Introduction
Motorola today unveiled the Edge 50 Neo, the smallest compact member of the Edge 50 family this year. The introduction coincided with the global release of the vanilla Edge 50, so we had the opportunity to experiment with both. The Edge 50 Neo is the smallest of the lot, with a 6.36-inch display, yet it ranks higher than the Edge 50 Fusion. In reality, the gadget has an astounding feature set, both for its size and for the price.
The Neo has a 120 Hz LTPO OLED display with configurable refresh rate, a genuine triple-camera configuration with a dedicated 3x zoom lens, and quick wired and wireless charging options. In addition, the basic edition has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. In a market with fewer small alternatives, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo stands out for its capable hardware and unexpectedly low pricing.
Still, the Edge 50 is larger, more costly, and more competent than the Neo. It features a more powerful chip, a larger display with greater resolution, and a larger battery. Both handsets meet the MIL-STD 810H military standard and have an IP68 rating against water and dust.
Design and build
Unlike the rest of the Edge 50 series, the Edge 50 Neo has a flatter design with minimal curvatures on the back and front. There are very tiny bends around the frame, although they are not as apparent as on their brothers. This design decision distinguishes the 50 Neo from its brothers and makes it feel very different in the hand. Motorola was able to cut the bezels surrounding the display somewhat, resulting in greater screen real estate and a significant weight reduction.
The Edge 50 Neo feels quite light, which is pleasant in a market dominated by phones weighing more over 200 grams. We wouldn’t say the Edge 50 Neo feels tiny, but the boxier form and absence of curvatures give the feeling that it is slightly more compact than the normal gadget. The vegan leather back is excellent, as usual. It feels soft to the touch and comes in four Pantone colors: Poinciana, Grisaille, Latte, and Nautical Blue.
In addition, the package includes a color-matched enclosure constructed completely of plants. Despite its low price, the Neo boasts the same MIL-STD 810H military-grade rating against extreme conditions, as well as IP68 certification against water and dust. The glass on the front is Gorilla Glass 3, which isn’t great for 2024.
Hardware and features
The 6.36-inch display has an LTPO OLED screen with an adjustable refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. We have yet to do any testing, however it appears that the display is bright and vibrant. It offers a comfortable outdoor experience with no color or contrast shifts. Excellent job. The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC powers all of those pixels, and it is a mid-range offering from this year. We have some experience with the SoC, and while it is not the fastest in its class, our testing on devices that use the same chip demonstrate exceptional energy efficiency.
Here’s how the phone compares to its brothers, and as you can see, it performs just as predicted, even slightly higher than certain other Dimensity 7300-powered devices. So, despite the smaller-than-usual 4,310 mAh battery on board, we anticipate adequate battery life. The phone also supports 68W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. The memory options are 8 GB/256 GB and 12GB/512GB, which are both extremely ample in their respective pricing ranges.
Design and build
The Motorola Edge 50 sports a familiar appearance and construction, comparable to previously launched Edge 50 phones. The rear is lined with vegan leather, while the front features a 6.7-inch curved OLED display. The leather back comes in three colors: jungle green, koala grey, and peach fuzz. We were able to see them all in person. They look to be gentle and easy on the eye. Keep in mind that the Koala Gray version is still vegan leather, just with a slightly different finish.
That’s why Motorola dubbed the paint job Koala Gray – Vegan Suede. In hand, the tablet feels quite similar to the Edge 50 Pro series, for example. It’s a huge phone with curved sides that make it easier to use, and the vegan leather coating not only feels good to the touch but also enhances grip. Motorola also made the gadget highly sturdy.
The chassis meets the MIL-STD-810H military standard for extreme environment resistance and is IP68 certified for water and dust protection. However, the display protection isn’t really outstanding. We have a dated Gorilla Glass 5 sheet on the front. In contrast, the internal metal frame construction increases durability.
Hardware and features
The Edge 50 operates on the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 AE chipset, which is a fairly out-of-date SoC from early 2022. The hardware has been somewhat updated, with the primary Cortex-A710 cores now clocked at 2.5 GHz rather than 2.4 GHz. However, there is little evidence of a major difference in the actual world. The good news is that the device comes with 8GB/256GB of RAM by default. The 6.7-inch display from the Pro and Ultra is also used on the vanilla Edge 50.
All three phones feature the same 1220 x 2712px resolution and 20:9 aspect ratio, however the regular Edge only supports 120 Hz refresh rate, whilst the higher-tier Edges can go up to 144 Hz. On the other hand, the basic Edge 50 includes a larger 5,000 mAh battery and 68W wired charging. It also offers 15W wireless charging, which is a wonderful addition given the price.
Motorola is particularly proud of its AI capabilities, which appear to be geared at a better photography experience overall. AI-aided picture processing, adaptive stabilization, 30X Super Zoom, and Long Exposure are among the capabilities offered by Moto AI. The Style Sync and Magic Canvas AI features allow for creation. The former generates a wallpaper based on your wardrobe, whereas the Magic Canvas creates a wallpaper from scratch depending on your input.
Camera samples
The Edge 50 and Neo use the same camera technology, as does the high-flying Edge 50 Pro. This clearly puts the Neo in the best light of the family, since it is not only the quickest of the three, but also the most compact. We’re looking at a 50 MP camera with an f/1.8 aperture and OIS, a 3x telephoto camera with a 10 MP sensor and an f/2.0 aperture, and a 13 MP ultrawide camera with an f/2.2 lens.
The fixed-focus selfie camera features a 32 MP sensor and an f/2.4 lens. We had the opportunity to shoot a large number of samples with the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, but given the common hardware, we can safely expect the Edge 50 to provide very comparable, if not equal image quality. Slight discrepancies in processing between the two chipsets may still exist, so we’ll hold final judgment until we’ve completed the entire reviews.
The Neo, like the Edge 50, provides AI-powered camera capabilities like as adaptive stabilization, 30X super zoom, long exposure, and AI-powered image processing. The ultrawide camera unit has close-distance focusing capabilities for excellent macro shots. We found the camera app to be quick and responsive, and switching between cameras while capturing 4K films was seamless and without glitches. However, if you begin filming with the ultrawide camera, you cannot switch cameras while recording, and vice versa.
Early verdict
Motorola’s Edge portfolio has a strong presence in important regions throughout the world, and delivering a wide range of phones with various feature sets contributes significantly to this success. This year’s Edge 50 roster is fairly extensive, but the Neo appears to have every possibility of being the star of the show. It’s the most small and the second most inexpensive, yet it doesn’t compromise anything in terms of camera or screen quality.
IP68 certification and wireless charging are still available, leaving the processor as the sole potential weak spot. However, without conducting our entire set of tests, it is too early to say if the Neo or the vanilla are worth recommending. Still, we are encouraged about their possibilities as we part ways, and we plan to reveal more about them in the coming weeks.
