motorola launched the edge 50 neo, the company’s latest smartphone in the edge 50 series, in India last week. The successor to last year’s edge 40 neo gets a better display, faster processor, better cameras, and it is the first phone from motorola to get 5 OS updates. It retains IP68 ratings and also gets military-grade durability. However, this has a smaller battery. Is this the best
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- motorola edge 50 neo 8GB + 256GB model in Latte colour
- 68W turbo charger
- USB Type-C to Type-C cable
- SIM Ejector tool
- Protective case
- User manual
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the edge 50 neo features a large 6.4-inch 1.5K 120Hz LTPO pOLED screen with a pixel resolution of 2670 x 1200 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 460 PPI, making it one of the best displays you can get in the price range.
The display is bright, since it has up to 3000 nits peak brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good as well. The colours are vibrant as well since it has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
The 1-120Hz LPTO variable refresh rate compared to 144Hz variable refresh rate in the edge 40 neo offers a fluid user experience. It has 360Hz touch sampling rate in gaming mode. It also has HDR+ support, which works for YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video, but not for Netflix. The phone has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
Under the display options there are different options to adjust colours from Natural, Radiant and Vivid colors. There is flicker prevention option in the settings. It doesn’t have notification LED, but there is Always on display.
It has a 32MP camera on the front. The earpiece is on the top edge that works as a secondary speaker.
The phone has minimal bezels at the bottom of the screen.
The phone has a plastic frame, which has a metal look. The volume rockers and the power button on the right side. There is a small vent for water to come out. On the bottom there is a dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and stereo speakers. On the top, there is a secondary microphone, and you can see Dolby Atmos branding. The phone is just 8.1mm.
The phone comes with military-grade durability with MIL-810H standard certification and also has IP68 ratings for dust and water resistance. All the models feature a vegan leather finish. Since the phone has a small screen, it is compact, and weighs just 171 grams.
In addition to Latte, it also comes in Nautical Blue, Grisaille and Poinciana colours. The light colour that we have gets dirty easily, so it is recommended to use the case.
Camera
- 50MP camera with Sony Sensor – LYTIA 700C sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS
- 13MP 120° ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 aperture, macro option
- 10MP with f/2.0 aperture, 3x Telephoto camera, OIS
- 32MP front camera with f/2.4 aperture
The camera UI is familiar with most Motorola smartphones that include a quick toggles between main camera, ultra-wide, telephoto and macro camera on the bottom, quick toggles for flash, timer, aspect ratio, and more.
Other camera features include Night Vision, Portrait, Spot Colour, Panorama, Scan, Dual Capture, Ultra -res, Photo Booth, slow motion, Time lapse and Dual capture.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with good dynamic range, thanks to Quad Pixel technology that gives you get 12.5MP output. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range, and it is recommended to enable auto HDR. Low light camera performance is good, and it gets better with night mode.
The 13MP ultra-wide is decent, and the macro option with the ultra-wide is good as well, since this is an autofocus camera. The edge detection in portrait shots is good as well. The 3x telephoto camera is good as well. Even though the phone offers up to 30x zoom, it is good till 10x zoom, and the quality varies after that. The 32MP front camera does a good job. For the price, the camera performance is good.
Check out the camera samples.
The edge 50 neo offers 4K UHD video recording at 30 fps from all the camera. There is slow motion 120 fps at 1080p and 240 fps at 720p resolution. Stabilization is decent.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 14 with August 2024 security patch. On the top of Android 14, it has Hello UI, which is stock with added moto features. The company has promised 5 years OS updates, and 5 years security updates for the phone for the first time.
As usual, it is stock with added Moto features. There is nothing to mention regarding the software in specific, since it offers stock Android 14 experience with added features. There are gestures such as Quick capture, Fast flashlight, Three-finger screenshot, Sidebar, Double press power key, Press and hold power button.
Apart from the usual set of utility apps, Google apps, there are some apps such as Facebook, and LinkedIn, but you can install them easily. It has 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, out of which 7.43GB of RAM is free. It also has a RAM booster option to add up to 8GB of virtual RAM, and the AI auto RAM boost option is enabled by default. Out of 256GB UFS 2.2 storage, 214.98GB is usable.
Fingerprint sensor
The phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor. It immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger so that you don’t have to press it, and it is obviously faster than the in-display fingerprint scanner. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. The phone also has face unlock, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music Player, and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player. It also has Dolby Atmos. Audio through earphones, is good as well. It has Widevine L1 support, so you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming apps without any issues. HDR works for YouTube and Amazon Prime Video, but doesn’t work with Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with several (n1/2/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/66/77/77) bands. Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, 4G carrier aggregation or 4G+, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.4 and GPS, A-GPS, LTEPP, SUPL, Glonass, Galileo and NFC.
The edge 50 neo’s body SAR is 1.16W/Kg, and the head SAR is at 1.17W/Kg, well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
This is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC that packs 4X Arm Cortex-A78 cores at up to 2.5GHz paired with 4X Arm Cortex-A55 cores. There is MediaTek NPU 655.
The phone packs a 4516mm² vapor chamber, which is 20% larger than the predecessor. It has Arm Mali-G615 GPU and MediaTek HyperEngine for gaming. It can handle graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact, but not in max graphics.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 99% which is good. The temperature increased from 31 to 35 degrees, which is not much. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
The chip is good for the price, but there are Snapdragon 7 Gen 3-powered phones if you spend a bit more, offering slightly better performance.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a smaller 4310mAh (typical) built-in battery compared to 5000mAh in the edge 40 neo. Thanks to the optimization, battery life is decent even with 5G and heavy multimedia use. I got close to 5 hours of screen on time over a day of use mostly on Wi-Fi, and occasional 5G use in 120Hz, which is a decent, but it could have been better.
It has 68W fast charging. It takes about 35 minutes to charge the phone fully using a bundled charger, and 0 to 50% takes just 12 minutes. The phone also has a 15W wireless charging, which the predecessor lacked. There is also reverse wireless charging.
Conclusion
Overall, the motorola edge 50 neo is a worthy successor to last year’s edge 50 neo. This has a stunning 1.5K 120 LTPO display, and has a compact design that others don’t offer. The camera does a good job, and the build quality with military-grade durability and IP68 ratings are good additions.
Even though the SoC upgrade is decent, wish it had a faster SoC for a better gaming experience. The smaller battery is a compromise you have to make for a compact phone.
Alternatives
There is no direct competition if you are looking for a phone that is compact, LTPO panel, military-grade durability and IP68 ratings in the price range, and no one offers 5 OS updates in the range. For performance and battery life, there is OnePlus Nord CE 4 and iQOO Z9s Pro 5G.
Pricing and availability
The motorola edge 50 neo is priced at Rs. 23,999 for the single 8GB + 256GB version. It will be available from Flipkart, motorola India online store and offline stores starting from September 24th. There is Rs. 1000 bank discount / Rs. 1000 exchange bonus.
Pros
- LTPO OLED display is brilliant
- Good build quality, IP68 ratings
- Capable cameras
- Clean UI experience, 5 OS updates
Cons
- Average performance
- Average battery life