foldables are finally ready for mainstream

After several years, I’m finally ready to recommend a foldable smartphone to all Android users. Last year’s Motorola Razr+ was an awesome foldable handset, but this year’s Razr+ is simply an awesome smartphone.

Of course, I’m a little biased. I’ve said numerous times that I love folding phones and gimmicks in general. However, my enjoyment for folding phones typically doesn’t extend to the clamshell foldable handsets. Last year, my favourite phone was the Pixel Fold; the previous year, it was the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Both of these devices fold like a book, a form factor I absolutely love. I’m not typically fond of clamshell handsets like the Razr and the Galaxy Flip, as I don’t find this form factor as useful. However, despite my disinterest in the form factor, the Razr+ is a well-built device with top-of-the-line specs that make it a suitable Android.

Exquisitely built

The Razr+ is well-built, even better than its predecessor. The handset feels solid, and while I thought the Razr+ 2023 had a strong build last year, I can immediately feel the difference. I thought the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 felt even more premium than the 2023 Razr+, but this year the Razr+ matches that flagship-like build.

The handset has a dual-hinge system, which Motorola says is simplified, revamped, and offers better dust protection than last year. The revamped hinge also makes it easier to flick open the device, and hanging it up feels much more satisfying.

Motorola gave me the Peach Fuzz Razr+, a fuzzy vegan leather material. Strangely, it has a slightly different feel than the other colour variants. The aluminum frame around the handset offers a gold/bronze-like finish, making the smartphone look elegant and lavish. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of this colour variant and preferred the green model, but I am starting to enjoy it more, especially since I’m rewatching Gossip Girl and want to feel like a rich Upper East Side girl.

The frame also hosts a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner and a two-button volume rocker.

When you open the handset, you’ll see a wonderful 6.9-inch display with a 1080 x 2640-pixel resolution, up to 165Hz refresh rate, and an astonishing 3000 nits of brightness. Plus, the smartphone only weighs 189g.

This year’s Razr+ is now waterproof with an IPx8 rating. This is awesome; now you don’t have to worry about your Razr phone when it’s in the rain if it drops in the toilet or anything. Last year’s Razr was only IP52, so this is a pretty big and worthwhile update.

Largest front screen

Motorola retains its position of having the largest cover screen of any flip phone in North America, with a surprisingly usable 4-inch display. It’s slightly larger than its predecessor, but the extra space gives it a better typing experience. During this review period, I tried to use the handset in a way that felt the most natural. Therefore, I didn’t force myself to use the cover screen in any special way, like last year. With this in mind, I still used this secondary display more than expected.

Firstly, Motorola brought an always-on display to the phone’s cover screen, meaning even with the phone closed, I’d know the time, weather, date, battery percentage and any notifications. This isn’t anything special, as nearly every phone on the market has an always-on display; however, it’s a little step in the right direction for making the Razr+ an all-around great Android device for anyone. I also occasionally like to have the phone propped up like a tent to keep track of the time with a literal glance instead of having to look at my phone placed on the desk. Obviously, this isn’t very important, but I noticed it.

Otherwise, the front screen is great for reading notifications, quick replies to messages, lazily scrolling through Instagram or YouTube and using Google’s Gemini. I also have the Calendar widget, so I can’t take a quick glance at what’s going on during the day, and I can quickly change and pick songs with the Spotify widget. Similar to last year, there are games that I barely touched on the cover screen. The 2024 models also have a screensaver functionality and are more customizable than their predecessors.

The most useable cover screen feature is taking selfies with the handset’s primary shooter. I love taking selfies with the phone’s better cameras instead of using the front-facing shooter. Of course, this isn’t exclusive to the Razr+ and can be done on all foldable phones, but it’s still important to mention.

Speaking of cameras

I was pleasantly surprised by the primary and telephoto shooter on the Razr+. This year, Motorola chose a 2x telephoto instead of an ultrawide. I’ve always preferred a telephoto experience to an ultrawide, but a 2x telephoto just isn’t enough. 2x telephoto shooters are specifically designed to help with portrait photography, which is nice, but I’d definitely prefer a 5x zoom. And surprisingly, I’ve been finding myself needing an ultrawide shooter far more than I expected.

Despite lacking an ultrawide camera and only sporting a 2x zoom, I was pleasantly surprised by the Razr+’s camera experience. I’m sure other reviewers will say that the base 2024 Razr’s camera is better than the Razr+’s, and I’ve seen proof of this; however, there are two caveats.

1: This experience isn’t consistent. When my friends compared the pictures of both handsets, I found that the Razr sometimes took better pictures, and other times, the Razr+ snapped preferable shots. The Razr+’s photos looked better when shooting people, but it looked like the Razr had more accurate colours and high dynamic range.

2: The base 2024 Razr doesn’t have a Canadian release date or availability, so who cares?

Let’s get back to the Razr+’s acceptable camera experience.

I’ve seen better camera experiences from the S24 Ultra and even the Pixel 8 Pro, but Motorola definitely enhanced the Razr+ cameras by replacing the old sensor with a 50-megapixel sensor with an f/1.7 aperture. Pictures showcased a good amount of dynamic range and showed plenty of detail, and even in low light, the handset did a decent job of capturing shots. I thought some shots were overexposed, especially when taking selfies of my darker skin tone, making it slightly lighter than I would have wanted.

If you’re someone like me who likes taking casual pictures and sharing them online, then the Razr+ is definitely good enough, especially if your main hobby isn’t photography.

Video-wise, when you fold the handset at a 90-degree angle with the camera app turned on, it will automatically switch into camcorder mode and start recording a video. I loved taking videos in camcorder mode, and my videos of my friend’s Pride performance came out great.

Razr is back, baby

The Razr+ sports a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery. I haven’t had too many issues during my experience with the device. It moves snappily, gets all my tasks done, and doesn’t get noticeably warm. Multitasking makes the phone chugging on a little bit harder, especially when I have an app opened in a pop-up window and use other apps in the background.

Benchmark-wise, the Razr+ isn’t all impressive. Its Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor achieved a single-core score of 1,876 and a multi-core score of 4,389, similar to the Tensor G3 on the Pixel 8 series. However, it doesn’t stand up to the 8 Gen 3 on the Galaxy S24 Ultra or even the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on last year’s Z Flip 5. Benchmarks don’t necessarily equate to a better experience, but this might explain why there’s a bit of a slowdown when multitasking.

Battery-wise, the Razr+ 4,000mAh power source is adequate. It gets through the whole day without an issue. Even when taking pictures, I listen to music and watch YouTube videos. But don’t expect anything more than that single day. By nighttime, the handset will be dead and must be charged.

Something cool about the Razr+ is that it comes with Google’s Gemini straight out of the box, alongside three months of Gemini Advanced for free. I’m still unsure if Gemini is a suitable replacement for Google Assistant, but when it is, the Razr+ will be ready.