Motorola Edge 50 Neo in the test: convenient, colorful, leather look and good camera

With the Edge 50 Neo, Motorola has introduced another model in its Edge series, which is characterized by its compact design and attractive color variants. This smartphone is meant for users who are looking for a useful device with good features without sacrificing attractive design. The collaboration with Pantone ensures fresh colors, while the technical equipment provides solid mid-range standards.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is currently available across 460 euros Available – even with 12/512 GB storage. The smaller version is even more expensive.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo immediately catches the eye with its funky colors and compact design. The back is covered with “vegan leather”, i.e. plastic that looks like leather. This not only gives a beautiful look to the device but also ensures an enjoyable experience. Weighing just 171 grams, the smartphone fits comfortably in the hand and is especially suitable for users who prefer a convenient device. The color selection includes bold tones like orange and blue, which were developed in collaboration with color expert Pantone. With this colorful color palette, the Edge 50 Neo stands out from the crowd and attracts users who don’t want the classic black and gray tones.

The housing is IP68 certified, which means it is protected against dust and water. This makes the smartphone a strong companion in everyday life, as it will not be affected by heavy rain or falling into a cleaning bucket. The display is covered with Gorilla Glass 3, which offers solid protection from scratches and shocks.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is equipped with a 6.4-inch OLED display that offers an impressive sharpness of 460 ppi (pixels per inch) with a resolution of 2670 x 1220 pixels. The 120Hz refresh rate ensures smooth animations and enjoyable operation. Particularly noteworthy is the display’s high brightness, which is said to be up to 3000 cd/m². This enables good readability even in direct sunlight and makes the device ideal for outdoor use. However, one should not forget that maximum brightness with HDR content is only achieved selectively and for limited periods of time.

Color representation is very natural due to Pantone calibration and is suitable for creative tasks such as photo editing. In addition to great black levels and excellent contrast, viewing angle stability is also excellent.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo has a triple camera on the back equipped with Sony’s Litia 700C sensor. The main camera has a resolution of 50 megapixels and offers an f/1.8 aperture, which ensures bright photos. Image quality in daylight is very good and scores with natural colours, good image sharpness and high levels of detail. However, in low light conditions sharpness reduces and image noise appears.

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Apart from the main camera, there is a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x hybrid zoom. The wide-angle camera delivers attractive photos in daylight, but on closer inspection it shows a slight lack of detail and subtle image noise in darker areas and slight distortion at the edges. The hybrid zoom of the telephoto camera is of higher quality than the pure digital zoom and enables acceptable recording even at higher zoom levels.

The camera can record video in 4K resolution, but unfortunately only at 30 fps, which means panning shots always appear a little jerky due to the low refresh rate. Autofocus and exposure adjustments work reliably. The resolution of the front camera is 32 megapixels and it gives detailed selfies which is suitable for social media and also good enough for video chats. However, sometimes the colors appear a little oversaturated.

Inside the Motorola Edge 50 Neo is a MediaTek Dimensity 7300, which is a 5G-capable mid-range chip manufactured using a 4nm process. The processor offers good performance for everyday use, but shows slight weaknesses in graphics-intensive applications and multitasking. In benchmarks, the device lags behind competitors like the Google Pixel 8a. The device scores only 860 points in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, but scores at least 14,050 points in PCMark Work 3.0.

The Edge 50 Neo is equipped with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage or optionally 12/512 GB storage for an additional fee. It’s not possible to expand the memory using a microSD card, but that’s hardly important given the generous memory capacity. Unfortunately, the USB-C port only supports the USB 2.0 standard, which limits data transfer rates. Unfortunately, this is still common among the middle class in 2024.

Motorola has opted for almost unchanged Android for the Edge 50 Neo’s software, with only a few adjustments by the manufacturer. This ensures smooth and intuitive operation and yet offers particularly intuitive additional features such as activating the flashlight function with a double hacking movement.

The promise of updates is especially pleasing: Motorola guarantees Android and security updates for 5 years, which is not a given in this price range. Android 15 has already been announced, and future versions up to Android 19 are also expected to come to the device. The security patch starts rolling out in September and is therefore sufficiently current at the time of testing.

The battery capacity of the Motorola Edge 50 Neo is quite small at 4310 mAh, but it still provides an average runtime of about 1.5 days with moderate usage. With normal use, most users will get by just fine. In PCMark’s battery testing, the device only lasted 10 hours, which is enough for everyday use. The battery can be fully charged in less than an hour thanks to 68-watt fast charging technology. Wireless charging up to 15 watts is also possible, but it takes longer. In the price range under 500 euros, wireless charging is an exception.

Versions with 8/256 GB or 12/512 GB are available. The colors available are dark brown, grey, dark blue and red. The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is currently available across 460 euros Also available – with 12/512 GB memory. The smaller version is even more expensive.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo impresses with its compact, chic design, high-quality workmanship and dynamic colors. The display is sharp and bright, the camera produces good results in daylight, and the long supply of updates is a clear plus point. The memory configuration is also strong, especially since the model with 12/512 GB was even cheaper than the model with “smaller” memory at the time of testing.

However, performance and battery life aren’t exactly optimal. However, the first is absolutely sufficient for everyday use and the model at least partially compensates for the slightly shorter than average running time with a shorter charging time. So the Edge 50 Neo is an interesting option for users who are looking for a convenient and stylish smartphone. However, if you value maximum performance, you should look for alternatives.

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