Another camera, a more compact body and a flat display: motorola edge 50 neo smartphone review

Motorola’s edge line doesn’t stop developing, selecting better and better solutions for already very good smartphones. With fairly affordable price tags, many of these models offer interesting finishes, more pleasant colors than the standard ones, and generally good performance. This time, the motorola edge 50 neo smartphone has received quite significant upgrades compared to its predecessor. We will analyze how much the changes have affected the gadget in today’s review.

motorola edge 50 neo specifications

Package contents

Most of the usual equipment in the motorola edge 50 neo has remained unchanged: there is the smartphone itself, a power cable, a PIN for accessing the SIM card, and a protective case from the Swiss brand agood company to match the color of the device. The “bundled perfume”, which is already familiar from other products of the company, has not been forgotten either.

But now the box has become thinner due to the loss of the power supply. Turbo Power support, however, remains. But now you will need to either buy a power supply or use an existing one to charge quickly. In general, it’s a fairly expected step, but it doesn’t add to the convenience. 

Design and usability

Frankly speaking, a year ago, the neo version fit better into the edge lineup. This time around, the motorola edge 50 neo has received updates that are confusing. The fact is that the devices of the line have curves on the sides of the displays, and today’s guest of the editorial board has a flat screen. Globally, in some cases, this can be considered a positive change, as not all users like curved displays. But among the other variants of these smartphones, the new “neo” now stands out more.

In addition, the dimensions have also changed. From the previous 159.63×71.99×7.89 mm, the smartphone has shrunk to 154.1×71.2×8.1 mm. Now the gadget is shorter, but also minimally thicker, although its weight has not changed – 171 grams. By modern standards, it has become quite compact, which is hard to miss after using large smartphones. And I don’t want to add a case on top because of this.

Moreover, the back cover is made of vegan leather, which is not slippery and pleasant to the touch. The frame is plastic, mostly matte, but also has glossy edges. At the same time, its shade is slightly different from the “skin”. In our case, we have the Lattè color, but there are also Nautical Blue, Grisaille (gray) and Poinciana (red). And all the shades, against the background of the usual smartphone colors, are still interestingly different from the majority.

Only time (and the user’s own care) will tell how the device will last. Additionally, IP68 water and dust protection will help with this, and the manufacturer also emphasized the passage of MIL-STD-810H tests. That is, after minor falls, the device should continue to work, but this does not guarantee the absence of damage. At the same time, it should be able to cope with temperatures down to -20 to +60°C.

There are no other significant features. Motorola edge 50 neo has a standard layout of all controls, a noticeable camera block that will interfere with balance on a flat surface, and a generally familiar monoblock body shape.

Customers looking for a relatively small, lightweight, and simple body will find it all in the new model. The change in the concept of curved side edges of the display may have made the design noticeably simpler, but it also made some aspects of everyday use easier, as this way there are almost no accidental touches, and it is still more convenient to return to the previous screen in the system with a gesture.

Display

In addition to the sides, there are many other minor changes to the display, but most of them will not affect the user experience. With the reduction of the body, the screen of the Motorola edge 50 neo has also slightly decreased. Now its diagonal is 6.4 inches, not 6.55. The bezels around it are also not dramatically large, especially given the low price of the gadget, where manufacturers often do not care much about such things. The matrix is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, just like last time.

As the diagonal decreased, the refresh rate also decreased – 120 instead of 144 Hz. This is an imperceptible thing for almost all potential users, so there are no complaints about it. And the resolution has increased to 2670×1220 pixels (the aspect ratio remains 20:9), which is an equally imperceptible bonus.

As expected, the smartphone will offer an AMOLED matrix with excellent color reproduction. There are no significant changes or differences in the settings compared to other models. By default, the saturated Vivid color profile is set, which I don’t want to change too much, it’s very good. And you can always adjust the color temperature to your own requirements. And even without that, there are hardly any users who won’t like this screen.

Another positive change is the increase in maximum brightness when playing HDR video up to 3,000 cd/m², which is a pleasant surprise for a smartphone of this price. The backlight will also cope with different lighting conditions without any problems, and automatic brightness control will not cause discomfort. And for dessert, the Always On Display function is back.

Security

When you turn on the motorola edge 50 neo for the first time, you will be prompted to set up the fingerprint scanner. It is located under the display, and it is an optical sensor that can store up to 5 prints. Traditionally, optical sensors are inferior to all others, but I wouldn’t say that there were many delays or malfunctions with this one. Under normal circumstances, there are no problems, except that sometimes you need to move your finger a little bit if the scanner gets confused the first time.

But you can also recognize faces using the front camera. To this you can add the Lift to unlock function. Yes, flagships respond a little faster to such functions, but edge 50 neo also recognizes the owner quite satisfactorily. Although, as always, it is better to combine both methods, because the camera will not be able to “see” the face well in all conditions.

Sound

Like last year, the more affordable model of the lineup has good speakers. The stereo mode is implemented according to the classical scheme, where the earpiece speaker is paired with the main speaker to play music, accompany videos, games, etc. They have enough volume, and the overall quality is quite good for this price. Notifications are also quite difficult to miss, even when the smartphone is in your pocket and the user is on the street.

Conversations will not be a problem either. The microphones do a pretty good job of noise reduction in the city, but really loud sounds can still find their way into a conversation (which is typical of almost every smartphone). The volume of this speaker is also sufficient for conversations in noisy environments.

