Motorola Razr hands on: The revived RAZR is a fashion-forward foldable

look we have seen our share of foldable 

phones this year there is been the 

galaxy fold which continues to be on 

sale if that's your thing and there's 

the hallway main X which is still 

inching along towards some launch date 

which will hopefully happen at some 

point this year but I've been using this 

this is the Motorola RAZR and it's the 

first foldable phone I've used all year 

that actually kind of feels like an make 

sense for regular people and that's 

because it's exactly the weird kind of 

phone it is it's not a phone that opens 

up into a small tablet it's a really 

small thing that opens up into a 

normal-sized phone let's take a closer 

look we're off to bat I have to gush a 

little bit this is a really impressive 

technical feat not just because Motorola 

took the classic eraser design and 

updated it with a foldable display but 

because the hinge mechanism that drives 

this display that makes it possible 

feels really really clever when you open 

and close the phone a bit of it actually 

extends down into this chin thing which 

among other things houses the antenna 

this is probably the most impressive 

foldable phone I've seen so far if only 

because it seems to do the best job of 

making sure that it doesn't really feel 

like a foldable when it's open there's a 

series of gears and plates that move 

back and forth as you open and close the 

phone all of which make sure that the 

screen itself eight feels like a 

perfectly normal smartphone screen when 

you're using it but also ensure is that 

it stays nice and protected when then 

phone is closed and yeah that's a big 

deal because there is no gap between the 

top and bottom of this phone when it's 

closed if you took a regular plastic 

oily d display and folded it right in 

half well it would probably break right 

at that crease but when the phone closes 

it actually contorts the screen so it 

sort of takes on this teardrop shape 

that prevents the screen for being 

damaged and keeps the phone nice and 

flush when it shut that should also 

theoretically mean that nothing is 

getting into and out of the crevices 

around this despite but I have my 

concerns if you actually take a really 

close look while you're opening and 

closing this device there is a bit of a 

gap that can appear especially when 

you're closing this film very slowly you 

can see what I mean here it's probably 

not going to be 

huge deal and regular use especially 

when you consider that that gap is 

hardly ever open if you're just opening 

and closing the phone quickly but it is 

there and it's one potential point of 

failure for a device that kind of 

doesn't seem to have too many so yeah it 

is a technical achievement but let's 

talk about what this thing actually does 

because for the most part when the phone 

is open it just acts like a smart phone 

there are a few frills than you found in 

the software the software editions you 

will find are largely meant to define 

how this smaller external screen 

interact with this 6.2 inch big screen 

all you can really do right now are 

manage your notifications you can 

control your media very lightweight 

tasks that Motorola has to specifically 

define you can't just use apps on the 

secondary display all of it really is 

tightly controlled by what Motorola and 

Google have set up for this device 

Motorola says that in time it will 

expand the amount of actions you can 

perform on this external screen but for 

now yeah if you're looking at your email 

and checking your text messages it's 

ery easy to do on this display and to 

actually respond to someone's all you 

have to do is open the phone it picks 

you up right where you left off and 

really that's what I've come to 

appreciate about the razor during my 

time with it it's just enough phone to 

get through these little interactions 

when I don't need to open my phone but 

when I do I've got the ability to jump 

into a full smartphone size to swag and 

kind of get my stuff done I prefer this 

I think to the sort of small tablet 

approach as seen with devices like the 

Galaxy fold and the mate X but it think 

it's fair to say that this might not be 

the foldable that everyone is looking 

for it's less ambitious in some ways 

even though it does work probably better 

than any of the other foldable zyv touch 

this year 

the interactions with that second screen 

can feel a bit limited but there's at 

least one interesting way that you can 

use it to your advantage and that is 

what it's time to take selfies if you 

give the phone the classic double-crank 

will activate that main camera that's 16 

megapixel main camera which we can now 

use for selfies either tap the screen to 

take one smile which sometimes works or 

just use the volume keys it's one of the 

more novel ways to use the secondary

display and it does seem to work quite 

well but I want more out of this and 

hopefully Motorola can deliver that in 

time one of the most interesting things 

about the razor so far is that Motorola 

says it didn't actually set out to build 

