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Motorola Edge 50 Neo: Two-minute review
If you’re in the market for a phone in the budget to mid-range price bracket, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo could be your ideal pocket-sized companion. This fairly diminutive handset packs in a sharp AMOLED display, solid battery life and an eye-catching design in one well-priced package. Specifically, this phone is typically priced at £399 / AU$699 (about $500).
Before I delve into all of the wild and wonderful particularities of the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, let’s establish something quickly. You will not be getting a game-changing performance out of this little guy. Its MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor is more than good enough for social media scrolling, messaging and all the usual day-to-day stuff, but if you want top-of-the-range gaming performance, for instance, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
I experienced some occasional lag when testing out more demanding software, such as Genshin Impact – even when using the Turbo mode on Motorola GameTime – the phone’s performance management tool for gaming. So, if you want a major powerhouse for this sort of activity, make sure to check out our guide to the best phones, where we’ll run you through the best devices for your high-performance needs.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s get into the niceties. Something that’s super enjoyable about the Edge 50 Neo is the unique colour options you can procure it in. There are a range of colourways to choose from, curated by Pantone – including a sleek Grisaille and loud Poinciana – but really there’s something for everyone… unless you want a basic Black or White.
This phone also comes with a case that matches the colour you select – pretty neat. Partner that with its IP68 waterproof rating and you’re looking at a surprisingly durable device.
Design-wise, this phone may divide opinion, but not just due to its tasty array of colours. It’s pretty diminutive, sporting a 6.4-inch display and generally small-sized body. Even the side buttons are mini and not very spaced out, making this handset ideal for younger users, but not so much for people like me with medium-large-sized mitts.
But anyway, there are some undeniable strengths within this small mobile companion. For instance, the AMOLED display is pleasingly vibrant, sharp and bright. I found it plenty good enough for watching video content in 2160p, in HDR and at lower quality as well. There are display options available too if you want a more natural-looking or vivid replication of colours, meaning you can really make this device your own.
Another big plus is the battery life available. The 4,310mAh capacity battery may seem unremarkable, but it’s plenty enough and gave me a full day of use, even after gaming and streaming high-quality video. On top of that, you have access to 15W wireless and impressive 68W wired charging, enabling you to bring the Edge 50 Neo back to life in no time at all.
It’s also nice and easy to use thanks to the simplicity of Android (version 14 out of the box). Motorola promises five OS upgrades and five years of security updates too, so you don’t have to worry about the handset being left behind after a year or two – not always a given!
Finally, the cameras are up-to-scratch and produce vibrant, clear pictures that you can share with family and friends. The inclusion of a telephoto sensor even means you get decent 3x zoom, which similarly priced competitors don’t always offer. You won’t be wowed by microscopic levels of detail or amazing low-light performance, but the cameras are more than adequate nonetheless.
There are some minor hold-ups with this device. The phone’s speakers produce pretty poor-sounding audio, there aren’t many exciting AI features (if you’re into that) and there are occasional lapses in performance. But, all in all, this is a competent budget to mid-range option that, in many ways, punches above its weight. Given it’s often available at a discount, I would recommend the Motorola Edge 50 Neo – just so long as you don’t expect cutting… edge computing power.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Price and availability
- £399 / AU$699 (about $500)
- Launched in 2024
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo was announced alongside three other models, the Motorola Moto G55 5G, G35 5G and Edge 50. The Edge 50 Neo released in 2024 and is typically priced at £399 / AU$699 (about $500).
In the UK, you can grab it in five different colour variants: Grisaille (metallic blue); Lattè (cream); Mocha-Mousee (brown); Nautical Blue; and Poinciana (an orange-tinted red). I tested Poinciana, but this colourway seemingly isn’t available in Australia – only Grisaille and Lattè are listed on the Lenovo website and Amazon AU.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Specs
|
Dimensions |
154.1 x 71.2 x 8.1mm |
|
Weight |
171g |
|
Screen |
6.4-inch AMOLED |
|
Resolution |
2670 x 1220 |
|
Refresh rate |
120Hz |
|
Chipset |
MediaTek Dimensity 7300 |
|
RAM |
8GB |
|
Storage |
256GB |
|
OS |
Android 14 (at launch) |
|
Rear cameras |
50MP f/1.8 main; 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide; 10MP f/2.0 telephoto |
|
Front camera |
32MP f/3.2 |
|
Battery |
4310mAh |
|
Charging |
68W wired charging; 15W wireless |
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Design
- Fairly small build
- Unique colour options curated by Pantone
- Solid case comes in the box
There aren’t a whole lot of phones that look like the Motorola Edge 50 Neo. Firstly, its exterior is made of vegan leather, which is pleasing to touch and decent on the eye. The edges of this model are metallic and all of its three buttons are positioned on its right side. That’s practical if you’re playing a fast-paced game and don’t want to accidentally press power off or adjust volume controls, though I do wish the buttons were slightly larger or at least more spaced apart.
