Motorola Edge 40 Review | Changed again but it’s better
In these almost 3 years of life, the Motorola Edge line has changed as much as David Bowie, but, just like the singer, with each novelty, cell phones have gotten better. The Edge 40, the brand’s launch in Brazil, is another step towards the maturation of a family that has always been in the shadows of the popular Moto G.
What are the pros and cons of the new Motorola Edge 40? I tested the new smartphone for a few days and I tell my impressions in the next paragraphs! And if you’re interested in the model at the end of this review, there will be purchase links for you to take advantage of.
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Top-of-the-line design
I’ve been criticizing the Motorola Edge’s lack of visual identity for almost 2 years, but this time, it’s just praise. The Edge 40 is completely different from its direct predecessor, the Edge 30, but it resembles the Edge 30 Fusion and 30 Ultra, which, fortunately, returned with the main proposal of the line: to bring some curved aspect.
That is, both the screen and the back cover are slightly curved, leaving the cell phone with a very comfortable and delicate grip, even though it is a little heavier.
Another very positive point of the construction of the Edge 40 is the protection against water and dust (IP68 certification), making this generation the first with the classification. It only took four generations for this to happen, but I’m glad Motorola listened to the feedback of users.
The back cover of the smartphone has a fabric finish that simulates leather, in addition to aluminum sides. In addition, Motorola is one of the few manufacturers that get the color options of their smartphones right – in addition to the traditional black, we have a magenta, considered the color of the year for 2023 by Pantone.
As expected, the Motorola Edge 40 arrives without a headphone jack, but at least it continues with an input for two carrier chips and stereo sound. In addition, the phone supports wireless charging up to 15 W.
Amazing OLED screen
On screen, Motorola doesn’t usually skimp on numbers. We are talking about a 6.55-inch OLED panel with Full HD resolution, 144 Hz refresh rate, HDR support in the HDR10+ standard and brightness of up to 1,200 nits — practically, it is the screen of the powerful Edge 30 Ultra in an intermediate model.
I’ve already highlighted in other reviews that you can’t differentiate a 144 Hz screen from a 120 Hz one, so I won’t go into that merit again. As I also know that Motorola should not give up this differential, know that the panel remains extremely fluid, but nothing impressive or superior to competitors.
As with the Edge 30 Ultra, the Edge 40’s screen is a little warmer, and the “saturated” hue option makes everything a little more vibrant. I liked the setting, but the color temperature should be in the middle to be less reddish.
The smartphone’s curved panel also has functional appeal with the function Edge Lights — the edges around the screen glow with call, alert, and message notifications. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it can be useful when your phone is in silent mode.
very competent sound
While the Edge 40 is very close to its brother 30 Ultra in terms of screen, the sound has a slightly lower quality, showing a loss of definition in more complex reproductions. However, it brings very present and defined bass, very similar to what happens on the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G.
settings and performance
The brain of the Motorola Edge 40 is the MediaTek Dimensity 8020 processor, a slightly improved version of the old Dimensity 1200 SoC (System on a chip) brand premium. Despite the name with inflated numbers, it is a model similar to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G Plus, which equips the Edge 30.
As expected from an Edge cell phone, the Edge 40 was another one that made me question the difference between an intermediate and a top of the line. Applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, WhatsApp and Twitch ran very smoothly and without any signs of stuttering or crashes. Opening apps and accessing system resources was also almost instantaneous.
As for the user experience, we’ve been comparing the base Edge with the more powerful Galaxy A for a few years now, and it’s always lagged behind for a few reasons. In this generation, however, the feeling when using the Edge 40 was closer to a top-of-the-line cell phone than the A54, for example, which I consider a great achievement for Motorola.
A detail noticed during the tests was a slight above-average heating on the rear lid and on the screen while running some benchmark tests, mainly AnTuTu 10, something that did not happen with the A54. It wasn’t anything that negatively affected performance, but maybe it could be annoying in long periods of gaming and negatively affect the battery.
For those who enjoy numbers and comparisons, the Edge 40 made a great 737,822 points in AnTuTu 9, just a little behind the top of the line Google Pixel 7 Pro (744,114 points) and way ahead of the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (504,527 points). That is, it is an excellent average for a premium intermediary.
interface and system
Fortunately, what Motorola never changed was My UX, which, on Edge 40, arrives based on Android 13. Visually, Motorola’s interface is very similar to “pure” Android, but just look a little to find a lot of customization options and interesting own features.
For example, in the personalization screen you can easily change the wallpaper, theme, font, icon format, predominant system colors, the Edge Lights and even fingerprint animation.
