Motorola’s new $200 Android phone looks like a great deal

By Bryan M. Wolfe Published June 25, 2024

Another day, another $200 smartphone is making its debut in China. Yesterday, we told you about the Honor Play 60 Plus. Today, say hello to the Moto S50 Neo. The new offering features a 6.7-inch pOLED display (FHD+ and 120Hz) with a Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 chipset inside. According to GSMArena, the phone also includes a 5,000mAh battery with 30W charging. The phone runs on Android 14.

The Moto S50 Neo is a beautifully designed smartphone that ships in Gray, Olivine, and Surf. The Olivine and Surf models feature a textile-like nanotexture back that is considered “skin-friendly” and wear-resistant, adding “a touch of style.” Pantone developed those two unique colors.

Recommended Videos

For capturing precious moments, the Moto S50 Neo boasts a 50-megapixel primary camera with a Sony IMX882 sensor, an F/1.79 aperture, and an 8MP ultrawide lens with a 118-degree field of view. It’s also equipped with a 32MP front camera for selfies. Not bad at all.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s Gen 3, a midrange mobile processor released in 2023, is available with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. The microSD card slot allows you to increase storage.

Motorola S50 Neo.

The Moto S50 Neo is only available in China, although it will ship elsewhere later this year as the Moto G85. However, the phone isn’t likely to be released in the U.S. The entry-level option is $220, while the other is $261.

For those who can’t buy a Moto S50 Neo (most of us), several budget-friendly smartphones are available worldwide, such as the OnePlus Nord N300 5G and Samsung Galaxy A14 5G. The recently released Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) should also be considered, especially for those who want to stick with Motorola.

Topics

Mobile and A/V Freelancer

Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.

Mobile

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra could be the phone that makes me leave Apple

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra rear side.

I haven't used anything except an iPhone as my daily driver since 2015, nor have I regularly used a laptop aside from my MacBook for productivity since then. That's a decade of nearly full immersion into the Apple ecosystem. I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy; I just appreciated the convenience of it all. But after taking a look at the price tag of the flagship iPhone 16 Pro Max and the relatively minor upgrades it presents (even over my iPhone 12), the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra has caught my eye.

Its specs aren't confirmed yet, but the leak we saw this morning comes from OnLeaks — a source that is rarely mistaken on this subject. Foldable phones are everywhere now (and Apple is rumored to be working on one, too), but the price tag is the biggest obstacle for most people. The Razr 60 Ultra is expected to start at $1,000 — less than I paid for my current phone — and outclass even the iPhone 16 Pro Max in terms of power.

Mobile

New iPhone 17 Pro render keeps us guessing on the final design

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Render

Apple is to expected to announce the iPhone 17 series later this year, likely sometime in September if previous release patterns are anything to go by. By our calculations, that puts us around five months out, though math is not our strong point – we're writers here after all.

What we do know however, is that in the upcoming months we are no doubt going to see more conflicting rumors about what we can expect from the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro models in terms of design. A few months back, it was suggested the iPhone 17 Pro models would feature a new camera bar across their rear, taking on a more Pixel-like approach.

Mobile

The Galaxy S25 doesn’t look like the success Samsung will have wanted

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Samsung leads Apple in smartphone shipment market share, according to data from Counterpoint Research, and while this may appear good news for the brand, a deeper examination into two very different strategies indicates Samsung may not be happy with the situation at all. For the first three months of 2025, Samsung controlled 20% of the global smartphone market by device shipments, followed by Apple with 19%. This is “sell in” data, meaning devices purchased from the manufacturer by distributors. It is a considerable change over the data from the last three months of 2024, where Apple led with 23% of the market followed by Samsung with 16%.

This is crucial to understanding why Samsung may be looking at the latest figures, which on the outside appear positive, with concern. At the end of 2024 Apple would have been riding high on the release of the iPhone 16 series, while Samsung would have been far removed from the Galaxy S24 series and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6’s release. It makes sense for Apple to command a higher market share right after the release of its flagship devices for the year.

nproxy.org