Motorola Edge 40 Pro Test: A true flagship

It first appeared in China at the end of 2022 under the name X40, but here in Europe, it is in the Edge range that Motorola's new flagship is appearing. The Edge 40 Pro, the company's flagship device, aims to overshadow high-end smartphones that have yet to break the £1000 barrier. To do this, the device offers an attractive technical file on paper, responsible for correcting what may have been lacking on the Edge 30 Pro and Edge 30 Ultra of last year.

Pros

• Beautiful desig
• Excellent pOled panel
• Very powerful smartphone
• Good battery life and ultra fast charging
• IP68 certificatio

Cons

• Slippery finish
• Night photos are a bit weak

Motorola's 2023 flagship isn't a revolution in high-end smartphone design. At the same time, that's a hard thing to do without taking significant risks and becoming divisive. The Sino-American company prefers to continue on the path of the previous models.Thus, the rear is classic, with a matt black finish and a somewhat slippery coating. This is an important clarification since you must be careful not to drop the smartphone on the floor when holding the device. When we opened the box of the Edge 40 Pro, it slipped out of our hands and almost hit our desks. So be careful, and make sure you put a cover on it (which is included with the phone). The rear part of the phone also contains the camera unit, which consists of three cameras.On the front, the Edge 40 Pro stands out with a 6.67-inch screen curved on all four edges, which is unusual. Usually, only the left and right edges are curved. This curvature on all four edges allows Motorola to introduce a feature called Edge Light, enabling you to see incoming notifications when your smartphone is lying face down.All buttons are located on the right edge. The one below houses the USB-C 3.2 port. The smartphone is relatively light at 199g, but not necessarily small as it is 161.16 x 74 x 8.59mm. It has an IP68 rating, which guarantees its water resistance. Bluetooth 5.3 and 6E wifi are present and compatible with wifi 7.

Like all high-end smartphones begiing in 2023, the Motorola Edge 40 Pro features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm's most powerful chip. The SoC is paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.Like other phones with the American manufacturer's chip, the Edge 40 Pro is a miracle worker regarding RAM management. It's even one of the best devices in our comparison, so there's not much to say about that.Even in video games, Motorola's new flagship is in the lead. The average frame rate is 125, with a peak of 131 fps. At its lowest, the smartphone drops to 93 fps. This allows it to overcome the games in the Google Play Store catalogue without a hitch.

The Motorola Edge 40 Pro comes with three cameras. The main one, with 50 megapixels (IMX 766), was already present in the Edge 30 Pro in 2022. Next to it is the same 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera. Finally, the telephoto camera makes an appearance in this model. It displays 12 megapixels and offers an x2 magnification, just like the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra. Let us add that a macro mode is available: it is based on the ultra wide-angle camera and not on its own sensor.

Main Camera: 50MP, f/1.8, eq. 24mm

It's hard to overshadow the photo capabilities of the Google Pixel 7 Pro. Nevertheless, the Edge 40 Pro does well. The sharpness is less present than its rival's, but the exposure is correct. The colourimetry is also good; above all, the smartphone maintains a good level of detail in the periphery.In low light, it's a bit more complicated, and Motorola's sensor quickly shows its limits. The software needs to manage to remedy these shortcomings. As a result, the scene loses a lot of details and becomes very smooth. The contrast is also too strong. It's a pity because the exposure and colour rendition is quite good.

Ultra wide-angle camera: 50 Mpx, f/2.2, eq. 14 mm

The ultra wide-angle camera uses a 50-megapixel sensor as its main camera module. Can it easily compete with the Pixel 7 Pro? Not really. Indeed, as soon as we zoom in a little, we are graced with a rather strange blur effect. However, we caotice a good level of sharpness and - once again - a correct exposure. The intervention of the software is relatively minimal but is still noticeable, with some areas of our scene being smoothed out.The same is true for the night shot. The scene is strongly smoothed out, and this blurred effect is agaioticeable. As with the main camera, the exposure is correct, just like the one Google's flagship offers.

Telephoto camera: 12MP, f/1.6, 50mm eq.

The telephoto camera is always a complex exercise for the manufacturers, and Motorola struggles in this little game. Day or night, the shots lack detail and are rather coarsely smoothed by the software processing.

The front camera, portrait mode and video

On the front, the Motorola Edge 40 Pro is equipped with a 60-megapixel sensor. A definition that is still quite rare to see on smartphones. This allows for detailed images that pay homage to our faces. The camera does not suffer from exposure problems, which is good.The portrait mode also benefits from the 60 megapixels, offering good self-portraits with cropping. The background blur is not too pronounced by default, making it look natural. With the main camera, the portrait mode also offers a quality result. The smartphone manages to crop properly but struggles at times with hair that is too unruly.The Edge 40 Pro can shoot up to 8K at 30 fps in video. 4K at 30 and 60 fps is available. The main camera has optical image stabilisation (OIS) to minimise camera shake. Finally, the smartphone can shoot in 10-bit HDR10+ format.

The Motorola Edge 40 Pro runs on Android 13 and MyUI 4, its own interface. The latter is very light, just like ZenUI at Asus. The manufacturer does not intervene much based on Android, which is appreciable. Only one application, Moto, has its place among the programs present by default. It allows you to perform additional gestures or actions, helping you control your smartphone.