By-Techno-Nilesh | Updated on 30-Aug-2024

Introduction 

Today Motorola announced the most compact member of the Edge 50 family this year, the Edge 50 Neo. The debut coincided with the start of the global rollout of the vanilla Edge 50, so we had the chance to play around with both of them.

The Edge 50 Neo may be the smallest of the bunch with a 6.36-inch display, but it sits above the Edge 50 Fusion in the hierarchy. In fact, the device offers an impressive feature set not just for its size, but also for the price it commands.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo specs at a glance:

Body: 154.1x71.2x8.1mm, 171g; Gorilla Glas 3 front, aluminum frame, silicone polymer (eco leather) back; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min), MIL-STD-810H compliant*, * does not guarantee ruggedness or use in extreme conditions.

Display: 6.36" LTPO OLED, 120Hz, HDR10+, 3000 nits (peak), 460ppi.

Chipset: Mediatek Dimensity 7300 (4 nm): Octa-core (4x2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G615 MC2.

Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.2.

OS/Software: Android 14, up to 2 major Android upgrades.

Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 10 MP, f2.0, 73mm, 1.0µm, PDAF, 3x optical zoom, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1.12µm, PDAF.

Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.4, (wide), 0.7µm.

Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/120fps.

Battery: 4310mAh; 68W wired, 15W wireless.

Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6e; BT 5.2; NFC.

Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

The Neo has an 120 Hz LTPO OLED panel with variable refresh rate, a proper triple-camera setup with a dedicated 3x zoom lens and fast wired and wireless charging. Plus it comes with the comfortable 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage in its base version.

In a market with ever fewer compact options the Motorola Edge 50 Neo shapes up to be an intriguing choice with its competent hardware and surprisingly aggressive price.

 
Motorola Edge 50 Neo

Still, the Edge 50 is large, more expensive but also more capable than the Neo. It offers a more powerful chip, a larger display with higher resolution and bigger battery.

Motorola Edge 50 specs at a glance:

• Body: 160.8x72.4x7.8mm, 180g; Glass front, aluminum frame, silicone polymer (eco leather or eco suede) back; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min), MIL-STD-810H compliant*, * does not guarantee ruggedness or use in extreme conditions.
• Display: 6.70" P-OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1600 nits (peak), 1220x2712px resolution, 20.01:9 aspect ratio, 446ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM7450-AB Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 AE (4 nm): Octa-core (1x2.5 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.36 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 644.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.2.
• OS/Software: Android 14, up to 2 major Android upgrades.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 10 MP, f2.0, 73mm, 1.0µm, PDAF, 3x optical zoom, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1.12µm, PDAF.
• Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.4, (wide), 0.7µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/120fps.
• Battery: 5000mAh; 68W wired, 15W wireless.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6e; BT 5.2; NFC.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

Though both handsets are compliant with the MIL-STD 810H military standard and are IP68-rated against water and dust.

Design and build

Unlike the rest of the Edge 50 series, the Edge 50 Neo adopts a flatter design with next to no curvatures on the back and front. There are very subtle curves at the very edges near the frame, but it's nowhere near as pronounced as on its siblings.

This design choice makes the 50 Neo stand out from its siblings and feels a lot different in hand.

Motorola was able to trim the bezels around the display a little bit, so you get more screen real estate and shaved off a lot of weight. The Edge 50 Neo feels really light, which is refreshing in this market, filled with 200+g phones.

We wouldn't say the Edge 50 Neo feels small, the boxier design and the lack of curvatures does create the optical impression of a just slightly more compact than average device.

   
Motorola Edge 50 Neo

The vegan leather back is great as usual. It feels nice and smooth to the touch and you get four Pantone colors - Poinciana, Grisaille, Latte and Nautical Blue. You also get a color-matched case in the box that's entirely made out of plants.

Even though it's a budget device, the Neo surprises with the same MIL-STD 810H military-grade rating against harsh environments and offers IP68 certification against water and dust. The glass on the front is the Gorilla Glass 3, which isn't ideal in 2024.

Hardware and features

The 6.36-inch display uses an LTPO OLED panel with adaptive refresh rate going up to 120 Hz. We still haven't had the chance to run any tests but it seems that the display is plenty bright and vivid. It provides comfortable outdoor experience with no color or contrast shifting. Excellent job.

The SoC that drives all those pixels is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 - a mid-range offering from this year. We have some experience with the SoC and although not the fastest in its class, our tests on devices running the same chip show excellent energy efficiency.

Here's how the phone stacks against its siblings and as you can see, it performs just as expected, scoring slightly higher than some other Dimensions

So despite the smaller-than-usual 4,310 mAh battery on board, we expect good battery runtimes. The handset also supports 68W wired charging and 15W wireless charging.

GeekBench 6

• Multi-core
• Single-core

Motorola Edge 50 Ultra

5051

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3

Motorola Edge 50 Pro

3083

Snapdragon 7 Gen 3

Motorola Edge 50 Neo

2959

Dimensity 7300

Motorola Edge 50 Fusion

2938

Snapdragon 7s Gen 2