The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is impressive - except for the price

The Edge 50 Neo manages the balancing act between a mid-range and upper-class smartphone. This is thanks to features such as a telephoto camera, IP68 certification and the POLED display. In contrast to its predecessor, the Edge 40 Neo, the camera system is also impressive at night. The long support is also an important selling point. However, at just under 500 francs / euros at release, the price is still a little high.

Beautiful POLED display

In terms of design, Motorola, like every manufacturer since 2007, is not reinventing the wheel. The frame is made of plastic and the back is made of polyurethane. The latter has a good grip. The bulge of the cameras ensures that the smartphone fits even better in my hand. My test device comes in the Pantone colour Poinciana (red). There is also Grisaille (grey), Lattè (beige) and Nautical Blue (blue).

In contrast to its predecessor, the display is flat at the edges. Motorola is thus following the current design trend. The screen takes up over 95 per cent of the front, which is 5 per cent more than the Edge 40 Neo. The fingerprint sensor is located under the display. It always reacts quickly and reliably.

The 6.36-inch POLED display achieves a maximum refresh rate of 120 hertz. The 2670 × 1220 pixels correspond to 460 pixels per inch (ppi). This means the image is razor-sharp. The maximum brightness of 3000 nits only applies to a small image area and for a short time. However, the display is bright enough even in direct sunlight.

Corning Gorilla Glass 3 is used for the protective glass. This is a version that is over ten years old. So Motorola has saved money here. However, the manufacturer has not skimped on IP certification. IP68 is not a matter of course for a mid-range smartphone. This means that the Edge 50 Neo can survive 30 minutes in 1.5 metres of water without damage. However, it must not be damaged and this only applies to fresh water.

Not a racer, but a reliable station wagon

Motorola uses the Dimensity 7300 from MediaTek in the Edge 50 Neo, which was released at the end of May 2024. The system-on-a-chip (SoC) is manufactured in a 4-nanometre process at TSMC. It has four performance cores with a clock speed of up to 2.5 GHz and four efficiency cores with up to 2 GHz. My test device has twelve gigabytes of RAM and 512 gigabytes of internal memory. There is

the device is also available with eight gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage.

The Dimensity 7300 has enough power for everyday use. Apps load quickly, animations are smooth and photos are saved without any noticeable delay. Games such as "TMNT: Shredder's Revenge" also run smoothly. However, you can't set the quality to the maximum for significantly more performance-hungry games such as "Genshin Impact".

In the benchmark results, the Edge 50 Neo ranks in the mid-range segment. The CMF Phone 1 has the same chip as the Motorola device. The differences in the Geekbench benchmarks are also within the variance. It is not clear why the Neo performs significantly better in the PCMark benchmark. It may be due to the fact that PCMark simulates realistic scenarios, while Geekbench is a synthetic benchmark.

The difference between the Geekbench results and the Snapdragon 7s Gen2 in the HMD Skyline is small and the MediaTek again performs significantly better in the PCMark results. The comparison with the Tensor G2 in the Google Pixel 8a is astonishing. The Google smartphone achieves significantly better results in Geekbench. In PCMark, however, the Motorola smartphone is just as clearly ahead. The Dimensity 7300 from MediaTek seems to be able to demonstrate its advantages better in the PCMark benchmark than the chips from other manufacturers.

The battery has a rather small capacity of 4310 mAh. This is also evident in the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test with full display brightness: The Edge 50 Neo lasts a total of 7:51 hours. This is a modest duration compared to other smartphones. However, I don't notice any of this in everyday use: with normal use, the battery lasts me for one and a half to two days.

When charging, the battery draws a maximum of 68 watts. It goes from zero to 100 per cent in about an hour. A suitable power supply unit is not included. If you want to charge the battery wirelessly, this is possible with up to 15 watts.

Good camera system with telephoto

While you had to do without a telephoto camera on the Edge 40 Neo, the Edge 50 Neo now has one - not a matter of course for a mid-range smartphone. The main camera offers 50 megapixels with an aperture of f/1.8 and a 1/1.5-inch sensor. The ultra-wide-angle camera offers 13 megapixels with an aperture of f/2.2 and the telephoto camera has 10 megapixels with f/2.0.

Motorola uses pixel binning for the main camera, which gives the photos a resolution of 12.6 megapixels. This also applies to RAW photos in Pro mode. The full resolution is only utilised by activating Ultra-Res mode.

Colour and contrast

In contrast to smartphones from other manufacturers, the photos of the Edge 50 Neo appear rather pale at first glance. A closer look reveals that the colour reproduction is natural. I welcome this, as I don't like overly strong colours.

The smartphone can also cope with difficult lighting conditions. For example, in a forest with strong backlighting. The system finds a good compromise between the dark and light areas in the image.

Wide angle and zoom

The colour reproduction of the ultra-wide-angle camera is similar to that of the main camera. However, the colours appear somewhat paler. In addition, they appear less detailed and also blurrier.

Thanks to the telephoto camera, the Edge 50 Neo offers a triple optical zoom. With this, the quality is good.

The digital zoom goes up to 30x magnification. But this is useless for photos. At most, you might need it if you want to read something in the distance. Even the 10x zoom is at best something for emergencies.

Macro

The Edge 50 Neo offers a macro mode. In this mode, the focus range is fixed. I therefore have to position the smartphone at the appropriate distance from the object. Animals are difficult, but I was able to capture a berry in the forest. The image quality is absolutely fine.

Night

The camera automatically activates night mode in difficult conditions. It significantly brightens the images from the main camera and sharpens them slightly. Some quality is lost in the process, but this is only noticeable when zooming in or viewing on the large screen.

Portrait

There are four "focal lengths" to choose from in portrait mode. They should correspond to 24, 35, 50 and 85 mm in 35 mm format. In simple conditions, portrait mode separates the subject from the background and blurs it. In more difficult conditions, such as when balancing a cactus on your forehead, which is common in everyday life, it doesn't work quite as well.

Selfies

The front camera delivers selfies with 32 megapixels. Pixel binning is also used here. The photos are 8.1 megapixels by default. An even smaller or full resolution is optionally available in the settings. The sample images are all in the standard resolution. Colour and detail are good in daylight.

When portrait mode is activated, the background is blurred. This also works well with "difficult" hair, even if not perfectly.

A night mode is available for selfies in the dark. As with the other cameras, this does not have to be activated manually, but the Edge 50 Neo activates it automatically in difficult lighting conditions. The quality is okay, but not exhilarating. If you want to send your arch-nemesis an "if-you-could-kill-looks" selfie, it at least fits the style.

Little bloatware and generous updates

The Edge 50 Neo comes with Android 14. Motorola promises five major Android updates and five years of security patches. This means you can expect updates until Android 19. The Edge 40 Neo - and all other devices in the 50 series - will only receive three major Android updates and four years of security patches. So that's a big step forward and the software support is on a par with that of the Samsung Galaxy A35 or A55. Only flagships such as the Galaxy S24 or Pixel 9 are supplied with updates for even longer.

Motorola is adding numerous apps of its own to Android. The "Moto" app, for example, summarises some settings clearly. Fortunately, the small amount of bloatware is quickly uninstalled and doesn't bother me much.