Motorola Edge 50 Neo – superb value/performance mid-range (smartphone review)
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is an absolute bargain, sitting above the Fusion and below the Edge 50 and 50 Pro.
At $699, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo is the class leader in this very competitive segment. It also has some nice Pantone colours: PANTONE Poinciana (Red), PANTONE Lattè (milk coffee), and PANTONE Grisaille (grey) with a vegan leather back.
Quick Specs (class-leading marked ✅)
- 6.4” 2670 x 1220, 120Hz, up to 3000 nits HDR brightness, pOLED ✅✅
- MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC with limited AI capacity
- 12/256GB RAM/Storage ✅
- Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C 2.0 OTG, NFC, and GPS ✅
- Single and eSIM (✅unusual for this price), 4/5G for city and suburbs use only
- 4310mAh battery and 68W fast charger in box for all-day use ✅✅
- Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos decode
- IP68 and MIL-STD 810H construction ✅✅
- 2+5+5 Warranty, Android OS upgrades and bi-monthly security patches ✅✅
- 50+12+10MP (wide OIS/ultrawide/3X telephoto OIS) rear camera and 32MP selfie ✅✅
Our take – the $600-699 Class leader punches well above its weight and is a pleasure to use.
Australian Review: Motorola Edge 50 Neo SIM/eSIM, 12/256GB, XTR2409-1
| Brand | Motorola |
| Model | Motorola Edge 50 Neo |
| Model Number | XT2409-1 |
| RAM/Storage Base | 12/256GB |
| Price base | $699 |
| Warranty months | 24-months ACL |
| Tier | Edge benefits |
| Website | Product page |
| From | Motorola online, Harvey Norman, Domayne, JB Hi-Fi, Bing Lee, Officeworks. |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Company | It is owned by Lenovo (Est 1984) – a multinational technology company with its primary operational headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina. It is the world’s largest PC maker. It purchased Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014. Most of Lenovo’s smartphone business is now under the Motorola brand, with grand plans to become a ‘top five’ smartphone maker. |
| More | CyberShack Motorola news and reviews CyberShack Smartphone news and reviews |
| Test date | September/October 2024 |
| Ambient temp | 10-30° |
| Release | 45505 |
| Other models not for Australia (Don’t buy)* | Motorola makes models for various markets that are not for Australian Telco networks nor carry an Australian warranty. |
* Grey market – no Australian warranty, and 5G may not work here
We strongly advise you to buy a genuine model with Australian firmware. Check Settings, About Phone, Regulatory Labels and Australian RCM C-tick mark. Insist on a screen grab if you buy anywhere else.
Australian certified phones use unique Australian 5G sub-6Ghz and 5G low-band frequencies, requiring local activation first. Read Don’t buy a grey market smartphone.
New ratings in 2024
We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations), and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it could be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.
We are also tightening up on grading. Pass means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.
First Impression – Pass+
I like it. The three colourway vegan backs in PANTONE Poinciana, PANTONE Lattè, and PANTONE Grisaille give this a touch of glass with matching colour bumper covers provided. The lava flow over the camera hump is well done (if a copy of earlier OPPO Find phones). The buttons are clicky and positive. It feels great in hand.
I was surprised at the 6.4” 3000 nits rated LPTO pOLED screen. It is gorgeous, colour-accurate and daylight-readable. Simply the best screen I have seen on a $699 phone.
Having a 68W charger in the box rounds this package out very nicely.
This is another example of Motorola finding a niche in the market and providing a phone with class-leading specs.
If I have one caveat, the MediaTek 4/5G modem is suitable for city and suburban use with decent tower coverage – not for regional and rural use.
Screen – damned bright – Pass+
It is a 10-bit/1.07 billion-colour screen with excellent colour accuracy for realistic photo and video previews—what you see is what the photo looks like.
It claims 3000 nits, but that is only for HDR content in a 2% window. For most use, it will be around 300-500 nits and can go up to 1000 in direct sunlight.