The traditional gestures of the Moto G line are also present, such as shaking to activate the camera, but we also have the Ready Fora platform that basically turns your cell phone into a computer.
Unfortunately, a downside of the Edge 40 is the promise of only 2 years of Android updates, while the competition delivers between 3 and 4 years. The best example is the aforementioned Galaxy A54 5G, which is less powerful than the Edge 40, but offers 4 generations of Android and 5 years of security updates.
cameras
There are only three cameras on Edge 40: 50 MP main, 13 MP ultrawide/macro and 32 MP front. As it is an intermediary with “flagship experience”, it could well have a telephoto camera, but just excluding the depth sensor and the dedicated lens for macro photos already improves.
The Edge 40’s main camera takes pictures at 12.5 MP, with Quad Pixel, with a very interesting quality. The images have a gain in colors that I like, but the white balance tends to make the results a little more greenish. Post-processing can also overdo the sharpening a bit depending on the scenario.
Portrait mode, on the other hand, has good background cropping and natural blurring. By default, the traditional portrait takes a digital zoom (since it doesn’t have a telephoto camera), so it looks like the image loses a bit of definition in preview. The other option, called “wide-angle (35mm)”, which seems to use the sensor without digital zoom.
The 13 MP ultrawide camera loses quality compared to the main one, but still offers wide dynamic range (HDR) and vivid colors. In the corners, darker information has little definition, but I didn’t notice a lot of distortion, as usually happens in more basic models.
As for night mode, Motorola’s Night Vision remains competent. You can still see that the post-processing exaggerates the sharpness to compensate for the lack of detail, but, in general, the records come out bright and with relatively controlled noise.
As for the 32 MP front camera, don’t expect amazing quality. Post-processing greatly softens expression marks on the face, consequently limiting details. Side by side with the Galaxy A54 5G, the inferiority of the Edge 40 is enormous.
In videos, the Edge 40 can record at up to 4K@60fps with the main camera. The level of detail and dynamic range are very good, and although the stabilization handles more jerky movements, the final footage has slight shakes with each step.
battery and charging
The battery is not the strong point of the Edge 40. In our standard test, which simulates day-to-day use, the Motorola cell phone consumed 45% after six hours of using social networks, instant messaging, games, videos and web browsing . To be fair to all models, we use the screen in automatic mode in a controlled environment.
With the screen on, the Edge 40 stayed about 4 hours of 30 minutes, with the refresh rate fixed at 144 Hz, the maximum allowed by the company. In our database, the smartphone had the highest consumption among the premium and top-of-the-line models, which is not very encouraging.
However, it is always worth mentioning that the battery life of a smartphone depends on many factors, so don’t take our tests too “to the letter”. For example, using the cell phone daily for 1 week, I managed about 1.5 days of moderate use without problems, which, for me, is good.
Regarding the charging capabilities, nothing to complain about. It supports fast charging of 68 W of wired power, in addition to 15 W wireless, a combination worthy of top of the line.
direct competitors
The Edge 40 is positioned as a “mid-range that delivers a flagship experience”, so it stays a bit so it could compete with both the Galaxy A54 5G and the Galaxy S21 FE 5G. However, with its price in the range of R$ 3,999, with a history of not dropping very quickly, it competes with the top of the line.
An example is the Galaxy S23, which can currently be found in the same price range as the Motorola smartphone. I don’t even need to mention that it’s better at everything, until we’re talking about a smartphone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy, 3 spectacular cameras and a promise of 5 years of updates.
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If its price drops below R$ 3,000, you can mention competitors like Poco F5 Pro, which stands out in performance and screen quality, in addition to the price of around R$ 2,500. However, it fails to offer less competent cameras and for not being officially available for sale in Brazil.
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Is the Motorola Edge 40 worth it?
It is very pleasant to see that Motorola has improved the Edge line to the point of making it a great alternative in the Brazilian market, especially against Samsung and its Galaxy A line. The Edge 40 fulfills the manufacturer’s promise to offer a flagship experience in a smartphone intermediary.
However, I believe that an intermediate model should not cost more than BRL 2,500, otherwise it no longer makes sense for the category, and the Edge 40 exceeds this limit with a price of around BRL 3,999. In short, it is an excellent cell phone that is only worth it if it costs less than R$ 3,000.
Unfortunately, however, the Edge line isn’t known for seeing many price drops quickly, so let’s just hope that happens as soon as possible. And you can follow the smartphone price history on Canaltech Offers!
🛒 Motorola Edge 40 offer on Mercado Livre