But something that really stands out is the Edge 50 Neo’s colour options, which are curated by Pantone. If you’re in the UK, this device is available in five colourways: Grisaille (metallic blue); Lattè (cream); Mocha-Mousee (brown); Nautical Blue; and Poinciana (an orange-tinted red).
That’s a big departure from the classics like black, grey and white. I’ll be honest, I didn’t love the Poinciana variant I tested – it’s awkwardly stuck between a dark orange and red colour. But I love the look of Grisaille and Mocha-Mousse, so there really is an option for anyone.
Practicality-wise, though, this is a great little phone – heavy on the little. That’s right, this is a pretty small handset – significantly more diminutive than my everyday phone, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. It’s also pretty lightweight at just 171g. Of course, if you’re someone with larger hands, the Edge 50 Neo’s restricted size may feel slightly inconvenient, but for a youngster or smaller-mitted individual, it will suit very nicely.
I was grateful for one aspect of the Edge 50 Neo’s design too – the raised area designated for its cameras is pretty subtle. That means that if you’re using the phone on a flat surface, like a table or desk, it won’t rock around like the more budget-friendly Motorola Moto G55 5G. That remains the case if you attach the included case, which colour-matches the variant you order. This solid case is a very neat inclusion for a model that’s already available at a fantastic low price.
One more neat nugget worth noting – this phone is IP68-rated. That means that its dustproof and can withstand being submerged in 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes – pretty cool right?! Overall, this is a practical, albeit small-sized phone with plenty of character to boot.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Display
- 6.4-inch AMOLED display
- Supports HDR
- Very solid 3,000 nit peak brightness
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo has a fairly small 6.4-inch display, which some will love and others…not so much. Personally, I would prefer a bit more room to play with, especially for watching movies and playing games. But if you’re a fan of the slimmer build, there’s plenty to love about the Edge 50 Neo’s display.
Firstly, it uses AMOLED tech and can reach a peak brightness of 3,000 nits – that’s very impressive for a phone in this price range. Brightness auto adjusts out of the box and this worked decently well in my experience, rarely getting too dark when I was in low-light spaces. And even when having the phone on its home screen, I was instantly struck by the impressive brightness on offer; there’ll be plenty, even for sun-filled areas.
Additionally, colours look vibrant and eye-catching on the Edge 50 Neo. It supports HDR video content and can showcase resolutions up to 2160p and although there are more dazzling displays out there – like that of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – the Edge 50 Neo’s screen still impressed me. I tried watching a video about wildlife in Costa Rica on YouTube, which came in 2160p HDR. The azure ocean, emerald leaves and scarlet flowers all looked surprisingly true-to-life on this small screen and colours really popped.
However, if you don’t love the way colours look on the Edge 50 Neo, you can switch from the default Vivid mode to either Natural or Radiant in Settings. I stuck with Vivid to get a bit more saturation, but each option works well. There’s even an option to adjust colour temperature to warm, cool or custom using a colour wheel, meaning there’s plenty of personalisation at your fingertips.
Like many phones, the display turns off too quickly after inactivity – leave it for one minute and you can say night night to that article you were looking at. But luckily there are two solutions here. You can manually adjust the screen timeout in settings – from 15 seconds up to 30 minutes to be exact. Or alternatively, you can activate Attentive Display, which keeps the screen on if the front camera detects you looking at it. Don’t worry, images aren’t stored or sent to Motorola, so you can use this feature in peace.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Software
- Runs Android 14 out of the box
- Five OS upgrades, five years of security updates
- Lacks much in the way of AI tools
The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is, at its foundation, an Android device. Specifically, this model runs Android 14 out of the box, which many of you will be familiar with – it’s an easy-to-use OS with more customisability than say, devices using iOS. At the time of writing, an Android 15 update is available for Edge 50 Neo users too.
Motorola has promised five Android OS upgrades for the Edge 50 Neo – that’s far superior to the two years promised for the Moto G55 5G or even the three years guaranteed for the Motorola Edge 50 Pro. On top of that, the manufacturer has pledged that this model will receive five years worth of security upgrades – for a phone in this price range, that’s very decent indeed.