PWM-sensitive people should note that it has a 240Hz flicker at low brightness levels. Some OLED screens with far higher rates may be more suitable.
Summary – sweet screen – way better than Samsung 8-bit screens.
| Size | 6.4″ |
| Type | pOLED LPTO (made by LG Display) |
| Flat, Curve, 2D, 3D | Flat, centre o-hole |
| Resolution | 2670 x 1220 |
| PPI | 460 |
| Ratio | 20:9 |
| Screen to Body % | 95.3 |
| Colours bits | 10-bit 1.07 billion colours |
| Refresh Hz, adaptive | 120Hz or Auto 24/30/60/90/120Hz (we could not get it to step 1-120Hz). |
| Response 120Hz | 300 |
| Nits typical, test | Typical screen brightness is around 500 nits. |
| Nits max, test | Claim Peak HDR Brightness 3000 in 2% windows (Test 2767) |
| Contrast | Infinite |
| sRGB | Test 100+% |
| DCI-P3 | Claim 100% (Test 100%) |
| Rec.2020 or other | N/A |
| Delta E (<4 is excellent) | 2.2 |
| HDR Level | HDR10+ |
| SDR Upscale | No |
| Blue Light Control | Yes |
| PWM if known | 240Hz is perceptible to PWM-sensitive people. A flicker prevention switch may help. |
| Daylight readable | Yes |
| Always on Display | Yes |
| Edge display | No |
| Accessibility | All Android 14 features |
| DRM | L1 for FHD SDR playback. |
| Gaming | <1m GTG Up to 300Hz touch |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Comment | Excellent 10-bit, 1.07 billion-colour screen with far greater subtleties in colour than the 8-bit Samsung S24/+/Ultra. |
Processor – Pass
The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 is a good mid-range SoC (the same as used in the OPPO Reno 12). It has enough power for productivity and limited AI capabilities (it does not come with Google Gemini).
| Brand, Model | MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Also used in OPPO Reno 12 |
| nm | 4nm made by TSMC |
| Cores | 4 x 2.5GHz & 4 x 2.0GHz |
| Modem | MediaTek |
| AI TOPS OR Multi-thread Integer Operations Per Second (INOPS) GINOPS = billion | MediaTek 6th generation NPU 655 Geekbench AI CPU Backend 908/923/2063 Geekbench AI GPU Backend 274/315/342 Geekbench AI NNAPI Backend 541/1319/2704 AiTuTu: 99,186 AI Benchmark 6: 543 GFLOPS 14.75 GINOPS 16.35 |
| Geekbench 6 Single-core | 1057 |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core | 3024 |
| Like | Like SD780 or SD8788 Benchmarks |
| GPU | Mali-G615 MC2 |
| GPU Test | |
| Open CL | 2598 |
| Like | Like Exynos 1280 and SD 860 |
| Vulcan | 2532 |
| RAM, type | 12GB LPDDR4X (plus virtual RAM Boost). LPDDR5X in our review unit. |
| Storage, free, type | 256GB uMCP (combined with RAM in one package), 200GB free |
| micro-SD | No |
| CPDT internal seq. Read MBps sustained/peak | 847 Max 990 |
| CPDT internal seq. write MBps sustained/peak | 464 Max 580 |
| CPDT microSD read, write MBps | N/A |
| CPDT external (mountable?) MBps | 27.5/22Mbps mountable |
| Comment | Fast internal storage but slow USB-C 2.0 external storage |
Throttling – Pass+
It is not for gamers, although it has excellent thermal management, a low lag screen, and little throttling.
| Max GIPS | 235472 |
| Average GIPS | 225582 |
| Minimum GIPS | 213918 |
| % Throttle | 6% |
| CPU Temp | 50° |
| Comment | Excellent thermal management and rock-solid performance. |
Comms – Pass
It has Wi-Fi 6E but does not reach the speeds available to it. This is a limitation of the MediaTek SoC, which only has 2×2 MU MIMO and does not support MLO (band aggregation). Still, it is heaps fast enough for average users.
