Note: the Motorola Edge 40 is an international model, not available in the US. Motorola launched the Motorola Edge 2023 for the States, which is mostly the same phone.
After launching the Edge 40 Pro (a.k.a. Edge+ 2023)— Motorola's return to flagship form — it also gave us the Edge 40. Some corners were cut, but it retains the lovely design, a super-fluid screen, and a snappy processor.
It cuts out a telephoto camera and doesn't have a super-high-res selfie snapper (though, it's still 32 MP), so obviously the Motorola Edge 40 is made for those that don't insist on cutting edge camera hardware and would rather save a few bucks instead.
Otherwise, we have a "clean Android experience", which is a Moto staple, a beautiful design, and a price-tag that's sure to rival Google's Pixel 8.
5.3
Motorola Edge 40
The Good
Thin, solid, premium design and feel
144 Hz OLED screen with nice colors and customizable profiles
Speakers sound pretty good for thin form factor
Dependable battery life, fast charging
The Bad
Camera oversharpens a bit, colors can be hit and miss. Digital zoom is weak.
Performance is adequate, but you don't have power on tap
The Motorola Edge 40 (or Edge (2023)) comes with a full setup in the box — the phone, a USB C data cable, and fast charging brick. Plus, a bonus smell of perfume for some reason. We also get a really nice case — it's thin and transparent. It won't provide much protection but it does cover the phone's corners and has a tiny lip for those of you that like to put the device face-down.
We didn't get a headset in the box, but — apparently — certain markets will also get this in the package (worth noting, some markets will not get the case, so yes — it's a bit confusing).
Box contents:
Motorola Edge 40
USB C data and charging cable
Fast charging wallplug
Thin, transparent case
Booklets and SIM tool
Motorola Edge 40 Specs
The budget midranger take actually packs a good punch
Motorola didn't go with a lower-tier Snapdragon processor. This time around, they went out and got a MediaTek Dimensity, which is the top-tier series of the MediaTek company. You won't see us complain!
Specs
iPhone 13 Pro Max
Size and Weight
6.24 x 2.83 x 0.30 inches (158.4 x 72 x 7.6 mm); 5.89 oz (171.0 g)
Display
6.5" OLED, 144 Hz refresh rate, 1200 nits max brightness
Processor
Mediatek Dimensity 8020 (6 nm)
RAM, Storage
8 GB / 256 GB
Software
Android 13 with Moto hub (gestures, security, gaming, personalization)
Cameras
50 MP wide camera, f/1.4 aperture 13 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 aperture 32 MP front camera
Battery Size
4,400 mAh
Charging Speeds
68 W wired, 15 W wireless
The MediaTek Dimensity 8000 series is a step below the flagship 9000 series and built on an older 6 nm process (the chip itself is a fresh model from April 2023) — we'll see how that affects performance and energy efficiency down the line. The 256 GB storage is quite OK for the majority of use cases out there. The lack of a microSD port may irk some powerusers. Though the phone can't record 4K 60 FPS (it taps out at 4K 30), so you can't fill it up with massive clips too quickly.
Motorola Edge 40 Design & Colors
Putting the class in classy!
We love to see that Motorola decided to try something different with the materials here. Instead of being another glass sandwich on the market, the Edge 40 has a leathery back. It's definitely faux leather (vegan leather, Motorola says), but it has a very distinct soft feel and a lot of grip to it. The phone is thin and the tapered sides of the screen make it feel very smooth and snugly-built. It's a pleasure to show off and even the black version we have here doesn't look boring. Subtle and stylish, but not boring.
The control buttons on the side have a shallow movement to them and the click feels more on the cheap-ish side. As is common, we don't have a headphone hack, but we do have stereo speakers in the common setup — bottom boomer and earpiece tweeter. And, of course, we have IP68 rated protection for dust- and water-resistance.
Moto Edge 40 is available in 3 colors:
Eclipse Black
Nebula Green
Lunar Blue
If you are not a fan of the vegan leather, the Lunar Blue color actually has an acrylic back — we wouldn't say that's the better option as it will feel more plasticky, but it's there if you want it.
