Top Motorola smartphones tested and reviewed

The top-end Motorola Edge 40 Pro may not excel in any one particular area, but it provides a good balance of power, camera ability and charging tech that makes it a tempting choice at the premium end of the smartphone market. 

That means the Edge 40 Pro ticks all the boxes for what a flagship smartphone in 2024 should offer, including IP68 dust and water resistance, a combination of glass and aluminium that looks high-end, if not a little minimalistic, stereo speaker support and a suitably capable display.

More specifically, the Edge 40 Pro sports a flagship-grade 6.7-inch pOLED display with a subtle curvature. The 165Hz refresh rate is among the fastest on the market and one of few non-gaming phones to offer the tech, delivering a buttery-smooth scrolling experience while being able to display plenty of frames in high-performance games, too.

Speaking of, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 within proves a capable flagship chipset, with the Edge 40 Pro able to take on much of the 2024 flagship competition in benchmark tests. In everyday use, it’s rapid and responsive with no signs of stutter or lag, as you’d expect from a phone at this price point.

Throw in a near-stock version of Android with only genuinely helpful additions from Motorola, a triple camera setup comprised of a 50MP primary, 50MP ultrawide and 12MP 2x telephoto, rapid 120W charging that delivers a full charge in 20 minutes, and you’ve got a solid all-rounder.  

Update (May 2024): We expect the new top-end Motorola Edge 50 Ultra to take the Motoroola Edge 40 Pro’s top slot in this chart, but we can’t say for sure until we’ve reviewed the phone.

Reviewer: Andrew Williams

Review: Motorola Edge 40 Pro review

As well as the standard candybar-esque smartphones we all know and love, Motorola has dabbled in foldable tech over the past few years. The culmination of that work is the Razr 40 Ultra, the company’s top-end clamshell foldable that’s both sleek and surprisingly capable.

The Razr 40 Ultra set itself apart from the competition at launch with its sizeable 3.6-inch cover display. Samsung followed suit not long after with the Flip 5’s 3.4-inch cover display, but Motorola’s remains the more useful with the ability to run any app you’d like on the cover display, negating the need to unfold the phone for specific tasks.

Unfold the phone and you’ll be greeted by a gorgeous 6.9-inch pOLED display with no crease visible in daily use. The 165Hz refresh rate is the fastest on a foldable at the time of publishing, and while it is large, it folds down to something extremely pocketable when not in use.

The cameras, twin 12MP primary and ultrawide lenses, offer a solid shooting experience even if it isn’t quite up to the standards of similarly priced regular flagships, and while the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 isn’t the best on the market, it still provides snappy everyday performance regardless of what you’re up to. 

If you want something a little different from your next smartphone, the Razr 40 Ultra is a strong option.

Reviewer: Lewis Painter

Review: Motorola Razr 40 Ultra 

The Motorola Edge 50 Pro, despite the Pro branding, is Motorola’s latest mid-ranger. Sporting a similar design and specs not too dissimilar to the top-end Motorola Edge 50 Ultra, it’s a tempting buy for anyone who puts a premium on design, screen tech, camera performance and charge speed.

For starters, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro sets itself apart from the mid-range competition with a gorgeous vegan leather finish that envelops the camera bump for a rather unique look. It’s also available in an attractive Luxe Lavender or toned-down Black Beaty finish, and if vegan leather isn’t your thing, there’s also a pearl polymer finish dubbed Moonlight Pearl. Throw in a slim, lightweight frame and IP68 dust and water resistance and there’s very little to complain about in the design department.

It’s not just a looker, however; the curved 6.7-inch OLED screen is every bit just as premium, with key specs including a rapid 144Hz refresh rate, a maximum brightness of 2000nits, support for premium formats like HDR10+ and 10-bit colour and a pixel-packed 1.2K resolution. This all combines to deliver a great viewing experience, regardless of whether you’re gaming or catching up on Netflix.

The camera setup, though not quite as capable as that of the Edge 50 Ultra, still boasts a capable offering. The 50MP main camera is the best of the bunch, with key specs including a wide 1/1.55-inch sensor and f/1.4 aperture, and that’s accompanied not only by a 13MP ultrawide but a 12MP 3x telephoto lens. That’s a real rarity in the mid-range market, even if it can’t quite complete with true flagship telephoto lenses.

Charging is some of the fastest around, boasting the same 125W fast charging tech as its flagship sibling, and that translated to a full charge in just 20 minutes in our tests. What’s more, the 125W charger comes in the box, and you can’t say that about some flagships.

That’s all pretty impressive, but what the Edge 50 Pro is not is, ironically, a powerhouse of processing power. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 found within the phone is fine for day-to-day use, but benchmarks suggest you’ll get the same amount of power as the likes of the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G which retails at £150 less.

Reviewer: Lewis Painter

Review: Motorola Edge 50 Pro review

If you’re looking for exceptional value for money, look no further than the £299 Motorola Edge 40 Neo. In simple terms, it doesn’t look, feel or perform like you’d expect from a sub-£300 smartphone. 

For one, it’s incredibly stylish with a vegan leather finish and a range of Pantone-certified colours including Soothing Sea and Caneel Bay. Throw in a curved 6.5-inch 144Hz pOLED screen and an IP68-protected lightweight design that measures in at just 7.8mm thick and 172g, and you’ve got something that clearly stands out from the crowd. 

It’s not just a looker either; the aforementioned display provides a solid experience, whether gaming or scrolling endlessly through TikTok, with vibrant colours and inky blacks that OLED tech is known for. 

The performance from the Dimensity 7030 won’t be able to compete with flagships, but it outpaces the similarly priced competition and, importantly, still delivers smooth everyday performance with no notable slowdown. It also has ample 256GB of storage as standard, plenty of room for apps, photos and videos. 

Couple that with a capable camera offering comprised of a 50MP main with OIS and a 13MP ultrawide, all-day battery life and 68W charging with a 68W charger in the box, and you’ve got one of the best value smartphones around, Motorola-branded or not. 

Reviewer: Lewis Painter

Review: Motorola Edge 40 Neo review

Motorola is famous for its wide array of cheap smartphones, which can make it hard to decide which is best for your needs. For most people, the £249 Moto G84 5G is the perfect option, blending its budget focus with more premium tech than you might expect. 

The phone is undoubtedly striking, with vibrant Pantone-certified colours including Viva Magenta, 2023’s colour of the year, that help it stand out from a packed budget market, with its vegan leather rear providing a nice grippiness while also feeling more premium than the plastic alternative. 

The 6.5-inch FHD+ pOLED display is another outlier for the price, with a 120Hz refresh rate and a solid maximum brightness of 1300nits that shines brighter than the budget competition. It can be a little too vibrant in its default setting, but the Natural colour mode was much more appealing.

The G84 5G has a surprisingly capable 50MP 1/1.5” primary sensor with OIS found in more premium options from Motorola like the Moto Razr 2022 and Edge 30 Fusion. That’ll deliver surprisingly great shots that, while won’t compete with flagship alternatives, are more than enough for sharing on social media.

There are weaknesses here that hint at the phone’s price point – it only gets one OS upgrade, and there’s middling performance from the Snapdragon 695 chipset – and that makes the Edge 40 Neo seem a more tempting option at just £50 more, but if your budget simply can’t reach that far, the Moto G84 5G remains a good budget choice. 

If you’re looking for something even more budget-friendly, we were also impressed with the £150 Moto G54 5G.

Reviewer: Jon Mundy

Review: Motorola Moto G84 5G review