| Wi-Fi Type, model | Wi-Fi 6E AXE 2.4/5/6GHz |
| Test 2m -dBm, Rx/Tx Mbps | -43/1200/1200 |
| Test 5m | -48/1120/1200 |
| Test 10m | -58/960/1000 |
| BT Type | 5.3 |
| GPS single, dual | GPS, BeiDou, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC |
| USB type | USB-C 2.0 480Mbps – no display port audio/video data stream support |
| ALT DP, DeX, Ready For | Only over Miracast |
| NFC | Yes |
| Ultra-wideband | No |
| Sensors | |
| Accelerometer | Yes |
| Gyro | Yes |
| e-Compass | Yes |
| Barometer | |
| Gravity | |
| Pedometer | |
| Ambient light | Yes |
| Hall sensor | |
| Proximity | Yes |
| Other | SAR Sensor and Sensor Hub |
| Comment | Even though it is Wi-Fi 6E and connected to the 6Ghz band, it only supports 1200/1200Mbps. Still, it is fast enough for any user. |
4G/5G – Suitable for City and suburbs – Pass
First, we applaud the availability of an eSIM in a phone of this price – excellent. We also applaud Motorola for being one of the few offering dual ringtones.
But the facts are that it only finds one tower at fairly average speeds and strengths.
| SIM | Single Sim and eSim |
| Active | DSDS (Dual sim, dual standby) – one at a time. |
| Ring tone single, dual | Dual |
| VoLTE | Carrier dependent |
| Wi-Fi calling | Carrier dependent |
| 4G Bands | 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/32/34/38/39/40/41/42/43/48/66 |
| Comment | All Australian and most world bands |
| 5G sub-6Ghz | n1/2/3/5/7/8/20/26/28/38/40/41/66/75/77/78 |
| Comment | All Australian 5G sub-6 and low bands |
| mmWave | No |
| Test Boost Mobile, Telstra | |
| DL/UL, ms | 17.2/23.4/37ms – average |
| Tower 1 -dBm, fW or pW | -82 to -118 and 6.3pW to 50fW Could get an unusable 5G signal |
| Tower 2 | No |
| Tower 3 | No |
| Tower 4 | No |
| Comment | Typical of MediaTek modems, this is a city and suburb phone with good tower coverage. |
Battery – good life – Pass+
First, a caveat to our findings. Fast charging requires you to enable Boost Charge in the battery settings. A raft of settings are also enabled to give you the best battery life. We turn these off to get a ‘reasonable’ battery life.
But try as we may, some settings eluded us, and we cannot rely on our tests. We suspect the AI is trying to manage the battery, and we don’t want that in our tests.
Our best estimate is that typical users will get a full day or more, and heavy users will get 15-18 hours.
Ten points to Motorola for including a 68W charger inbox that Samsung et al. charge $60+ for.
Battery specs
| mAh | 4310mAh |
| Charger, type, supplied | 68W 5V/3A/15W, 9V/3A/27W, 15V/3A/45W, 20V/3.4/68W OR 11V/6.2A/68.2W You must enable Boost Charge in the Battery setting. |
| PD, QC level | PD 3.0 and PPS |
| Qi, wattage | 15W |
| Reverse Qi or cable. | N/A |
| Test (60Hz or adaptive screen) | Adaptive |
| Charge 0-100% | 2 hours 13 minutes using the Motorola genuine 68W charger. Charge Boost is enabled, and we think this is being affected by the battery system settings. We expect this should be <1 hour. |
| Charge Qi, W 15W fast wireless charge | About 4 hours at 5V/2A/10W |
| Charge 5V, 2A | Not tested – 5-6 hours. |
| Video loop 50%, aeroplane | 26 hours – excellent |
| PC Mark 3 battery | It would not run again due to a battery system setting. Accubattery (theoretical): about 18 hours |
| GFX Bench Manhattan battery | Would not run |
| GFX Bench T-Rex | 372.9 minutes (6.32 hours) 4998 frames |
| Drain 100-0% full load screen on | 2 hours 36 minutes (This seems short, and we suspect that it is closer to Accubattery’s theoretical 5 hours) |
| mA Full load screen on | 1300-1350mA |
| mA Watt idle Screen on | 250-300mA |
| Estimate loss at max refresh | N/A |
| Estimate typical use | Claim up to 34 hours. |
| Comment | We cannot be sure of the battery test results because a) the charge time seems too long and b) the discharge time seems too short. Something is interfering with this, possibly AI battery settings that we cannot change. Theoretically, it should be suitable for well over a day’s use. |
Sound hardware – Pass
It uses the typical forward-firing earpiece speaker and down-firing bottom speaker.