Performance and software

Motorola edge 50 neo, just like last year, uses an SoC from MTK, but, of course, it is a newer version. And now it is a 4-nanometer MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (4×Cortex-A78, 2.5 GHz; 4×Cortex-A55, 2 GHz) with a Mali-G615 MC2 graphics accelerator. They are accompanied by two memory combinations: 8/256 or 12/512 GB. A portion of the uMCP storage can also be allocated to LPDDR4X RAM.

The new chip hasn’t made any significant changes to the communication capabilities. However, the smartphone was quite well equipped before, and a similar set is still in place: 5G (one physical SIM and an eSIM), Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and several navigation systems.

But the new chip managed to add a few points to the performance tests. In everyday use, it probably won’t be noticeable. However, the smartphone is capable enough for most of the necessary tasks. It’s still not the best option for demanding games, but the gadget is designed for other purposes. And in general, for simple use, this is a really balanced option.

The stability of the smartphone is also sufficient. In the case of a prolonged load, it should retain almost all performance. Again, it is difficult to foresee all potentially popular use cases, but under normal conditions the device behaves perfectly and there were no critical comments on its performance during testing. Even games can leave the case without noticeable heating. 

The manufacturer also did not change the concept of a “pure” operating system. Logically, this time it is Android 14. Of course, with proprietary additions in the form of original Motorola gestures, several organizational applications, and Lenovo’s Smart Connect.

Cameras

Another camera in the main unit is a great addition. This is a telephoto camera, not an additional sensor for depth detection or macro. Relatively inexpensive smartphones can’t often boast of this, so the upgrade is worthwhile. So, the following sensors can now be found at the back:

• wide-angle with a resolution of 50 MP, ƒ/1.8 aperture, PDAF and optical image stabilization;
• 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle module with ƒ/2.2, 120° capture angle and separate Macro Vision mode;
• 10-megapixel telephoto with ƒ/2.0, 3x optical zoom and optical stabilization.

And while the first two sensors seem to have been available last year, the addition of the third one still adds some variability to the smartphone when taking photos and recording videos. Moreover, not every smartphone in this price segment can offer optical zoom, compensating for it with digital crop.

In good lighting conditions, the main sensor still manages to maintain fairly natural color reproduction without dramatic “pulling” of certain shades. Shadows are still minimally affected by post-processing, but also without excessive fanaticism. Therefore, the photos remain of very good quality.

Recording video in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second can be a pleasant surprise with good overall image quality and stabilization. The only thing that can slightly spoil the impression is the noise reduction of the microphones. However, for such a smartphone, the video is really good.

The night mode is difficult only in very dark conditions, but even there it managed to collect a certain amount of residual lighting, and still retain a fairly clear photo. And when the scene involves street lighting, the camera relatively manages to do without giant halos around the lanterns. 

The ultra-wide-angle module has a little more difficulty during the day, because of the different aperture value, so shadows may be darker, as well as certain objects that are less illuminated than others. But such minor flaws can definitely be corrected in the editor, if necessary.

As with the previous sensor, the ultra-wide-angle camera also manages to record a good 4K video at 30 fps. The focus can sometimes be lost, but it quickly recovers. And the motion compensation, although it leaves traces on the video, is still quite reasonable.

But ultra-wide-angle cameras really struggle with night scenes. Here, the detail is lost much more, the focus is worse, and the camera gathers much less light. So in such conditions, you will either have to look for good lighting or use another camera.

Macro mode is a pretty standard story. Give it more light and you can see interesting details on relatively small objects. Although it’s still hard to say how often this is needed.

The new telephoto camera provides high-quality optical zoom. It may not be flagship level, but in its class, it’s definitely one of the best zoom photos among the smartphones we’ve tested.

This camera also records video in 4K at 30 fps. The presence of optical stabilization compensates for movements and ensures smoothness.

And the biggest surprise was that the smartphone does not switch to the main sensor at night, but uses telephoto in all conditions to zoom in. Yes, there are a lot of shortcomings, but given the cost of the smartphone, there’s no point in talking about them. It is better to praise the manufacturer for the very good implementation of telephoto, even in difficult conditions.

The front camera, most likely, also remained last year’s, because the specifications are still the same 32 MP with ƒ/2.4. However, the camera manages to take good selfies both during the day and in artificial light. The programmed face illumination in the evening is not necessarily better. However, the portrait mode is very good.

It doesn’t take long to familiarize yourself with the camera interface. All the necessary modes and sensor changes are at the user’s fingertips. There are a lot of individual modes for those who want to play photographer, and a professional mode with more image customization options.

Battery life

Compared to last year, the motorola edge 50 neo has lost a considerable amount of battery capacity, which is now 4,310 mAh, not 5,000. But the synthetic text showed almost identical to the previous result of 9 hours and 39 minutes. And the battery life is also enough for a fairly normal working day with a browser, social networks, RSS, mail, short camera operation, short calls, etc. In this scenario, I had a little less than 40% left late at night, before the traditional charging of the smartphone until morning.

However, there are some changes. The bundled powerful power supply with this model is no longer available. Without Power Delivery support, even with a more powerful 68-watt unit than the proprietary one, it takes a little more than an hour and a half to fully charge. This is still pretty good. And now the edge 50 neo even has support for 15-watt induction charging, which is still quite an unusual feature in such smartphones.