Motorola G40 Fusion Review

It's been a few weeks since Motorola launched the Moto G40 and G60, and they've come with many new features, design changes, and so on. The Moto G40 Fusion is priced around Rs 15k, while the Moto G60 is in the Rs 15000 to 20000 range.

It has many features like a big display, a 6000mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 732g SoC, plus up to 6GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. It's the successor to the Moto One Fusion Plus and has an excellent price-to-performance ratio. But don't worry, and it's not all about specs - check out our hands-on review before you buy.

Prices, Variations, and Availability in India

The Motorola Moto G40 Fusion in India has two color options: Frosted Champagne and Dynamic Gray. Additionally, two storage and two RAM variants are offered. The 64GB+4GB model costs Rs 13,999/-, while the 128GB+6GB variant costs Rs 15,999.

Design and Build

We can't tell the difference between the Moto G40 Fusion and the Moto G60 when we're holding them side by side. The G40 Fusion is a showstopper, but that's to be expected. I'm not a massive fan of the G40 Fusion; it looks fantastic. There's a rear camera assembly on one side of the phone, which makes it a bit of a mess, but not as bad as if the assembly was in the middle of the back panel. It's pretty thick around the camera bump, 9.8mm, which isn't too bad.

The front of the phone has tiny bezels on all three sides, but it does have a bit of a chin. It's not as big as it is on Samsung Galaxy M42, but it's still pretty big. There's a punch-hole in the middle, but it's not as annoying as a notch. It's personal, though.

The phone has a triple-back camera array in the top-left corner. It's a rectangular assembly that's oriented in a portrait position. The fingerprint scanner is hidden behind a batwing emblem, and it's next to the camera assembly. The champagne edition has a blue-colored back camera component that's accentuated with a 2-tone design from Motorola. The back is shiny and a bit sparkly, so it's likely to get smudged and fingerprinted. But don't worry; the retail package has a TPU case you can put on before moving to the rear cover.

There's a secondary microphone on the top and a headphone jack on the bottom. A primary microphone, USB-C, and a loudspeaker are on the bottom. On the right-hand side, there's a power button and volume rocker.

Display

The smartphone comes with a 6.8-inch IPS LCD screen with 120Hz refresh rate. The display complies with HDR10 compliance. The display's resolution is 1080 x 2460 pixels, and the density is 395 pixels per inch (ppi). The display has a small, barely visible punch-hole cut out in the center of the screen. Motorola could combine cost-effective display technology with a high refresh rate using an IPS LCD panel. However, when you are buying a smartphone at around 15,000 INR, there are some trade-offs that you have to make. The G40 Fusion has an AMOLED screen that produces deep blacks and bright whites.

The display is HDR-compliant, so you can easily watch movies on YouTube or other sites, but it's also DRM-L1 certified, so it won't be able to stream HD stuff on Amazon Prime like the G60. Our tests showed that the display is about 450 nits of brightness, and we've seen more, but that's not the worst thing about it. It's bright enough to use outside and easy to read and use.

If you're a fan of AMOLED displays, you'll remember how bad LCD screens looked when they first came out on smartphones. But with an AMOLED screen, you get a faster refresh rate, so you can enjoy smooth animations and transitions without wasting power. The screen size is big enough to give you the best viewing experience.

Performance

It's always good to have a Snapdragon processor, whether Moto is going with a Dimensity, Helio, or Unisoc one. The Moto G40 F Fusion is powered by the mighty Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC 732G, built on the 8nm node. It's got a dual-core setup with two dual threads (2.3GHz and 1.8GHz) in the Gold and six in the Silver. Plus, it comes with an Adreno 6 18 GPU, 64aGB and 128GB of USB-C storage, and either 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The RAM is LPDDR 4X.

The G40 Fusion is the most affordable smartphone, running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 732G chip for around 15,000 INR. It doesn't matter what you put it through; the chip's GPU and CPU will make it run like a dream. It loads apps quickly and easily, and you can switch between two to 10 apps without the UI slowing down. Even browsing through apps that use a lot of resources is a breeze.

