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Motorola’s latest smartphone, the Edge 40 Neo, packs several impressive features but does not burn an opening in your pocket. Its price is Rs 23,000. How do you rate the phone in the long run? Let’s see
Motorola has launched a number of fantastic budget phones this year. The Edge 40 Neo, the younger brother of the launched Edge 40, has created excitement in this market. The device is being sold out across the majority of online channels. I’ve had the opportunity to make use of the phone as a day-to-day driver for about a month and also took a journey to Murshidabad, a city that is renowned for its history. Murshidabad Here are my impressions.
Motorola Edge 40 Neo Review: Design and feel in the hand.
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is identical to its predecessor, but with two things – instead of an aluminium frame, it has an aluminium frame and does not support wireless charging. I used this Caneel Bay colour variant of the Edge 40 Neo, a stunning turquoise-blue hue approved by Pantone, the world-renowned colour authority.
I was awestruck by the colour, and the vegan-friendly leather back gave it a more luxurious design – it’s smooth, durable and non-slippery and can be used without a case in case you do not like the bright colour to attract dirt. The model’s 159.63 width, 7.89 mm thickness, 71.99 millimetres width, and weight of 172 gm felt extraordinarily light and easy to carry for single-handed use.
Display
Edge 40 Neo Edge 40 Neo comes with a 6.55-inch display that is curved and pOLED incredibly for its price. The Edge 40 Neo has full HD resolution with 144 Hz refresh speed and 1,300 Nits of maximum brightness. The display has skinny bezels and symmetrical designs across all sides. It looks sharp and clear with excellent outdoor visibility. I had hoped for more intelligence at the peak.
The experience of watching multimedia content was enjoyable. OTT apps appear vivid on the phone since they support Widevine L1 and are HDR-10+-capable, and the dual speaker’s setup was superb with excellent clarity.
It needs to be clarified if the display on the phone protects itself with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 or NEG glass. I didn’t experience any issues with scratches. I could use the phone without a problem, with no screen protector.
Performance
The engine that powers this phone Edge 40 Neo is the new MediaTek octa-core Dimensity 7030, a 6nm processor. This is the first smartphone to utilise this chip. My test unit had 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and the internal memory was 256 GB, equipped with UFS 2.2 capacity.
The phone was exceptionally responsive throughout the day, with no jitters or lags, including app closing and opening, as well as keeping apps running in the background. However, this phone could get hot during intense activities and games. I only received one software update in September’s security patch in November. Motorola claims to provide the possibility of two OS upgrades and three years’ worth of security patches. Updates to software have always been a significant problem for Motorola, and I’m hoping they will improve that quickly.
In regards to gaming, it is no slouch when gaming. Edge 40 Neo is no slouch. It can play top-of-the-line games on the phone, such as BGMI, Call of Duty or Genshin Impact at high settings. The phone isn’t overheated and remains relatively stable during playing
Camera
For optics For optics, the Edge 40 Neo packs a dual camera setup at the rear. The primary camera is a 50-megapixel shooter with an f/1.8 aperture optical image stabilisation (OIS) and UltraPixel technology. Motorola claims it can instantly adjust to the low light settings to let in more light. Another camera features a 13-megapixel sensor, an ultra-wide camera equipped with electronic image stabilisation (EIS) with autofocus. Kudos to Motorola for taking the time to avoid adding gimmicky cameras of 2 MP to try to increase the cameras’ specs. The front camera has 32 MP.
Motorola phones have always needed more in regards to cameras. However, they are slowly catching up. Images taken with Edge 40 Neo look sharp, bright, and vibrant. However, there are slight boosts in standard lighting with improved portraits. Edge detection, however, must be improved further, and image quality could have been enhanced in night mode. I also did not like the fact that the phone took just a couple of seconds longer than it usually takes to finish processing the final image, and at times, it oversaturated the photos. This is something that needs to be considered.
In the video area, the front and back cameras both support 4K at 30FPS, which is rare in this market. The phone comes with some cool features, such as portrait mode, where you can blur both front and background images and a low light mode that will detect soft lighting to adjust to it. The phone also comes with the ability to lock the horizon, HDR video and audio zoom features. The quality and stability of the video were also excellent; however, as mentioned earlier, the night video clarity can also be improved for enhancements.
Battery
Its Moto Edge 40 Neo comes with a battery that’s 5000mAh, which is higher than the 4,400mAh on the more expensive Motorola Edge 40. The storm is expected to last for a whole day with regular use since its MediaTek Dimensity 9000 can sip the battery and is optimised to conserve the battery.
Since I’m not a huge gamer, I found it possible to comfortably get through the day on just one charge at the beginning of the day, involving occasional browsing for 1 to 2 hours, several emails, viewing videos and taking photos. If used by avid gamers, the battery may only last for part of the day. Motorola includes the Turbocharger, which is 89 watts in power and charges the phone very quickly, taking just longer than an hour, ranging from 2-3 per cent to 100.
Software
On the software front, the Moto Edge 40 Neo runs Android 13 using MYUX, a rebranded version of the OS. It runs the Android OS close to stock with no bloatware or bloatware, excluding the nifty Moto apps that give you more security options, such as Thinkshield and PIN scrambler. The OS is swift, has virtually no lags in my whole use, and has excellent reception on 5G networks.
The phone supports dual-5G, WiFi calling, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC as well as WiFi 6, and I haven’t had any problems with the speed of my internet. I tested the device using Jio along with Airtel SIMs. While five-G reception was excellent and the clarity of calls was exceptional – indoors as well as outdoors – I noticed that the volume of the microphone felt less than optimal during calls.
Conclusion
Overall, the Moto Edge 40 Neo comes with everything of its predecessor, the Moto Edge 40 and comes with features considered to be a bargain within this price range: great appearance, curved display and a punchy, sharp display with AMOLED and 144 hz display NFC and superb dual speakers, IP68-rated enhanced functions for video as well as a CPU that won’t overheat. What features it doesn’t have can’t be considered a problem with the outstanding price for the handset in your mind.
But that does not mean that the phone is completely free of errors – images that are oversaturated with the camera and video stabilisation need some tweaks. Motorola’s software update policy has to be more consistent. The screen’s curvature can lead to accidental touches in a few cases and may require some polishing.
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