Weekly poll: can the Motorola Edge+ (2023) or Motorola Edge 40 find a place in your pocket?

07 May 2023

This week Motorola unveiled two new members of the Edge 40 series – a US version of the Edge 40 Pro (with small tweaks) and the vanilla Edge 40 for the European market.

Let’s start with the Motorola Edge 40 as it is the new model. This falls in the “premium mid-ranger” slot with its Dimensity 8020 chipset (really a Dimensity 1100 with a new coat of paint) and a 50+13MP camera setup. As you can expect from the Edge series, this one has an excellent screen – 6.55” OLED, 144Hz, FHD+ – and a fast charging battery with 4,400mAh capacity, 68W wired and 15W wireless charging.

All this can be yours for €550/£530 (there is only one configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage). In terms of colorways, you can pick between one acrylic and two vegan leather options. Note that Motorola promises three years of OS updates and four years of security updates.

€550 can buy you a lot of performance, e.g. the Xiaomi 12T Pro offers a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (and a 200MP camera) for that price, not to mention a 6.67” 120Hz 12-bit display with slightly higher resolution and a 5,000mAh battery with 120W wired-only charging.

There is also the Realme GT2 Pro with a 6.7” QHD+ 120Hz display and some vegan leather backs of its own, plus a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and a 5,000mAh/65W battery. If you’re into clean Android, the small Pixel 7 is around this price too, it has the better software, while the Moto has the better hardware. The OnePlus 10T also sports a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip as well as an impressive 150W charging support for the 4,800mAh battery and less impressive 6.7” FHD+ 120Hz display and 50+8MP camera.

If you’re in the market for a new premium mid-ranger is the Moto Edge 40 the one you’d get or would you opt for something else?

The Motorola Edge+ (2023) is an $800 flagship. It has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and 6.67” OLED display – FHD+ resolution but 165Hz refresh rate. It’s very similar to the Edge 40 Pro, except for the battery (the US model has a 5,100mAh capacity with 68W charging support vs. 4,600mAh/125W) and the memory configuration (8/512GB is the only option).

The Edge 40 Pro with its European pricing of €900/£800 proved to be a strong contender in a poll a few week ago. The new Edge+ at $800 costs about what you would pay for a Galaxy S23 ($800 without promos), never mind the S23+ ($1,000) that this phone actually competes against.

The OnePlus 11 undercuts the Moto with a $700 base price, but this is for only an 8/128GB phone, the 16/256GB model is $800. There’s also the Pixel 7 Pro with an MSRP of $900 (for 12/128GB), though as with the Samsung the actual price in most stores is lower with some sort of deal or discount.

The US market being what it is, most people will buy an iPhone or a Galaxy. Speaking of Apple’s offerings, an iPhone 14 Plus starts at $900. If you want the HRR screen and tele camera of the 14 Pro Max, that will be $1,100.

So, what do you think – can the Motorola Edge 40+ (2023) break you out of the Apple/Samsung duopoly?