another razor this is just the foldable 

people told them they wanted there are 

some really classic razor design 

elements are like this chin which among 

other things has is the fingerprint 

sensor the USB type-c port and they set 

up bottom firing speakers which do get 

surprisingly lab which they should 

because there's no real speaker up here 

there's not much in the way of stereo 

audio performance but it sounds pretty 

good 

I should also point out that this comes 

with 128 gigs of internal storage but 

that is pretty much it there is no 

micro SD slot for expandable storage so 

you better hope that hurts 28 kicks is 

all you're ever going to need we're 

testing this thing in Los Angeles and 

there hasn't been so much as a cloud in 

the sky all day but if it did start 

raining I'd feel a little more secure 

using a razor than other four balls 

because it is coated with a nano coating 

that helps to deal with splashes and 

really quick interactions with water it 

does not appear to be completely water 

resistant you cannot and should not put 

this thing in a beer but it's at least a 

bit partier than what we've seen out of 

other for the walls and that's it's just 

nice to hear honestly there are a few 

other things to keep in mind like the 

fact that this runs a Snapdragon 710 

chip-set with six games of RAM which is 

perfectly fine it's handled everything I 

throw at it without too much trouble at 

all but it's definitely not a flagship 

device which is pretty clear from the 

conversations I've had with everyone 

here this is a design first device it's 

meant to look good it's meant to feel 

good and it's meant to run well but it's 

not meant to blow the doors off of the 

competition when it comes to pure power          

I also have my questions about battery 

life Motorola says this thing will last 

for a full day off of a single charge 

and that may well be the case but I do 

have to point out that the total 

combined capacity of the two batteries 

one in each half of this device that 

works out to a grand total of about 

twenty five hundred and ten million 

hours which is quite a bit lower than 

what we've seen in most of the flagship 

smartphones we've tested this year and 

again this is a phone that's $1,500 you 

kind of want more than that out of the 

box in furnace two Motorola the quickly 

display on the outside is sort of 

designed to prevent you from having to 

open the phone all the time because you 

can do a lot of what you need right from 

this despite but because of the limited 

scope of these actions right now which 

again involve managing your 

notifications and controlling your music 

I don't know that that's going to be the 

case I think the battery life might 

still be an issue because you're not 

using this external display as much as 

motivation well but that could change in 

time we also need to take a minute to 

talk about this camera it's one camera 

on the front which also works as the 

camera on the back obviously this is a 

16 megapixel sensor with an F 1.7                                                                                                                                                                      Motorola Razr     

aperture it takes pretty decent photos 

right off the bat and it has a slew of 

AI optimizations to kind of help give it 

to react 

different situation so if you're 

shooting food it'll activate a food mode 

if you're shooting in the dark it'll 

activate night mode things like that 

that are meant to make the process of 

using the camera much smoother and we'll 

say again that for a 1,500 phone I kind 

of do want a bit more ambition out of 

this camera especially when Motorola is 

doing some truly weird interesting stuff 

in rest that's one devices we've got 

you know three or four cameras baked 

into one phone we've got this single 

solid 16 megapixel camera that is fine 

but doesn't really do much to thrill at 

the end of it all the Motorola RAZR is 

breathing one of those fascinating 

devices that appeals to me even though a 

lot of the things that Motorola did here 

don't make the most amount of sense I 

wish it had bigger batteries I wish it 

had slightly higher resolution screens I 

wish it had a more ambitious camera 

setup but you get this you got a phone 

that fits in your pocket really easily 

and gives you the ability to just hang 

up on people the old days there is a 

potent power in that that you just don't 

get from a lot of other smart phones 

especially other foldables will 

obviously have to test the Motorola RAZR 

for much longer than the time I have had 

to get a sense of whether this is the 

foldable for everybody but in my early 

time with it my gut kind of says yes it 

is compromised for sure this is by 

Motorola's own admission a design first 

phone and there are shortcomings that 

come with that but again it does feel 

like the first foldable phone that might 

work for actual people and there's a 

power in that kind of accessibility that 

we've just not seen out of the other 

foldables you've seen this year so follow 

us for more as we continue to test.