Playing games is the next most graphic-intensive thing you can do on a smartphone. We are always surprised by how well the G40 Fusion holds up when we play other phones, depending on how well they do in my games. The processor can handle a lot of hits without breaking down and dropping frames. The LCD panel may have a limit to its graphics processing, but less than the AMOLED panel. Plus, having a big battery is great because you can use apps or play games all day without having to plug your phone in.

Software

It's no secret that the software is one of Moto G40 Fusion's best-selling points. The Moto G40 Fusion runs a native Android 11 OS with My UX added to it. Motorola isn't too keen on bloatware or turning up the skin to slow down the software, and it helps the phone run better since, of course, the hardware and software have to be perfect to get the phone up and running. It's nice to see that the G40 Fusion has bloatware.

Cameras

Moto G40 Fusion has many of the same features as its predecessor, the G60, but the camera is slightly different. Instead of having a 108MP sensor like the G60, this phone has a three-camera setup with 64MP. The secondary camera has an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, and the last rear assembly sensor has a depth sensor of 2MP. The front of the phone is the same size, but it's only 16MP since the G60 has a 32MP front-facing camera. The camera performance is as important as the sensor size, so here's all the info you need.

Moto G40 Fusion downgraded its primary rear camera to 64MP instead of 108MP on Moto G60. The primary camera captures quality images in good daylight with decent dynamic range, details, and sharpness, although the shots generally remain soft. The colors on the images shot via the primary sensor were almost realistic. However, the camera does suffer a bit in low-light or indoor shots with inadequate light. Overall, the night mode helps a little.

The ultrawide is the way to go if you're looking for a camera that can act as a macro. You'll be able to record scenes with much more depth of field, but you'll have to be ready for some slight drops in clarity and complexity. Sometimes these drops will only be noticeable if you know what you want. You'll get a 2MP sensor connecting to the primary camera for portrait photos to get depth-related info. Daytime photography was also good overall, with excellent edge detection and split-second separation.

Motorola also has down the selfie camera from 32MP to 16MP, but it still provides pretty average pictures for group pics, selfies, videos, and more.

If you're shooting at 1080p resolution with the rear camera setup, you can go up to 240fps. The rear camera can record movies at 120fps at 4K resolution. But if you're shooting at 4K resolution, you must go down to 30fps. On the other hand, the front selfie camera can shoot at 1080p resolution at 240fps.

Battery

Moto G40 Fusion's 6,000mAh battery is nothing to scoff at. It's a good battery life and can last up to two days if you use it a lot. Sure, it's not the best battery backup out there, but it's still pretty good. The only downside is that the charging adapter is slow - it'll take you over two and a half hours to charge it up. But all phones have trade-offs, and this one is no exception.

Biometrics, Connectivity, and Audio

A mono speaker arrangement is included, which is powerful and precise unless you upgrade or downgrade from a stereo one. There is also a speaker in the earpiece for calling purposes, which is quite loud and clear. There are a variety of connection options available on the Moto G40. You can connect it to dual-band WiFi 5, Bluetooth V5.0, and A2DP.

You can also connect it to a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It also has integrated NFC, which allows you to use Galileo, Glonass, and A-GPS. On the back, you get a fingerprint scanner. It is capacitive and performs well, but I prefer it side-mounted, as it makes more sense. You also get a Face Unlock feature, which is less reliable than FPS but performs well enough. Finally, you have a USB type-C connector at the bottom to charge and transfer data. You get the standard PIN, Pattern, and other security options.

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

1. 6.8-inch screen Maximum visual display
2. Budgetary 120 Hz refresh rate
3. Enormous 6000 mAh battery
4. 732G Qualcomm Snapdragon
5. Triple-rear camera with 64MP

Drawbacks

1. With a 225-gram weight
2. Not supporting 5G
3. SIM hybrid slot

Conclusion

Moto G40 Fusion is an excellent phone in its own right, but it's not without its drawbacks. It's heavy, takes a while to charge, and has an LCD. On the plus side, it has vanilla Android software, so long as you don't want to add fancy skins. The battery lasts a long time, has a fast processor for its size, and has a headphone jack. It's a great phone, but you should go somewhere else to get a giant camera and a better battery.