By Chris Welch, Bloomberg
The $1,900 Razr Fold, the latest folding phone from Lenovo Group Ltd.’s Motorola, ticks all the right boxes, with a stylish design, bright screens and long battery life. But with a May 21 release date in the US, it’s arriving at perhaps the worst possible time: just before a wave of new foldables from Samsung Electronics Co., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc.
The price doesn’t help either. The Razr Fold, the company’s first book-style folding handset, looks expensive next to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is currently discounted to $1,600. Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold, meanwhile, can frequently be found for $100 less than that.
I’ve been testing the Razr Fold for two weeks, and while I’ve enjoyed using it, competing models offer a fundamentally similar experience when it comes to multitasking and making the most of their expansive inner displays. For consumers who only want a foldable, Motorola doesn’t bring much novelty to the table.
With a new mix of contenders just months away, I’d discourage anyone from splurging on a folding phone until the competitive landscape becomes clearer. We’re also going to see the release of more squat-looking book-style models with a wide aspect ratio that’s better suited for entertainment. The Razr Fold, like its current competitors, has a nearly square inner display that suffers from thick letterboxing when streaming movies and shows. There’s no harm in waiting to see which approach you prefer.
Still, there’s a lot about the Razr Fold that speaks to Motorola’s expertise in foldables. Here’s what I have and haven’t liked in my time with the device.
What’s Impressive
- Beautiful hardware: I tested the white model, with a silky textured finish on back and subtly contoured display glass that perfectly melds into the metal side rails. I haven’t always been a fan of curved screens — they make screen protectors impractical — but here, it enables smoother swipe gestures on Android. And though the camera bump is thick, the sloped area beneath it has become a natural resting place for my index finger when holding the phone. At 9.9 millimeters when closed, the Razr Fold isn’t as thin as Samsung’s 8.9 mm Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it doesn’t feel unwieldy.
- Vibrant screens: The Razr Fold has a 6.6-inch outer display and a spacious 8.1-inch interior panel. Both have a peak brightness of 6,000 nits, higher than any US foldable — for now — and they deliver vivid colors, sharp detail and great contrast. These are among the very best smartphone screens I’ve encountered.
- Dependable battery: Foldables from Samsung and Google can usually last me through the day, but in cases of extended screen time (or if I’m recording lots of video), I sometimes need a mid-afternoon or early evening recharge. I haven’t found myself needing that top-off with the Razr Fold, which has a larger battery than its main rivals. And it charges far quicker, reaching a maximum of 80-watt speeds when wired and 50 watts when used with Motorola’s wireless charging stand, which is sold separately.
- Above-average cameras: Cameras in most folding phones still fall short of the detail and overall quality that regular candy bar-style devices can achieve with their larger sensors, and the Razr Fold isn’t an exception. Even so, its 50-megapixel main camera snaps pleasing images in most scenarios. And since this is a foldable, you can open it up and use the most capable camera when taking selfies and group shots. The 3x optical zoom lens is also nice to have for a closer view, though it loses dynamic range and sharpness.
- Generous storage and memory: The Fold has 512 gigabytes of storage and 16 gigabytes of memory, whereas the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold start at 256 gigabytes. Samsung also includes less memory.
- Promising durability: The Razr Fold is the first phone to feature Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 Ceramic, which offers improved drop protection. That’s important, since curved glass is often more fragile. The device is also protected against everyday spills and is dust-resistant. Its stainless steel hinge has a smooth open-and-close mechanism, and there’s a titanium backplate behind the screen that Motorola says should prevent the inner crease from becoming more prominent over time.
What’s Underwhelming
- The crease persists: Some Chinese foldable-phone makers have finally solved the dilemma of the visible crease, but the Razr Fold’s is plainly visible. This will bother some people more than others; I rarely notice it when actively using the device. But if creases annoy you, look elsewhere.
- An inconvenient stylus: Motorola sells an optional $99 stylus accessory for the Razr Fold, which lets the user do things like write notes, draw and annotate screenshots. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 lacks such input support, so this should have been a win for Moto. Unfortunately, you have to carry the stylus around separate from the phone in its own charging cradle, making it yet another small gadget to keep track of. I’ve forgotten to toss it in my bag on several occasions and worry about losing it altogether. I wish Motorola sold a case that allowed me to carry the stylus and Razr Fold as one.
- Hard-to-reach buttons: The Razr Fold’s volume buttons are positioned so high up that I’ve had to do some hand gymnastics to reach them when using the phone one-handed. There’s also an AI key positioned right in front of them when the device is folded shut, which I’ve inadvertently pressed more than once. That Moto AI button can’t be repurposed to launch other software.
- Middling AI: Motorola has touted its support for multiple agents along with integrating Lenovo’s in-house Moto AI platform, but the end result is no better than the gimmicks other phone makers are offering, like AI-generated backgrounds and the ability to turn your sketches into AI art. A few tricks, like Pay Attention (which records, transcribes and summarizes conversations) and Catch Me Up (summarized notifications) are handy.
- Unproven software support: Motorola says the Razr Fold will receive seven major Android updates, but based on the company’s track record, those updates and new features rarely roll out with the same consistency as from Google or Samsung.
For a first attempt at this book-inspired style, the Razr Fold gets a lot right. Samsung’s head start can be felt on the software side, where the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has more versatile ways of multitasking and can run more apps at once, but Motorola gets most of the way there.
Still, even if this were a flawless device, I’d be urging people to hold off and see how things shake out once the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Pixel 11 Pro Fold and foldable iPhone hit the market. The Razr Fold won’t get any worse in that time, but you might come across something better and be glad you waited.
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