| Speakers | Top forward, up-firing and bottom down-firing stereo. |
| Tuning | No |
| AMP | 2 x FS16xx amps (specifications unknown) |
| Dolby Atmos decode | Yes |
| Hi-Res | No |
| 3.5mm | No, but FSA4480 Digital to Analogue USB DAC |
| BT Codecs | SBC, AAC, apt X, apt HD, LDAC, LHDC V3/5 |
| Multipoint | Should do |
| Dolby Atmos (DA) | Decode to 2.0 and earphones |
| EQ | Spatial Audio EQ: Smart Audo (default), Music, Movie, Game, Podcast, Custom |
| Mics | 2 – One is for noise cancelling and is used with CrystalTalk AI NR. |
| Test dB – all on EQ flat DA off | |
| Volume max | 84 – good |
| Media (music) | 78 |
| Ring | 83 |
| Alarm | 82 |
| Notifications | 74 |
| Earpiece | 61 |
| Hands-free | Decent noise reduction and volume levels were quite good and clear. |
| BT headphones | Excellent left-right separation and DA makes quite a difference with DA content. |
Sound quality – Pass
Very few phones are listenable for music, and this is no different. It has little high bass, late mid (fine for clear voice), and choppy mid and high treble, making the music harsh and lifeless.
If music is your thing, use headphones and select from its good range of Bluetooth Codecs.
| Deep Bass 20-40Hz | Nil |
| Middle Bass 40-100Hz | Starting at 90Hz and building linearly to 1kHz |
| High Bass 100-200Hz | Building |
| Low Mid 200-400Hz | Building |
| Mid 400-1000Hz | Building |
| High-Mid 1-2kHz | Flat |
| Low Treble 2-4kHz | Flat |
| Mid Treble 4-6kHz | Flat |
| High Treble 6-10kHz | Lineal decline to 15kHz |
| Dog Whistle 10-20kHz | Off the cliff |
| Sound Signature type | This is a mid signature (bass recessed, mid boosted, treble recessed) for a clear voice. It is not for easy listening as it lacks bass (low notes are muddy or absent), and the high treble is choppy and harsh. |
| Soundstage | Definite bias to the bottom speaker impairs left/right separation. DA sound stage is quite wide and has some 3D height. |
| Comment | The sound signature is average, but it helped with a bit of high bass. Use headphones. |
| Read | How to tell if you have good music (sound signature is the key – guide). |
Build – Pass+
Motorola builds good gear and the Motorola Edge Edge 50 Neo is a perfect example. The colourways are fashionable, the vegan leather gives it a premium feel in hand, and it is a complete package with a 68W charger and colour-matched bumper cover.
