Well, this is unusual. A Romanian retailer (via Roland Quandt) appears to have completely blown the Moto E40’s cover, not just revealing the specifications and design of the unannounced handset but also accepting orders for the 6.5-inch mid-ranger already and promising to ship the thing right away.
The only detail not “confirmed” at the time of this writing seems to be the make and model of the octa-core processor powering Motorola‘s latest budget-friendly smartphone, but according to some pretty reliable past leaks, we should be looking at a Unisoc T700 here.
That’s the exact same SoC found inside the Moto G20 unveiled a few months back, which goes to show G-series devices nowadays are not necessarily more powerful or more impressive overall than their E-branded “cousins.”
In fact, the E40 replaces the G20’s outdated notch with an arguably more “modern” hole punch display, although due to a thicker chin, the newer phone actually ends up taller overall, at 168.1mm. For what it’s worth, the Moto E40 is a couple of grams lighter than the G20, apparently tipping the scales at 198 grams, but alas, that small improvement comes with a big battery capacity trade-off.
There’s a 4,000mAh cell under this bad boy’s hood, which is decent but far from mind-blowing even by sub-$200 standards these days. The same goes for the 48 + 2 + 2MP triple rear-facing camera setup, 4GB RAM count, and 64 gigs of (expandable) storage.
Meanwhile, the 1600 x 720 pixel resolution of the E40’s 6.5-inch screen is… not great, but on the decidedly bright side of things, said IPS LCD panel will support 90Hz refresh rate technology.
Although far from official, the handset’s €160 or so price point in Romania strongly suggests the Moto E40 will indeed cost less than $200 stateside… if a US release is in the cards. That’s certainly not guaranteed yet, but the entry-level Moto E family is in dire need of an expansion around those parts, currently including just one terribly humble and arguably overpriced member.