Verdict
The budget - focused Motorola Edge 40 Neo sense anything but , with a slew of bounty features include IP68 water immunity , a 6.5 - in curved 144Hz exhibit , 68W fast charging and truly stunning colourways that make it one for serious circumstance .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Motorola has had a strong twelvemonth in the smartphone world with the likes of theEdge 40and its foldableRazr 40 Ultra . This vogue looks to go along with the Motorola Edge 40 Neo .
Despite its affordable £ 299 price tag , the Edge 40 Neo come with a slew of features you ’d expect from flagship - tier up smartphones . Those let in full IP68 water system resistance , a curved 6.5 - inch 144Hz pOLED display , rapid 68W degraded charging and sensational Pantone - verified colourways that serve it stand out from the bunch .
This culminates in a smartphone that does n’t look , feel or perform like a budget phone should . In fact , we could be looking atthenew choice for abudget - focus smartphone .
Design
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is a elaboration of last year’sEdge 30 Neowith a slightly tweaked , though still recognisable , design . It ’s a gorgeous smartphone with rounded edges and a curving video display that hold it count way more premium than its budget toll tag suggest , along with an upgraded vegan leather ass that feels exquisite in the hand .
At 7.76 millimetre buddy-buddy and 172 GiB , the Neo is comfortably in lightweight territory compared to heavy smartphones like theiPhone 14 Pro Max , make it a pleasure to obtain and expend one - handed .
The heart of the Edge 40 Neo ’s design focus on Motorola ’s partnership with colour experts Pantone . This year , that fare in the form of three Pantone - certified finishes dubbed Black Beauty , Soothing Sea and Caneel Bay , with the latter two sporting the vegan leather finish .
The Caneel Bay finish is a favourite of mine , with an perfectly arresting deep shade of blue that immediately resist out from the crowd . Each telephone set comes with a 100 % recycled case in the same Pantone - certify colour . There ’s even a little Pantone logo on the tail .
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo also excels in the pee electric resistance section . In fact , with fullIP68 dust and water resistanceusually allow forflagship - grade gadget , the Edge 40 Neo offers some of the good protection in the budget ending of the market . Some devices , like theGoogle Pixel 7a , come close withIP67 impedance , but it ’s rarefied to see full IP68 at such a blue price .
Sustainability is also important for Motorola , not only in the anatomy of its 100 % recycled case but even in the packaging the earphone come in . It ’s all made from cardboard , meaning it ’s all recyclable , with not one piece of undivided - usance plastic found within .
It ’s also one of the best - reek boxes around . That might sound unmatched , but Motorola spray a unique redolence in the publicity of Motorola phone that make the unboxing experience feel ( and odor ) even fancier .
Screen
That premium - on - a - budget trend continues with the display , which has seen an increase from 6.28 to 6.5 inches this year , and unlike its predecessor , it ’s a curved showing that roll around the edges of the sound . It sure as shooting helps the telephone feel more insurance premium , though whether you ’re a buff of kink displays or not is potential down to personal druthers .
At a rapid 144Hz , the screen is not only faster than its herald but much of the120HzAndroid competition . It ’s arguably much of a muchness once you croak the 120Hz mark , but it interpret to even higher framerates when bet on .
The catch ? you could only select a constant 144Hz refresh rate , with the dynamical selection cap at 120Hz . This means you ’ll need to choose between super high refresh rates and comme il faut battery liveliness , and for passably much everyone except mobile gamers , it ’ll likely be the latter .
Elsewhere , the FHD+ pOLED instrument panel boasts telling specs including 10 - bit colour , HDR10+andDolby Atmossupport that delivers a top - pass movie - watching experience , with detailed and graphic playback that made particularly vivacious series ’ like David Attenborough ’s Life in Colour look exceptional .
Essentially , if you ’re a sports fan of see movies on the go , you ’ll bonk what the Edge 40 Neo has to extend .
