Can a smartphone be not only attractive but also powerful at the same time? Yes, if it’s the new Motorola Edge 40 Neo.
Motorola has gained a lot of fans in recent years, mainly thanks to its affordable Moto G series smartphones, but the Edge series also boasts a very interesting price/performance ratio. The newest member of the series, labelled Neo, bets on design, increased durability and, just as importantly, reliable hardware. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo looks like a sleek and sophisticated mobile device, with a beautiful and smooth 144Hz pOLED screen and pure Android, supplemented with only the most essential Moto features. But will it be enough to succeed, will the smartphone be able to compete in such a saturated market segment?
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Manufacturers don’t offer many small-sized phones these days, which is probably why last year’s Motorola Edge 30 Neo was so well-received by many users. It’s worth remembering that the model features a 6.28-inch pOLED screen with rather thin bezels, which made it more compact compared to other popular mid-range smartphones. The device also has an efficient SoC (Snapdragon 695), a solid camera, fast charging (including inductive charging) and loud stereo speakers. The manufacturer had to do a good job of outdoing last year’s predecessor. And although, as you will soon see, in many aspects the Motorola Edge 40 Neo turns out to be a better device, those who were also counting on compact dimensions this time will be somewhat disappointed.
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is clearly different from its predecessor. It’s bigger and somewhat more efficient, but the good thing is that the starting price has remained unchanged.
The Edge 40 Neo is a smartphone with a 6.55-inch pOLED panel with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz. However, I will note that this is actually one of the smallest models with a display of this diagonal. This is largely due not only to the curved edges, but also to the very thin bezels above and below the screen. It should also be noted that we are dealing with an extremely thin smartphone (thickness of 7.79 mm excluding the “island” for the cameras). The smartphone is equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 7030 processor, 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of permanent memory, a set of two cameras 50 + 13 MP, as well as a capacious battery of 5000 mAh with support for 68W fast charging (unfortunately, this time there is no support for wireless charging).
Motorola Edge 40 Neo this year also boasts interesting case colours. The novelty is available in three trendy colours: Caneel Bay (turquoise), Black Beauty (black), Soothing Sea (green).
New Edge 40 Neo in Ukrainian shops in 12/256 GB configuration will cost ∼$420. Quite an acceptable price for such a powerful and attractive mid-range smartphone.
Like its predecessor, Motorola Edge 40 Neo comes in environmentally friendly packaging – without plastic, made of recycled materials and with inscriptions made of soya ink. In addition to this undoubted plus, the manufacturer applied another original and very interesting solution.
Unpacking a new smartphone is accompanied by… with the smell of perfume. As we learned at the unveiling, each colour has a different scent. The Soothing Sea and Caneel Bay models (which I received for review) have more feminine scents, but the Black Beauty model smells like an elegant masculine perfume.
Clothing shops are well aware of how important scent is. And we have to admit that a pleasant fragrance had an impact on the perception of this smartphone.
The Edge 40 Neo is one of those smartphones that will try to impress you when you unpack it, and not just with its perfumed packaging. In this day and age, when some manufacturers have nothing but the smartphone in the box, the presence of a 68W power adapter, a USB Type-C cable and a SIM tray ejection clip will also please you. Plus, as a bonus, there’s a case from Agood, which is made in Sweden from recycled materials and is of course easily recyclable too.
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The first thought after taking the new Motorola out of the box is: “A very elegant smartphone”.
Such epithet deserves Edge 40 Neo, which affects not only the sense of smell, but also vision and touch. The slim body, pleasant to the touch vegan leather in a gorgeous turquoise-blue colour, a neat camera island and a screen with rounded edges add even more impact. This makes the smartphone look more premium than its price implies.
It is also worth paying attention to its weight. The model is not compact, as already mentioned, as it has a rather large size of 159.63×71.99×7.79 mm, but it is undeniably lightweight – it weighs only 172 g, while the Black Beauty vegan skinless model is another 2 g lighter and thinner.
The body of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo is made of quality plastic and, in my case, covered in vegan leather, but that’s not all. The Edge 40 Neo really stands out with its colour. The manufacturer, as in the case of the razr 40 Ultra model, has chosen Pantone colours for its smartphones. I have already written that I received a smartphone in the colour Caneel Bay. It is an intense blue shade, original, and undoubtedly attracts attention, and the leather on the back only adds to the appeal.
This material does not show fingerprints, the smartphone does not slip, very pleasant to the touch, which distinguishes it from typical plastic or glass panels. It’s a pity to even hide such beauty in a case, which, however, matches the colour of the case.
