Motorola Edge 50 Neo

Although Motorola's product catalogue has become a bit inflated, it's hard not to respect their overall design philosophy. Their smartphones are often competitively priced, they are widely available in most parts of the world, they take more chances than most on the design front (especially with their foldable devices) and their Android skin is downright minimalist.

The latest addition is the Motorola Edge 50 Neo, and the Neo series in particular is a bit of a funny size as it has to squeeze in between the regular Edge 50 and the slightly more expensive Edge 50 Pro. Yes, as I said, it's a bit of a tight line-up, but the essence is that there are a number of aspects that apply to several other Motorola Edge phones.

First of all, all the fundamentals are in place for a price starting at £399. We're talking IP68 certification (and MIL-STD-810), Gorilla Glass, a decent 4310mAh battery and 15 watts of wireless charging. There's an optical fingerprint reader, 68 watts of wireless charging and three separate camera lenses - there's nothing really missing here, that's for sure.

Under the hood we find a Mediatek Dimensity 7300 SoC, which is quite reliable, but also used in phones that are significantly cheaper, such as Nothings CMF Phone 1, and this is combined with up to 12GB RAM and 512GB UFS space. It is, in other words, perfectly fine, fancy without being flashy so to speak, and we doubt you'll notice the more affordable chipsets even in a few Android platform upgrades later.

Motorola's displays have always been a highlight, and the same is true here. We're talking an LTPO P-OLED in 1256x2760 pixels and a screen size of 6.4 inches. It also offers 120Hz, HDR10+ support and a brightness that peaks at 3000 NITS. This is something similar to what you would expect from a flagship, and what's more, it works magnificently in practice. The screen is readable in all lighting conditions, is both responsive and sharp, and of course offers the deep contrast we've come to expect from OLED panels. Combined with fine stereo speakers, it's hard to complain about performance, display and sound.

It's getting harder and harder to find something subtle to say about what MrMobile calls 'slab-style phones', because we've really reached a design plateau where nothing much happens inside or out between generations. The Edge 50 Neo is fast and responsive, offers all the features you'd expect, but aside from the aforementioned exciting Pantone collaboration that ensures the phone can look better than most, it's also conservative. Although it sounds like a rhetorical own goal; you know what you're getting into, for better or worse.

The rear camera system is something Motorola is particularly smug about in their marketing. It's the recognisable trinity of a 50 megapixel standard wide with PDAF and optical stabilisation, a 10 megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom for portraits and finally a 13 megapixel 120 degree ultra-wide. It's actually more than adequate, as these more budget-friendly phones often skip one of the two, or replace one with an unimportant macro. This is versatile, it's functional, and so far, so good. What they're particularly happy about is the implementation of Sony's LYTIA sensor, specifically a 700C on the central 50 megapixel wide. This is one of the newer camera sensors from Sony and should allow much better capture of special light. Furthermore, Motorola has of course jumped on the AI bandwagon with 'moto ai image processing'. This is basically something similar to the kind of suite that either Apple, Samsung or Google offer, emphasising contrast, offering more dynamic range and extending sharpness after the image is taken, and of course Motorola also makes use of many of the AI technologies that are built in as part of Android.

In other words, it's a mix of gimmicks and functionality, and it's up to you as the user to sort it out. What we can say, however, is that for a little less money than the usual flagship, you get a lot of versatility for your money here, with three different lenses that all work as intended and have a fairly even colour chemistry between them.

Overall, the Neo variant this year stands out as the best value for money, and apart from a slightly forgettable design, and the creeping feeling that we're really hitting a design plateau among smartphones, this is a slam dunk.