There are some of Motorola’s own touches to be found here, though, thanks to its integration of Hello UI. When you fire the phone up for the first time, this enables you to make some personal touches to your device, like choosing between buttons or gestures for navigation and Light, Dark, or Adaptive brightness modes. Motorola’s UI also offers gesture controls and security features like ‘pick up to silence’ or secure folders – pretty handy.
Something that slightly annoyed me, though, was the pre-installed software present on the Edge 50 Neo. Don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t a slew of bloatware to contest with, but I didn’t really want or need Raid, Happy Colour or Monopoly Go. I certainly didn’t want Temu either – get that out of my sight! As I’ve said before, if I want an app, I can download it myself. Sure, stuff like Google, Gmail and YouTube is welcome, but I really don’t want much more from the off.
One aspect that the Motorola Edge 50 Neo lacks is a large suite of specialised AI software. You won’t get the most flashy photo editing or generative tools that Apple or Samsung have integrated with their newer devices, so if that’s a must for you, the Edge 50 Neo might be worth skipping.
Personally, I really didn’t miss the AI software; after all, I never use features like Sketch to AI, smart translation tools and Chat/Call assist on my Samsung phone. There is a Magic Eraser tool available, but honestly, it’s a bit unreliable and often made my photos look blurry when objects were removed. There’s also an option to create a wallpaper using AI – either based on a photo you take or keyword you input. Honestly, this didn’t impress me much at all, results were… mixed, often looking a bit jumbled. I think I’ll just stick to a photo of my cat for now.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Cameras
- Solid mid-range performance
- Includes 10MP telephoto snapper
- Don’t expect ultra-crisp results
OK, I’ll be upfront – the Motorola Edge 50 Neo isn’t going to wow you with the stunning quality cameras seen from the likes of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max or OnePlus 13.
But for a mid-range phone, it does perform decently, offering a 50MP and 13MP main and ultra-wide camera respectively, as well as a 10MP telephoto sensor – something you won’t get from rivals like the Samsung Galaxy A55 or Google Pixel 8a. There’s also a respectable 32MP front camera included in the mix for sharp-looking selfies.
When taking photos outside during the day, quality was solid. The main camera harnesses adaptive stabilisation, which adjusts for movements when filming or shooting stills. Camera software includes HDR too, meaning you get high-quality images that rarely look blurry. A book shop I snapped in my neighbourhood had a true-to-life scarlet red colour and the image looked plenty bright.
Of course, you get 3x zoom from this phone’s telephoto sensor and there’s up to 30x super zoom available also, which is powered by Moto AI. But don’t expect amazing quality on these zoomed photos. I often found when taking a closer look at these images, that there was a bit of blurriness and finer details, like feathers on a pigeon, looked a tad blocky. The selfie camera is good, though. Skin tones look accurate, you can see individual hairs clearly and my eye-colour looked pretty accurate too.
On top of these zoom issues, I’d argue this camera isn’t primed too well for low-light conditions. At night, objects looked clear enough when using the main rear camera, but I did find that details on smaller objects could appear slightly blurred, especially after zooming in.
But there are things you can do to prime the Edge 50 Neo’s cameras for different lighting or different settings thanks to the inclusion of multiple photo modes. These include Night Vision, Spot Colour and Pro – you can also add filters like Black & White, Film and Romantic.
Finally, video quality on the Edge 50 Neo is very solid. You can film in up to 4K at 30 fps or 60 fps in Full HD with either the rear or front camera, meaning you’ll get excellent motion and picture quality. Again, this is boosted by Motorola’s AI-enabled auto stabilisation software.
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Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Performance
- Typically smooth user experience
- 8GB of RAM
- Bad audio
You may have seen this coming, but performance isn’t exactly the Motorola Edge 50 Neo’s strong suit. Don’t get me wrong, this device is more than capable of handling day-to-day activities like watching video content, scrolling social media or making calls. But if you want peak performance, it’s not going to be the right pick for you.
This phone is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset – the same mid-range processor you’ll find in the great Oppo Reno 12 Pro. If you’re not a massive gamer or anything, this processor has the legs to power your digital life with ease. When adjusting settings, using Google Chrome or playing lighter games, like Solitaire, the Edge 50 Neo held its own with little sign of struggle.
However, when things got a bit more demanding, I did pick up on a few lapses in quality. For instance, I downloaded Genshin Impact from the Google Play store and found that some loading screens or more high-octane action sequences caused a bit of lag – even on the lowest graphic settings and frame rate capped at 30fps. I would still say, though, that the game was more than playable – and given its a more demanding title – you’re not going to expect peak performance.