To find a MIL-STD 810H phone at this price is amazing.
| Size (H X W x D) | 154.1 x 71.2 x 8.1 mm |
| Weight grams | 171 |
| Front glass | GG 3 |
| Rear material | PU/Vegan Leather |
| Frame | Plastic |
| IP rating | 68 – Liquid damage not covered under warranty 30 minutes at 1.5m MIL-STD 810H military standard |
| Colours | Pantone Poinciana Pantone Latte Pantone Grisaille |
| Pen, Stylus support | No |
| In the box | |
| Charger | 68W |
| USB cable | USB-A to USB-C 3W cable |
| Buds | No |
| Bumper cover | Yes |
| Comment | It is well-made and comes with a charger inbox (Samsung does not have one) and a colour-matched bumper cover. |
OS – Pass+
Motorola uses pure Android with a light Hello UX overlay that adds considerable value without complicating Android (we are looking at you, Samsung, with your heavy, bloated UI overlay!).
It uses all the Google apps instead of substitutes (Again, Samsung), which makes it very easy to back up the phone to Google and restore it to another Android phone. You only need a Google Account – using a Motorola Account is unnecessary.
Moto has increased its OS and security patch times to five new OS upgrades and five years of bi-monthly security patches. This policy is generous and unusual for this price bracket—we call it Edge benefits.
| Android | Android 14 |
| Security patch date | 1 September 2024 – current. |
| UI | Now Hello UX. |
| OS upgrade policy | 5 |
| Security patch policy | 5 Bi-monthly |
| Bloatware | Pure Android – all Google Apps. You can uninstall Facebook. |
| Other | Google Photos is now the default, meaning AI tools such as Magic Editor (10 free monthly uses), Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and more. |
| Comment | My UX has gone, but the functionality lives on. Moto Apps now manages most Moto features and enables simple updates. Family Space, Games, Moto Connect, Moto Secuer, Moto Unplugged, Moto Ready For. Display: Peek Display, Attentive Display Gestures: Quick capture, Fast flashlight, Three-finger screenshot, Lift to unlock, Flip for DND, Pick up to silence, Swipe to split |
| Security | |
| Fingerprint sensor location, type | Optical under glass |
| Face ID | Yes 2D only |
| Other | Lenovo ThinkShield is more for enterprise use. |
| Comment | Moto Secure – Manage network security, control app permissions, and even create a secret folder for your most sensitive data. Moto Secure info |
Motorola Edge 50 Neo rear camera – Pass+
Blow me away—a real 50 (Wide OIS)+13 (Ultra-wide/macro) + 10MP (3X optical telephoto OIS) rear camera instead of the usual suspects – 8X ultra-wide and 2X depth. In addition, the camera and SoC also support Motorola Camera AI, making point-and-shoot photography easy.
Let’s explain DXOMARK’s rating of 115. We class any phone camera over 100 as pretty good for point-and-shoot.
- The best Android cameras are the Google Pixel 9 Pro/XL, 158, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max, 157. These phones are $1500+++.
- A really good camera, like the OPPO Find X5 Pro or iPhone 14 Plus, is around 130. At the time, also $1500+.
- At 115, it joins the Samsung Galaxy S21 series and iPhone 11. It is well above the Samsung A35/55. It is still very good.
The primary sensor is a Sony LYTIA 700C. This new tech uses a smaller sensor but combines more pixels in its binning. It also has better low-light capability and a new multi-frame HDR that combines a bracket of shots to improve details in low and highlight areas. LYTIA is also better at colour saturation, faster focus and AI SteadyCam video recording.
Finally, our bugbear is solved. The 10-bit screen matches the final photo’s colour near-perfectly (Samsung’s 8-bit screens are always off-colour).
If you would like to read the Amateur Photographer camera review, it is here.