The manufacturer also has a Soothing Sea version and a black version (Black Beauty), the latter, however, uses acrylic instead of vegan leather.
The smartphone screen is covered with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The entire design is sealed and has been certified IP68 dust and water resistant. This means that the smartphone is protected from contamination of components and will withstand immersion to a depth of 1.5 metres for 30 minutes. Such resistance is a huge plus, because, at this price, such protection can be found only in specially protected phones.
Although there’s the unfortunate loss of two features that users loved last year. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo does not support Qi wireless charging. Although last year’s Edge 30 Neo only had a slow 5W power supply, it was enough to charge overnight. An interesting design element was the subtle LED lighting around the rear camera module when notifications came in. This is also no longer present in the Edge 40 Neo.
The centre of the back panel is adorned with the manufacturer’s logo.
Pantone has its mark with the name of the colour on the back panel closer to the bottom edge. However, it does not spoil the appearance, as is often the case.
The back panel is topped by a rectangular camera island that combines two lenses and a flash. The camera module looks even better than the flagships because it’s simply more compact.
However, it is off-centre, so the Motorola Edge 40 Neo, if placed on a desk, wobbles while typing. A minus, but it just drowns in a sea of pluses. The smartphone lies quite well in the hand, it’s a pleasure to operate it.
I’ll also add a few more words about vibration because I’ve read a lot of criticism about the Motorola Edge 30 Neo. It’s just normal. You can’t expect it to be the same as in a much heavier iPhone or Samsung. Physics just can’t be fooled here. I would rate the vibration level as above average, especially considering the price of the device.
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The smartphone has a standard set and arrangement of connectors and buttons. The left edge remains empty, I keep praising the manufacturers for this, because it is comfortable to hold the device in your hands.
I also appreciate that Motorola doesn’t experiment with physical buttons that you can immediately feel with your right thumb. Everything is standard here: separate volume up and volume down buttons at the top, and the power button is located at a convenient height below. The buttons themselves are very tactile and work perfectly.
The bottom edge is occupied by: SIM card slot, USB Type-C port, microphone and speaker.
On top there is just a microphone and Dolby Atmos logo, and right below it, between the frame and the screen, there is a second speaker. That is, we have stereo speakers, and they play quite solidly. However, the second one, the phone one, is a bit quieter.
Below the screen is the selfie camera in the form of a small hole.
Motorola also uses a fingerprint scanner located below the screen. It’s an elegant and efficient solution, I had no problems unlocking the phone quickly and efficiently. I don’t really like the placement of the fingerprint scanner though – it feels like it should be a little higher up to me, but it’s not something you can’t get used to.
The alternative is another way to protect biometric data, i.e. facial recognition. Although many users hesitate to use it, but for nothing. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo’s facial recognition scanner worked for me in almost total darkness.
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The screen of the novelty is really good. The pOLED panel, saturated with billions of shades, perfectly combines with the elegance of the body. Every image, from the usual smartphone menu, Facebook homepage to a demanding film, strikes you with its clarity. Full HD+ 2400×1080, 402 ppi is here for a reason. Thanks to HDR10+ colour technology, you can see contrasting, very bright and very dark scenes. So with the Motorola Edge 40 Neo you can enjoy multimedia entertainment at home and when travelling at a very high level.
Thanks to the 144Hz refresh rate, images and animations change very smoothly, unnoticeable to the eye. That’s why the user doesn’t feel clipping when scrolling or lags when playing games.
In addition, this smoothness of the screen is accompanied by another very good parameter – touch sampling rate of 360 Hz. Thanks to the combination of these features, the smartphone responds instantly to your movements on the screen, which has a positive impact on the user experience.
The maximum brightness of up to 1300 nits is also impressive, so you can expect trouble-free readability even in sunny weather, but I was also happy with the minimum brightness level, which is really low. I’ll also note that last year’s Samsung Galaxy S22 had this exact same maximum brightness. Frankly speaking, the display of Motorola Edge 40 Neo is absolutely no match for a smartphone for 15-16 thousand UAH ($400), it is much better as for its price segment.
According to the manufacturer, the screen-to-body ratio is 90.2%, and looking at the front of the device, I’m inclined to believe this value.
Let’s move on to the issue of displayed colours. The default colours are saturated bright colours, although you can also choose a natural mode. Using the X-rite i1 DisplayPro colourimeter, we tested how the screen performs in these modes:
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The Motorola Edge 40 Neo uses stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos technology. The sound is very strong and loud, but unfortunately not the most pleasant. The higher the volume level, the stronger the distortion and smoother the sound. However, it should be recognised that at maximum settings the sound is extremely loud and will be heard all around, even if you are showing a video from a party to a large group of friends.