Cameras
The star of the show has to be the primary 50MP ultra - pixel tv camera on the rear end . Though it ’s a downgrade on theme from the 64MP taw of the Edge 30 Neo , there ’s far more to camera tech than megapixel numeration , and the Edge 40 Neo look to prove that .
For one , it has a turgid sensing element than its predecessor to fascinate much more luminance and detail , and with OIS , both photos and video are PIN number - sharp . That essentially means that it can punch above its weight in full term of camera operation , with visuals that are middling all-fired telling for a budget phone .
The Edge 40 Neo was my earpiece of choice during a late trip to Berlin , and it becharm the essence of the stumble perfectly . Images are elaborate and vibrant with great dynamical range catch both bright skies and the shadow of building without one overpowering the other . It ’s a simple period - and - shoot experience made simpler by OIS and PDAF autofocus tech .
That ’s expected from most smartphone cameras in 2023 – it ’s not difficult to get a good shot in well - light shape – however the same ca n’t be say for low - ignitor . That ’s when budget photographic camera begin to falter with smaller aperture and sensors than their flagship brethren .
But that ’s why the Edge 40 Neo is so interesting ; it ’s really reasonably decent in low light .
That ’s down to the larger pixels of the independent camera , tolerate the phone to capture more visible light and at much faster speeds – up to 16x , accord to Motorola . Though I get it ’d still take a yoke of seconds to conquer in dispirited - light weather condition , the solvent were mostly worth it .
As you could see from the above night shots I took on my head trip to Berlin , the phone does a great chore of not only beguile plenty of luminousness , but there ’s plenty of detail and , rather imposingly , no blur in moving subjects .
It can once in a while struggle with colour temperature , with too orange results , but this is easily prepare with a bit of editing in the Photos app . It ’s not quite at Pixel 7a layer , then , but it ’s notthatfar off .
Elsewhere , there ’s a 13MP ultrawide camera on the rear to aid capture those group shot or scenic vistas . It does a great occupation at enamor as much of the scene as possible with a 120 - academic degree field of view , and there ’s little edge distortion , but images are n’t quite as detailed as what you ’ll get from that main sensor .
Flip the headphone over and you ’ll rule a mellow - Re 32MP selfie camera with quad - pixel tech that more than suffices for casual selfies and video calls .
It ca n’t quite achieve the lofty stature of 4K@60fps or even 8K@24fps , but the 4K@30fps telecasting is more than enough for seize the moment , and thanks to OIS , it ’s relatively didder - free too .
Performance
At the spirit of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo is MediaTek ’s mid - range Dimensity 7030 , coupled with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of memory board as received – an telling combination for the damage tag .
While you should n’t anticipate the same performance as you ’d get from the flagshipSnapdragon 8 Gen 2 , the phone is astonishingly able at everyday job with no real signs of stutter or lag when scrolling through ad - laden websites or spiritualist - packed X timeline .
The only time I mark any kind of slow - down was concisely after coiffe the phone up – but in all fairness , it was installing 90 + apps at the time . Once that was out of the way , the responsive performance resume .
It ’s a similar narration when it comes to graphics performance with a surprisingly decent experience on pass , handling basic title like Survivor.io without break a sweat , and it can run 3D games like Call of Duty Mobile fairly smoothly as long as the graphic are n’t cranked too high . It stay surprisingly nerveless under load too , with no obtrusive warm spot on the rear after 30 minutes of gaming .
That ’s backed up by benchmark results too , with the Motorola Edge 40 Neo destroy the £ 300 competition with resolution similar to what you ’ll regain from the £ 449 Google Pixel 7a andSamsung Galaxy A54 5G. It truly punch above its weight .
In fact , one of the few aggravator I ’ve had with the Edge 40 Neo has nothing to do with core carrying out , but the carrying out of the vibration motor – and that should say a lot .
It ’s the one element that quickly signalise the earpiece ’s budget focus with mushy , inaccurate quivering feedback . It got so tough that I had to stop the trembling when typing as it quickly blended into a perpetual vibration . However , disabling it basically fixed the issue , so it ’s nowhere near a dealbreaker .
