Motorola Edge 40 Neo Quick Review: A Sleeper Hit in the Offing

The Motorola Edge 40 Neo is a very interesting and promising device in the sub-Rs 25,000 price segment. The phone stands out in this segment with an IP68 rating, premium design, and good camera capabilities. Simply put, it is a more reasonably priced sibling of the Edge 40 and carries forward a lot of traits. It comes powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7030 processor and runs on a near-stock version of Android, which is devoid of any unnecessary bloatware. With such a spec sheet, the Motorola Edge 40 Neo may seem like a very easy recommendation for most people, but does it deliver on its promises? Find out in our quick review.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Quick Review: Design

• The Edge 40 Neo comes with refreshing colours that look appealing

• It features a faux leather finish at the back which feels premium to the touch

The Edge 40 Neo is available in three different shades: Caneel Bay, Black Beauty, and Soothing Sea. It is very uncommon that all the colours of a phone look appealing, but the Edge 40 Neo pulls this off with pizzazz.

The rear panel uses vegan leather, which exudes quality and helps with the grip too. It is worth noting that the Black Beauty variant sticks to a glastic build with a matte finish.

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A part of the top portion is assigned to the camera module, which uses a plastic-like material. The volume rocker and power button at the right side of the device are easy to reach but do not provide satisfactory feedback. The IP68 rating is rather rare in this price segment, and we hope more OEMs follow Motorola’s suit.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Quick Review: Display

• It sports a 6.55-inch pOLED display

• The curved AMOLED display is a pleasure to look at

The faster refresh rate panel ensures smooth scrolling, while the curved display takes care of an immersive visual experience. The bezels on all sides are also slim and uniform, adding to the premium vibe of the smartphone. The Edge 40 Neo has a Widevine L1 certification, which means you can watch 1080p movies and TV shows on any OTT platform. The display produces good, vibrant, and punchy colours.

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The viewing angles are amazing and the high brightness levels ensure good visibility in outdoor environments. However, in our usage, we noticed a lot of mistouches when the phone was kept in our pockets. We somehow managed to pick up a WhatsApp video call by just using our butt. We are guessing this is a software issue, and hope Moto fixes this soon.

The stereo speaker setup also works well and can get loud enough.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Quick Review: Performance and Software

• The phone performs well in daily usage

• It runs Android 13 with almost no bloatware

The Edge 40 Neo is the first smartphone in the world to draw power from the newly introduced 6nm-based MediaTek Dimensity 7030. It is certainly not the most powerful chipset in this price segment — considering the likes of iQOO Z7 Pro and the Vivo T2 Pro exist. But, for that extra bit of power, you would have to shell out a few more bucks.

Speaking solely of the Motorola Edge 40 Neo, the AnTuTu score here should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the GPU score was not able to register for an unknown reason. Putting that aside, the Geekbench 6 scores are vastly good, especially when you put it up against the Lava Agni 2 with the Dimensity 7050 chipset.

In terms of real-life usage, the Edge 40 Neo performs brilliantly. It can handle menial tasks as well as multitasking between multiple apps easily. While there have been concerns about the heating situation on the phone, we haven’t faced any during our two weeks with it. The in-display fingerprint sensor works flawlessly, and so does the face unlock.

The MyUX skin closely resembles the stock Android UI and skips on spammy bloatware. Motorola promises two years of software updates and three years of security patches.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Quick Review: Cameras

• The primary camera has OIS support

• The secondary ultra-wide angle camera doubles up as a macro sensor

Primary Camera	50-megapixel OIS, f/1.8
Secondary Camera (Ultra-wide angle, macro)	13-megapixel, f/2.2
Front Camera	32-megapixel, f/2.4
Video recording capabilities	1080p at 60fps, 4K at 30fps

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The primary camera on the Edge 40 Neo is capable of capturing good-quality photos in daylight conditions. Adding on to that, it’s commendable that Motorola included OIS support, which is again something not very common in this range. Photos captured have good details and consistent dynamic range, though the colours can be a bit punchy. But, that also means that the images are always social-media ready, so if that is your thing, you would not have any complaints.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Daylight Camera Samples

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The ultra-wide angle camera also clicks good photos, but the fall in details is visible. While the distortion at the edges is minimal, we noticed grains forming around the corners even in some daylight conditions.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Low-light Camera Samples

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Considering the price, we were impressed with the low-light capabilities of the primary camera. Photos are bright while keeping noise to a minimum. Thanks to an optically-stabilised shooter, a slight shake of the hand does not ruin the entire image.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Selfie Camera Sample

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The selfie camera can take some detailed shots in good lighting conditions, but it tends to lean towards warmer tones.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Quick Review: Battery and charging speeds

• The Edge 40 Neo lasts a day on moderate usage

• The 68W fast charger fills up the battery a bit short of an hour

Despite the slim form factor, the Edge 40 Neo is able to pack in a 5,000mAh battery. It lasts an entire day on moderate usage, but if you indulge in heavy usage with a bit of gaming, you might be searching for a charger by evening. The Edge 40 Neo consistently gave us a screen-on time ranging between five and six hours.

The included 68W charger boosts up the device to 100 per cent in a little under 60 minutes.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo Alternatives

The Edge 40 Neo is against a sea of competitors in its price bracket. It faces competition from the likes of the Infinix GT 10 Pro (Performance Review), Vivo T2 Pro (Review), and iQOO Z7 Pro (Review) — all of which are performance-focused smartphones. Besides that, you can also find the Realme 11 Pro (Review), OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite (Review), and Moto G84 in this segment.