Motorola unveiled two new devices today – a member of the premium X-series and what will probably be the cheapest 5G phone from the company for the foreseeable future. These are launching in China for now, but should make their way to the rest of the world in some form later on.
The old X30 Pro was an interesting
combination of powerful hardware and a reasonable price tag. This new model,
the Motorola Moto X40, doesn’t call itself a “pro”, but it nevertheless dials
up the power with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and a 165Hz display –
Motorola sure loves its high refresh rate displays.
The display has a 6.7” diagonal and 1,080
x 2,400px resolution. It is a 10-bit panel with HDR10+ support and DC dimming.
The fingerprint reader is under the display now rather than being mounted on
the side. This is Motorola’s first 165Hz display and with the powerful Adreno
740 GPU it might draw people away from pricey gaming phones.
Pro or not, the X40 boasts 125W wired
charging and it features wireless charging too – only at 15W, thought, down
from 50W on the X30 Pro. Still, non-Pro Motos usually skip it altogether. If
you need to charge the phone as fast as possible, the wired charger will get
you from a dead battery to 50% in just 7 minutes. The battery capacity is
4,600mAh, by the way, basically the same as the old Pro. Similar reasoning
applies to the camera – instead of a 200MP main sensor, the X40 is equipped
with a 50MP sensor (1/1.56”). It has OIS, 1.0µm native pixels with 4-in-1
binning support. That leaves the door open for a flagship model in the X40
series.
Next to the main cam is a ultra wide-angle
lens (117°) with a 50MP sensor (1.3µm pixels). This one has autofocus, so it
can shoot macro images from 2.5cm/1”. Also on board is 2x portrait camera with
a 12MP sensor (IMX663, 1.22µm pixels). For selfies there is a 60MP selfie
camera with a centered punch hole. Main sensor aside, this setup is quite
similar to the X30 Pro.
Going back to the chipset, it is the
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and it is cooled by an 11-layer setup that includes a vapor
chamber (3,002mm² in size). The chipset is paired with 8/12GB of LPDDR5X RAM
and 128, 256 or even 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. This is a dual SIM phone, there
is no room for a microSD slot. No 3.5mm jack either, but that was the case for
the 2021 model as well. The new one launches with Android 13/My UI 5.0 out of
the box.
The X40 makes its resilience against water
official with an IP68 rating (it can survive 1.5m/5ft under water for 30
minutes). The mid-frame is made out of 7000-series aluminum, the rear is
covered with Gorilla Glass Victus with a soft-touch finish (available in Blue
and Black). We’re not sure if that applies to the front as well, the details
provided by Motorola are vague. Anyway, the phone measures 8.6mm thick and
weighs 199g, roughly the same as its predecessor.
The Motorola Moto X40 has an official IP68
rating • Gorilla Glass Victus with a soft touch finish on the back The Motorola
Moto X40 has an official IP68 rating • Gorilla Glass Victus with a soft touch
finish on the back. The Motorola Moto X40 is on pre-order in China right now,
shipping is set to begin on December 22. The base 8/128GB model starts at CNY
3,400 (US$ 490/€ 460/₹ 40,500). For comparison, the Moto X30 Pro (which served as
the basis for the global Edge 30 Ultra) started at CNY 3,700 for an 8/128GB
model. There are other configurations on offer too: 8/256GB for CNY 3,700,
12/256GB for CNY 4,000 and 12/512GB for CNY 4,300.
