Motorola has recently launched three new devices here in Australia, two of which were foldable devices. The other being a standard candy bar smartphone, the Motorola Edge 40, which the company stated at the time of the launch was stated as presents an ideal fusion of elegance and convenience, showcasing its exceptional photography capabilities through its state-of-the-art camera system alongside a captivating cinematic experience for enhanced entertainment.
So when we got the opportunity to review the Motorola Edge 40, we thought it would be a great chance to see how the device performs in real life and see if it can handle anything we throw at it. So how did the Motorola Edge 40 handle a few weeks on the Ausdroid review test bench?
What’s inside the box?
Motorola, alongside a number of Android manufacturers, has started using plain packaging for their devices to certainly help spruik their going green credentials and the Motorola Edge 40 is well following in these footsteps.
Inside the plain packaging box, you’ll find the actual device, alongside a 1-meter USB-C to USB-C cord, 68W wall charger, a clear hard plastic cover case, a SIM tray ejector tool and the usual manuals and help guide books.
The design
The Motorola Edge 40 is absolutely stunning both in its design but also its simplicity. The front-facing display is a 6.55-inch endless edge pOLED display (2400 x 1080 @ 402ppi), and I like how the display does wrap around the two sides. However, this can be an issue sometimes when holding in one hand as I have accidentally kept the display from opening apps or changing the display screen, but this is a minor issue.
The front display also houses the under-screen fingerprint sensor located near the bottom middle of the display whilst the 32MP front-facing selfie camera — now a hole punch — is in the middle top of the display and it very much reminds me of the Samsung hole punch we have now become used to with those smartphones.
The sides of the Motorola Edge 40 are made of aluminium steel, and I like the combination of the glass and metal alongside the rear leather, which I will go into further down. On the right-hand side of the Edge 40 houses the volume rocker and standby/power button right under the volume rockers.
The bottom of the Motorola Edge 40 houses the SIM tray on the left-hand side, with the USB-C charge port in the middle. A microphone is located between the charger port and the external speaker grills located on the right-hand side whilst the top of the Motorola Edge 40 has another microphone port hole to the right-hand side.
Flipping the Motorola Edge 40 is made from vegan leather, and the colour that Motorola has sent us is the Viva Magenta and comes from its partnership with Pantone and is the colour of the year each year the company allocates for and it just looks stunning.
On the right side of the Motorola Edge 40 is the camera housing which comes out about 1mm, with the lenses coming out an extra 1mm or so on top of the housing. The rear camera setup is a 50MP main camera sensor paired with a 13MP Ultrawide angle lens. Next to the camera lens is the dual LED flashlight, although one only works at the flashlight when using the flashlight torch mode and I have to say it’s very bright.
The middle rear of the Motorola Edge 40 houses the usual Motorola batwing symbol and then towards the bottom middle is the Pantone Viva Magenta logo.
Lights, camera, action!
The Motorola Edge 40, as described above, comes with a dual rear camera setup made up of a 50MP main camera sensor paired with a 13MP Ultrawide angle lens. There is also a dual flash setup near the camera lenses.
The camera software includes slow motion, video, photo, portrait, and pro, as well as — under the more tab — panorama, dual capture, dual capture video, night vision, scan, spot colour, spot colour video, ultra res and timelapse.
The pictures taken with the rear camera set up show that the device is able to ensure pictures are true to life in terms of detail and colour and it certainly does punch above its weight. Even the night shot pics are able to pick up details that sometimes even my Galaxy S22 ultra can struggle with at times.
The front camera is a 32MP camera lens and the camera itself is great but I did notice a couple of things relating to the portrait mode. I found it would either do a fair bit of overexposure and too much smoothing around the edges which is fine for Instagram, but for real life a little annoying to be honest.
Software and performance
The Motorola Edge 40 comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 8020 processor chipset, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of onboard storage powering the device under the hood.
This combination allows for a smooth experience and handles graphic intensive games, albeit with some clarity and small amounts of pixelation showing, but only minor. It was able to go between social media apps, YouTube, Netflix and other apps and services without stuttering or slowing down. Though I did notice, depending on the game or video that the device can get a little warm.
The only issue with the storage is the inability to expand it beyond the included 256GB via MicroSD card, so you will need to have some sort of cloud storage to back up photos and device files too.
The Motorola Edge 40 runs the latest version of Android 13 right out of the box, and there was one security update that came through when the device was started. There is also Motorola´s own My UX which is layered over the top of the top of Android 13 and to be honest it doesn´t way down or slow down the device.
The Motorola Edge 40 also comes with Bluetooth 5.2, which was great at instantly connecting with my Bluetooth earbuds which you will need as the device doesn´t come with a 3.5mm audio jack, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/2.4 GHz | 5 GHz/Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi hotspot which the internet connectivity was strong and able to connect to our home Wi-Fi network without any hassles,
Motorola guarantees two years of Android software updates alongside three years of security patches, which is not bad given this is not a high-end device, more an above mid-range device and should be able to last and handle three years before possibly needing to upgrade the device.
There are also 5G capabilities on this device, but this can depend if you’re in a good 5G coverage which sadly my area is not at this moment, but 4G speeds were pretty much consistent, to say the least.
Battery life
The Motorola Edge 40 comes with a 4400mAh battery and supports the supplied 68W TurboCharge charger wall brick. The TurboCharge charger enables the Motorola Edge 40 to charge the device in about 30 minutes from 40% to 100%, and there is the ability to wireless charge the device at 15W though I rarely use wireless charging these days, to be honest.
In terms of battery life, I found the battery was able to last a full day between taking it off charge at about 7 am and not returning home till anywhere between 7 pm and 8 pm, I was still able to have anywhere between 30-60% depending on the usage throughout the day.
If I were to use the device heavily, there were a couple of times the charge did get down towards about 20% in the evening as I returned home, but with some medium usage, it would lead to slightly longer battery life anywhere between 30-50%.
Mileage will vary, but ultimately; if you’re constantly playing games and checking social media then you might want to take the 68W TurboCharge wall brick and cable with you just in case.
Should you consider buying one?
There is a lot to like with the Motorola Edge 40 from both a design perspective to the overall user experience.
Yes, the camera is not as great as something like the Galaxy S23 or the Google Pixel 7/7 Pro. Despite this, it still offers some great photos without the heavy price tag. A particular highlight is the great and consistent battery life is great and the user experience is near flawless.
I love the vegan leather backing, although I do wonder how the durability would be within 3 years but if you use the included hard plastic clear cover, then I can see this being an issue but if you don’t then I think the leather may not wear well over say 2-3 years.
So the answer would be yes to recommending the Motorola Edge 40 if you need a great device without spending a massive amount of money.
The Motorola Edge 40 can be purchased from either the Motorola Website, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Domayne and MobileCiti for $699.
