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The cat’s out of the bag, after many, many leaks of the new Razr foldables from Motorola, they are now official. We got a chance to spend a couple of hours with the new Razr’s, ahead of today’s unveiling, and honestly, they are pretty impressive.
Let’s keep in mind that the Razr and Razr+ are basically the same phone. The biggest difference is the processor (Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 on the Razr and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 on the Razr+), as well as the outer display. And because of the smaller outer display, the Razr is able to hold a larger battery. Otherwise, they are the same phone. So keep that in mind as we talk about them here.
Industrial, yet stunning, design
Motorola said that with the Razr and Razr+, they are looking to target designers and content creators. Stating that those markets are about 80% of the market, and they are also the most influential over the entire market. So design here was a big deal, and you can see that in a number of choices Motorola made here.
Let’s talk about the colors. On the Razr, Motorola has Sage Green, Vanilla Cream and Summer Lilac. All of which are pretty stunning and don’t look like any other phone on the market. Then there’s the Razr+ in Infinite Black, Glacier Blue and Viva Magenta. And to be honest, the Viva Magenta is stunning, but unfortunately it is exclusive to T-Mobile.
Now let’s talk about that back material. On all colors of the Razr, and the Viva Magenta color of the Razr+, Motorola is using vegan leather. Which looks and does feel amazing. While the infinite black and glacier blue colors use a frosted glass backside. They look great, but nothing beats that vegan leather look and feel, unfortunately.
Motorola has always been pretty well-known for their industrial design, which is great because it means their phones are more durable. But on the other hand, that also means they aren’t as beautiful. But I think Motorola hit a good middle ground with the Razr family 2023. There’s some curves here that make the Razr beautiful, while also keeping it fairly durable.
That huge cover display on the Razr+
You’ve no doubt seen that huge display on the Razr+, I mean, how could you not? It’s literally the entire backside of the phone. It comes in at 3.6-inches and it’s basically a square, at a 1:1 aspect ratio. That’s similar to foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, but on its main display. And it’s one of the things that I dislike about the fold-style foldables. However, here, I think it works. As this is on the outer display, and not likely something you would use exclusively all-day long. But if you need to handle some notifications, fire off a quick email, or pay attention to navigation while in a new city, it works.
What’s cool here is that you can use literally any app on that cover display. There’s no limitations here, and Motorola has told us that every app they’ve used has worked. This is thanks to how Android works in general. But Motorola was able to optimize the operating system to work with each app.
In fact, I tried apps that often times give me issues on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4, like Instagram, and it worked. Now is it the best way to experience Instagram? Of course not. But the thing here is that, it works.
Should you buy the Motorola Razr?
It’s hard to say after only spending a little over an hour with the two devices, but I did come away really impressed here. Now of course, we still have Samsung and the Galaxy Z Flip 5/Fold 5 coming later this Summer, so that’s something to keep in mind. But Motorola did just take a giant leap ahead of Samsung here.
The pricing on the Motorola Razr+ is also pretty impressive. Despite this very large, cover display, and super high-refresh rate displays here, Motorola was able to keep it to $999. With the regular Razr set to be considerably cheaper than that, when it launches in a few months. While Samsung was the one to push foldables below the $1,000 price point, I think Motorola might be the one to push it below $700. Making it even more accessible to consumers.