Interestingly, the sound gets a little better when you put the device in landscape orientation. Then the speakers are automatically adjusted to play stereo sound in a wide range.
At moderate volume settings, the sound is a bit more pleasant, but still not of high quality. For example, there is not enough bass. If sound quality is important to you, for example, while watching a film (which, by the way, looks very good on the Motorola pOLED screen), it is best to connect a speaker or wireless headphones via Bluetooth, or connect wired headphones with an adapter to the USB-C connector. Then the sound is better and additionally supported by Dolby Atmos technology.
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo features the new MediaTek Dimensity 7030 mid-range processor, consisting of two Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.5GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked up to 2.0GHz.
However, much more attractive in the characteristics of Motorola Edge 40 Neo is the exceptionally large, as for this price range, RAM – as much as 12 GB. Thanks to this, the smartphone runs smoothly even under heavy load, for example, when many applications are open in the background. Launching and switching between programmes is also more efficient. This is the older generation of LPDDR4X memory, but optimal for this price segment.
We have as much as 256GB of uMCP standard fixed memory. This is enough to store personal files, as well as photos and videos. Unfortunately, you won’t have the option to expand the memory with a microSD card, as it is missing.
Thanks to the interaction between the large amount of RAM and the Dimensity 7030 processor, the Edge 40 Neo’s performance is completely satisfactory – without any hiccups or long waits for apps to load. I also didn’t experience any temperature rise under load and no system lag. On a day-to-day basis, the smartphone runs very smoothly and without any issues.
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The connectivity range offered is also a big plus for a mid-range smartphone. It’s basically the newest and fastest generations. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo supports 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 and NFC. It also offers dual-SIM capability, with the second card having to be an eSIM (virtual card). As for location services, these are: GPS, AGPS, LTEPP, SUPL, Glonass and Galileo. Fast connectivity, fast internet, downloading and charging greatly enhance the user experience of the smartphone.
However, unlike last year, the manufacturer has skimped on the speed of the USB-C connector. Motorola Edge 30 Neo could copy data using the faster 3.2 Gen1 standard, this year’s Edge 40 Neo only has a slower USB 2.0 connector. On the other hand, on LTE networks, the Edge 40 Neo offers data transfer at 1200 Mbps (last year’s model only had 800 Mbps).
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo runs on Android 13 with the manufacturer’s My UX shell. For a long time, Motorola’s shell was considered to be one of the best as it doesn’t change much from the default Android.
That’s why it’s generally accepted that the Motorola Edge 40 Neo runs on an almost pure Android 13, enriched with just a few proprietary features. These are, first of all, personalisation, Ready for, Moto Secure and Moto Connect. All the options to optimise the device for the user’s needs can be found in the Moto app. Other conveniences such as Ready For or Moto Connect are available in the smartphone menu in separate apps.
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What kind of convenience do Motorola’s proprietary features offer? Edge 40 Neo can be wirelessly connected to your TV with Moto Connect or to your computer with Ready For. In addition to being able to view your smartphone content on the big screen (photos, games, VOD playback), you can also use your smartphone as a webcam or TV remote control.
With Moto Secure, you can better protect your personal data, and even create a secret folder for your most sensitive data. You can see more interesting system features in the gallery below. And if you decide to buy a Motorola, you can familiarise yourself with the smartphone’s features with the help of the manual after you switch it on for the first time. You can also find tips in the moto app at any time.
Did I like the software in the Motorola Edge 40 Neo? Overall, the system is not overloaded with unnecessary programs, although it should be noted that a few non-Motorola or Google related programs were downloaded shortly after the first launch. My UX barely changes Android 13, but adds interesting system settings and special programmes. Yes, they are convenient and simple, but they take some getting used to.
The interface is modern, aesthetically pleasing and uncluttered. There is no unnecessary junk here, and applications added by the manufacturer provide additional value.
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is a mid-range device, it is likely to get the standard two years of system update support and a confirmed three years of security updates. On the manufacturer’s website, you can find information that security updates for this model will be suspended in September 2026. That’s pretty good, as for a mobile device in this price category.
The smartphone worked for me for about a day and a half. I tried to figure out how the battery performs in specific scenarios. Watching a video through the Netflix app for 2 hours consumed about 18% battery life (with the refresh rate automatically changing, about 75% screen brightness, and about 80% volume). Playing Genshin Impact for 30 minutes consumed between 7 and 9% battery power. And 30 minutes of navigation use (here brightness was at 100% and volume reduced to 50%) used up 10% of the charge.
