Motorola Edge 40 Neo review

The Edge 40's camera system, now in the Neo (sort of)

The Edge 40 Neo reuses the camera hardware of the Edge 40 almost entirely - the one thing that's different is the lens on the primary unit on the back, which has an f/1.8 aperture here, as opposed to the f/1.4 on the other phone.

That primary camera uses the same OmniVision OV50A sensor that was the core of the Edge 40, Edge 40 Pro and Edge 30 Pro's main cameras, the two Pros featuring the f/1.8 aperture lens, just like the Neo here. The imager has a 1/1.55" optical format, so it's fairly large as midrange cameras go. Individual pixel size is 1.0µm, and since it's a 4-cell design (OV's naming for what Sony calls Quad Bayer and Samsung - Tetrapixel), you're effectively getting 4-to-1 binned 12.5MP photos with 2.0µm pixels - a spec proudly printed on the phone's back.

The sensor has 2x2 on-chip lenses and all-pixel phase detection autofocus - you can have a look at Sony's explanation for the same technologyhere.

The ultrawide camera, meanwhile is based on a 13MP SK Hynix HI1336 sensor with 1.12µm individual pixels and a 1/3" optical format. The f/2.2 aperture lens has variable focus and this module can double as a close-up camera too.

Over on the front, the Edge 40 Neo uses the OmniVision OV32B sensor with a 1/3" optical format and a 0.7µm pixel size (4-cell design too like the main camera on the back). No autofocus on this one, just like on the Edge 40.

The camera app on the Edge 40 Neo is developed in-house, in contrast to the otherwise stock-looking approach to software.

The basics are as usual - the camera modes are arranged in a customizable carousel formation, with the 'More' tab at the rightmost end of the carousel holding the more seldom-used shooting modes.

Pro mode gives you full control over the camera's settings like white balance, ISO, focus, shutter speed, and exposure compensation, and it works on all cameras - both rear ones and the selfie camera (minus the manual focusing). A tiny live histogram is provided, but there's no focus peaking or zebras.

Additional settings for each camera mode can be found by swiping down in the viewfinder. There's a tiny bar at the far end to indicate that, but if you miss it, you may be left wondering where some controls are. Then again, in Photo mode that 'menu' only contains the 'Active photos' toggle, making its very existence seem unnecessary. The gear icon takes you to the general settings menu where a lot more options can be found.

Camera UI

Daylight image quality

The Edge 40 Neo will get you good 12.5MP images, but it stops short of producing excellent ones. What could probably be called our main gripe with its output is the relatively muted color reproduction which leaves photos a bit lifeless. We reckon a more expressive rendition would be more universally appealing, particularly so in a midrange phone which doesn't quite have the aspirations to appeal to a 'pro' or 'photo-enthusiast' level of consumer. If, however, you enjoy less saturation in your photos straight out of the cameraphone, then this complaint of ours is rendered non-existent.

Dynamic range leaves little to be desired, though an overall contrasty approach means shadows are a bit darker than we'd like. Detail is good, albeit not the most naturally drawn, particularly in random textures like tree leaves.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 12.5MP

On the Edge 40 Neo, we observe a minimal detail advantage when shooting in the Ultra-Res 50MP mode - things are just generally bigger and blockier, but there's a bit extra definition. Noise does also get more visible as a result, though.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

The 2x zoom mode, on the other hand, returns softer images than what you'd get from a center crop from the 50MP shots. That's a bit unusual, and not a very welcome observation. It's also somewhat counterintuitive that it's happening on a phone that does have a 2x toggle in the viewfinder - for example, the Edge 40 (proper) didn't have a marked 2x zoom level and its 2x zoom shots were identically detailed on a pixel level to the 50MP Ultra-res ones, which isn't the case here.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x zoom)

The ultrawide is a remarkably close match to the main camera when it comes to the overall look, which is normally a commendable achievement in itself. It's just that in this case that means slightly unenthusiastic color rendition, though the ultrawide is just that little bit more colorful, particularly in the reds. Dynamic range is okay, but not spectacular and it's again the darker-than-ideal shadows that we find disagreeable in some scenes. Noise is minimal, while detail is very good for the class, even though the Edge 40 somehow managed to extract sharper results from this same hardware.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 12.5MP

The fact that the ultrawide camera has autofocus, means it's good for shooting closer subjects and getting them in sharp focus - not something you can do on a lot of midrangers. We're not talking about the macro mode either - just regular ultrawide shots of nearby subjects.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), 12.5MP

Closeups

Speaking of the macro mode, on the Edge 40 Neo it's accessed by a button on the zoom selector in Photo mode, as opposed to being a standalone mode. It switches to a cropped in and upscaled view from the ultrawide camera which closely matches the main camera's field of view. While hardly impressive on a pixel level, these shots do still look pretty nicely detailed, particularly on the phone's display or at fit screen magnification on a PC monitor.

'Macro' mode samples

Low-light image quality

Customarily, the Edge 40 Neo comes with the 'Auto Night Vision' toggle in the viewfinder pre-enabled so you can expect the phone to apply night mode processing automatically. It does it both on the main camera (but not when zoomed in) and the ultrawide, and differences between the Auto results and the dedicated Night mode ones are minimal (unless, again, you're zooming in - more on that in a bit).

