Motorola Edge 40 Pro

We've given out big 10s to several Motorola phones over the past few years, and in hindsight, it's actually incredibly easy to stand by each and every one of those marks. Motorola may still live under the radar compared to similar Android manufacturers like OnePlus and Google, but they deserve more attention.

But the puzzling thing is that not all Motorola models are equally good at illustrating exactly what the manufacturer can do, and usually they get worse and worse the more expensive they get, as they have to stand up to higher expectations from worldwide consumers.

Motorola is now in full swing launching their Edge 40 series, and they start with the Edge 40 Pro. It is expected that there will also be an Ultra, a regular Edge 40 and possibly also a much cheaper Lite model in the series.

Okay, so let's start by getting the specs out of the way. We're looking at a slightly traditional, or maybe just boring design with an aluminum frame and matte black back. Up front we have Gorilla Glass Victus and an IP68 certification protects against dust and water. Inside we have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 12GB of RAM and UFS 4.0 storage of either 256 or 512GB. The battery is 4600mAh and supports up to 125 watts of charging via a charger you get in the box, or 15 watts of wireless charging. The display is a 6.67-inch OLED panel in 2400x1800 with a 165Hz refresh rate that supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.

Phew, that was a lot. Despite the slightly higher refresh rate, it's all "par for the course", as they say, because there is not a single specification or gimmick that immediately distinguishes the Edge 40 Pro from the myriad of other flagships from the primary Android competitors. It even costs approximately £799.99, which places it side by side with the Google Pixel 7 Pro, Xiaomi 12 Pro, OnePlus 11, you name it.

As the market has stagnated, it has become harder to separate the competitors, and apart from some pretty nice extra features via MotoDisplay, Motorola has little more than rock-solid specs, a good reputation and a relatively competitive price.

That's not to neglect the joys of solid specs, though. Take the display as an example - it's dynamic, colour-correct, beautiful to both play games and consume other forms of visual content on, and exceedingly responsive. The phone is quite light, feels great in the hand, and combined with lightning-fast charging, cool Dolby-tuned stereo speakers and a completely clean Android install, there's no aspect of the user experience that isn't top notch.

The camera is the same story. We have a 50 megapixel main sensor with optical stabilization, a 50 megapixel ultra-wide, which is only 114 degrees (not good enough, Motorola) and a 12 megapixel telephoto with 2x optical, which is also relatively small. There is the possibility of 8K recordings if you love it, and one lens doubles as a macro. There's even a 60-megapixel selfie sensor on the front, which uses Qualcomm's new CISP technology to analyze layers in the image and create better depth.

The images are pretty good across the board. Like so many other phones, the phone uses "binning" on the main lens so the images are 12 megapixels, and they retain fine detail and solid color chemistry. Of course, these lenses require relatively solid lighting conditions, and Motorola can't perform the same magic as Google, Apple, and maybe Samsung when the sun starts to set.

That may sound like an unfair summation of something that took countless man-hours to construct. So perhaps it's worth reiterating that the Motorola Edge 40 Pro is a rock-solid phone. It's better than just "good", and it's also easy to recommend to anyone who wants a reliable all-rounder without all the fluff that comes with a Samsung Galaxy S23+. But it's only becoming increasingly clear that Android manufacturers need to push the boundaries and find a way to differentiate themselves.