Motorola hasn’t had much of a presence in the flagship phone space in recent years, but that could be about to change. The company is introducing the Edge 40 Pro, which is a global version of the X40 that launched in China at the end of last year. It comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, a 6.67-inch display with up to 165Hz refresh rate, and an IP68 rating for weather and dust resistance.
In short, it looks like a serious contender in the Android flagship landscape, at least on paper. It will hit European markets “in the next few days” for €899.99 (about $980) and soon after in Latin American markets.
What about the US, then? Motorola is being a bit astute about it, with a statement in today’s press release that it’s “excited to share its commitment to expanding the Edge family in North America this year.” Hence is bring this phone to the US…or maybe not? Whatever that means, Motorola is engaged it.
I, for one, expect the Edge 40 Pro to make it to the US. In addition to a proper IP68 rating, which last year’s Edge Plus didn’t offer, it packs 12GB of RAM, a 50-megapixel main camera with stabilization optics, very fast 125W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. There’s a 12-megapixel 2x telephoto camera, which is another improvement over the Edge Plus – it didn’t have a telephoto camera.
All of that is music to my ears, but there’s one big feature I hope Motorola has improved on as well: its software support policy. The Edge Plus was only promised two OS updates and three years of security updates. If it’s really going to go toe-to-toe with Samsung, it’s going to have to do much better to match its typical four OS upgrades and five years of security support.