Main camera

The Auto Night Vision delivers very good low-light images. Dynamic range is excellent, shadows are developed well and the highlights are preserved too. The auto white balance was dependent and we observed no issues with mixed street lighting. Color saturation didn't suffer from the limited amounts of light either. Detail is very good, though we are observing a bit more noise and heavier sharpening than on the vanilla Edge 40, for example - not terrible, just not quite as good.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Auto Night Vision

In the dedicated Night Vsion mode, the scenes look mostly the same, though there's the occasional more pronounced difference - like the slightly darker exposure in the second scene. Still, we'd say that deliberately switching to the Night Vision mode is pointless, when shooting at 1x - the Auto does a fine job.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night Vision

You'll likely want to avoid turning off the Auto, however, at least in most general scenes. Photo mode without exposure enhancements may get you marginally better detail rendition in balanced lighting, but can't quite cope with contrasty scenes and will tend to produce images with more limited dynamic range and particularly dark shadows.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Auto Night Vision OFF

When zooming in, the Edge 40 Neo isn't too keen to engage the auto night processing at 2x, so you can expect relatively narrow dynamic range most of the time, dark exposures and murky shadows.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x zoom), Auto Night Vision OFF

You can guarantee yourself the extra processing by switching to Night Vision mode, even though there's no 2x button in the viewfinder, so you'll have to pinch to zoom to get that, but it's doable and it works. That approach will net you better shadow development and an overall more likeable exposure, but will result in jaggies when looking at detail from up close. It's not worse than the generally soft detail that you get at 2x in Photo mode, so we'd go through the extra hoops in Night Vision just for the better dynamic range.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x zoom), Night Vision

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide tends to struggle in low-light with no Night Vision assistance, so it's good that you can count on the Auto to trigger in pretty much all scenes. Both the Auto and the standalone Night Vision mode will deliver the same results and that means very good dynamic range for an ultrawide in the class, though the shadows in dark scenes remain relatively soft and mushy, when you dig in there looking for fine detail. In better lit scenes or areas detail is good, though. Again, we had no issues with white balance or desaturation here either.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), Auto Night Vision

Here are the same scenes as shot in Night Vision mode.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), Night Vision

Turning off the Auto Night Vision in Photo mode means darker and softer shadows and a general gloomy look in darker scenes.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x), Auto Night Vision OFF

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Motorola Edge 40 Neo stacks up against the competition.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo against the Galaxy A54 and the Realme 11 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Portrait mode

Motorola's three-pronged Portrait mode implementation continues on the Edge 40 Neo. You get three focal lengths - Standard (50mm), Wide (35mm), and Full view (24mm), and it's the main camera that captures all three.

Quite expectedly, detail is pretty bad in the 50mm mode when examining photos at 1:1 detail is pretty bad on a pixel level. Things clear up nicely in the 35mm mode, reaching a good or even very good level, while the results in the native 24mm mode are great from a detail standpoint.

The blur level is different for each mode and doesn't look excessive and artificial - instead, it closely simulates what you'd expect to get at that focal length with a 'real' camera. Subject detection is reliably excellent, all the way to the usually troublesome wooden wall paneling scene.

Portrait mode samples, 50mm

Portrait mode samples, 35mm

Portrait mode samples, 24mm

Selfies

The Edge 40 captures 8MP selfies by default, or you can access the full resolution 32MP mode in the settings menu (not the Ultra-res mode on the mode selector, though) - not that it's something you'd want to do. There are two zoom levels too, and the default one is the zoomed in, as opposed to the native field of view, and at either magnification you'd be getting 8MP shots.

The full coverage selfies at 8MP are excellent. They have excellent detail, natural-looking skin tones (if colors can be a little low on the saturation again), and wide dynamic range.

Selfie samples, 8MP, full coverage

The crop mode does bring a slight drop in sharpness and detail, but images remain very usable, so you'll likely be okay if you prefer tighter framing for your selfies.

Selfie samples, 8MP, zoomed in mode

Video recording

The Edge 40 Neo supports video recording up to 4K30 with both its main camera and its ultrawide on the back, as well as the selfie camera. Only the main rear camera can record at 60fps and in that case resolution is up to 1080p - the selfie camera and the ultrawide can't capture 60fps at all.

The default codec is h.264, though you can flip a toggle and switch to h.265. 4K30 videos get a 50Mbps bit rate (when using h.264) and audio is recorded in stereo at 256kbps. Stabilization is available in all modes on all cameras.

The main camera of the Edge 40 Neo captures videos with a lot of potential, only most of it hasn't been realized. For starters, we're seeing some excellent detail and well controlled noise. However, the tendency towards underexposure and the needlessly dark shadows in particular make for a rather gloomy look. The conservative color rendition doesn't bring much life to the picture either.

Just like we observed in stills, the ultrawide maintains a rather consistent overall look with the main camera in video. And once again, while that's great in itself, it means that the ultrawide's clips are also dark and lacking in saturation. Detail, on the other hand, is very good.

Low light videos from the Edge 40 Neo's main camera have good sharpness and detail and noise is handled well. Dynamic range is alright, but great and point light sources will tend to be blown out. Color saturation isn't too bad in the dark, which is a welcome observation after looking at the daytime footage.

A bit surprisingly, the ultrawide delivers a decent performance at night. It's not the sharpest of pictures and it can be quite noisy, but it's still better detailed and not quite as soft as what most of the competition can muster under similar conditions.

Stabilization on the Edge 40 Neo suffers from largely the same issues we observed on the Edge 40 proper - both on the main camera and the ultrawide. When you're walking or panning, the shake can send the focus hunting, resulting in a pretty annoying jittery effect.

Here's a glimpse of how the Motorola Edge 40 Neo compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Motorola Edge 40 Neo against the Galaxy A54 and the Realme 11 Pro in our Video compare tool