Motorola unveiled two new smartphones – the new flagship Motorola Moto X40 and what is likely to be the company’s most affordable 5G phone for the foreseeable future, the Moto G53. Both models will initially only start in China, but should later find their way to the rest of the world under a different name. The X40 should go on a world tour as the Motorola Edge 40 Pro.
Motorola Moto X40
The old X30 Pro/Edge 30 Ultra was an attractive combination of powerful hardware and a good price. The Motorola Moto X40 may not have a Pro in its name, but it still offers absolute premium features with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and a 165 Hz display. The display has a diagonal of 6.7 inches and a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels. It is a 10-bit panel with HDR10+ support and DC dimming. The fingerprint sensor is now under the display, Motorola’s first 165 Hz panel. The graphics are handled by the powerful Adreno 740 GPU.
The X40 charges at an extremely fast 125 watts via cable, so it’s a little surprising that wireless charging is only available at 15 watts. Especially since the X30 Pro already reached 50 watts wirelessly. With a cable you can go from an empty battery to 50% in just 7 minutes. The battery capacity is pretty much identical to the old Pro at 4,600 mAh. The same applies to the camera. Instead of a 200 megapixel main sensor, the X40 is equipped with a 50 megapixel sensor with 1/1.56 inch. It features OIS and native 1.0 µm pixels with 4-in-1 binning.
Next to the main camera is an ultra-wide lens with a 117-degree field of view and also 50 megapixels (1.3 µm pixels). Autofocus is also on board, which enables macro images to be taken from a distance of 2.5 cm. A 2x portrait camera with a 12 megapixel IMX663 sensor (1.22 µm pixels) takes over the telephoto range. There is a 60 megapixel camera with a centered punch hole for selfies. Aside from the main sensor, the setup is pretty similar to the X30 Pro.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is cooled by an eleven-layer cooling package including a 3,002 mm² vapor chamber. The chipset is paired with 8/12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128, 256 or 512 GB of UFS 4.0 storage. There’s dual SIM support but no microSD slot. You won’t find a 3.5 mm headphone jack either. Android 13 with My UI 5.0 is used as the operating system.
There is an IP68 rating against water ingress and an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus back against shock. The phone is 8.6mm thick and weighs 199g. The Motorola Moto X40 is available for pre-order now in China, with shipping scheduled to start on December 22nd. The base model with 8/128 GB costs from 3,400 CNY ($490). 8/256 GB are available for 3,700 CNY, 12/256 GB for 4,000 CNY and 12/512 GB for 4,300 CNY.
Motorola Moto G53
The Motorola Moto G53 offers 5G connectivity as its main selling point. That being said, as a successor to the Moto G52 with 4G, it’s a bit disappointing in some ways. Even the 5G-equipped Moto G51 has some better specs. For example, the predecessor had a 6.6-inch 90 Hz AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution. The G53 replaces it with a 6.5-inch 120Hz LCD display with HD+ resolution. The G51 5G had a 6.8-inch 120Hz FHD+ resolution LCD display. The selfie camera has been downgraded from 16-megapixel to an 8-megapixel sensor.
Motorola has also cut back on the back. The main camera still has a resolution of 50 megapixels with 0.64 µm pixels (1.3 µm after binning), but the ultra-wide angle is gone. The 2 megapixel macro camera is still there, but cold consolation. The 5,000 mAh battery has the same capacity as the old model, but only charges with 18 watts instead of 30 watts. The scope of delivery actually only includes a 10 watt charger.
What’s still there is the microSD slot and the 3.5mm headphone jack. The G53 comes in two versions, one with 4GB of RAM and one with 8GB, both with 128GB of storage. You also have the choice between a black and a white model. The Motorola Moto G53 is available for pre-order now in China, priced at just CNY 900 ($130) for the 4/128GB model and CNY 1,100 for the 8/128GB model.
