Motorola Razr+ Review: a worthy Flip competitor
Foldable phones have been around for a while now. And no, I’m not talking about that old flip phone from the early 2000s. I’m talking about smartphones with foldable displays and it seems they’re being more and more popular by the day. The new Motorola Razr+ been out for a little more than a month now, but I didn’t want to rush by review since I wanted to spend some quality time with the device to give you guys a more balanced perspective since we now have the new Flip 5 from Samsung as well.
If you’re been following foldable smartphones, you know this isn’t the first foldable from Motorola. The company brought back the Razr brand for its foldable lineup in 2019 and has a had few iterations over the past few years. The main concept has remained the same with the clamshell form factor, but this time, Motorola’s made one big change that dramatically changes how you use the phone – a massive new cover display.
If it looks big, that’s because it is. Rather than using a tiny display like all the other brands have in the past, Motorola’s gone all out with a massive 3.6-inch panel. I know I talk a lot about how specs really don’t matter, but a larger display on the outside of the phone makes a massive difference when the competition has been using screens so small that you can barely see one notification at a time.
On previous Moto foldables, the cover screen has been more customizable than what Samsung and other brands have offered, but this phone takes things to a whole new level. There’s a customizable homescreen where you can organize different shortcuts for quick access to widgets and other functionality that’s been built just for the cover display. Motorola went and added cover screen games as well, something that on one hand is completely useless, but on the other is a stroke of genius. Even though the games on here are incredibly simple, they’re also pretty addictive. Pulling the Razr+ out of your pocket and playing a round of Stack Bounce or finishing a few levels of Marble Mayhem with the phone still closed gets quite a bit of attention since it’s something people aren’t used to seeing.
And if none of the games Motorola has pre-installed are up your alley, you can literally play any game you want on the cover display. Casual games like Stack, Dino T-Rex or Crossy Road work best, but if you want to play Call of Duty Mobile, no one is going to stop you.
This is where the Razr+ truly shines. Not necessarily because you can play games all day on the cover display, but because there’s no real limitation to what you can do with it. If you want to browse the web, you can do that. Check Twitter, catch up on Instagram, get directions on Google Maps, watch youtube videos, and keep up with your favorite team’s score. It’s all possible. You can even use a full keyboard to reply to messages rather than being limited to a few pre-canned replies, as you have been in the past.
Motorola’s even thought out how you transition from one screen to the other. If you’re using an app on the cover display and you open the phone, the app is there waiting for you to use on the larger canvas. And the same is true when you close the phone as well with a continue button, popping up on the bottom of the cover display.
Having used a half dozen flip-style foldable smartphones over the past few years, this is the first time I’ve used one that feels truly natural and intuitive.
That being said, the phone isn’t quite perfect. In terms of hardware design, there’s not a lot of character here since Motorola dropped the chin which was a prominent design element on its last few foldables to make room for the larger cover screen. The result is a pretty generic-looking device. Personally, I do love the Glacier Blue colorway the best, but if you truly want your Razr+ to stand out, the Viva Magenta (Pantone color of the year) is sure to grab everyone’s attention. There’s no gap between the two edges of the foldable display thanks to the tear-drop hinge design making it a mere 15.1 mm thick. It would be nice to have a slightly slimmer profile, but doing so would mean we’d need to sacrifice battery capacity and settle for smaller camera sensors.
Motorola is using Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back of the phone with an aluminum frame, so it should be decently protected on its own, but there are plenty of cases or skin options that will keep your Motorola Razr+ protected.
Best Motorola Razr+ cases on Amazon
As for performance, you’re not getting the latest and greatest chipset here since Motorola wanted to price the phone right at $999. Instead, you get last year’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which I think is the perfect balance of performance and efficiency since the thin body of the phone only allows for a 3800 mAh battery. Now, you might think that such a small battery would mean very limited runtime, but benchmark numbers show that Motorola may have underclocked the performance a little bit to ensure that the phone delivers full-day battery life.
In our battery test, the phone lasted 12 and a half hours, coming up just 30 shy of what the Galaxy S23 Ultra delivered. And in real-world use, the phone should last you even longer since, like me, you’ll probably be using the cover display quite a bit.
With how much it can do, I probably only open the phone 60-70 percent of the time. I honestly wish Motorola would show a breakdown of your cover screen and internal screen usage. There’s no charger in the box, but the phone does support 30-watt charging which delivers a full charge in about an hour and 20 minutes.
The internal display is really nice and at 6.9 inches, it’s definitely the largest in this category. It also has a 165Hz refresh rate, making it one of the best smartphone displays for mobile gaming. The 8GB of RAM is definitely enough for most people, but it would have been nice to have a 12GB option, but thankfully, you do get 256GB of storage.
Due to the phone’s form factor, the Razr+, like other foldables, has a unique advantage when it comes to its cameras. With the main and ultrawide cameras positioned right by the cover display, you can use them to capture some incredibly high-quality selfies or use them to record videos of yourself. Since the phone folds in half, it can also act as its own stand, making it an extremely versatile camera phone. The only issue here is that Motorola is still a step or two behind the competition when it comes to image and video quality.
For the main camera, Motorola is using a 12MP sensor, which works decently well, even in low-light conditions. The problem is that Motorola’s post-processing of the images leaves them a tad dull. Compare the shots to most other $1000 smartphones and you’ll likely choose the images from the other devices. The 13MP ultrawide camera has a 108-degree field of view, which really isn’t that wide. For comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s ultrawide has a 124-degree lens, while the Oppo Find N2 Flips has a 112-degree lens.
The main camera also struggles with jittery image stabilization when recording video, especially in low-light conditions. In an alternate universe, this would honestly be the ultimate vlogging smartphone. The design with the massive cover display that allows you to use the rear cameras is perfect. Maybe next year we’ll get the camera upgrades needed, like being able to switch between the main and ultrawide cameras while recording video. It’s simply not an option on this phone.
But Motorola does deserve some credit for delivering a pretty decent selfie camera. The 32MP sensor can capture some great shots and on top of that, it can also record 4k video at 60fps.
Final Thoughts
Once you factor in its strength and weaknesses, I think the Motorola Razr+ is one of the best foldable yet. Like any phone, there’s definitely room for improvement, but MOtoroal’s given us a well-balanced device that delivers a better overall experience when compared to the other flip-style foldable on the market right now.
With the Galaxy Z Flip5 right around the corner, that lead may not last long, but it’s definitely nice to see Motorola deliver a device that can truly compete with Samsung since they’ve been the leader in the foldable smartphone space for quite some time.