Motorola Edge 30 Neo review

Competition

As we said earlier in the review, the Motorola Edge 30 Neo is a rare specimen and there are only a handful of direct competitors in the same price and size category at the same time. The Neo weighs just 155g and carries a compact 6.28-inch display. In addition to its size advantage over the competition, the handset is also a strange mixture of higher-end features and an affordable price tag - just €370. In some markets the phone is offered with Lenovo's Smart Clock 2, making it a tad more lucrative offer than some alternatives. It's quite evident that Motorola was trying to retain some of the premium features of the Edge series, yet we still have to look at the currently available alternatives.

One true competitor to Motorola's contender is the Pixel 6a. It checks all the boxes of a niche product - flagship (sort of) SoC, compact 6.1" screen diagonal, stock Android 13 and flagship-level camera performance. The handset also has a nice build with IP67 rating against water and dust. The display may not be as bright as the Edge 30 Neo’s and charging isn't exactly "fast", but it the Pixel 6a supports HDR and the battery lasts a little longer.

Google Pixel 6a • Samsung Galaxy A53 5G • Xiaomi Poco X4 GT

The Samsung Galaxy A53 is a tad cheaper and follows a similar concept. It has most of the Edge 30 Neo's features, but it's a bigger phone with Samsung's heavy One UI on top, less than ideal chipset and just 4GB of RAM as a standard. You can get it for about €40 less than the Neo, though, and you get longer battery life.

Realme 9 Pro+ • OnePlus Nord 2T • Sony Xperia 10 IV

While the Edge 30 Neo lacks in the chipset department and excels in most other areas, Xiaomi's Poco X4 GT sits on the other end of the spectrum. It doesn't have particularly impressive hardware except for the Dimensity 8100 SoC, which is quite potent in this price range. Charging is fast and battery life is more than decent, but display and overall camera quality fall short of Motorola's offering.

Sony took a similar approach here and tries to stand out in the segment with the Xperia 10 IV and its rare feature set. This phone is also relying on the underwhelming (for the class) Snapdragon 695 SoC, omits HRR on its OLED display and has a single, bottom-firing loudspeaker. On the other hand, Sony's contender is even smaller in size, didn't cut on battery capacity by offering a 5,000 mAh unit, has a telephoto camera, offers proper IP65/IP68 certification and has a microSD card slot in addition to the 128GB standard storage option. Moreover, the Xperia 10 IV asks about €400 and it's running on stock-ish Android, just like the Edge 30 Neo.

And two very similar phones from BBK Electronics might also be a good choice over the Edge 30 Neo - the Realme 9 Pro+ and the OnePlus Nord 2T. Motorola's advantages in design, ultrawide camera, display and software departments remain, but it's hard to deny the Realme 9 Pro+ and Nord 2T's more powerful chipsets, better main camera capabilities and longer-lasting batteries. Both are slightly cheaper, too.

Verdict

The Neo, in particular, impresses with an extremely bright and fast OLED panel, OIS on the main camera, better 13MP ultrawide camera with autofocus, blazing fast 68W fast charging, wireless charging, a set of nice-sounding stereo speakers and a nifty LED strip around the camera used for notifications and other stuff. Of course, some compromises had to be made, so Motorola settled for a Snapdragon 695 SoC. Most of Neo's competitors run on faster chipsets and support 4K video recording. The device's camera capabilities, although not inherently bad, are not particularly impressive, leaving an easy opening for alternatives with better camera performance.

The good news is that the clean, burden-less Android experience doesn't slow down the chipset and operation is quite fluent and trouble-less.

So, if you are willing to make some compromises in terms of raw performance and overall camera performance, the Motorola Edge 30 Neo gives you a whole lot of reasons to like it.

Pros

• Outstanding 120Hz OLED display
• Lightweight and compact body with water-repellent design, LED notification ring.
• Good-sounding stereo speakers.
• Clean and snappy Android experience.
• Blazing fast charging, wireless charging.

Cons

• Phones with better-performing chipsets are available in the price segment.
• The camera Night mode is not very competent, no 4K video recording.