The Motorola Edge 40 mid-ranger is here and it sounds like a great bang for your buck

Exactly one month ago, Motorola announced its latest flagship phone, the Motorola Edge 40 Pro, which was soon after released in the European and Latin American markets. More recently, the company also announced the Motorola Edge Plus — mostly the same phone as the Edge 40 Pro — for North America.

Now, exactly a month after the Edge 40 Pro announcement, the company is revealing its new upper mid-range phone, the Motorola Edge 40. Motorola has decided to focus everyone's attention mainly on the phone's camera capabilities and its IP68 dust and water protection rating, but let's check this phone out as a whole.

Design and Display

Motorola has really stepped up its game when it comes to its phone's design in the last couple of years. Similarly to some of the company's more recent offerings, the Motorola Edge 40 comes with one of the thinnest bodies in its class, measuring just 7.58mm. Both the back and front are curved, with an aluminum frame around the sides of the phone.

Despite looking undeniably gorgeous with its slim body and curved display, however, this design has a couple of downsides that some users might not like. The sharp edge on the Motorola Edge 40 can prove a bit uncomfortable for some as it can be too sharp. The curved display is also not without its issues, mainly regarding light reflections where the glass starts to bend.



Speaking of the display, it is pOLED and measures 6.55 inches with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. Additional features include a high screen refresh rate of 144Hz with a touch rate of 360Hz (perfect for gaming), as well as support for HDR10+ and the DCI-P3 color space (perfect for streaming content). Throw on top of that a 1200 nits of peak brightness and you've got yourself a well-rounded viewing experience.

As mentioned earlier, the Edge 40 comes with an IP68 certification, which means it is well-protected from sand, dust, and dirt. It also means that the phone is water-resistant enough to be submerged under fresh water and survive for you to continue enjoying it. Just remember that this doesn't mean you can take it in the ocean or sea, or near hot steam, as those conditions would likely prove troublesome.

Performance and Software

Performance-wise, you are getting a MediaTek Dimensity 8020 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The Dimensity 8020 SoC is an overall very capable piece of silicon, despite being built on the 6nm process.

Benchmarks point at about the same level of performance as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 Plus, which is found on phones like the Asus ROG Phone 5s. It is a bit weird that Motorola is offering the phone with only one storage option, though, especially when it does not have the option to expand it via a microSD card.

The Motorola Edge 40 comes with Android 13 straight out of the box but the company has not stated how long it will be getting major OS updates and security patches. The more expensive flagship Edge 40 Pro comes with 3 years of major software updates and 4 years of security patches, so maybe it would be a 2/3 ratio for the mid-ranger.

Camera

As we said earlier, Motorola is focusing a lot on the main camera of the Motorola Edge 40, which comes with a 50MP 1/1.5" sensor with an aperture of f/1.4. This should be a significant upgrade over the Motorola Edge as its wider aperture means it will be able to capture more light, resulting in better image quality, especially when it comes to night photography.

This aperture also allows for a naturally blurred-out background and foreground, making the subject that is being shot pop out more. It also enables the camera to capture photos at faster speeds, which should mean you get more images with accurate focus.

Besides the main camera, the Edge 40 from Motorola also comes with a 13MP ultra-wide shooter, which has an aperture of f/2.2 and a 120° field of view. The ultra-wide can also be utilized to take macro shots, like with many other Motorola phones. As for the front-facing camera that is embedded in the display, it has 32MP with an aperture of f/2.4.

Battery and Charging

The Motorola Edge 40 comes with a 4400mAh battery that can be charged at a maximum of 68W via a charging cable of 15W using wireless charging. Thankfully, Motorola has included a 68W TurboPower charger and a
USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable inside the box — you don't find such powerful chargers just laying around, so props to Motorola here.

Availability and Price

The Motorola Edge 40 will be available for 599.99 euros in three colors: Nebula Green, Lunar Blue, and Eclipse Black. That is 300 euros less than the flagship Motorola Edge 40 Pro. The company says that the 600 euros price is for the 8/256GB memory version of the Edge 40, which implies there might be more RAM/storage combos.