Review about Motorola Edge 40 Pro. A few years ago, Motorola lost its reputation for premium smartphones, but in recent months, the business—now owned by Lenovo, the largest computer manufacturer in China—has made a strong comeback. Review about Motorola Edge 40.
The Motorola Edge 40 Pro maintains its pattern. The £799 phone is a true flagship that can compete head-to-head with high-end handsets from Samsung, Apple, and other manufacturers, and it is more similar to last year’s Edge 30 Ultra in terms of specs and pricing than to its Pro predecessor.
Review about Motorola Edge 40 Pro:
This might be a particularly attractive alternative for gamers on the run who don’t love the aesthetic of actual gaming phones but don’t want to skimp on specs thanks to a super-fast 165Hz refresh rate display and the most recent Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU. Review about Motorola Edge 40.
Design & build:
- Sleek, minimalist design
- Gorilla Glass Victus
- IP68 rating
During the past year or so, Motorola has developed a consistent, if straightforward, design language and the Edge 40 Pro stays quite close to it.
This sleek piece of curved glass is available in black or blue. Although it weighs 199g and is only 8.6mm thick, there are lighter and more compact flagships available if that is your top requirement.
This subtle design features a little “M” logo and a small camera module on the back, is perfect for people who don’t require their phone to be stylish or deliberately prefer a professional feel. Review about Motorola Edge 40.
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With Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back, the matt glass feels smooth and satiny to the touch and should be durable enough to withstand drops and prevent scratches. It’s not indestructible, of course — in the week I’ve had the phone, I’ve already picked up one scratch — and you might want to buy a screen protector because, strangely, there isn’t one in the package (though a simple transparent protective case is).
Another practical selling point is that Motorola has invested in an IP68 classification, which confirms that the phone should be impervious to both water and dust.
Screen & speakers:
- Unusually fast 165Hz refresh rate
- 6.67in quad-curved OLED display
- Muted colors
One of the Edge 40 Pro’s main selling points and, on paper, its best feature, the display may not actually matter to most users.
Both the Full HD+ resolution and the peak brightness of 1300 nits are neither very high resolutions nor about to break any records. But with a 165Hz refresh rate, this display is faster than many gaming phones and the fastest you’ll find outside of one.
As long as the content can keep up, the Edge 40 Pro can support rapid frame rates and silky-smooth animations. But I’ll be honest: if you’re not a gamer, you probably won’t notice the difference between this and the 120Hz displays found in other flagships. Even if you are a gamer, not many mobile games run quickly enough to benefit from the display specifications. Review about Motorola Edge 40.
The software side of the display is really what gives me the most trouble. Beyond this “Natural” color profile, the only other choice is an aggressive “Saturated” palette that goes too far in the opposite direction. Out of the box, I found the colors to be strangely muted and bland. Both appear to be off, and I wish Motorola’s extra options were given to consumers so they could customize the interface to their liking.
I will conclude by saying that I adore the glass’s quadruple curve. The top and bottom have a more subdued look to match the sharper left and right curves. Overall, the result is a phone without a sharp edge that feels smooth, looks wonderful and is always comfortable to hold and swipe on.
A quick word about audio, too: the phone has stereo speakers that are enhanced by Dolby Atmos. These are among the better phone speakers I’ve recently tested at full volume, if a little thin and tinny and punchy.
Specs & performance:
- Top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip
- 12GB RAM and lots of storage
The motorola edge 40 pro is outfitted by Motorola with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip from Qualcomm. As it is currently the most potent chip available for an Android phone, it is safe to say that the device is quite capable.
My UK review device, has 256GB of storage and a generous default allowance of 12GB RAM, however, in some areas, it will come with 512GB instead.
The pedigree is shown in benchmark performances. The phone scores well on the CPU-intensive Geekbench 5 test, but oddly trails other 8 Gen 2 devices like the OnePlus 11 and Samsung Galaxy S23 by a little margin (which admittedly benefits from some exclusive overclocking). Review about Motorola Edge 40.
However, this gap disappears in the graphics-based GFXBench tests, and the Edge 40 Pro actually outperforms its competitors in its capacity to drive extremely high frame rates in less strenuous tests – the benefit of that 165Hz screen.
