Motorola is on a roll, having now announced the Motorola Edge 40 smartphone on the back of the Motorola Edge+ (2023) and the Motorola Edge 40 Pro.
Don’t bother looking into Motorola’s naming style too deeply, though, as all you need to know is the Edge 40 series is for the U.K. and various other regions, while the Edge+ (2023) is for the U.S. It means the Edge 40 seen here may arrive at a later date in the U.S., but be called something else.
Made of aluminum and with a vegan leather rear panel, the Edge 40 is just under 8mm thick and has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, so it should prove relatively hardwearing. The screen is a 6.55-inch pOLED with a Full HD+ resolution, making it a little smaller than the other two recent Edge models, and the refresh rate has dropped to 144Hz rather than 165Hz, but you almost certainly won’t notice the change in the real world.
Interestingly, Motorola has chosen MediaTek to power the Edge 40, and it’s the first time we’ve seen the Dimensity 8020 in a smartphone. The octa-core, 2.6GHz chip is accompanied by 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space, and it runs Android 13 with all the usual Motorola additions. These include the Ready For software to connect to a PC, and Motorola’s ThinkSheild security platform, just like on the Motorola ThinkPhone. And that’s not where the similarities end between these two Moto phones.
On the back of the Edge 40 is a 50-megapixel main camera, which is likely the same one fitted to the Edge 40 Pro, the Edge+ (2023), and the Motorola ThinkPhone too. It comes with a 13MP wide-angle camera with a macro mode, and on the front is a 32MP selfie camera. This setup is just like the ThinkPhone, and you can see what we thought of it in our ThinkPhone review.
Finally, all this is kept powered up by a 4,400mAh battery that’s recharged using Motorola’s proprietary 68W TurboPower fast charging system (or with 15W wireless charging). While the charging system is the same as the Edge+ (2023) and the ThinkPhone, the battery has a smaller capacity which may see it struggle to last a couple of days if pushed hard.
Motorola will release the Edge 40 in the U.K. for 530 British pounds, which is around $666, through its own online store and several retailers — including Currys and John Lewis, along with Vodafone and Three.
The price sees it undercut the OnePlus 11 and the Google Pixel 7, meaning it’s going to compete with phones like the Samsung Galaxy A54.