Motorola Edge 40 Display
The screen on the front is a 6.55-inch pOLED panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2400. That's a 20:9 super wide aspect ratio, and the resolution makes up for a sharp image of 402 pixels per inch. It's HDR10+ compliant and rated for 1,200 nits of peak brightness which is quite impressive for a device that's supposedly "budget".
What's even crazier is that it has a 144 Hz refresh rate. Now, higher-end phones — like the Edge 40 Pro — already reach upwards of 165 Hz, but we have to be honest, that's kind of overkill. In fact, anything north of 120 Hz is overkill for most people out there. Yet, Motorola decided that Edge 40 owners deserve to get their own spec for bragging rights so there it is — you've got the refresh rate that a pro gamer would consider "usable"... on your phone. Yes, it's very smooth, responsive, and a pleasure to scroll through.
You've got two color profiles to pick from — saturated or natural. One brings out the aggressive, punchy colors that OLED is capable of, the other is for people who prefer more grounded and easy colors. Plus a slider lets you fine-tune between colder or warmer white point, we liked it just fine in the default middle.
There isn't an always-on display feature per se, Motorola has a "Peak display" here. It reacts when you move the phone or touch the screen and shows you a very stylish clock face, plus any awaiting notifications. You can interact with them by tapping and swiping a notification towards the fingerprint scanner. The phone will unlock and send you straight into the respective app.
Also, Motorola pulled out the edge lighting feature here that will color the curved sides of the screen when you are getting a call or a notification — specifically for those that like to leave their phone face-down, this will create a nice glow light around it whenever a message is coming through.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
And lastly, the aforementioned fingerprint scanner — it's an optical sensor underneath the screen. We found it to be quick to scan and unlock and very rarely would it give us an error and ask for a second scan of the finger.
Motorola Edge 40 Camera
Is the budget flagship that much worse?
So, we don't have a telephoto camera here for optical zoom, but Motorola was cool enough to give us digital zoom when in Portrait Mode. So, we can still choose between 24, 35, and 50 mm style framing and at those steps, we'd say the phone manages to pull off digital zoom well enough for it to work.
This is no doubt helped by the dense resolution of the main camera sensor — it has 50 megapixels to work with, and an aperture of f1.4, which is quite wide even for flagship smartphones. The results? Ahem:
Main Camera - Day
During the daytime, the Motorola Edge 40 is capable of taking pretty good photos. Dynamic range is quite wide, especially once HDR kicks in (and auto HDR pretty generously steps in most of the time). Though, with a slight drop in light, that can all slow the shutter speed down annoyingly.
In any case, we quite like the colors and exposure in the photos from the main cameras. They have a dramatic contrast, some very nice natural bokeh thanks to the F1.4 lens aperture, and colors that are close to reality, yet slightly saturated for effect. The details are a bit too oversharpened in some places — we definitely think Motorola can dial that down a bit as softer photos will look much more realistic and pleasant. Otherwise — these photos are instantly ready to share.
Main Camera - Low-light
Night time photos are also surprisingly good. Again, the shutter slows down here, so a steady hand is advised. But all that said, we were quite surprised by the dynamics and colors. Some oversharpening can be caught here, depending on the scene (for example - the third photo with the tree), however since low light photos are naturally softer, we feel like things balance out here.
Zoom quality is nothing to write home about. At 2x, the Edge 40 does hold it together — thankfully so, since there is a 2x mode for portrait shots — but things quickly deteriorate the further in you go. And Motorola knows this — the Edge 40 is capped at 8x zoom, for good reason.
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Portrait Mode
The Portrait Mode works pretty well in daytime — subject separation seems to be on point and the bokeh is convincing. Also, the sharpening doesn't seem to be over the top here. Nice. However, the bad news is that Portrait Mode completely falls apart in night time:
Ultra-wide Camera
Similar to the main camera, the ultra-wide can take some pictures with nice colors and dynamics. However, it would sometimes jump around in exposure or oversaturate things wa-a-ay too much (like the second day sample — that's one of the tame ones!). It's definitely a bit more finnicky. The good news is that the ultra-wide camera held it together surprisingly well for nighttime photos.
