Motorola Edge 50 Neo Review: A Feature-Packed Mid-Range Smartphone

There are a number of smartphones which you can buy below the Rs. 25,000 mark, and most of those handsets supply a very good mixture of show and digital camera efficiency, in addition to battery life. The Moto Edge 50 Neo is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset and is slated to obtain 5 years of OS updates and safety updates. It’s one in all a number of smartphones that compete on this worth phase, such because the Nothing Cellphone 2a, Poco X6 Professional, Vivo T3 Professional, iQOO Z9s Professional, Realme 13 Professional, and the OnePlus Nord CE 4 5G.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is offered in a single 8GB+256GB RAM and storage configuration that’s priced at Rs. 23,999. Nevertheless, the worth of the handset often drops below the Rs. 20,000 mark throughout gross sales on Flipkart or the corporate’s on-line retailer.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Design: Trendy, Simple to Grip

• Dimensions – 154.1 x 71.2 x 8.1mm
• Weight – 171g
• Colors – Grisaille, Latté, Nautical Blue (on this evaluation), and Poinciana

Smartphones with vegan leather-based finishes have gotten extra commonplace as of late, and the Motorola Edge 50 Neo has one too. The telephone additionally has flat edges on all 4 sides, and the result’s a smartphone that’s straightforward to grip, even and not using a cowl. That is a very good factor as a result of the Edge 50 Neo ships with a skinny plastic cowl that was fairly slippery, and I discovered myself utilizing the telephone and not using a cowl.

The feel again panel on the Motorola Edge 50 Neo makes it straightforward to grip

On the again, there is a Motorola batwing brand in the course of the panel, whereas a small part on the backside, manufactured from plastic, comprises the phrases “Pantone Nautical Blue”. That is included on all Motorola smartphones with colourways developed in partnership with Pantone.

Like many of the firm’s smartphones launched lately, the digital camera module is situated on the prime left nook of the rear panel, which suggests it will not lie utterly flat on a desk or related floor, even with the skinny plastic case on. The phrases Dolby Atmos seem in faint letters on the highest edge subsequent to a microphone, whereas the underside edge features a USB Kind-C port, a speaker grille, and a SIM card tray.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Software program: Helpful Options, Pointless Bloatware

• Software program – Whats up UI
• Model – Android 14
• Newest safety patch – September 1, 2024

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo runs on Android 14, and it has the corporate’s Whats up UI, a minimally tweaked model of Google’s Android interface. It additionally contains a number of helpful software program options not discovered on smartphones from different producers, together with Moto Unplugged and Household House. You may as well use Motorola’s wrist-based gestures to launch the digital camera or activate the flashlight.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo recurrently sends out notification spam (faucet to develop)

Sadly, the smartphone additionally provides undesirable software program that’s robotically downloaded as quickly as you arrange the smartphone. These apps are downloaded by way of the MotoHub app, which additionally delivers content material notifications to the smartphone each couple of hours. Whereas it is not unusual to see these annoyances on the extra inexpensive Moto G sequence telephones, it is disappointing that they are additionally seen on the corporate’s Motorola Edge sequence of smartphones.

This is without doubt one of the first handsets from Motorola which are slated to obtain 5 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of safety updates. Whereas Motorola has a barely spotty file in terms of delivering well timed software program updates, it is good to see a long-term dedication to preserving its telephones up-to-date. For instance, the costlier Galaxy A35 will obtain Android OS updates as much as Android 18, whereas the Edge 50 Neo is anticipated to get an replace to Android 19.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Efficiency: Exceeds Expectations

• Processor – MediaTek Dimensity 7300
• Reminiscence – 8GB LPDDR4X
• Storage – 256GB (UFS 2.2)

The corporate has outfitted the Motorola Edge 50 Neo with a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, which is a considerably upgraded model of the Dimensity 7200 by way of efficiency and effectivity. It is simply probably the greatest 4nm chips on this worth phase, and it signifies that Motorola’s smartphone can cope with most duties with none points.

Day-to-day duties, like looking the net, responding to emails, or scrolling by social media, have been simply dealt with by the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, however the handset additionally managed to supply dependable efficiency whereas enjoying titles like Asphalt Legends: Unite on the default graphics settings, which is chosen based mostly in your smartphone’s specs.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo benchmark scores (faucet to develop)

I additionally did not discover any body drops, lag, or throttling whereas testing Name of Responsibility Cell and BGMI on the handset — the latter was operating on HD settings (with Excessive framerate). After about half-hour of gameplay, the perimeters of the telephone have been barely heat, however there was no thermal throttling or stuttering within the sport.

We additionally run artificial benchmark exams on smartphones to see how they fare in opposition to equally priced smartphones, and the Motorola Edge 50 Neo outperformed the Nothing Cellphone 2a in some benchmark exams whereas it fell behind the OnePlus Nord CE 4, which has a extra succesful Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset.

You may check with the desk beneath to see how the Motorola Edge 50 Neo fares in in style benchmark exams in opposition to the OnePlus Nord CE 4 and the Nothing Cellphone 2a.

