Motorola's latest flagship is here and boy, it's packing heat (the good kind) thanks to the excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, the ability to fully charge in just 23 minutes, a triple rear camera setup, and an FHD+ pOLED quad-curved display with 165Hz refresh rate. All for the rather accessible price of €899/£799 (~$999), which kinda seems like Motorola is gunning after OnePlus.
Sporting curved edges on every side to present an almost borderless display, the Edge 40 Pro sports an anti-glare glass panel and a front display protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus. The pOLED display is 6.67-inches big with an FHD+ resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and a 20:9 aspect ratio.
As one might expect from a flagship smartphone in 2023, the Edge 40 Pro is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset which is bolstered by 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. There's a choice of 256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0 storage although there's no support for MicroSD cards.
The square camera housing on the rear consists of a 50MP primary lens with OIS and instant all-pixel focus which provides 32x more focusing pixels than traditional PDAF. The 50MP ultra-wide lens sports a 114° FoV, and finally, there's a 12MP telephoto/portrait lens capable of 2x optical zoom and close-up shots.
The front camera has a whopping 60 megapixels and uses Snapdragon's Cognitive Image Signal Processor to ensure elements such as the sky, buildings, landscapes, and skin tones are optimized for greater color accuracy.
Motorola's Edge 40 Pro packs in a 4,600mAh battery which is a little less than the similarly priced OnePlus 11 5G, but it does support 10W wireless charging and benefits from 125W TurboPower wired charging which can achieve 80% capacity in just 23 minutes. 5W Reverse Wireless Charging is also present which means you can charge up your compatible earbud charging cases when out and about.
You'll be glad to note that the Edge 40 Pro is IP68 certified against water and dust, so there's no need to worry about dropping your phone in water. Accompanying its dual stereo speakers is the debut of Motorola's Moto Spatial Sound which helps make the sound from the speakers (or headphones) feel more immersive.
The Motorola Edge 40 Pro runs Android 13 out of the box and includes a number of security features:
- ThinkShield: Helps keep the phone protected at every level against malware and phishing
- Moto Secure: The go-to privacy and security hub where you can check the protection across Android and Motorola Apps and Settings
- Family Space: Gives users the ability to create a ‘safe space' on the device where kids can learn and play, with screentime limits and controlling which apps are accessible
The Edge 40 Pro is launching in the UK and Europe first for €899/£799 in Interstellar Black and Lunar Blue colorways.
As for US availability, Motorola stated the following:
“Today, Motorola is also excited to share its commitment to expand the Edge family in North America this year.“
It's not exactly a promise that the Edge 40 Pro will definitely launch in the US but it does imply that something with Edge branding is on the way. Hopefully, it will be the Edge 40 Pro or something of a similar nature.
What are your thoughts on the Edge 40 Pro? Personally, it feels like Motorola may well have a hit on its hands, especially if it brings the Edge 40 Pro to the US in a timely fashion.
Without expandable storage it won’t be a flagship killer
In the US it would cause none of our flagships or midtier offer expandable storage.
My Moto G Stylus 5G 256gb has a 1TB sdcard in it with 500gb of mp3s! Why doesn’t this so called flagship killer only have nonexpendable 64gb?
It’s got a choice of 256GB or 512GB storage.