Motorola Edge 40 Neo review

Moto-modded stock-ish look, 'Ready For' on board

Just like the rest of the Edge 40 bunch, the Neo comes with a nearly AOSP-looking version of Android (13, in this case), touched up and enhanced with some Motorola features and functionality. The Neo also gets the same update treatment as the Edge 40 proper, meaning 2 OS upgrades and security updates for 3 years - contrast that to the Pro's 3 OS releases and 4 years of patches.

One thing that readily sets apart AOSP (or Pixel) versions of Android, and in turn Motorola's, from essentially all manufacturers' overlays is the Quick Settings and notification shade. That means big and bubbly buttons, of which you only get four on the first pull, up to 8 on the second, and a full-screen notification shade.

Widgets are another thing some makers like to take their own path, but Motorola sticks with Android's interface, introduced with v.12 and carried over for another OS version. The widget picker offers responsive previews for differently-sized widgets. The API supports dynamic coloring by tying into the Material You theming engine, allowing the widgets to adapt to the wallpaper.

Quick settings • Notification shade • Widgets

The Material You auto-theming feature is here too, though it's masked behind a slightly customized Moto-specific theming interface. You can still get wallpaper-based accent colors, which will apply to Google apps and the settings menu.

Personalization

As is usually the case, Motorola has added a handful of useful extras to what would otherwise be a barebones Android experience. They are all placed in a Moto settings app that lists them in categories. The Moto app itself has a new fresh look this year.

Moto app

The first category is personalization - that's where the OS-native auto-theming is housed on Moto phones. There is also a wide selection of Moto wallpapers in addition to Google's own, plus the option to leverage AI to create your own from the photos in your gallery.

Then come the gestures. By now, you must have seen Moto's karate chop motion that turns on and off the flashlight and the twisting motion that launches the camera app. Both work even when the device is locked.

The lift-to-unlock gesture works well with the face unlock, as it unlocks the device as soon as you pick it up and look at the screen. A swipe-to-split function is available, too - it triggers split-screen multitasking. You can also double-tap the back of the phone to do a custom action.

Gestures

The display-related features are now limited to Attentive Display and Edge Lights - the always-on-display-like Peek Display is now gone. Attentive Display disables the screen timeout as long as there's a face looking at the screen, while Edge Lights acts as an alternative to a notification LED.

Display

Then there's the Play section. Here, you'll find the Gametime utility, which offers the usual functionality of such tools like call and notification blocking and screen recording. Additionally, there are optional shortcuts for media playback when the screen is locked using the volume keys and a Dolby Atmos sound enhancement utility.

Play

With recent versions, Google has been investing heavily in the privacy and security aspects of Android. This includes things like the Privacy dashboard, which offers a unified view of what permission is being used by what app and when.

There are also the camera and microphone indicators in the top right corner of the screen for an immediate clue that you're being watched/listened to, but also the quick toggles to limit access to those altogether. There is also the option to determine whether an app gets your precise coordinates or an approximate location.

Secure folder is a vault to keep your sensitive apps and files. There are a few interesting network protection options on board, like the ability to block certain apps from accessing the network while you are connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot.

Other interesting security features include the ability to lock your network and security settings for as long as your screen is locked. Also, the ability to scramble your pin input interface for higher security. You can access all of these security and privacy settings through a separate Moto Secure app shortcut as well.

Security and privacy

Motorola's 'Ready For' platform (now more often styled with capitalized words, though not with any significant consistency), introduced in 2021 and available on high-end Motos like this one, enables a multitude of use cases that put the phone in the center of a big-screen experience.

'Ready For'

You can use 'Ready For' on a Windows-based PC - it runs within a window on your desktop. This is helpful when you want to run an Android app from your computer or multi-task between devices on just one screen. Alternatively, you can pair the Neo with an Android tablet. There's no option to connect the phone to just a standalone monitor though, so it's somewhat limited in its usefulness.

If you don't have a mouse and/or keyboard handy, the phone's screen can be used as a trackpad and/or keyboard.

'Ready For' on a Windows PC

Another use case of 'Ready For' on a Windows PC is for video calls, where you can use the phone's camera to capture yourself and an external display to see the other participants.

Performance and benchmarks

The Edge 40 Neo's using the Dimensity 7030 chipset - a mid-tier Mediatek design with 5G connectivity. While it's the first time we encounter that specific SoC, it's CPU and GPU aren't all that unique. The octa-core processor is in a 2+6 configuration, the two powerful Cortex-A78 cores clocked at up to 2.5GHz, while the six Cortex-A55 max out at 2.0GHz. The Mali-G610 MC3 GPU is a three-core version of the same design found in a quad-core setup on the Dimensity 7200 (vivo V27, for example) or 6-core config in the Dimensity 8100 and its derivatives. Still, as a whole package the Dimensity 7030 is a first for us.

The Edge 40 Neo exists in two memory configurations - a base 8GB/128GB version and our review unit's 12/256GB spec.

The Edge 40 Neo puts out solid numbers in GeekBench, where it outperforms the Realme 11 Pro (D7050) and the Redmi Note 12 Pro (D1080), though the Galaxy A34 (another D1080) is essentially on par with the Neo. The Galaxy A54, on the other hand, shows that the Exynos 1380 is a bit better under multi-threaded CPU loads.

Over in Antutu, the distribution of power is somewhat different. The D7050-powered Realme 11 Pro and Oppo Reno10 have an edge in the benchmark's latest version, with the Realme also maintaining an advantage in Antutu 9, where the Reno stumbles down the chart. The Galaxy A54 is essentially on par with the Edge 40 Neo, but the A34 doesn't quite keep up.

In onscreen graphics tests in GFXBench, it's only the Galaxy A54 that's a match for the Neo's fps numbers, even taking a small lead in the lighter tests - the scores of other potential competitors are lower.

Taking the display resolution out of the equation in the offscreen tests makes little difference since all phones in this class are more or less the same resolution - a flavor of 1080p.

In 3DMark, on the other hand, the Moto surrenders to the Galaxy A54, which beats it by a not insignificant margin - 10 to 15%. Then again, the Edge 40 Neo is still better than its other rivals - in turn by about 10%.

Sustained performance is rather good on the Moto Edge 40 Neo. In the 20-minute Wild Life stress test in 3DMark there was virtually no drop in the test scores. The CPU throttling test, on the other hand, saw the Neo drop to a level of just above 80% of its initial result around 8 minutes into the test, a level which it would maintain for the remainder of the one-hour exercise.

CPU throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test