Selfies
The selfie camera needs a lot of lights — the first two photos are indoors, yes, but with the sun shining bright through my large window. When I took the phone outside at a time close to dusk, it slowed down the shutter speed so much that you can see actual ghosting within the photo. Not great — packing a 32 MP sensor for selfies sounds great on paper, but there's very little room there, so we assume those 32 million pixels are quite tiny, thus not very good at collecting the light they need quickly. A 12 MP selfie camera would probably have been better here.
Video Quality
For video, the Edge 40 holds things together quite well — dynamics are still wide, colors look good. Its stabilization is not as good, so no action shots with this one. Also, interestingly, we kind of like the Edge 40 video at night better than the Pixel 7. The latter tried to hold dynamics together a lot, so it kind of flattened the lights around the fountain. The Edge 40 did let some highlights burn out, but at least we got a more dynamic, constrast-y representation of the scenery.
Motorola Edge 40 Performance & Benchmarks
Doesn't even need the best chip
The Motorola Edge 40 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8020 — that's a very new SoC by MediaTek, introduced in April of 2023. It's not a top-line processor, rather around the upper midrange, built with MediaTek's latest features like 4K HDR video capture, AI video upscaling of SDR to HDR, a HyperEngine gaming optimizer, among others. It is octacore, built on a 6 nm process, and ticks at up to 2.6 GHz.
We like what MediaTek has been doing with its higher-end chips recently, and the performance of the Motorola Edge 40 is no disappointment. Obviously, it doesn't have the raw power of even 2022's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It performs somewhere between slightly-worse-than to equal-to Google's Tensor G2, so this effectively makes the Edge 40 a viable Pixel 7 competitor. It's in the same price bracket, more or less, and offers similar performance but slightly worse cameras. But packaged in a really nice design.
Notice that, although the 3DMark stress test gave us a low score, there was no major drop in performance between loop 1 and loop 20. So, the phone won't throttle on you — the performance you get with a fresh, cool device is the same performance you will have after 20 minutes of gaming.
As for storage, we only get the 256 GB option and no room for microSD card expansion. That's quite a lot of storage and it's UFS 3.1 — not the fastest standard out there (latest is UFS 4.0), but it is the flagship speed of yesteryear, so it's good enough.
We have 8 GB of RAM on board, which is pretty much baseline for today's standards. We did catch the phone closing some apps in the background, but things were pretty quick to load back up.
Motorola Edge 40 Android version
The Edge 40 ships with Android 13 on board. Motorola promises 2 years of major OS updates and 3 years of security patches, which is not ideal. Indeed, if we are looking at this as a Pixel 7 competitor, this is where it loses.
Assuming the updates are timely, the roadmap should look something like this:
Due to the slightly awkward time of when the Edge 40 was launched and when Google pushes out a new Android build — we doubt the Edge 40 will get Android 16 in 2024, as it will probably launch in the second half the year which will put it beyond the 2-year update plan promised by Motorola.
Still, it's a fairly affordable high-tier phone that should serve you well for at least 3 years, so it's not too bad.
The user interface is mostly stock Android — simple, fun, and snappy. Motorola did put a My UX suite in there for some light customization — special icon shapes, some themes, color accents, as well as gestures. Actual gestures — you twist the phone to launch the camera or perform a chopping motion to activate the flashlight.
Have no fear, pressing the power button twice quickly also opens the camera. Our one complaint for our time with the Motorola Edge 40 is that the UI bugged out for some reason and all those neat quick gestures stopped working. We could turn them off and on, we could try them out in the tutorial mode, but they didn't work in real usage, even after a restart. We had to erase all app data from the reset menu and it magically fixed itself (and reset all our settings midway through using it).
Let's write it off as a freak accident. Otherwise, the software feels stable and doesn't have a lot of quirks.
The slim body of the Motorola Edge 40 still manages to pack a 4,400 mAh cell — not the largest by today's flagship standards, but definitely impressively big considering how thin and light this phone feels.
Thanks to the fact that the MediaTek 8020 is not a powerhungry monster, we do see some very good endurance numbers, especially in mid-tier tasks like watching video:
In most cases, the Edge 40 has as much juice as your typical Google Pixel 7 or even the Galaxy S23 with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. When we amp it up for some 3D Gaming, the flagship processor inside the Galaxy does manage to be much more efficient and gives it more juice than the competition. Overall, the Motorola Edge 40 performs well — it's classy looks barely scream "gaming phone", and for any else smartphone-centric task, it lasts more than fine.
