Which of The Motorola Edge 40 Phones Is The Pick of Them?

CustardShot on 01/02/2024 - 19:24
Last edited 01/02/2024 - 19:30 by 1 other user

I'm coming from years of using Samsung phones and no long want to spend close to 1k to buy a new one. My recent s20+ broke recently so I'm in the market for a new phone.

The Motorola g84 specs and value had me looking at their line of phones, and if I'm right in my quick check of their more premium phones, the edge 40 series seems to be quite a strong flagship for approximately 450 when on sale.

Has anyone spent more time watching comparison videos and read reviews to find the major differences between the edge 40, edge 40 pro and edge 40 neo? Do these differences really mean anything in real, regular use?

Would like to hear some feedback so I'm ready to purchase at the next big sale before missing out.

Thanks so much in advance.

• 

  Pootie Tang on 01/02/2024 - 22:12

  Good phone, not so good camera is the trade off from looking but not owning these versions.

  • 

    CustardShot on 01/02/2024 - 22:31

    Thanks! I'll keep an eye out for a deal now!

  • 

    freefall101 on 02/02/2024 - 10:24

    I have the edge 30 fusion and the camera is so incredibly bad, although installed the Google camera app improved it a bit.

    I bought it for emulation though so it’s not a concern. Screen and hardware are great.

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  non-core promise on 01/02/2024 - 22:15

  +3

  GSM Arena comparison: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=12467&idPhone…

  Storage

  Edge 40 Pro has UFS 4.0, which is currently the latest and greatest storage standard on phones. It's twice as fast as the v3 UFS standards.

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Flash_Storage#Vers…

  This potentially means better launch times when opening apps that aren't currently running in RAM. Anything where stuff wouldn't be cached in RAM or CPU cache and has to be fetched from storage would be faster.

  Cameras

  40 Pro has 8k 30 FPS recording, 4k 60 FPS recording, whereas the 2 lesser phones are stuck with a mere 4k 30 FPS.

  Doesn't mean much to most people, but if you're a camera nut, this sort of stuff matters.

  As for the actual picture quality, make sure you take a look at reviews where they use them in "difficult" conditions, such as in low light. That tends to be the best way to tell the difference between an average system on a budget device and a true flagship.

  WiFi

  40 Pro has WiFi 7, whereas the other 2 only have WiFi 6E.

  All WiFi devices must support the same standard, otherwise they fall back to older standards until they find one that all devices support.

  So if you're a networking nerd and already have your home kitted out with a WiFi 7 router and repeaters, then you'll benefit. Otherwise there's not much benefit to buy something with a newer WiFi standard when everything else in your setup doesn't support it.

  It's important to check how often you actually frequent places with WiFi 7. There's not much benefit to carrying around a device with a new standard of WiFi if nothing else in the networking chain supports it.

  USB transfer speeds

  40 Pro has USB 3.2 speeds, whereas the other 2 are stuck with USB 2 speeds.

  Question to ask yourself: How often do you transfer files via USB and when you do, do you transfer large or small amounts?

  RAM

  40 Pro comes with 12 GB RAM as standard, whereas the other 2 have 8 GB as standard with 12 GB being an upgrade option if you choose the more expensive variant.

  I don't think most people will benefit from 12 GB of RAM, but if you really care, it's there.

  I will note that the 40 Pro has the most RAM, but also has the fastest storage.

  So paradoxically, the phone that can keep the most apps in memory before having to load stuff from storage also needs the latest storage speeds the least.

  Still, it's nice to have if you're a performance nerd and want to be able to switch between multiple heavy apps that take up a lot of RAM and require a lot of initial loading when cold starting from storage.

  Physical dimensions

  40 Neo and stock 40 are skinnier by 1-3 mm in all 3 dimensions. I would consider the Neo and stock 40 as on the larger side of medium and the 40 Pro as on the smaller side of large.

  Materials

  40 Pro has Gorilla Glass Victus, a more recent generation glass than the other 2. It also makes use of more "premium" materials to trick stupid rich snobs with more money than sense into thinking their phone is more luxurious and durable.

  In reality, the aluminium frame blocks mobile signals because it is metal and having both sides made of glass makes the phone overall more fragile, no matter how fancy the glass is.

  If you take a look at any phone that is made of a metal "unibody", you'll find gaps where plastic is used as a "signal band" so the signal can escape. So using metal in the construction of a phone is generally a waste of money.

  Glass doesn't block signals, but it breaks and costs a lot to repair (by design).

  The 40 Neo and stock 40 have plastic for everything, which scratches easier than aluminium + glass, but because it flexes, it can stand up to impacts better with just scuffs rather than shattering entirely.

