Motorola Edge 40 is the latest addition to the list of smartphones under the Rs. 30,000 units in India, which seems to be a hot spot for the industry at the moment as quite a few new products have been launched recently. It’s also pretty crowded with products like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G ( review ), iQoo Neo 7 ( review ) and the recently launched Poco F5 5G ( review ). While most smartphones in this price range aim to be do-it-all smartphones, many of them prioritize performance. The Motorola Edge 40, on the other hand, stands out with its sleek design and some flagship-killer specs.
Launched as the successor to last year’s Motorola Edge 30 ( review ), the Edge 40 packs some promising hardware into the price. With all these features, does the Motorola Edge 40 have a real advantage over the competition? Here’s our full review to help you find out.
Motorola Edge 40 price in India
Motorola has launched the Edge 40 in India with 8GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration. The phone is priced at Rs. 29,999. It is available in three color options – Nebula Green, Eclipse Black and Moonlight Blue. The first two models have a vegan leather back panel, while the latter model has a PMMA acrylic back panel.
Motorola Edge 40 design and display
Design is often subjective, but what many users will appreciate is a phone that offers a premium feel. In my opinion, the Motorola Edge 40’s faux leather back panel certainly fits that bill. The company sent us Nebula Green, which seems to be the color of the season. This is probably one of my favorite shades of green after the lime green of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G (review) and the lemon of the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G (review). What’s attractive about the Edge 40 is not just the color, but the way it feels in the hand.
Motorola Edge 40 is only 7.58mm thick
The textured surface, along with the phone’s curved edges and lightweight body (7.58mm thick, 171g weight) add to the premium feel. Additionally, you get a metal frame and IP68 water and dust resistance rating, which is not common in phones under Rs. 30,000.
The Motorola Edge 40 features a 6.6-inch curved pOLED display on the front with very thin top and bottom bezels that help provide an immersive viewing experience. However, the extreme curvature on the sides of the display and its slim profile resulted in many accidental touches, creating a ghost-touch-like effect while playing games. I prefer a less noticeable curvature, like the one on the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G (review).
Motorola Edge 40’s chin bezel is quite thin
The Full HD+ resolution display offers good viewing angles, but colors are quite saturated by default for a vivid experience. You can get more natural, warmer tones by switching to the “Natural” setting in display settings. The Motorola Edge 40 also has HDR10+ playback certification, but apps like Netflix and YouTube couldn’t detect it when I tested it. The in-display fingerprint sensor works well and is also positioned under the display, making it comfortable to use.
Edge 40 is currently the only smartphone priced under Rs. There are 30,000 units in India offering 144Hz refresh rate display. However, it seems that many apps haven’t taken advantage of this yet, as in my experience the displays mostly run between 60Hz and 120Hz.
Motorola Edge 40 specs and software
The Motorola Edge 40 comes with the new MediaTek Dimensity 8020 SoC, which is essentially a tweaked version of the Dimensity 1100 SoC. It comes with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The battery capacity is 4,400mAh and supports 68W TurboPower fast charging. Notably, there is also support for 15W wireless charging, which is unheard of in this segment.
On the software front, Motorola Edge 40 runs on the MyUX skin based on the latest Android 13. The custom Motorola skin is one of the very few Android skins that offers a clean software experience while adding multiple features. Edge 40 does not come with any third-party bloatware. It continues to offer support for multiple customization and personalization options, such as changing icons, wallpapers, fonts, sounds, and more.
Motorola also supports various gestures that can trigger certain tasks, such as double-tapping the rear panel to trigger a custom action, twisting your wrist twice to open the camera, turning the flashlight on or off with two karate chops, and more.
Motorola Edge 40’s user interface is quite clean and smooth
The company also offers Lenovo’s ThinkShield security and privacy features in the Moto Secure app. Users can check all permissions for camera, microphone, and location access within the app, as well as privacy indicators.
Motorola promises two major Android updates and three years of security support for the Edge 40.
Motorola Edge 40 performance and battery life
The Dimensity 8020 SoC in the Motorola Edge 40 is quite powerful in its segment. Whether it’s switching between apps, daily tasks like browsing social media, or playing games, the device delivers a smooth experience in most situations. In BGMI, I was able to play up to “Ultra” frame rates and HDR graphics. Initially, I noticed some stuttering when playing at the highest settings, however, after a few rounds, performance was pretty smooth. Call of Duty: Mobile, on the other hand, runs smoothly.
