Upcoming Motorola phone will give buyers protection never seen from a major manufacturer

Back in the old days when wireless customers would sign two-year contracts in order to have the cost of their new phones subsidized and heavily discounted, many consumers would upgrade their handsets every other year. But once the days of signing a two-year contract came to an end, people started holding on to their phones for longer than two years and today many financing plans offered by carriers run for 36 months.

In addition, Google now offers seven years of Android updates to Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro buyers, and Samsung did the same for those purchasing the Galaxy S24 series. Now all we need are manufacturers willing to extend the length of the warranties they offer on new phones. In the U.S., most Android handsets come with a one-year warranty although in some markets, like the EU, two years is the minimum length of a smartphone warranty.

Looking to break out of the mold, Motorola is offering a four-year warranty on a new model. Per Android Authority, the Moto S50 Neo is a low-end handset that features a one-year warranty and a free three-year extended warranty. This is clearly stated in a teaser Motorola created for the device which was posted on Weibo. That's the good news. The bad news is that the device, and thus the four-year warranty, will be offered in China only although it doesn't mean that we can't hope that in the future the Lenovo subsidiary will offer it in other regions.

The Moto S50 Neo also was certified by China's TENAA and will be unveiled officially on June 25th along with the new Razr 50 and Razr 50 Ultra models. The S50 Neo will be equipped with an FHD+ display with a 1080 x 2400 resolution and under the hood will be an octa-core application processor (AP) with a clock speed of up to 2.3GHz. The rear camera array includes 50MP and 8MP cameras. There is a front-facing 32MP camera (which seems to be the standard on 2024 Motorola handsets) and a 5000mAh battery will keep the lights on.

Now that we are holding on to phones longer than ever, it would make sense for manufacturers to follow Motorola and offer longer warranties to device owners.