Motorola Razr+: “Killing” Samsung Galaxy Flip comes with the biggest sacrifice in Android history?

Before I proceed, I feel like I must highlight one thing… Whether you agree or disagree with what you’re about to read will depend on how you view folding phones in general…

• Folding phones can be viewed as an entirely different smartphone category thanks to their different form-factor

• Folding phones can also be considered about as “normal” as any other phone because they don’t fundamentally change the way you use a smartphone – in other words, they can’t fly like a drone, or magically teleport you into a different world like an Apple Vision Pro

Right! On to the story…

As I said in the intro, the Motorola Razr+’s large and very capable cover screen is an absolute blessing for those who want a smaller display they can operate with one hand (I am that person – an iPhone 13 mini user). But the blessing might turn out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise here.

Frankly, the Motorola Razr+ confuses me. On the surface, the $1,000 folding phone looks like the one that could finally convert “normal phone users” into folding phone users, but once you start digging, it begins to look like Motorola took a “regular” phone, folded it in half, and then stuffed it with a bag full of compromises to make what I find to be one of the most controversial smartphone sandwiches in a while.

The list of sacrifices Motorola had to make to fit the Razr+ with a large cover display includes last year’s chip, average battery life, ancient camera with lost potential

Is this the right recipe for making a “mainstream” folding phone, Motorola?

• First things first, the Motorola Razr+ uses last year’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip instead of the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2; of course, this means the $1,000 foldable won’t give you the best performance on the market, but it also means that the Razr+ will be less efficient than newer Android phones, which is the bigger drawback if you ask me – especially when talking about a folding phone with a small battery

• Speaking of battery, the space needed for the larger cover display means the Motorola Razr+ packs a relatively tiny (for today’s standards) cell, at just 3,800 mAh; sure that’s 100 mAh more than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 but considerably less than the 4,400 mAh cell in the Vivo X Flip; our battery tests show the Razr+ might be able to last a day on a single charge, but probably not much longer; although the Razr+ supports wireless charging, this one’s capped at 5W, which promises some long waiting times if you charge wirelessly

• The Motorola Razr+ brings a pretty ancient 12 MP 1/2.55-inch camera sensor, which would be considered small even in 2018, let alone today; my early impressions are that photos from the Motorola Razr+ send you back in time (in line with the dated sensor) with an oversharpened look, lack of detail, and mediocre low-light performance, which can’t produce a usable photo without Night Mode (which really helps here); of course, we don’t have a dedicated zoom camera, nor a sensor-crop zoom, because of the 12MP native resolution; the cherry on top is that you can’t use the entirety of the 12MP main cam sensor to take selfies – instead, you get a 1:1 or a 4:3 crop, while videos taken with the rear cameras are capped at 1080p, which basically defeats the purpose of shooting with the rear camera in selfie mode (what?!)

• Motorola Razr+’s awesome cover display also means now you have another awesome display that’s absolutely awesome until… you drop and crack it; it’s an unavoidable flaw that simply comes with the design but I figured it’s worth mentioning

• This one’s totally subjective but I can’t skip mentioning another potentially negative aspect of the large cover display many people don’t always consider – if by buying a clamshell foldable your goal was to be less distracted by your phone, and less likely to get sucked into the scrolling game, the Motorola Razr+’s large cover screen will now make this more difficult

• The Motorola Razr+ also lacks comprehensive water-resistance as it comes with an IP52 rating, which means it should be able to withstand splashes, spills, and rain but not being immersed into water like the Galaxy Z Flip 4; on the bright side, Motorola’s foldable is dust-resistant, which is where it beats the Galaxy

Good old Motorola made a good new folding phone that raises the same old question: Why pay $1,000 for a mediocre folding phone when you can get the best phone on the market for the same price?

In the end, all the compromises Motorola’s $1,000 folding phone brings mean this one might actually have a really limited target audience – people specifically interested in an Android folding phone with a large cover display, ready to ignore the major compromises that come with the form-factor.It (clearly) doesn’t take a genius to tell that this isn’t how you sell (many) folding phones. Respectively, this also means Motorola’s recipe for a clamshell foldable might not be the one to help make foldables “mainstream”. Unless the company had a noticeably cheaper foldable. Oh, wait… It does. But we aren’t here to talk about the cheaper Motorola Razr 2023 now (this story is on the way).

At the end of the day, the $1,000 Motorola is asking for the new Razr can get you the best battery life in the business; the best camera, the best chip, and the best anything really – if you are okay with a “normal” phone that doesn’t fold in half. And you get none of that with the Moto Razr+.

Now, some might say: “Yes, but the new Razr has the best cover display and the largest inner display on a clamshell foldable, and that’s sort of the whole point of it!” To which I’d say, sure… Of course it does, because everything else was built around the displays, and had to take a backseat