Motorola Edge 40 Neo Review: A mid-range Masterpiece with one Flaw

Motorola unveiled a new mid-range smartphone in India earlier this month. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is the latest smartphone in the brand's Edge series and follows the vanilla Motorola Edge 40 in India. But can this watered-down version of the Edge 40, hold its own in one of India's most competitive smartphone markets?

But first, let's look at the pricing of Motorola's latest mid-range smartphone. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo price in India starts from Rs 23,999 for the base 8GB/128GB model and Rs 25,999 for the 12GB/256GB configuration. It is worth noting that the Edge 40 Neo will be available at an introductory price of Rs 20,999 (8GB/128GB) and Rs 22,999 (12GB/256GB) as part of a festive offer. Now moving on to the Motorola Edge 40 Neo review.

Design & Build

The Motorola Edge 40 Neo arrives in three shades, Caneel Bay, Soothing Sea, and Black Beauty shades. Our model of the device arrived in Caneel Bay and has a soft vegan leather finish. The leather finish makes the phone very comfortable to grip and ensures a smudge-free back panel. It is also on the lighter side, weighing around 170 grams and measuring just 7.9mm thick.

The back panel also has a metallic Motorola logo and a box-shaped camera island on the top left. The Edge 40 Neo does opt for a plastic frame with a glossy finish, giving it the appearance of metal. Additionally, the shades of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo are Pantone validated. The rest of the phone has the pretty standard button and port layout.

There are power and volume buttons on the right, while the SIM tray and USB Type-C port sit on the bottom. Moreover, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo features an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, a first for the segment. In terms of design and build quality, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo ticks all the right boxes.

Display

For the display, Motorola has opted for a 10-bit 6.55-inch FHD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels) P-OLED panel with a 20:9 aspect ratio. The screen boasts a 144Hz refresh rate that can be manually adjusted to 60Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz. However, you can also switch to the Auto mode for best results.

The display boasts a peak brightness of 1,300 nits and is easily visible under direct sunlight. The screen on the Motorola Edge 40 Neo is gorgeous, despite its price, and with HDR10+ support just makes the content pop. You do get some protection here with the panel shielded by Gorilla Glass 3. This is easily one of the best displays on a smartphone in the segment.

Performance

Performance does appear to be the Achillies heel of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo. The phone features a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 7030 SoC and the Mali-G610 MC3 GPU. It is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. The phone also supports Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6E, and 15 5G bands.

The MediaTek chipset is far from the best in the segment, manging a single-core score of 1048 points and a multi-core score of 2515 points. The Edge 40 Neo also managed an overall AnTuTu score of 512190 points. I did run a few games on the Edge 40 Neo, including Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends, and BGMI.

While BGMI ran smoothly on high settings, the other two titles did perform all that well on high settings with noticeable frame drops over prolonged periods. Gaming aside, the phone handled day-to-day tasks without much effort and multitasking was pretty fluid.

Cameras

For optics, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo gets a dual-camera setup on the back that consists of a 50 MP primary sensor with OIS and PDAF and a 13 MP ultrawide lens with a 120-degree FoV that doubles as a macro camera. Up front, the Edge 40 Neo opts for a 32 MP selfie camera. Now, let's look at some real-world results.

In daylight, the main camera captures a ton of detail with good dynamic range. Image quality was relatively sharp, although colours did tend to look overprocessed making the scene look unnatural. The photos taken on the main camera were more than acceptable for social media, although the images tend to look more contrasty.

The Edge 40 Neo also has a 50 MP Ultra-Res mode, which does provide a bit of extra definition in shots, although that comes at the cost of dynamic range, while some noise also creeps in. There is a bit of a color shift when switching between the main and ultrawide cameras.

While images on the ultrawide camera were noticeably softer, the edges had minimal distortion. The ultrawide camera also retained a fair bit of detail and maintains decent dynamic range when shooting in daylight. The macro mode on the ultrawide lens is definitely a step above the 2 MP dedicated macro cameras we're accustomed to in this segment.

Night modes kicks in automatically in low light. The main camera takes excellent shots in low light with Night mode offering the right balance of exposure between highlights and shadows. Moreover, images had plenty of detail with less noise, but I did notice some over-sharpening. The ultrawide camera maintains good dynamic range but loses a lot of detail at night.

Up front, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo's 32 MP selfie camera takes detailed photos in environments with good lighting. Dynamic range was good for the most part and skin tones look natural, although the selfie camera also suffered from the same oversharpening as the main camera.

The Motorola Edge 40 Neo can record 4K video on both the main and ultrawide cameras at 30fps, while 1080p video can be recorded on the main camera at 60fps. You can also turn on stabilization to get smoother footage, although it isn't quite as effective. However, capturing steady footage delivers some excellent results. Overall, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo has a versatile camera setup that pumps out some of the best results in the segment.

Battery

Despite its size, Motorola still managed to fit a 5,000 mAh battery in the Edge 40 Neo, which lasted for well-over a day with moderate usage. In my brief experience with the device, it is safe to say the Edge 40 Neo will be able to survive an entire day of heavy usage, although you might have to toggle the refresh rate down to 60Hz.

When you do run out of juice, the Edge 40 Neo comes with a 68W charging adapter in the box that can fully power up the device in under an hour. It isn't the fastest charging we've seen in the segment, but it gets the job done quite effectively.

Software

On the software side, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo runs on Android 13 with Motorola's custom MyUX skin on top. Motorola's custom software features a few first-party apps, although apart from that the OS is clean and bloat-ware free. The interface runs smoothly for the most part without any slowdowns.

Despite, the stock Android aesthetic, the Edge 40 Neo does have a few customization options. A lot of Motorola's custom features are hidden away in the 'Moto' app. They are divided into multiple categories including Personalise, Gestures, Moto Secure, Tips, Display, and Play. You can also access the 'Tips' option to discover new ways to use your phone.

There's also an edge lights feature that illuminates the edges depending on the different types of incoming notifications. Overall, Motorola's MyUX skin offers the perfect balance of functionality and convenience with several utile features and a clean interface. Lastly, Motorola also promises two years of major OS updates and three years of regular security updates with the Edge 40 Neo.

Verdict

With a starting price of Rs 20,999, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo was quite impressive. In terms of design and build, the Edge 40 Neo ticks all the right boxes with its vegan leather finish and IP68 rating. Additionally, the curved AMOLED display adds to the phone's stunning look. The Edge 40 Neo also has a versatile camera system that impressed for its price.

Additionally, the phone also delivered in terms of battery life and fast charging. Motorola's near-stock Android software also edges out the competition. However, the only downside to the Edge 40 Neo was the performance. The MediaTek Dimensity 7030 was one of the poorest performing smartphones in the segment.

So should you buy the Motorola Edge 40 Neo? Under most circumstances my answer would be a certain 'yes'. If you aren't an avid mobile gamer or rarely use a smartphone for gaming, the Edge 40 Neo is almost perfect. The cameras could use some improvement, although that is often the case in this segment. If you can overlook gaming performance, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo is easily one of the best smartphones under Rs 25,000 in India.