Motorola Edge 40 Pro review

MOTOROLA EDGE 40 PRO REVIEW

Motorola Edge 40 Pro review: A top-of-the-line smartphone that boasts some impressive features. With a sleek design and revamped components, this high-end device is a definite upgrade from last year’s Edge 30 Pro, aligning itself more with the ultra model category.

 

DISPLAY AND DESIGN FINISH:

One of the standout features of the Edge 40 Pro is its 165 Hertz OLED display, which offers an exceptional viewing experience. In addition, the phone is IP68 waterproof, comes with telephoto zoom, and has 125-watt fast charging capabilities, all powered by the latest flagship chipset.

The phone’s design is also impressive, with curved glass on both the front and back of the device, seamlessly blending into the top and bottom bezels. The front and back panels are also protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, adding an extra layer of durability to this premium device. Could this be the next big thing in high-end smartphones?

The rear of the phone boasts a frosted finish that shimmers in the light and resists fingerprints, while the slim aluminum frame keeps everything securely in place. Although Moto phones are renowned for their splash-proofing capabilities, the Edge 40 Pro takes it a step further with a robust IP68 rating for ingress protection.

The phone’s display is an OLED screen measuring 6.67 inches, with a curved design, 1080p resolution, and an impressive 165Hz refresh rate. This refresh rate surpasses the 144Hz rate found on earlier Moto models, resulting in even smoother swiping and scrolling. Note that while the refresh rate is fixed at 165Hz, it can be reduced to conserve energy in auto mode, but it won’t go below 120Hz.

As expected, the display on the Edge 40 Pro is impressive. It boasts sharp, contrasty visuals with support for both HDR 10 plus and Dolby Vision, and the color accuracy can be adjusted through the settings. The maximum brightness is also noteworthy, reaching 520 nits with the manual slider and an impressive 1050 nits in auto mode, making it easily visible even in bright sunlight.

STORAGE, AUDIO, AND CUSTOMIZATIONS:

To unlock the phone, there’s an under-display fingerprint reader that responds quickly, although some users may find the placement a bit low. As for audio, the phone features a pair of stereo speakers that deliver excellent loudness, but the sound quality itself is mediocre, with a strong emphasis on vocals and mid-range frequencies.

The Edge 40 Pro is available in 256GB or 512GB storage options, but unfortunately, it doesn’t support expandable storage via MicroSD. The phone’s interface is close to stock Android 13 with some Moto customizations on top.

These customizations, found in the Moto app, include options for customization, gestures, the peak display, and a game time utility. The phone also supports Moto’s Ready 4, which enables users to connect the phone to a TV or monitor for a larger screen or even a desktop-like experience. Furthermore, the Edge 40 Pro has plenty of software support, with three years of OS upgrades and four years of security patches.

Powering the phone is Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This chipset provides better performance and efficiency than the previous generation, as well as support for advanced memory technology like LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0.

 

BATTERY AND BENCHMARKS:

The Edge 40 Pro delivers top-notch CPU and graphics performance, making it perfect for heavy gaming and multitasking. The phone also boasts excellent thermal management, with performance remaining stable even during prolonged stress tests.

The phone’s battery capacity is 4,600mAh, which is slightly less than last year’s Edge 30 Pro. However, the Edge 40 Pro still manages to achieve an impressive endurance rating of 117 hours. Additionally, the phone supports 125-watt charging, and the charger comes in the box. Charging the phone from zero to full takes just 23 minutes, making it super speedy. The Edge 40 Pro can also be charged wirelessly and supports reverse wireless charging.

 

CAMERA SPECS AND CAPTURING:

You can’t make a perfect Motorola Edge 40 Pro review without digging into some of its cameras’ specs, and capabilities as well as how they perform in different situations. Let’s start with normal capturing.

Capturing: The Edge 40 Pro retains the 50-megapixel main camera and 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera from the Edge 30 Pro but adds a 12-megapixel 2x telephoto camera from the Edge 30 Ultra. The main camera outputs 12.5-megapixel photos using pixel binning, which is generally good with high contrast, saturated colors, and plenty of detail.

However, there are some issues such as a greenish-white balance, overly dark shadows, and artificial-looking fine details like foliage. Portraits can be taken with either the main or zoom camera, but the subject detail is somewhat lacking at any zoom level.

The regular 2x zoomed photos from the telephoto camera are just okay and heavily processed with high contrast. The ultrawide camera’s photos are also just average with applied sharpening and visible noise in areas like the sky. However, the ultrawide camera does have autofocus for decent macro close-ups.

In low light conditions, night mode processing is automatically applied to the main camera’s photos, resulting in good color saturation, plenty of detail, and a wide dynamic range with well-developed shadows and highlights. The front-facing camera uses pixel binning to output 15-megapixel selfies with excellent detail, pleasant colors, and a wide dynamic range, though the white balance can be off in some scenes.

Video recording: The main camera can record up to 8K resolution at 30fps, producing detailed clips with nice colors and good dynamic range. The 4K clips from the main camera also have good detail and handle highlights well. However, the zoom camera’s 4K footage is a bit muddy in detail rendering, while colors and dynamic range are on point.

The ultrawide camera’s 4K clips are good with enough detail, sharpness, and nice colors. Notably, the ultra-wide 60fps footage is even sharper and more detailed. In low light, the main camera’s videos are usable but not great, with good exposure and shadow development, but plenty of noise.

The telephoto camera’s results are similar, while the ultra-wide camera’s nighttime footage is the least appealing with softer, noisier, and more muted colors.

We would like to finish this Motorola Edge 40 Pro review by mentioning that this flagship boasts standout features such as a 165Hz display, great battery life, fast charging, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and long-term software support. Although some aspects of the camera quality fall short of the flagship price tag, this device is still worth considering, especially if cameras are not your top priority. If you’re interested in exploring alternatives to the Moto Edge 40 Pro, OnePlus 11 and Google Pixel 7 Pro would be a pretty solid choices too. Check out the latest price of Moto Edge 40 Pro Here>>.

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Daven Klarsen is a technology writer and researcher. He's also an avid sports fan, especially when it comes to the LAL. When not working, you can usually find him tweaking his Android devices or watching soccer news.