I did notice that after about 45 minutes of gaming, the phone would get a little warm around the camera module, which seems to be normal. In fact, considering how slim this phone is, I’d give Motorola points for its good cooling ensuring sustained performance during long gaming sessions.
The Motorola Edge 40 scored 7,64,083 points on AnTuTu (v10), trailing behind the current segment leader Poco F5, which scored 1,094,798 points. In Geekbench 6, the phone scored 1,103 and 3,588 points in single-core and multi-core tests.
Motorola Edge 40 comes with a 68W charger in the box
In terms of battery life, the Motorola Edge 40 can last a full day with moderate use and no gaming. Play the game for an hour or so, however, and you’ll likely need to charge the device before the end of the day. The Edge 40 gave me an average of 7 hours and 30 minutes of screen-on time. On our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 15 hours and 31 minutes, which is slightly above average.
Fortunately, you get 68W fast charging, which was able to charge the Edge 40 from zero to 75% in 30 minutes during our testing. You also get 15W wireless charging, which comes in handy if you have a wireless charger at home or work.
Motorola Edge 40 camera
The Motorola Edge 40 sports a dual-camera setup, with the primary camera being 50-megapixel f/1.47 and supporting optical image stabilization (OIS). There is also a 13-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens that can also capture macro images. For selfies, the Edge 40 comes with a 32-megapixel front-facing camera.
The main camera captures good detail, but sometimes the image is sharpened a little too much. Additionally, the colors are a bit too saturated in order to provide a vibrant look. While the software attempts to increase the dynamic range in processing, it may succeed or fail. Thanks to its wide aperture, the main camera offers a shallow depth of field when shooting close-up subjects. In low-light conditions, detail and color are well balanced, with shadows well exposed and highlights under control.
Motorola Edge 40 main camera sample (click to see full size)
The price of the ultra-wide-angle camera is pretty good, too. There is distortion around the edges, but that’s common for ultra-wide-angle camera lenses. The ultra-wide-angle sensor also supports autofocus, which means you can get very close to your subject to take high-resolution macro photos. This is certainly much better than the 2-megapixel macro sensors we’ve seen in many smartphones at different price points. That being said, the colors in macro images aren’t as accurate as they should be.
Motorola Edge 40 ultra-wide-angle macro camera sample (click to view full size)
The rear main camera can capture portrait images with focal lengths of 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm. While subject segmentation is accurate in most cases, when capturing human subjects the blur looks unnatural and skin tones look too soft.
Motorola Edge 40 main camera samples (from top to bottom: 24mm, 35mm, 50mm portrait mode)
The front camera fails to get the skin tone correct most of the time. I can see a slight red tint in selfies taken with the Motorola Edge 40. Additionally, while Portrait mode offers creamy background blur, it also blurred parts of my face.
Front-facing camera example on Motorola Edge 40 (click to see full size)
In terms of video recording, Motorola Edge 40 can shoot up to 4K 30fps or 1080p 60fps. I like the overall color reproduction and dynamic range performance of both the rear and front cameras. The rear camera is equipped with OIS, which works well. There’s also a horizontal lock feature that locks the screen orientation even if you turn the phone over while recording 1080p video.
judgment
The Motorola Edge 40 packs some powerful hardware wrapped in a curved, sleek body that looks premium from a distance. The phone has a great feel, a great multimedia experience, and relatively good performance. The software is also very feature-rich and clean.
The Edge 40 also offers some features that are unheard of in this segment, such as IP68 rating, 144Hz pOLED curved edge display, and wireless charging.
However, the camera definitely needs more work. While the hardware and features look solid on paper, Motorola needs to further optimize them to gain a competitive edge.
If you want a well-rounded smartphone priced under Rs. 30,000 and willing to compromise on the camera, the Motorola Edge 40 can be considered. We think the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G (review) and Samsung Galaxy A34 5G (review) have slightly better camera performance. For pure raw processing power, you could certainly consider the Poco F5 (review).