Motorola has outfitted the Edge 50 Neo with a 6.4-inch pOLED display with a decision of 1,200×2,670 pixels. This show is brilliant sufficient when used indoors and outdoor, and I discovered that it supplied good visibility after I was outdoor within the afternoon. The telephone takes a few seconds to robotically regulate brightness in dim environments.

The show on the Motorola Edge 50 Neo provides good visibility when outdoor

Identical to different smartphones with OLED screens, you may discover that the colors displayed on the Motorola Edge 50 Neo are a bit of too vibrant, however that is simply fastened by deciding on the ‘Pure’ show mode within the Settings app. The telephone’s display refreshes at 120Hz, and scrolling in apps feels very clean. The show will get fairly dim at evening, and I did not expertise any eye pressure whereas utilizing it at nighttime.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Cameras: Strong Performer

• Major digital camera – 50-megapixel, PDAF, OIS, as much as 4K/ 30fps video
• Ultrawide digital camera – 13-megapixel, macro mode, PDAF
• Telephoto digital camera – 10-megapixel, 3x optical zoom, PDAF, OIS
• Selfie digital camera – 32-megapixel, AF, as much as 4K/ 30fps video

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo has a 50-megapixel major digital camera with a Sony LYT-700C sensor that takes glorious daytime photographs. These photographs supply glorious color copy, and there is sufficient element while you zoom in. It focuses in a short time while you level it at totally different topics.

You may as well use the first digital camera to seize photographs at 2x zoom (in-sensor crop), and these photographs are very brilliant and detailed. This mode can be supported when clicking photographs in low-light situations, which makes it the most effective digital camera to make use of at evening.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Digital camera Samples. Prime to backside – Zoom, Daytime (Faucet photographs to develop)

The telephoto digital camera on the Motorola Edge 50 Neo delivers detailed photographs, and there is barely any smoothening or noise while you zoom in. Nevertheless, it produces photographs which are barely duller and fewer vibrant than the first digital camera. It is also much less dependable when there’s not sufficient mild, and I discovered myself utilizing the 2x zoom mode on the first digital camera at evening.

The ultrawide digital camera captures respectable photographs in the course of the day, however colors seem barely cooler than those captured with the first digital camera, however it falls behind in low mild situations. It additionally doubles as a macro digital camera, capturing detailed, brilliant photographs of topics which are a couple of centimetres away.

Not like the Moto G45, which we not too long ago reviewed, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo captures photographs rapidly in the course of the daytime. There is a slight delay when clicking photographs in darker areas, however it’s nonetheless significantly quicker than the corporate’s extra inexpensive telephones. In these conditions, the first digital camera is the most effective at capturing detailed photographs.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Digital camera Samples. Prime to backside – Low Gentle, Night time, Macro (Faucet photographs to develop)

There is a 32-megapixel selfie digital camera situated in a hole-punch show cutout on the Edge 50 Neo, and it captures sharp photographs when there’s sufficient pure mild. There’s fairly a little bit of softening and smoothening while you click on a selfie in the course of the night, and the digital camera takes a few seconds to seize the picture — this contains the time taken to course of the picture.

Each the first rear digital camera and the selfie shooter on the Motorola Edge 50 Neo help video recording at 4K/ 30fps, and the previous additionally helps optical picture stabilisation (OIS). As soon as once more, the first digital camera is the most effective for recording video when there’s not sufficient pure mild — setting it to file video at 1080p decision delivered the most effective ends in my testing.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Battery: Endurance champ

• Battery Capability – 4,310mAh
• Wired Charging: 68W TurboPower (USB Kind-C), 15W (Wi-fi)
• Charger: 68W (included)

The corporate has outfitted the Motorola Edge 50 Neo with a 4,310mAh battery, barely smaller than different equally priced smartphones. Nevertheless, the handset simply delivers greater than at some point of battery life on a single cost, with round 5.5 hours of display on time with some gaming and social media utilization and the remaining 18 hours with the gadget in standby mode.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo delivered greater than a day of battery life on a cost

You get a 68W charger within the field, which fills up the battery in simply over an hour. You may even cost the handset with a Qi-compatible wi-fi charging pad (or a wi-fi energy financial institution) at 15W, however that is significantly slower and takes the handset effectively over two hours for a full cost. Nonetheless, it is good to see wi-fi charging included on a smartphone at this worth level.

We carried out an HD video battery loop take a look at on all smartphone evaluation items, and the Motorola Edge 50 Neo lasted for round 21 hours earlier than it needed to be charged once more. Needless to say this take a look at solely covers native video playback, so battery life could fluctuate based mostly on how the handset is used.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo Evaluation: Verdict

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo provides a wonderful stability between efficiency and worth, and the smartphone’s greatest strengths are the Dimensity 7300 chip and the dependable rear digital camera setup. It additionally helps quick wired charging, together with wi-fi charging — when you want it.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is price contemplating at its present worth

The corporate has additionally promised 5 years of OS and safety updates for the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, which is unprecedented on this worth phase. Nevertheless, the notification spam and undesirable app downloads have been disappointing to see on this handset.

Based mostly on the time I’ve spent with the smartphone, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo provides good worth for cash. Different smartphones on this worth phase embody the Nothing Phone 2a (Review), the OnePlus Nord CE 4 5G (Review), iQOO Z9s Pro (Review), and the Realme 13 Pro 5G .