Motorola has a long history of making phones — from the iconic noughties Pebble to the reimagined foldable Razr50 and the recent Edge 50 Ultra, its handsets have seen plenty of success over the years. And for those not willing to spend a fortune on one of the best smartphones, Motorola's 2024 lineup of affordable devices offers solid performance and specs for a fraction of the price.
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is the most recent addition to the portfolio, and it costs only £399.99 so won't put too much of a dent in your wallet.
I've managed to take an early look at the new handset. Here's what you need to know before you buy one.
It has a standout design
Motorola has made sure this smartphone stands out from the crowd by designing it with a vegan leather finish and eye-catching colours.
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo has a 6.4-inch display and comes in Pantone Poinciana (red vegan leather), Pantone Grisaille (grey vegan leather), Pantone Lattè (brown vegan leather) and Pantone Nautical Blue (blue vegan leather).
It is super-smooth and lightweight and feels grippy and soft in the hand. The benefits feed into durability as well – you won't easily break the back casing. Plus the phone is protected with Gorilla Glass to safeguard it against scrapes, and it's IP68 water- and dust-resistant so will survive downpours of rain or trips to the beach.
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Moto AI boosts the camera's image quality
Whether you're snapping shots during the day or at night, Motorola's AI-powered image processing will boost the quality of the shots, uncovering finer details and giving life to colours. I tried this out, shooting in an atmospherically lit basketball court and outside at night, the image was undeniably more vibrant because of it.
It uses a triple-lens rear camera system made up of a 50MP main lens, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and 30x digital superzoom, and a 13MP ultrawide lens as well as a 32MP front camera.
You'll get speedy 68W TurboPower charging
If you're the type of person who regularly forgets to charge your phone until you're about to leave the house, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo has 68W TurboPower charging. With a compatible charger, Motorola claims you'll get a full day's power in only 11 minutes.
You'll be able to charge the Edge 50 Neo wirelessly too, using a 15W charger.
It is long-lasting and customisable
Running on Android 14 with five years of software updates and new feature drops guaranteed, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo has a slick and simple operating system that is easy to navigate.
Thanks to Moto AI you'll be able to customise the OS with wallpapers and themes that have been generated on the device, and you can set gestures for different actions like twist and tap to open your favourite app. Another cool Moto AI feature is Magic Canvas, you just write in what you'd like to see and it will create the image for you.
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is reasonably priced
The best part? The Motorola Edge 50 Neo only costs £399.99. It's available with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of internal storage.