Gaming performance can be improved slightly thanks to Motorola GameTime – the menu for which automatically appears on the side of the screen. You can switch between Battery Saving, Balanced, or Turbo (top-performance mode). At its best, this phone can offer 120fps thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate. It also has 8GB of RAM, which again, will be more than enough for multi-tab, multi-application use.
One aspect of performance that disappointed me a bit was audio. The phone’s built-in speakers are pretty poor and when listening to Genshin’s soundtrack or playing music, I was met with a fair amount of tinniness and harshness – particularly at higher volumes. It’s totally fine for Bluetooth and wired listening, though, supporting the LDAC hi-res codec, Dolby Atmos and USB-C listening if you have compatible earbuds, such as the SoundMagic E80D.
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Battery life
- Solid overall battery life
- Impressive 68W wired charging
- Also has 15W wireless charging
At a glance, you may think the Motorola Edge 50 Neo has pretty average battery life. After all, its battery capacity is a fairly middling 4310mAh – smaller than competitors like the Samsung Galaxy A55 and Google Pixel 8a.
But don’t be deceived. Thanks to a fairly regimented processor and effective energy efficiency measures, you’ll find the Edge 50 Neo has plenty of life. During one day of particularly heavy use, I downloaded and played the massive Genshin Impact, watched an hour or two of YouTube in 2160p HDR and browsed the web. That still didn’t kill it off – you’ll have enough life here for a day’s use in my experience.
I won’t pretend this phone has the best battery life on the market. After all, there are models out there like the Asus Rog Phone 9 Pro, which has an outrageous amount of stamina packed into its 5,800mAh battery. But at this price, there’s more than enough battery to get you through a day of gaming, streaming and note-taking.
One area that did impress me was the Motorola Edge 50 Neo’s charging abilities. This thing supports wireless charging, up to 15W – pretty standard. But it also supports wired charging up to 68W – that’s much more than you’d get from even some of the best iPhones or best Samsung phones.
I was able to get from 0% to 50% in just over 15 minutes at full charging capacity using the UGreen Uno Charger 100W. That’s fantastic if you’re in a rush and really need some extra juice. Getting to 100% took around 45 minutes overall, which is considerably faster than some great mid-range options like the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE.
- Battery life score: 4.5/5
Should I buy the Motorola Edge 50 Neo?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Design |
Size and colours may divide opinion but its practicality is undeniable. |
4/5 |
|
Display |
A little small and not market-leading but plenty vibrant and detailed. |
4/5 |
|
Software |
Good OS and security upgrade pledges, decent UI, limited AI tools. |
4/5 |
|
Cameras |
Non-market leading, but sharp quality with telephoto included. |
4/5 |
|
Performance |
Ideal for lighter use, can struggle with demanding games, audio not great. |
3.5/5 |
|
Battery life |
68W wired charging, wireless charging, impressively long lasting. |
4.5/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: Also consider
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Motorola Edge 50 Neo |
Samsung Galaxy A55 |
Google Pixel 8a |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Price |
£399 / AU$699 (about $500) |
£439 / AU$699 (about $550) |
$499 / £499 / AU$849 |
|
Dimensions |
154.1 x 71.2 x 8.1mm |
161.1 x 77.4 x 8.2mm |
152.1 x 72.7 x 8.9 mm |
|
Weight |
171g |
213g |
188g |
|
Cameras |
50MP main; 13MP ultra-wide; 10MP telephoto |
50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, 5MP macro |
64MP main; 13MP ultra-wide |
|
Battery |
4,310mAh |
5,000mAh |
4,492mAh |
Motorola Edge 50 Neo review: How I tested
- Tested for one week
- Used at work and in day-to-day life
- Assessed gaming, camera and call performance, among other things
I tested the Motorola Edge 50 Neo for a week in a wide range of environments, including the office, at home and when I was out and about.
During each testing day, I used the phone intensively. I listened to music on Tidal, played mobile games like Genshin Impact and surfed the net. Really, I just tried to mess around with as many of the Edge 50 Neo’s features as possible, ensuring I flicked through all the key options in Settings, like Motorola GameTime.
Finally, I tested the Edge 50 Neo’s camera outside, at home and in the office. This meant that I could capture photos in natural light or in low-lit areas to fairly judge quality across the board.
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harry.padoan@futurenet.com (Harry Padoan)
