) in July 2022.
The post was also accompanied by a teaser poster that included an image of a camera lens to accentuate the point.
How much will the Motorola Frontier cost?
We have no information about the potential cost of the Motorola Frontier, as the company has only made the announcement above so far. Many of the rumours we’ve seen do suggest that the Frontier will be a flagship phone, so we’d estimate it will probably supersede the Motorola Edge 20 Pro that currently costs £649/$699 and heads up the Motorola range.
What features and specs will we see in the Motorola Frontier?
As we’ve stated earlier, the only details that Motorola has confirmed so far are the 200Mp camera sensor and which month it will be released. The sensor itself is most likely to be the Samsung ISOCELL HP1, which was announced recently by the Korean giant. This has quite a few cool features, with the 200Mp resolution having the option to pixel-bin images down to 50Mp.
Samsung says that the sensor uses a 0.64μm pixel size, has Double Super PD auto-focus to capture images quickly, plus it also supports up to 8K/30fps video recording. Notebookcheck reported on a leaked image that appeared on Fenibook’s Weibo page, thought to be the camera section for the Motorola Frontier, on which there was the writing ‘200MP HP1 OIS f/2.2’. So, if this is accurate, it looks like Motorola will include stabilisation to make the most of the sensor’s capabilities.
Moving away from the optics, most reports we’ve seen say that the new device will be powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, which would place it in flagship territory. Motorola has confirmed it has an 8+ Gen 1 phone on the way, and it’s likely to be the Frontier – though could instead be the new Moto Razr foldable.
This should be accompanied by 8/12GB memory and 128/256GB storage options, as is the norm for phones in 2022. The display is thought to be a 6.67in pOLED panel with curved edges and a 144Hz refresh rate (most of which is similar to the Motorola Edge 20 Pro).
Noted Chinese tech reporter Digital Chat Station also posted this Tweet that outlined the specs he believes will be in two upcoming Motorola phones, the first of which is the Frontier:
a 6.67″FHD+144Hz OLED single-hole curved screen+60mp front camera+194mp 1/1.5″ main camera+125W+30 /50W.A 6.67″FHD+144Hz OLED single-hole straight screen+16mp front camera+50mp main camera+68W+5000mAh… https://t.co/qysChJRZAM
— Digital Chat Station (@chat_station)
March 23, 2022
From that, we can expect super-fast 125W wired charging as well as wireless fast-charging options that top out at 50W, most likely in a 4500mAh battery.
With July not that far off, we expect that more details will begin to break as the release date gets nearer. We will of course update this article as these become available, so check back to see what we can uncover. In the meantime, you can check out our guides to the best phones and best phones coming in 2022 to see what other options are competing for your money.