As for charging — the included 68 W power plug will top the device off in 55 minutes. Naturally, you get a day's worth of battery with just 10 minutes on the fast charger (charging slows down as the battery gets more power), so even if you forget to plug your phone overnight, you can have it charged while making your morning coffee.
Motorola Edge 40 Audio Quality and Haptics
We were very pleasantly surprised by the speakers of the Edge 40. It proudly flaunts a Dolby Atmos branding on its aluminum frame, and the speakers do create a somewhat soundstage with detailed mids and even bass. Now, don't get us wrong — there are physical constraints here, so it doesn't sound boomy, thick, or deep. However, when listening to music, all instruments are audible and it's hard to get a tinny distortion-type sound from it (though, it may occur now and again).
That said, the Edge 40 speakers do great for video binging on your favorite platform, be it YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or *insert new viral app that the author is too old to know about here*.
The haptics are... OK. We've been spoiled by Android phones clicking and clacking with very confident feedback (to the point where it may even become annoying) in recent years. The Motorola Edge 40 gets close to that, but you can feel a bit of vibration raspiness behind it all. This is all nitpicking, we'd say the haptics are fine — not outstanding, but quite fine.
Motorola Edge 40 Competitors
The Motorola Edge 40 is definitely a good pick-up for users that only want the core smartphone features in a stylish package. That is to say — it won't please powerusers or gamers, but it works just fine as a handset, communicator, and dare we say — camera.
Though, to be fair, the Edge 40 is not a Galaxy S23 killer or an end-all-be-all of "budget flagships". Each device here has its strengths and weaknesses.
The Pixel 8 will give you better pictures from the camera. Though, we do think the Edge 40 takes nice Portrait Mode photos, the Pixel 8 wins out in all other scenarios thanks to Google's excellent post-processing.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 has a lot more going for it than the Motorola Edge 40, obviously. A third — telephoto — camera on the back, a more powerful processor, an arguably better screen (though, we have no complaints with the Edge 40's display). And yes, the S23 will also get you better photos than the Motorola Edge 40. But also, its MSRP is north of the Edge's asking price.
So, in the context of these competitors, the Motorola Edge 40 is an alternative with slightly worse cameras and lower performance headroom. In return, you get a very stylish design, dependable battery life, and very fast charging.
Motorola Edge 40 Summary and Final Verdict
Is there place in the market for the Motorola Edge 40? We'd say there is — we fell in love with it just for its design. The clean Android experience with just a pinch of Motorola optimization is always a great thing to experience and has its fans for a reason (admittedly, we hope the small bugs we experienced will be ironed out or were just an offshoot).
The camera definitely falls in the "good enough" category — yes the oversharpening can be annoying and getting the exposure right is sometimes a slight minigame in its own right. Key word here — sometimes. We feel confident in rocking the Motorola Edge 40 as a daily driver and wouldn't mind taking shots for memorabilia or social media with it.
Yes, it doesn't have the raw power of the Snapdragon (note: the Motorola Edge 40 Pro does), but at the price point, it's a really easy sell. The Moto Edge 40 is available in Europe for €599 MSRP (it seems to be perpetually discounted though), whereas the Pixel 8 is €799.
If you are shopping for it in mid 2024 — know that it has about a year of official software support on its ticket. But if you find it at an awesome discount, it can still be worth it.
Final word — we'd say it's a solid choice for the person that wants a dependable smartphone, not for gaming, photography, massive multitasking, or extreme poweruser scenarios. Just a dependable, good-looking, smartphone.
*Disclaimer: You may notice review scores have changed on PhoneArena! Since September 20th, we have started using a new scoring system. Learn more about the new PhoneArena Smartphone Review Rating system here.
Pros
Thin, solid, premium design and feel
144 Hz OLED screen with nice colors and customizable profiles
Speakers sound pretty good for thin form factor
Dependable battery life, fast charging
Cons
Camera oversharpens a bit, colors can be hit and miss. Digital zoom is weak.
Performance is adequate, but you don't have power on tap
Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.
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