Elsewhere , you ’ll find stereo speaker system support as well as keep for Dolby Atmos , with the latter deliver a semi - spacial experience when watching supported content with headphones .
Software
The Edge 40 Neo experience is powered by cheeseparing - stockAndroid 13that’d please most Android puritans , with only a fistful of Moto tweaks on go – and where things are dissimilar , it ’s generally for the better .
That ranges from Moto Actions that allow you to do a karate chop with the earphone to toggle on the torch to more advanced functionality likeMotorola ReadyForand Moto Secure .
ReadyFor deliver some of the best Windows 10/11 integration of any phone producer in 2023 , with the ability to get notification , use Android apps and even use the Edge 40 Neo ’s tv camera as a webcam , further expanding just how utilitarian the phone can be in everyday exercise .
There is a piddling routine of bloatware , but these do in the form of apps I ’d have likely downloaded anyway – TikTok , Facebook and LinkedIn – along with a duet of outliers like Booking.com . It ’s certainly far from what you ’ll find from cheap Xiaomi or Honor smartphones that come with literal folders full of pre - installed apps and game , and you may uninstall anything that comes pre - install on the smartphone if you hate it .
in conclusion , the package hope of three twelvemonth of oxygen upgrades and security patch should see the speech sound through to Android 16 , admit exploiter to continually get new feature of speech and update that ’ll keep the phone utilitarian for longer periods of time . It ’s not the 7 year you ’d get from the Google Pixel 8 , but it ’s for certain competitive for the budget space where mint of phones do n’t get a unmarried atomic number 76 rising slope .
Battery life
Battery life is another area where the Edge 40 Neo glisten with a heavy 5000mAh cell powering the experience . That ’s an increase of 920mAh equate to last year ’s Edge 30 Neo that we had no complaints about , and even with a dissipated 144Hz display , it ’s very much the instance here too .
There ’s no better example of the Edge 40 Neo ’s electric battery length of service than my late trip to Berlin . The phone was unplug shiny and early at 4:30am , and after averylong day catching a flight , travel around Berlin , attending a telephone set launching and die to dinner party , it pass on the end of the day at just after midnight with 15 % rest .
That ’s with invariant consumption throughout the day , be it gossip on WhatsApp or bust photo samples for this review , with around 5 hours of screen - on time . I ’m sure that dead on target power users will drain it faster , but for most people , it ’ll be more than enough for casual use .
It also sports quick 68W tight charge tech and , despite the £ 299 price tag , comes with a 68W fast courser in the boxwood . That ’s enough to deliver 50 % charge in 17 minutes in my experience , though a full charge takes a slightly longer ( but still relatively quick ) 50 minutes .
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Final Thoughts
If Motorola set out to break up the budget market with the Edge 40 Neo , it has succeeded with fly colours . It ’s incredibly well specced for its £ 299 Mary Leontyne Price tag with a 6.5 - inch curved 144Hz pOLED display , IP68 body of water electrical resistance and 68W fast charging with a brick included in the box .
The camera setup , and the main 50MP sensor in special , execute well consider its price point , capturing not only detailed , vivacious images in well - perch atmospheric condition but in small - light scenarios too . It ’s not quite up to the story offlagshipsor even the mid - rangePixel 7a , but it ’s one of the better execution in the budget phone market .
carrying out is also surprisingly upstanding from the Dimensity 7030 chipset , belike aided by the copious 12 GB of RAM , and 256 GB of depot should be ample for most budget users .
It ’s also one of the more unequaled options on the market thanks to Motorola ’s partnership with Pantone , allowing for some truly arresting colourways . pair with a vegan leather rear and a curved video display , it does n’t look or palpate like abudget - focalize smartphone .
Seriously , what more could you want for £ 299 ?
Trusted Score
FAQs
There is a battery charger in the box , and a 68W charger at that .
It offers full IP68 water resistance , allowing it to be submerse in up to 1 m of water for up to 30 minutes .
Test Data
Full Specs
