Moto E40 Review: Stock Android fix under 10,000 INR

In the sub-10K segment, wherein every penny counts, brands have to fight tooth and nail for your attention and money. Motorola tries to capture your attention with the new Moto E40 which for the first time in the segment offers a 90Hz display. Another notable aspect is the underlying Unisoc T700 octa-core processor. Other things in the mix include a 5000mAh battery, 48MP triple camera setup, and the trademark stock-esque Android software. So, what we will see in the Smartprix review of Moto E40 is that if all these put together, this phone is worth your money or not.

Navigate this review

Unboxing | Price and Specs | Design | Audiovisual | Connectivity | Power | Camera

Moto E40 Unboxing

The box contents are:

• The handset
• 10W charger
• USB-C Cable
• SIM Card Tool
• TPU Case
• Paperwork

Also Read:

• Moto Tab G20 Quick Review
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• Moto Edge 20 Pro Quick Review and FAQ

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Moto E40 Indian price and specs

Dimensions and Weight: 1165.1 x 75.6 x 9.1mm; 198g
Screen: 6.5″ Max Vision HD+ display | 90Hz refresh rate, HD+ (1600×720) | 268ppi, 20:9 , IPS LCD, Active Area-Touch Panel (AA-TP): 87.5% Active Area-Body (AA-Body): 82.6%
CPU: UNISOC T700
GPU: Mali G52
RAM: 4 GB LPDDR4x
Storage: 64 GB built-in eMMC 5.1; Expandable up to 1TB via dedicated slot
Rear cameras: 48MP primary+ 2MP portrait+ 2MP macro; 1080p @30fps
Front camera: 8MP; 1080p @30fps
Battery: 5000mAh with 10W charging
OS: Android 11
Moto E40 India Price: ₹9,499

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And here’s the handset itself. Let’s have a physical overview of it.

My evaluation unit came in a carbon grey color while you can also pick it in Pink Clay paint. Nothing fancy about the looks, but the device feels sturdy for a polycarbonate physique. It is IP52 rated for water repellence too.

There are lined patterns at the back which offers a nice grip. At the given dimensions and mass, it is pretty handy too. The camera oblong is recessed so the phone sits flat on the table. The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner beneath is at one’s fingertip and it unlocks quickly. The power and volume keys on the right are also easily accessible. Only the Google Assistant button is at elevation, which means you’ll have to stretch your fingers to hit it. I think it could have been on the other side ‘cause there’s only a card slot there. But ejecting it reveals a triple-slot tray for 2 nano SIMs and a microSD card.

At the top, there is a 3.5mm jack, and at the bottom, there is a Type-C (USB 2.0) socket, a speaker grille, and a microphone hole. A thing that might go unlooked is the tiny LED indicator for notifications.

Now if you don’t want to unlock using fingers, you can use your face. But note that face recognition struggles if there is less ambient light. Anyhoo, let’s now light up the screen (which is modern-looking with a punch-hole; not a waterdrop) and see how it is.

It’s an HD+ LCD panel only, but a good one at that. In the Natural mode, colors are fine with proper sharpness and contrasts. You can change the color profile to Boosted or Saturated as well.

The highlight of this screen, however, is its 90-hertz refresh rate. Thanks to it, scrolling across the 6.5-inch surface feels smooth with occasional jitter. The said surface is spacious too at an 87.5% screen-to-body ratio. Only the bottom bezel is noticeably big. But that, the asymmetrical corner curves and those dark circles around the front camera are all typical of phones in this range.

Coming to the audio segment, the speaker output is hollow. Loudness is serviceable, but it lacks bass. Thus, it’s really good to have the 3.5mm jack up top. You should be better off using the same for calls too as the device has only got a solo mic outlet at the bottom. The in-call sound was okay okay.

Let’s now move to other aspects of the phone.

The peripherals have already been discussed like USB-C (2.0) port and a triple card slot. The latter means you can use two SIMs simultaneously with VoLTE support while also enjoying memory card expansion.

Well, other wireless options include single 2.4GHz band WiFi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and GPS. The WiFi speeds were slower than what I was getting on other phones (2.4GHz only). I didn’t face any latency troubles over Bluetooth though.

On to the core internals.

Like other players in the scene, Motorola has also partnered with Unisoc. I have used Unisoc T610 driven phones in the past too and they had fared better than my expectations. Things were fine here too. It comprises 2x ARM Cortex A75 performance cores and 6x Cortex A55 cores, both running at 1.8GHz speed. The bundled GPU is Mali G52MP2 clocked at 850MHz. The memory configuration is just one i.e., 4GB LPDDR4x RAM plus 64GB eMMC 5.1 storage. You can expand the storage to 1TB with a dedicated card.

Here are some of the usual synthetic test scores:

You can play BGMI at HD graphics and High FPS, while Graphics can max at medium graphics and High frames per second. A half an hour of gameplay of Asphalt 9 reduced the battery by 7% and the temperature rose by 7.5℃.

Now a standout feature of Moto E40 is its nearly vanilla Android 11 software. Stuffed in the settings menus, you’ll get options for a bunch of gestures and other useful additions.

Pure Android experience also means no ads and bloatware. That’s true here, save for the Google ones. But not complaining. Fewer resource suckers mean more efficient performance. By the latter, I mean it’s 5000mAh which ran for 15 hours 14 minutes in our PCMark Work 3.0 Battery test. And it takes about 2 hours to charge it fully with the bundled 10W charger.

Now to the last segment.

Moto E40 has got a triple camera system which is led by a 48MP sensor. There is pixel binning of course and the results are out in 12MP only. There is a high res option too in the camera settings if you want to leverage the full megapixel count.

Anyways, here are the still samples —

The daylight shots present natural colors. But it takes a few seconds to process some photos and if your hands or the subject moves, you’d end up with blurry results. The camera also finds difficulty in capturing the details in shadows and highlights. As a result, you’d see blown-out skies in the above clicks but fail to spot flowers in the bushes by the palm tree’s base.

Rest, there is a 2MP depth sensor for portrait effect and a 2MP shooter for close-up macros.

The phone can’t meter the exposure right. Just look at the shimmering hands of my brother. The bokeh effect is passable with minor edge detection errors.

Other camera goodies are Night Vision, Pro mode, and Google Lens integration. Night mode can control the light in the frame and things appear more clear. There are noise artifacts, but overall, I think it’s worth the compromise.

You can shoot up to FHD at 30 FPS from both sides. The videos struggle in dynamic range, stability and focus.

And with that, it’s time for my two cents about the device.

Moto E40 can be your stock Android fix for a price of ₹9,499. It is available via Flipkart in India. But even if you set aside the software experience, the phone packs some interesting stuff like a 90Hz punch-hole screen, IP52 ingress protection, a reputable performance from Unisoc chip, and a long-lasting 5000mAh battery. The 48MP camera is impressive on paper but falters in execution. The rest of the paraphernalia is, for the most part, what you get to see in this segment.

That said, in this price range, as you know there are handsets with an FHD+ display, an ultrawide snapper, and fast charging support in the market. But those don’t necessarily have the perks that you get with this phone. So in the end, it’s a case of this or that. In other words, if you want a stock and snappy Android experience, you get that here, but it comes with some compromises as well.