Motorola Edge 40 Neo Overview: First Impressions

First Impressions

The budget-focused Motorola Edge 40 Neo feels something however, with a slew of premium options together with IP68 water resistance, a 6.5-inch curved 144Hz show, 68W quick charging and really beautiful colourways that make it one to look at.

Introduction

Motorola has had a powerful 12 months within the smartphone world with the likes of the Motorola Edge 40 and its foldable Motorola Razr 40 Extremely, and that pattern appears to be like to proceed with the Motorola Edge 40 Neo.

Regardless of its inexpensive £299 price ticket, the Edge 40 Neo comes with a slew of options you’d anticipate from flagship-tier smartphones, together with full IP68 water resistance, a curved 6.5-inch 144Hz pOLED show, fast 68W quick charging and beautiful Pantone-verified colourways that assist it stand out from the group. 

Whereas I’ve not but spent sufficient time with the smartphone to ship my closing ideas, I did get to go hands-on forward of its launch and I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve seen to this point. In actual fact, we could possibly be taking a look at the new selection for a budget-focused smartphone. 

Design and display screen

• Trendy design with Pantone colourways
• IP68 mud and water resistance
• 6.5-inch 144Hz pOLED show

The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is a refinement of final 12 months’s Edge 30 Neo with a barely tweaked, although nonetheless recognisable, design. It’s a beautiful smartphone with rounded edges and a brand new curved show that makes the cellphone look far more premium than its price range price ticket suggests, together with an upgraded vegan leather-based rear that feels beautiful within the hand.

At 7.76mm thick and 172g, the Neo is comfortably in light-weight territory in comparison with heavy smartphones just like the iPhone 14 Professional Max, making it a pleasure to carry and use one-handed. 

The center of the Edge 40 Neo’s design focuses on Motorola’s partnership with color specialists Pantone – a partnership that first began with the Edge 30 Neo earlier than coming to different premium telephones just like the Razr 40 Extremely. This 12 months, that comes within the type of three Pantone-certified finishes dubbed Black Magnificence, Soothing Sea and Caneel Bay, with the latter two sporting the vegan leather-based end. 

The Caneel Bay end is a private favorite of mine, with a fully beautiful deep shade of blue that instantly stands out from the group, and every cellphone comes with a 100% recycled case in the identical Pantone-certified color. There’s even a bit Pantone emblem on the rear. 

The Motorola Edge 40 Neo additionally excels within the water resistance division. In actual fact, with full IP68 mud and water resistance normally reserved for flagship-level gadgets, the Edge 40 Neo affords among the finest safety within the price range finish of the market. Some gadgets, just like the Google Pixel 7a, come shut with IP67 resistance, however it’s uncommon to see full IP68 at such a low value. 

There’s even a headphone jack for these but to make the change to Bluetooth headphones. Significantly, what extra might you ask for, for £299?

That premium-on-a-budget pattern continues with the show, which has seen a rise from 6.28 to six.5 inches this 12 months, and at a fast 144Hz, it’s not solely sooner than its predecessor however a lot of the 120Hz Android competitors. It’s arguably a lot of a muchness when you cross the 120Hz mark, however it ought to translate to even greater framerates when gaming. 

Elsewhere, the pOLED panel boasts spectacular specs together with 10-bit color, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos assist that ought to ship a top-notch movie-watching expertise. It definitely regarded brilliant, vibrant and detailed throughout my brief time with the gadget, and I’ll have an interest to see how effectively it performs as soon as I get a pattern in for full evaluation. 

Cameras

• 50MP Extremely Pixel major digital camera
• 13MP ultrawide and 32MP selfie digital camera
• As much as 16x sooner in low mild circumstances

The star of the present needs to be the first 50MP ultra-pixel digital camera on the rear. Although it’s a downgrade on paper from the 64MP shooter of the Edge 30 Neo, there’s much more to digital camera tech than megapixel rely, and the Edge 40 Neo appears to be like to show that. For one, it has a bigger sensor than its predecessor to seize far more mild and element, and with OIS, each images and movies needs to be pin-sharp. 

The few images I took within the near-perfect lighting of a London rooftop on a sunny day delivered expectedly vibrant, detailed pictures, although it’s the low-light images I’m actually trying ahead to testing as soon as I get my arms on a pattern for a full evaluation. 

That’s as a result of Motorola claims that, as a result of bigger pixels of the principle 50MP shooter, it could actually seize higher low-light pictures than its predecessor in a a lot shorter timeframe – as much as 16x sooner, apparently.

The Edge 40 Neo has robust competitors within the type of the Google Pixel 7a which we discovered took distinctive low-light images not too removed from what you’d get from an iPhone 14 Professional, so it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how Motorola’s possibility compares. 

Elsewhere, there’s a 13MP ultrawide digital camera on the rear to assist seize these group pictures or scenic vistas, and there’s a high-res 32MP selfie digital camera with quad-pixel tech that ought to greater than suffice for informal selfies and video calls. It might probably additionally seize as much as 4K@30fps video. 

Efficiency and software program

• Dimensity 7030 chipset
• Android 13 with minimal tweaks
• 5000mAh battery and 68W quick charging

On the coronary heart of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo is MediaTek’s mid-range Dimensity 7030, coupled with as much as 12GB of RAM and as much as 256GB of storage – a powerful mixture for the value tag that ought to ship relatively stable on a regular basis efficiency. 

Although my hands-on expertise was relatively restricted, I didn’t discover any type of lag or slow-down when scrolling by means of the OS, opening the Digicam app and taking a couple of snaps, although the way it’ll deal with extra intense duties like cell gaming is but to be seen. I’ll make sure you run a set of benchmark checks for the complete evaluation to research additional. 

The entire expertise is powered by near-stock Android 13 with solely a handful of Moto tweaks – and the place issues are completely different, it’s typically for the higher. That ranges from Moto Actions that permit you to do a karate chop with the cellphone to toggle on the flashlight to extra superior performance like Motorola ReadyFor. 

ReadyFor delivers among the finest Home windows 10/11 integration of any cellphone producer in 2023, with the flexibility to get notifications, use Android apps and even use the Edge 40 Neo’s digital camera as a webcam. 

Battery life is one other space the place the Edge 40 Neo ought to shine with a big 5000mAh cell powering the expertise. That’s a rise of 920mAh in comparison with final 12 months’s Edge 30 Neo which we had no complaints about, so I’m anticipating a lot the identical right here – although I’ll be placing it by means of its paces for the complete evaluation to substantiate this.

It additionally sports activities speedy 68W quick charging tech and, regardless of the £299 price ticket, comes with a 68W quick charger within the field. Motorola claims that’s sufficient to ship 50% cost in quarter-hour, which if true, ought to make it one of many fastest-charging smartphones at its value level.

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