Aside from the fundamental specifications, you can anticipate 5G support, Bluetooth 5.3, and Wi-Fi 6E, which includes support for the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 standard. NFC is also used for contactless payments, although it’s important to note that I’ve found the NFC recognition to be a little shaky and that it once completely failed for me.
Biometric features include a rather quick fingerprint sensor integrated into the screen itself as well as a face unlock option using the standard selfie camera.
Camera & video:
- Triple rear camera
- 2x telephoto, but no long zoom
- Super high-res 60Mp selfie
The camera arrangement of the Edge 40 Pro is decent but not the best on the market.
Start at the back. Three cameras are included here: a 50Mp primary camera, a 12Mp telephoto, and a 50Mp ultrawide.
Despite having the same resolution as the ultrawide lens and optical image stabilization (OIS), the main camera uses a different sensor, though Motorola hasn’t specified which one.
Overall, the results are outstanding, with fine clarity and vibrant colors—though they might be a little too saturated. Even though the low-light photos aren’t terrible, a Google, Samsung, or Apple phone would be a better investment at this price.
The quality of the ultrawide gives a very tiny reduction, but not significantly. Only in the fine details and the dark areas will you notice the ultrawide lens falling short. Colors are set pleasingly similar to the main camera, and in good lighting, the lenses are a close match. The results from using this lens as a macro camera are passable but not spectacular.
The telephoto lens comes next. This camera shoots with a 2x magnification and has a much lesser resolution of 12Mp than the others. That implies that this lens offers a comfortable frame for portraits and other comparable photos rather than being geared for highly close-up shots of distant buildings.
The telephoto lens slightly washes out the colors, and the pictures occasionally have a smeary softness. It’s not a poor camera by any means, and it’s adequate for Instagram, but you can find better elsewhere once more.
In fact, the selfie camera is what most strongly favors the Edge 40 Pro over competing devices. With its 60Mp front-facing camera, which has extraordinarily high clarity, you can take really beautiful pictures with either the default settings or the Portrait mode.
Software & updates:
- Clean and simple Android skin
- A few pre-installed bits of bloatware
- Three major OS updates promised
The Edge 40 Pro ships with Android 13, the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system.
In comparison to other manufacturers, Motorola runs a version of Android that is comparatively minimally adorned.
The majority of those upgrades are nice, like the dynamic notification indicators on the always-on display or the long-standing selection of deft gesture controls provided by the firm (among the few out there that really are worth using).
There are disadvantages. The OS can occasionally be oddly rigid, like when there is no option for more than four app columns on the home page. Moreover, bloatware is on the rise, with a variety of unwanted Motorola apps and even a spammy-looking game called Word Trip pre-installed.
Motorola at least delivered on its pledge to support software. According to reports, the Edge 40 Pro will get four years’ worth of security upgrades along with three significant OS updates, or Android 14, 15, and 16. Although there is still less support available than what Samsung and some of its competitors claim, you may still use the phone with confidence for a few years.
Price & availability:
The Edge 40 Pro is available right now for £799/€899 in the UK and Europe. There are currently no known plans for a US launch.
You can get it directly from Motorola or via Amazon in the UK. Which networks, if any, will range it is currently unknown.
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The Pro is certainly in flagship territory at that price. It costs more than the Edge 30 Pro from a year ago and is actually more comparable to the Edge 30 Ultra ($749/£749).
The basic Samsung Galaxy S23 and iPhone 14, the OnePlus 11, and the Google Pixel 7 Pro are close competitors. The Motorola outperforms them all in terms of display specifications and fast charging, but, realistically, it falls short of them all in terms of photography ability.
For more comparisons, visit our complete list of the best smartphones and top Android smartphones, or our specialized guide to the best Motorola smartphones to see how it compares to the other models from the company.
Specs:
- 6.7in, FHD+, 165Hz pOLED display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- 12GB RAM
- 256/512GB storage
- 4600mAh battery
- 125W wired charging
- 15W wireless charging
- Cameras
- Gorilla Glass Victus
- IP68
- 161.2 x 74 x 8.6mm
- 199g
- Android 13