  So materials wise, the 40 Neo is for stupid rich snobs who like running their phones naked, the other 2 are for more pragmatic folks who will probably run a case anyway.

  Weight

  Because of the materials difference, the 40 Pro is also heavier, at 200 grams vs 170 for the other 2.

  Again, the stupid rich snob will think heavier = quality, but that isn't necessarily the case in reality.

  CPU

  The CPUs in the 2 lesser phones use similar cores, but the Neo has 2 performance cores, 6 efficiency, whereas the stock 40 has 4 of each.

  The 40 Pro has a recent generation flagship chip. So it has more recent generation cores that can do more work with less power, as well as more work overall.

  However, this isn't a guarantee that the 40 Pro will have longer battery life, since flagship cores are typically clocked just a tad too high, because they don't want to upset the stupid rich snobs who want everything to be fast.

  Any efficiency gains are wiped out by making the CPU significantly faster rather than making them run only slightly faster or about the same, but with less power use.

  In reality, I would expect the 40 Neo with the 6 efficiency cores to have the most battery life for most people, unless your use case involves pushing the phone a lot and the efficiency cores are always pegged at max frequency, whereas a better chip might be only be at mid frequencies and not sweat as much.

  Battery

  Speaking of battery life, the Neo also has the largest battery at 5 Ah vs 4.4 on the stock 40 and 4.6 on the Pro.

  Charging

  The Neo has 68 W charging via wire.

  Stock 40 has the same, but also has 15 W wireless charging.

  40 Pro almost doubles the charging wattage to 125, the same 15 W wireless charging and can reverse charge via both wire and wireless at 5 W.

  The reverse charging wattage is too low for phones to be practical. It's probably for charging wireless earbuds that also support wireless charging and other similar lower power wireless accessories.

  Headphone jack

  Speaking of accessories, you will need wireless earbuds if you plan to watch or listen on the go.

  None of these 3 phones have a headphone jack. So you will have to use your existing ones or be prepared to buy a pair.

  Please don't be the obnoxious prick blasting their phone speakers at max volume on a bus/train and ruining everyone's commute.

  • 

    CustardShot on 01/02/2024 - 22:32

    Exactly what I was after. Thanks so much. Keen for a deal to pop up now!

  • 

    EightImmortals on 02/02/2024 - 08:25

    "40 Pro comes with 12 GB RAM as standard, whereas the other 2 have 8 GB as standard with 12 GB being an upgrade option if you choose the more expensive variant."

    I assume that's not referring to main storage? Can we chuck an SD card in any of them?

    • 

      non-core promise on 02/02/2024 - 08:46

      I assume that's not referring to main storage?

      You do know what RAM is, right? The presence of that in your quote should answer that question.

      Can we chuck an SD card in any of them?

      If you had bothered to click the very first link in my post and done a modicum of work yourself, you would have figured it out when looking at the "Card slot" section.

      The answer is no for all 3.

      • 

        EightImmortals on 02/02/2024 - 08:52

        OK thanks. So we have to buy a unit with our preferred amount of storage space as it's not upgradeable later?

        • 

          non-core promise on 02/02/2024 - 09:08

          @EightImmortals: If you have fast internet and are willing to pay money for cloud storage, that can be an option.

          But for most people, the answer is yes.

          With 128 GB as the minimum on the cheapest variant of all 3 phones, I think most people will be fine as long as they don't keep huge amounts of junk they think they need, but don't actually.

          • 

            EightImmortals on 02/02/2024 - 09:58

            @non-core promise: Yep, just checked my current phone and I'm only using about 23gb so it shouldn't be a problem. Should get a couple more years out of it yet.

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  shxhshzhz on 02/02/2024 - 01:01

  +3

  the main difference is that the Neo and Pro are not available in Australia.

  The Edge 40 is $547 from Bing Lee eBay on sale if you need it.

  • 

    EightImmortals on 02/02/2024 - 08:24

    The others ones will get here eventually though?

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 02/02/2024 - 10:35

      +2

      Not likely, the Pro is a flagship class device that came out over a year ago in China and nearly a year in EU/US market, if it were to come out it'd have been then with the other international release. We probably only got the regular Edge 40 because the Edge 30 line all sold like shit (that's why they were on sale for so long with the price marked down so much).

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  [Deactivated] on 02/02/2024 - 10:21

  +1

  The Pro is a last-gen flagship (equivalent to the S23), you won't see it at dirt cheap pricing any time soon, assuming it even comes to Australia. The reason why the Edge 30 Pro is so cheap is because its a 3 generations old device at this point with a horrible overheating CPU (SD8G1), they're marking it down to get rid of it