Motorola’s first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phone is coming out in December

Many specs and anticipated features have already emerged

Motorola’s flagship phone from earlier this year, the Edge Plus, features just the sort of qualities we expect to see in the best Android phones, including a top-end Qualcomm processor. The anticipated Moto X40 is expected to take this legacy forward with Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC and more RAM than you can possibly use on a phone. Following a series of leaks and rumors, we’re now learning that this next-gen Moto flagship will be officially unveiled in December.

Parent company Lenovo has confirmed that its next Motorola flagship will land sometime in December, as shared by IT Home (via 91Mobiles). As we’d only expect, the Moto X40 will go official first in China before coming to other markets. And similar to the Moto Edge Plus, which is available elsewhere as the Edge 30 Pro, Motorola could rename the X40 for its global debut, possibly launching it with the Edge branding.

While we’re hearing about this launch window for the first time, the phone itself has already leaked almost in full. Its TENAA listing revealed not only the entire spec sheet, but also some actual photos of the hardware (via Fonearena). With a square camera bump on the back and a curved display on the front, this one is clearly recognizably a Motorola handset.

Source: TENAA

The Moto X40 (model number XT2301-5) looks like it will feature a 144Hz 1080p OLED display, a 5000mAh battery that supposedly charges at 68W, and a triple-camera array. While the two 50MP primary and ultra-wide cameras seem similar to what we got on the Edge Plus, a new 12MP camera will replace the 2MP depth sensor. Besides this, the phone is said to offer a whopping 18GB of RAM paired with 512GB of storage and an IP68 rating. You can expect it to come running Android 13 out of the box.

While all that sounds great, the biggest upgrade will be its processor. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the Moto X40 has already appeared on AnTuTu, scoring a staggering 1312901 points, which is a big leap from the previous Qualcomm chip (though you should take online benchmarks with a grain of salt).

While the Edge Plus was otherwise a decent phone, Motorola decided to price it on the higher side, putting it right up against the likes of Apple and Samsung. Hopefully, the Moto X40 will go with a more sensible figure when it finally makes it to the US.