Camera test photos
Camera specs
| Rear Primary | Primary Wide |
| MP | 50MP bins to 12.5MP |
| Sensor | Sony LYTIA 700C (IMX896) |
| Focus | Quad PDAF |
| f-stop | 1.8 |
| um | 1 bins to 2 |
| FOV° (stated, actual) | 72.8 to 85.3 |
| Stabilisation | OIS |
| Zoom | 10X with a 4.2X crop factor |
| Rear 2 | Ultra-wide and Macro |
| MP | 13MP |
| Sensor | GalaxyCore GC13a2 |
| Focus | PDAF |
| f-stop | 2.2 |
| um | 1.12 |
| FOV (stated, actual) | 120 |
| Stabilisation | No |
| Zoom | No |
| Rear 3 | Telephoto |
| MP | 10MP |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3K1 |
| Focus | PDAF |
| f-stop | 2 |
| um | 1 |
| FOV (stated, actual) | ?? |
| Stabilisation | OIS |
| Zoom | 3X Optical 30X hybrid |
| Special | Moto Ai camera: moto ai processing Style sync 30x Super zoom Google Photos Editing: Magic Eraser Photo Unblur Magic Editor Portrait Blur Portrait Light Sky Colour Pop Cinematic Photos |
| Video max | 4K@30fps |
| Flash | Yes |
| Auto-HDR | Yes LYTIA enhanced |
| Modes: Ultra-Res Portrait (24mm/35mm/50mm/85mm) Pro 360° Panorama Night Vision Adobe Scan Burst shot Timer RAW HDR Tilt-shift Google Auto Enhance | |
| QR code reader | Via Google Lens |
| Night mode | AI |
| DXO Mark | 115 – details here |
Motorola Edge 50 Neo Selfie – Pass+
Again, it has a decent 32MP sensor that bins to 8.1MP. Its colours and skin tones are accurate, and it takes a very nice selfie, perfect for one or two people.
| Front | Selfie |
| MP | 32MP bins to 8.1MP |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KJD1 |
| Focus | Fixed |
| f-stop | 2.4 |
| um | .7 bins to 1.4 |
| FOV (stated, actual) | 70 to 82.3 |
| Stabilisation | No |
| Flash | Screen fill |
| Zoom | No |
| Video max | 4K@30fps |
| Features | Modes: Photo booth Pro RAW Google Auto Enhance Moto AI camera: moto ai processing Capture methods: Auto Smile Capture Gesture Capture Tap anywhere to capture Front Camera Video Software Modes: Live Filters Slow motion Moto Ai camera: Adaptive Stabilisation |
CyberShack’s view – The Motorola Edge 50 Neo could/should sell for much more
Go back a year or two, and to get a similar featured phone, especially in the camera area, you would have been looking at $1000+. To bring all the features in at $699 is impressive.
In part, it reflects Motorola’s desire to be one of the more significant players in the smartphone market, and it has OPPO and Samsung in its sights. Motorola also wants offerings in every niche, from its excellent workhorse G-series to the mid-range, verging on flagship Edge-series, and its Razr 50, the best flip phone by far in 2024.
It also reflects that Motorola (well, Lenovo) owns its manufacturing facilities and can control more of the supply chain, allowing it to mix and match components to hit price point sweet spots.
Whatever it is, please keep doing it as it works!
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is perfect for city and suburb dwellers who want a premium phone at 50% of a premium price.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo ratings
2024 ratings use a pass mark of 70/100, so we have headroom to reward class-leading and excellence. If you are reading earlier reviews, just deduct 10 points for parity.
| Features | 85 |
| It has everything a city/suburb dweller could want: a great point-and-shoot camera, good battery life (with a 68W charger inbox), and a nice design/colourways. | |
| Value | 85 |
| It is good value with 12/256GB RAM/Storage, IP68, MIL-STD 810H and a nice design. | |
| Performance | 75 |
| MediaTek is a good mid-range processor, but its modem is only for city and suburb dwellers. | |
| Ease of Use | 85 |
| The two-year warranty is excellent. Add five OS upgrades and four years of security patch upgrades; this is a keeper. As most will not keep a phone this long, we regard Samsung’s 2+7+7 as nice but unnecessary. | |
| Design | 85 |
| Flat screen, nice colours and vegan backs | |
| Rating out of 10 | 83 |
| Final comment | Motorola has done it again with a $699 class leader with Edge 50 series benefits. |
