Motorola introduced two new devices today – a member of the premium X-series and it will likely be the company’s cheapest 5G phone for the foreseeable future. These are launching in China for now, but they should somehow reach other countries of the world later on.
Motorola Moto X40
Old X30 ProIt was an interesting combination of powerful hardware and an affordable price tag. This new model Motorola Moto X40doesn’t call himself “professional” but still new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 It boosts the power with the chipset and the display with a 165Hz refresh rate. Motorola absolutely loves its high refresh rate displays.
The screen is 6.7” diagonal and has a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels. It is a 10-bit panel with HDR10+ support and DC dimming. The fingerprint reader is now located under the screen instead of being mounted on the side. This is Motorola’s first 165Hz display and powerful Adreno 740 GPU that could distract people from expensive gaming phones.
Professional or not, the X40 has 125W wired charging and also features wireless charging – thought at just 15W, down from the 50W on the X30 Pro. Still, non-Pro Motos usually don’t support wireless charging. If you need to charge the phone as fast as possible, the wired charger will get you from dead battery to 50% in just 7 minutes. Meanwhile, the battery capacity is 4,600mAh, basically the same as the old Pro.
A similar logic applies to the camera – instead of the 200MP main sensor, the X40 is equipped with a 50MP sensor (1/1.56”). OIS with 4-in-1 grouping support has 1.0µm native pixels.
Next to the main camera is an ultra-wide-angle lens (117°) with a 50 MP sensor (1.3 µm pixels). This one has autofocus, so it can shoot macro images from 2.5cm away. Also, the phone has 2x portrait camera with 12 MP sensor (IMX663, 1.22µm pixels). For selfies, there is a 60 MP selfie camera housed inside a centered hole. Main sensor aside, this setup looks pretty similar to the X30 Pro.
Coming back to the chipset, it is Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and is cooled by an 11-layer setup that includes a vapor chamber (3,002 mm² in size). The chipset is paired with 8/12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128, 256 and even 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. It’s a dual SIM phone, there’s no room for a microSD slot. There is no 3.5mm jack either, but that was true for the 2021 model as well. It also comes with My UI 5.0 built on Android 13 out of the box.
The X40 makes its water resistance official with an IP68 rating (it can withstand 1.5m underwater and 30 minutes). The middle frame is made of 7000 series aluminum, the back is covered with soft-touch Gorilla Glass Victus (available in Blue and Black). We’re not sure if this applies to the front as well, the details provided by Motorola are unclear. Anyway, the phone is 8.6mm thick and weighs 199 grams, roughly the same as its predecessor.
The Motorola Moto X40 is currently up for pre-order in China, with deliveries starting on December 22. The base 8/128GB model starts at CNY 3,400 (about $490). For comparison, the Moto X30 Pro started at CNY 3,700 for an 8/128GB model.
Motorola Moto G53
Motorola Moto G53 has 5G connectivity like its other sibling. Despite this, it only has 4G Moto G52The sequel is disappointing in some ways. 5G equipped Moto G51Even has better features (Motorola’s roster can be pretty confusing).
Starting with the display, the G52’s 6.6” 90Hz AMOLED with FHD+ resolution is gone, replaced by a 6.5” 120Hz LCD with HD+ resolution only. The G51 5G had a 6.8 inch 120 Hz LCD with FHD+ resolution. The selfie camera has been reduced to 8MP sensor (down from 16MP).
There are also drops in the back. The main camera still has a 50MP sensor with 0.64µm native pixels, but the ultra-wide module is no more. Don’t worry, the 2MP macro camera is still here.
Then there’s the battery. It has the same capacity as the old phone with 5,000mAh, but the charging speed has now dropped to 18W (from 30W) and only a 10W charger comes out of the box. Do not forget that there is a 5G support, so you need to cut it down from somewhere.
Fortunately, the cuts didn’t affect the microSD card slot or the 3.5mm headphone jack. There are two versions of the G53, one with 4GB of RAM and the other with 8GB, both with 128GB of storage. You can also choose between the Black and White color group.
The Motorola Moto G53 is currently available for pre-order in China for just CNY 900 (about $130) for the 4/128GB model and CNY 1,100 for the 8/128GB model. Again, this might be the company’s cheapest 5G phone – the G51 we mentioned earlier costs CNY 1,500. Still, the G5x model number feels like it belongs to a mid-range, and it’s an entry-level phone.