Motorola has announced its new mid-range smartphone contender, the Motorola Edge 40, and it’s looking rather classy.
We found last year’s Motorola Edge 30 to be a refined mid-range option, but the new Motorola Edge 40 looks to be a more distinguished (and pricier) phone in line with the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion. If this means a little more focus and clarity in the sprawling Moto line-up, we’re here for it.
The phone adopts the dual-curved display of the Motorola Edge 40 Pro and the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion. There’s also IP68 dust and waterproof certification, which is an advancement from the IP52 rating of last year’s Edge 30 Fusion.
This is another sleek phone from Motorola, with that dual-curved design wedded to a 7.58mm-thick sandblasted aluminium body. Interestingly, the rear cover is soft-touch vegan leather in the black and green models, and acrylic on the blue, with the latter phone coming in fractionally thinner and lighter, but obviously less plush.
Around front, the 6.55-inch FHD+ pOLED display looks similar to last year’s model. As before, the stand-out spec here is a 144Hz refresh rate, which goes above and beyond the 120Hz standard.
Returning in this year’s model is an OIS-assisted 50MP main camera sensor, this time with an usually wide f/1.4 aperture. Motorola is claiming it’s the widest in any available phone. It should make for improved low light shots, speedier snaps, and plenty of natural bokeh.
It’ll be interesting to see if there are any issues with keeping the whole of a subject in focus, which can be a side effect of these wider apertures. We’ll also need to test whether Motorola’s new camera features: Horizon Lock Stabilisation, Video Portrait and Vlog Mode are worthwhile.
The ultra-wide camera is a 13MP sensor like the Edge 30 Fusion. There’s a 32MP selfie cam, as before.
A 4,400mAh battery might sound slightly small, but it’s actually a big increase on the Edge 30’s 4,020mAh cell, and a match for the Edge 30 Fusion.
Also like the Edge 30 Fusion, you get 68W wired charging support. Last year’s Moto mid-ranger didn’t come with 15W wireless charging, though, unlike the Edge 40.
In terms of performance, the Motorola Edge 40 comes equipped with MediaTek’s Dimensity 8020 chip. This is a brand new chip that we haven’t seen before. It’s backed by 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage, while Android 13 comes pre-installed.
The Motorola Edge 40 is available from today in three colours: Nebula Green, Lunar Blue, and Eclipse Black from Motorola, as well as outlets such as Currys, John Lewis, Vodafone, Three and Amazon. Prices start from £529.99, which is a £30 bump from the Edge 30 Fusion.