How does the working time recorded in the PC Mark programme look like? At a refresh rate of 60Hz and 50% brightness, the smartphone reached 11 hours and 20 minutes, at 120Hz – 9 hours and 14 minutes, and at the highest frequency – 144Hz – 8 hours and 23 minutes.
Let me remind you that the novelty from Motorola is equipped with a 5000 mAh battery and allows you to charge with up to 68 watts of power. Thanks to this, it guarantees lightning-fast charging – Motorola promises 50% charge in 15 minutes. What does it look like in practice? Charging is lightning fast at first, but the battery can be charged to 100% in around 50 mins.
It’s not unusual for Motorola to rely on only one or two cameras. The Edge 40 Neo, like its predecessor, uses a duo of rear cameras. The main one has a 50MP resolution, OmniVision OV50A sensor, phase focus, PDAF and an f/1.8 lens. The pixel size is 1.0µm, Ultra Pixel technology is also present to achieve a pixel size of 2.0µm. Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) hasn’t been forgotten either. In the Edge 30 Neo model, the camera had 64 MP, but Motorola shows that it’s not the number of megapixels that matters, but the technical aspects.
Pretty decent duo for a basic camera. Let’s take a closer look at how they work.
The 50MP main lens takes high-resolution (Ultra-Res) photos and bright night shots thanks to the pixel merging function (interestingly, this is 16 times faster than the Motorola Edge 30). Thanks to this, we can also take dual zoom and photos at three focal lengths: 24mm, 35mm and 50mm. In addition, it records stable (OIS) videos in 4K at 30fps and Full HD at 60fps.
In the daytime, the camera certainly works well, although it is impossible not to note less good detail in photos taken at a wide angle. While taking photos indoors, under artificial light, sometimes slightly blurred and shifted frames appear.
Photos at night depend on the available light. When there is enough, they work very well, but in dark frames there is sometimes colour noise, sometimes with a blue tint (especially when using a wide-angle camera). This is what night photos look like:
For the most part, the 30 Neo performs very well, doesn’t lose focus, provides excellent colour and sharpness in photos (although the tonal range could be better), and performs well at night.
On the front of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo is a 32 megapixel camera with good parameters and interesting features. One of the most interesting is the “photo booth”, a feature that automatically takes 4 photos at 3-second intervals and then creates a collage that you can freely compose, and even edit each individual photo.
The front camera also utilises pixel merging technology. Quad Pixel is designed to provide better sensitivity in low light. However, there is no option to select a special night photography function of the front camera. The smartphone detects them automatically (Auto Night Vision).
ORIGINAL PHOTOS AND VIDEO HERE
Both the rear cameras record videos in 4K 30fps and Full HD 30fps. But only the 50MP main camera can shoot at 60fps in Full HD resolution.
Unfortunately, when recording in 4K or FHD at 30fps, you can’t switch to wide angle (although both lenses support this resolution). In wide-angle video, you can only zoom to 6x or 0.9x. While it’s common to use the zoom option when shooting, this is a minus for Motorola’s camera.
In 2023, Motorola managed to surprise many people, and each subsequent premiere only confirms it. The manufacturer, which has been performing very well in the lower price range thanks to the moto G series, has not always shown similar results in the mid-range as well. With the Edge 40 Neo, Motorola has shown how good it can also be in the mid-price segment.
Edge 40 Neo is a sleek, modern and sophisticated smartphone in the sub-$400 segment. The pOLED screen with 144Hz refresh rate, 68W charging, smooth and stable MediaTek Dimensity 7030, 12GB RAM, personalisation options and moto-features like Ready For are what makes this smartphone a high user experience. In addition, there is IP68 protection.
The camera of the novelty also offers good quality for its price. It can be criticised for low detail and colour degradation in wide-angle photos that require processing in more complex situations, but for everyday use this set will be satisfactory for most users. The portrait mode and the quality of night photos are also worth noting.
Of course, there are some shortcomings inevitable in a mid-range device that should support an optimal smartphone price. Motorola Edge 40 Neo has poor sound quality and a mediocre wide-angle camera. It’s a pity that compared to its predecessor, the novelty has lost wireless charging, and personally I would also appreciate the metal body of the device.
Overall, though, the new Motorola Edge 40 Neo is a really well-balanced model that pleasantly impressed and which I readily recommend for purchase for those looking for a good smartphone for not all the money in the world.
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